Chapter 19: Mikhail

She’s wearing clothes now.

A dusty pink camisole top similar to what she had on the other night clings to her body. The tiny straps have slinked down her shoulders and expose the huge swells of her breasts.

I can just glimpse a nipple poking through the thin fabric.

If she were awake, she’d fix her top straightaway, even though I’ve seen her naked several times.

But my princess is fast asleep, and she looks like a life-sized doll lying on my bed with the silk sheets barely covering her.

Ebony hair is sprawled out over the silk pillows while the moonlight kisses her skin the way I want to.

I’m as envious of the fucking moon for touching her as I am of her feelings toward José.

It’s late—after midnight late—so I knew she’d be asleep. She was already exhausted. I just stole the last traces of her strength.

I like watching her sleep.

I like watching her awake, too. More so when she’s in the height of her fear and doesn’t know how to figure me out.

She can join the club because I still can’t figure her out, either.

I couldn’t stay in here after I fucked her because I wanted to do it again the moment I pulled out of her, but she wouldn’t have been ready for the hard fuck I wanted to give her.

I went to work out for a few hours and to swim.

Anyone would think I was crazy for swimming in the freezing cold pool, but I like it. The cold wakes me up and keeps in touch with my feelings. It makes me feel nearly the same as the fire I feel within me when I’m with her.

My cock is twitching to be inside her again, and the memory of seeing my cum swallowing up her virginal blood is playing over and over again in my mind.

It’s something I won’t forget. I never forget. I don’t think most men would.

There’s something primal in taking a woman’s virginity that stays with you, and I’ve never been with a woman who made me want to take her again after that.

Not that I’ve only ever been with virgins. I’ve just never seen the point in pursuing anything with them after because the enticement was to be their first.

This woman makes me want more, and my obsession pushes me to want to know more about her, too.

I chance moving the sheet from her back so I can look at those scars again. I can barely spot them in the moonlight, but they’re there.

She’s so tired she doesn’t stir as I run my finger over them, touching her silky skin as I wonder what the fuck she must have done for Raul to whip her.

There are no other visible marks on her body. Just those. And there’s something about them that summons me to pay attention. I just don’t know to what. Other than what they are and the lie she told me when I asked her about them.

I look at my ring on her finger and remember her in that dress earlier.

The dress looked like it was made for her. As if the designer had created it with her in mind. When I saw her in it, I couldn’t take my eyes off her. I must have stood there for a good five minutes before I spoke, announcing my presence.

Adriana is a mystery to me, one that keeps enticing me, and now that I know her secret, I want to know her others. The ones she’s got buried deep beneath.

When she stirs, I run my fingers over her skin again, and as her breathing changes, I know she’s awake and aware of me. I decide to be a selfish bastard because I want her all over again.

I’m sure her pussy got a good break from me. It’s time to take her again.

“I know you’re awake, Malyshka,” I say. It feels like déjà vu from the other night. The only difference being that I had more control that night.

Now that I’ve had a taste of her body and I liked it, I’m ready to feast.

She rolls onto her side, and I tug at the top.

“Why did you bother to put clothes on?”

She glares at me. Her eyes hold a flame of anger, but the state of her nipples pressing against the thin fabric says so much more.

“I wear clothes to bed.”

“That changes tonight.”

“That is ridiculous.”

I press down hard on her arm, and she catches herself before she can say anything else to defy me.

“Do I need to spank that ass of yours again. Just give me a reason.”

“No.”

“Good, then obey me and do as you’re told. Take off the top.” I pull down the sheets and see her panties. “All of it, take it off. I want to fuck you again.”

Her skin turns that sweet color in the silver moonlight. The trace of color in her cheeks against the dark surroundings reminds me of a neo noir painting, and she herself is a work of art.

Biting down hard on her bottom lip, she takes off the top and panties then tries to cover herself with the sheet.

I pull it away. She winces.

“What is the matter with you? I’m cold.”

“You won’t be in a minute. Get on your hands and knees.”

A flicker of apprehension washes over her face, but she obeys. I feed off her nerves. She would be nervous. This is a different position for her, and the best. I can’t wait to hear her moans of ecstasy.

When she turns and settles onto her hands and knees, my eyes settle on her ass. She has the perfect shape. Her ass is full and round, perfect for spanking and fucking. That will come very soon. Right now, I’ll enjoy the sight.

I take off my clothes, too, and she glances behind her to look at my cock. When she catches me looking, however, she looks away.

“Feel free to look if you want, princess.”

She doesn’t answer. I didn’t expect her to.

I’m ready to go, and when I run my fingers over her sweet pussy, I feel she’s ready for me, too.

Fuck me, she’s wet and so responsive to my touch.

Unable to resist the taste of her delicious nectar, I lean in and lick it up. I savor the taste and take more, licking over the little bud of her clit.

She can’t resist any more than I can, so when a little moan falls from her lips, I give her more and move closer to play with her nipples.

“Mikhail…” she moans.

“Yes, baby, I plan to give you more.”

I straighten, grab her hips, and inch into her tight little pussy.

She’s nearly the same as she was earlier, and it feels just as good being inside her.

I speed up when my body takes over. I can’t control myself when the enticement to fuck calls to me. I just go with it and allow desire to guide me where it wants to take me.

I can’t even force myself to slow down so I can try and last longer because she feels too good in this position. Too fucking good.

Pleasure short-circuits my brain as I drive into her perfect body as she climaxes. Her pussy clamps onto my dick like a vice, and I blow into her.

The force of my own climax has me roaring like a beast, and when I pull out of her, the same obsession grips me again to take more from her body.

She slumps down, breathing hard, and the sight of my cum leaking down her thighs is another stamp of ownership on her body.

Quickly, I walk into the en-suite and clean off. I then grab a towel and warm it with water from the hot tap for her. She looks surprised to see me return with it, and more surprised when I clean her off, too. There’s blood again, and I wonder if I hurt her. I know I was rough.

“Did I hurt you?” I ask, but she looks away.

“No.”

It’s another lie, but I let it slide.

“Lie on the pillow.”

She lowers onto the silk pillows, looking nervous again.

I set the towel down and lie next to her, slipping my arm around her waist.

“What do you really want with me?”

Her voice sounds small in the dark.

“What do you mean, Malyshka?”

“I get the marriage. Marry me and rule the cartel, but why are we doing this part? Why are you doing it?”

It’s a good question. One I should be asking myself, but I don’t care to because the answer is obvious.

“Because I want to,” I decide to tell her.

There’s another beat of silence before she draws in a small breath.

“What happens when you stop wanting to, Mikhail? What happens long after you get the cartel and don’t need me anymore?”

I don’t know.

The answer is, I have no idea. She’s asking me what we’ll do after we get married. That’s the bridge I haven’t crossed yet. And I won’t be crossing it tonight.

“Go to sleep, princess.”

I can’t see her face, but I know she’s hurt by my lack of an answer. She’s probably thinking all sorts of shit. Maybe even wondering if the time will come when I decide to kill her and her precious José. We come from the same world, and she’s not naïve to the darkness that exists within our sphere.

With a father like Raul, she wouldn’t have been innocent to the thoughts and plots of bad men like me who only know death and darkness.

Marriage alone is all that’s required to take over Raul’s empire and assets. It doesn’t mean I have to stay married to her. Or that she has to stay alive or in my life.

We stay like that in the silence until she eventually falls asleep. I wanted her to drift off first, but I still watch her long after with her question ringing through my mind.

It hasn’t even been a full week since she’s been in my life, yet I feel like this.

We’ll be married next weekend. How can I be worried about what will happen after that when I’m stuck in the in-between?

When my eyelids droop, I give in to sleep. It feels like I’m only out for a few seconds before I hear screaming.

My eyes snap open, and I know I couldn’t possibly have been sleeping for seconds because bright sunlight beams through the windows. And the screaming is coming from next to me.

Adriana thrashes on the bed, lost in a nightmare, lost to me. She shakes her head side to side and screams again, louder this time.

“No!” she cries. “No, please, please don’t kill her. Don’t kill my mother!”

“Papa, save her, please save her. Don’t let him kill my mother.”

What the hell?

Seeing her distress, I get up and take hold of her shoulders, trying to wake her.

It takes her a full minute before she opens her eyes and tears are streaming down her cheeks.

She’s breathing like she’s just run a marathon, and her skin is as flustered as it was yesterday when I left her.

Her beautiful eyes are riddled with fear, which doesn’t change when she spots me.

She tries to calm herself, but it doesn’t work. She’s breathing too hard and in ragged breaths that remind me of my younger days when I was subjected to the shit Ivan used to put me through.

I get up and open the window to let in some air. It’s only when the blast of cold air hits her face that her breathing calms and she gathers her composure.

“Are you okay?” I ask.

“I’m fine.” She barely looks at me, and when she does, it’s with that same caution she exerted days before.

“You were dreaming about your mother?”

Her lips part, and she trembles. “Yeah. It was just a nightmare.”

“Or a memory?” I know the difference between nightmares and memories.

My nightmares are of bad memories, and they’re of my mother, too. Of her dying. I keep seeing the bullet lodged in her head and another in her heart. I keep remembering the helplessness I felt as I watched my mother, a woman who was my everything, dying right in front of me, and there was nothing I could do to save her.

“Yeah… A bad memory,” Adriana mutters.

I narrow my eyes. I wasn’t aware she’d seen her mother’s death. The way I heard it, she would have been at school here in the States. Raul was meeting with an ally when it happened. They killed his wife because of a drug deal gone wrong. Unless that was a lie, Adriana wouldn’t have been anywhere near the incident.

If she has memories of it happening, then someone lied somewhere along the line.

“What happened?” Curiosity is getting the better of me. I know this doesn’t matter to me one way or another, but I’m curious because of how shaken she seems. For some reason I also find myself thinking of the scars on her back.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

Of course, I don’t like her answer. It’s not what I expect when this is the closest she’ll get to niceness from me.

“When I ask you something, you tell me what I want to know.”

“You don’t need to know everything,” she snaps.

I bare my teeth and rush her, catching her throat to put her back in line.

It’s the teardrop tracking down her cheek that curbs my rage for her defiance. That’s definitely a first for me.

“Like I said, when I ask you something, you tell me what I want to know.”

“You took my body and crushed my soul. My mind belongs to me. I don’t have to tell you what’s in my head, or my heart.”

I stare at her for a long moment, thinking of what to say, when I realize her mind and heart are things I can’t steal.

But… I want them.

I want them both. I want everything, and I shouldn’t because this thing between us is just feeding my obsession. Nothing good can come of it.

More tears run down her cheeks, and when hate fills her eyes, I hear her words from last night ringing through my mind.

Right there against that wall, paces away from us, as I staked my claim on her body, she told me she hated me, but her eyes never looked like this. Like if she had a gun, she’d shoot me.

I think she would.

Why wouldn’t she? I’m her biggest enemy, and if given a chance to take me down, she’d take it. I wouldn’t blame her.

The buzz of my phone on the nightstand breaks the deadly silence and I look away from her.

That’s a message I already know will be important. No one contacts me at this time of morning unless they have news. I expect it’s either going to be Sebastian or Eric.

I back away from Adriana and retrieve the phone.

I was right. The message is from Eric.

The preview tells me all I need to know.

I got something for you. Meet me at the restaurant in the Hamptons at nine. It’s important.

I know which restaurant he means. It’s an Italian bistro called La Roux. That’s the only restaurant we meet at when we’re in the Hamptons, and we don’t go there often.

It’s nearly eight now, so I need to get going if I want to beat traffic.

I return my gaze to the princess and a visible shudder runs through her.

“Be ready for me when I get back,” I say. “If you’re not, I’ll punish you.”

That’s all I say to her, and I don’t look back as I leave.