Chapter 161 163

Chapter 161 163
I arch against his mouth. “I’m yours.”

Ivan finishes ripping his way through the skirt while I fumble with the button on his pants. The lace is soaking up some of the champagne. The rest of it forms a sparkling waterfall that flows off the edge of the table and splatters to the tile floor. But it doesn’t matter.

Nothing matters but this.

When I finally get Ivan’s pants out of the way, I take him in my hand and press him to my opening. He doesn’t ask if I’m sure or tease me half-mad.

With one thrust, he gives me exactly what I want. He gives me everything.

I cling to him with my arms and sticky legs. His hands wrap around my butt, pulling me even tighter against him. Grinding into me until there’s no more space. Until I have nothing left to give.

“Oh, Ivan. I want you this deep all the time,” I gasp as he pulls out and thrusts back in. “Right there. Please.”

He drags out of me and pulses back in until I’m practically crawling up his body to get closer. Until I am delirious with need and begging for him to let me come.

Ivan slips his hand between our bodies and circles his thumb exactly where I need him.

Then he holds me together as I shatter.

An embarrassing number of people are probably listening in from the kitchen. Yasha will give both of us shit about this later. He’ll definitely tell Jorden all about it and I won’t have a leg up in getting to tease her about all of her secret trysts with Yasha. But this moment is worth all of it. Nothing matters more than this man and the way being pressed against him feels.

I wrap my body around him, holding him tightly. “Never let me go. Stay here.”

“I’m not going anywhere.” He kisses my temple and lifts me off of the table as he fucks me relentlessly. “I’m staying right here.”

I don’t question how Ivan is able to carry me from the dining room to our bedroom without ever once slipping out of me; I just enjoy it. I kiss his neck and roll myself down his length until he has to stop on the stairs, a steadying hand on the wall.

“Keep that up and you’ll kill us both,” he warns with a laugh.

“I can’t decide if that would be the best or most embarrassing way to die.”

“Both,” he decides. “But I’m serious: quit it. I have plans before I die.”

Hopefully, plans that involve finishing what we’ve started here. And then starting it up again the moment we’re done.

To make sure we both live to see that moment, I pivot to kissing his neck and sucking on his earlobe while he walks us up the stairs, down the hall, and into our bathroom.

Ivan sets me on my feet in our shower and pushes the shredded remains of my dress from my shoulders. Then, before I can get him out of his clothes, he spins me around and presses my palms flat against the tile. His fingers thread through mine slowly. He kisses my shoulder blade and my spine. He moves lower, licking and sucking his way across my skin.

“You taste sweet,” he groans.

I can feel him hard and throbbing against my thigh, I squeeze my legs together and stroke him. “I think that’s the champagne.”

“No,” he groans, thrusting into my thighs. “It’s you, Cora. It’s all you.”

He shifts his hips and, without letting go of my hands, he fills me again.

“Fuck,” he whispers against my neck. “How do you feel this good? How is it like this?”

I shake my head. I truly have no idea. Every time Ivan touches me, I’m amazed at how well we fit together.

There’s been so many lies and charades from the beginning of our story. But this… this is real. This heat building between us means more than a ring and a sheet of paper ever could. It’s a commitment. Because nothing will ever be better than this. After being with him, how could I ever settle for anything less?

It has to be him.

Now. Later. Forever.

His hands clench around mine and I know he’s close. I arch back, meeting his thrusts so the sound of us coming together echoes off the tiles. The new angle leaves heat pooling low in my belly.

“Right there, Ivan,” I beg. “Don’t stop. Right there.”

He growls in my ear. “Come for me, Cora. Come for me again.”

And I do.

Ivan’s hands twined through mine are the only reason I don’t melt to the shower floor. He holds me firmly, thrusting through my orgasm until he finds his own. When we’re finished, the evidence of it dripping down my legs, Ivan finally takes off the rest of his clothes and starts the shower.

Together, a tangle of lips and limbs, we let the hot water wash away the day.

58

IVAN

“I thought the end of all this war doom and gloom would mean you had more time for me.” Yasha swaggers into my office and plops down across from me. He’s trying to frown, but he can’t quite hide his amusement with himself. “I’m a mess without you, compadre.”

I roll my eyes. “Cora hasn’t seen Jorden around much lately, either. You have any idea where she’s been?”

The most obvious grin spreads across his face as he shakes his head. “Nope. Haven’t seen her.”

Yasha isn’t fooling anyone. Cora and I know exactly what kind of debauchery our best friends are up to. But bring it up and it’s deny, deny, deny.

“I guess it’s hard to see clearly when the lights are off and you’re tangled up in sheets together.”

Yasha faux-gasps. “The fact that you think I’d have sex in the pitch dark like a teenager is… it’s insulting. If I ever had the pleasure of a night with Jorden—which I’m neither admitting nor denying—then I would do it in full daylight with the windows open and enjoy every delightful second.”

He’d be describing those details to me at painful length if Jorden wasn’t making him keep their relationship on the down-low. Left to his own devices, Yasha isn’t discreet enough to keep anything secret, let alone when he’s having copious amounts of sex.

My second-in-command blinks away his thoughts and looks at me, a dopey smile still plastered on his face. “Anyhow—if I could do that, then I would. But since I can’t, I’m here in your office, wondering why you are here in your office. I thought everything was settled.”

“Everything is settled. Mostly.” I power down my computer and lean back in my chair. “But there’s always more to do.”

“Later,” Yasha says sternly. “Right now, we celebrate. The Sokolovs agreed to the terms you sent them. We split profits from gunrunning, one of our least profitable sectors, and otherwise, they are going to fuck off. Mikhail wasn’t wrong: we threw shit on the ground and they licked it right up. That is a major win deserving of a few weeks away from your computer, at least.”

“It’s not finished yet. There still hasn’t been any word from Alexander.”

Cora hasn’t said it, but I know she’s worried about how her stepfather is going to react to the fallout of everything. So far: silence. He could be gathering his forces for retaliation as far as we know. I wouldn’t put it past him. The man is desperate. Cora was his only real asset, so without her, he’ll have to succeed based on his own merits.