Chapter 174 176
Chapter 174 176
My insides are still pulsing softly, coming down from his touch. But I stand up and walk towards him.
My legs shake, but I place one foot in front of the other. I feel like a newborn giraffe, but Ivan’s looking at me like I’m the sexiest thing he’s ever seen.
My orgasm is still ebbing away, but I already want more. I don’t think I’ll ever get enough of him.
When I reach him, I reach out to balance against his chest. “What was that for?”
“I’m checking to see if I’m done with you yet.” He kisses my cheek and my neck. Then he dips lower, flicking his tongue over my lace-covered nipple. He drops to his knees and kisses each of my hip bones and the soft spot low in my belly.
It’s like worship the way he touches me. Like every inch of me needs his full attention. Like he’d spend a fucking lifetime kissing his way up the stretch of skin between my knee and hip.
I stroke my fingers through his hair. Partly because I want to touch him, but mostly because I might fall over if I don’t hold onto something. “And? What’s the verdict?”
He looks up at me from where he’s kneeling. His lips are tipped into a smile I want to taste. “You can still walk. So I’d say the job’s not quite finished.”
That’s all he says before that smile slips between my legs. At first, I half-scream like he’s branding me when his lips tug at my clit. Then, quickly, the heat digs deep and settles. I curl my hand around his neck and pull him closer.
If this is what it feels like to burn, I never want to be put out.
His tongue pulses into me while he circles his thumb over my clit. As heat unfurls inside of me, I stumble back. The world is tipping and I can’t stand upright.
Right on cue, Ivan stands, sweeps me right off my unsteady feet, and lowers me to the floor in front of him. My legs drape over his shoulders as I clamp my thighs around his ears and grind against his mouth.
“Right there—Yes—I need—Want—” Nonsense words tumble out of me as the orgasm swells and then breaks. I fist my hand in his hair and scream to the ceiling.
Guests could be arriving downstairs right this second. Maybe they can hear me through the walls. But they could be standing in the doorway and I wouldn’t change a damn thing.
They’re here to witness our love, right?
Might as well give them something to witness.
I laugh in my head at the thought—that’s something Ivan would say.
My thighs shake and tremble as he lowers me gently to the carpet and crawls up the center of me. He presses kisses to my feverish skin as he goes.
“This is all mine,” he whispers, tasting my ribs and nipping at my collarbones. “Fuck the minister. Fuck the ceremony. You are already mine.”
Love swells in my chest. I follow a drop of sweat down his neck and over his muscled chest with my finger. “I’m pretty sure that’s blasphemy.”
“If this is blasphemy,” he whispers, “then send me straight to hell.”
He fills me completely in one stroke. I tuck my legs around his body and hold his head against my shoulder.
We slide together like it’s the most natural thing in the world. It’s easy and slow and right.
I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.
Here. With him.
Pressure builds slowly. I scrape my nails down his back and whisper in his ear, “Please come inside me.”
This time, Ivan doesn’t argue. He spills into me with a groan and then stays there. We hold each other on the floor, letting our hearts ease back to a normal rhythm.
Finally, he lifts his head and kisses my chin. “Can you walk?”
“I can barely talk,” I correct. A smile I can’t contain spreads across my face as tears well in my eyes. “We really are doing things backwards, aren’t we?”
Ivan brushes a fallen tear from my face and shakes his head. “No. We’re doing things exactly right.”
Jorden takes one look at me as I walk down the stairs and shakes her head. “I don’t even know why I bothered.”
She’s not wrong.
I’m wrecked.
Fifteen minutes ago, I was naked and splayed open beneath Ivan. Now, I’m about to head down the aisle on legs that are still quivering from all of our scandalous pre-ceremony activities.
My updo has become a loose braid down my back and my eye makeup is a total loss. Jorden pulls out a makeup wipe and scrubs it away while cursing me and my husband-to-be under her breath for wasting all of her hard work. When she’s done, my face is pink and flushed, my lips are swollen, and the evidence of what Ivan and I did is still dripping down the insides of my legs.
But it all feels right.
Even the fact that when the double doors open and I head down the aisle, Ivan looks as good as ever. Not a hair out of place. The man is unrufflable.
From the outside, anyway. Only I know the truth.
I like that.
When he looks up at me, he’s seeing me in my lace lingerie and heels. He’s remembering the way I felt wrapped around him and dreaming about being back there again tonight.
I love being the only person who gets to see him fall apart. The only person who can bring him to his knees.
He smiles at me and the rest of the world falls away. The Bratva, our families, our friends—nothing else matters. The man I love is waiting for me. Why should I care about my ruined cat-eye?
“You look fucking incredible,” he whispers in my ear when I reach him.
I meet the minister’s eyes and then immediately look away. “Behave yourself.”
He looks me up and down. “Never.”
During the ceremony, I ignore the guests and the minister and the way Jorden and Yasha are blatantly ogling each other intensely enough to cause a scene. I ignore everything and everyone except the man in front of me.
It passes in a blur of tears and joy, capped off with a kiss that knocks me so thoroughly off my feet that Ivan has to scoop me into his arms and carry me down the aisle while our guests cheer.
He carries me straight through the house and out the double doors to the patio where our reception has been set up in the backyard.
String lights hang over the lawn and there is a stage with an orchestra playing music into the evening. It looks almost exactly like it did the first time I ever saw it.
Ivan and I cut our cake on the patio where he saved me from being assaulted by one of his guests all those months ago.