by Lia Lee
“Teaching you a lesson in manners.” He turned toward the front door.”
“What about my stuff?”
Maksim took perverse pleasure in this moment. “You don’t have stuff. You didn’t pack it so it isn’t coming with us.”
“What?” Her outrage nearly scorched his back with its righteous intensity. “You can’t do that!”
“The hell I can’t. If you can’t follow a simple order, you’re shit out of luck. Maybe you’ll pay attention when someone tells you do to something next time.” He slammed the front door behind them and stalked right toward the SUV.
Yanking open the passenger door, he tossed her onto the seat and slammed it shut once she scrambled inside. There was something intensely gratifying about the wide O of surprise on her face. At some point the woman was going to have to start listening to him. Hell. At some point everyone needed to start listening to him. If nothing else because he was sick and tired of feeling like he was being ignored.
Maksim exhaled to try and release some of the tension he was holding in his shoulders. Something just felt off, but he couldn’t say what. Maybe it was because he’d given in to temptation and slept with his charge. That sort of thing was bound to mess with a guy’s head.
Even now, trying to lower his level of anger at her, he couldn’t stop thinking about how beautiful she looked. The woman was wearing a T-shirt and a pair of panties. Her sweet, naked bottom had been right by his face while he carried her. Talk about tempting. Nika Sokolov was a beautiful woman. And even when she was being the most pigheaded person on the planet she managed to do so while being beautiful and sassy.
The passenger door opened and Nika hung her head out the door. “Are you going to get moving or are we just going to sit here? If we’re just sitting here I’m totally going back in for my stuff.”
And just like that Maksim’s temper was back to the boiling point. He placed one hand flat on the back hatch of the SUV and took deep breaths. He would not kill her. It wouldn’t even do any good. And really, was he even mad at Nika? She was infuriating. Yes. But there was so much crap going on right now it was difficult to tell what was up and what was down. Maybe he just needed to relax.
I need to get laid.
***
Nika was ready to beat Maksim over the head until she knocked some sense into him. She’d been getting a snack. It wasn’t like they were on some timetable or anything. They made their own schedule right? What did it matter if she was ready the second he got back from his meeting? It wasn’t like she had a bunch of stuff anyway. And she didn’t have a bag to pack. She had intended to ask him if she should just use a box, or if there were bags somewhere in the house.
Now it didn’t matter. She was sitting in an SUV next to the biggest asshole of a man on the planet. He was pouting so fiercely he wouldn’t even look at her. So Nika stared right out the window and kept silent the whole way back to the beach house.
They pulled up just as twilight was shading into night. The torches were lit and Nika couldn’t help but wonder if they were somehow automatic, or if there was a caretaker here as well. Nika tried not to be so excited, but she had never stayed in a house right on the beach before. She opened her door just as soon as Maksim had the SUV in park.
“Hey, where do you think you’re going?” he demanded.
She didn’t even look over her shoulder. “For a walk.”
“Stay by the house.”
Did he really think she was going to obey him just because of his high handed behavior? Not even bothering to glance back at him, Nika moved toward the pathway at the edge of the house that led to the shore.
The cool breeze ruffled the bottom of her long T-shirt. She probably should have put on pants, but thanks to Maksim she didn’t even own any. So she walked until the flagstones gave way to sand. Pausing, she dug her toes into the still warm stuff. It felt so good. Like something pure in this crazy world.
The sound of the waves crashing up onto the beach was soothing. Nika walked directly toward the water. The sand was cooler here and tightly packed where the tide had been. She threw her head back and looked at the sky. A million stars winked back. They were pale and vague right now, but she could still see them. Nearby the breeze ruffled through the vegetation before stirring the curls hanging loose down her back.
Right here and right now she felt more at peace than she ever had before. Glancing down she watched the water kiss her toes. She wiggled them farther into the sand and let the water cover them again. If she stayed here long enough, maybe her feet would be buried and she would never have to move again. She could become a statue on the beach. Katrina could visit whenever she and Ivan happened by.
The ridiculousness of her thoughts was interrupted by Maksim’s angry calls. She could hear him up closer to the house. But here his words were drowned out by the sound of the ocean calling.
“Nika!”
Damn. He was getting closer. She resisted the urge to call back. There was no need to draw him any closer than he was already getting.
“What the hell are you doing?”
One second her feet were grounded to the beach. The next she was flung—again—over Maksim’s broad shoulder.
“Honestly, you’d think you had no sense at all.” Now he was just being mean. “I asked you to stay up by the house. I haven’t even checked the beach to make sure it’s safe.”
“There’s nobody here, Maksim. Of course it’s safe,” she told him.
“You don’t know that,” he insisted.
Her head bobbed back and forth with the roll of his walk as they headed back toward the house. In fact he was making her a little seasick. “Either you put me down or I’m going to puke down your back.”
The noise he made told her in no uncertain terms that he was irritated. Well good. So was she. He flung her back over his shoulder and set her on her feet. Nika glared up at him. There was so much tangled emotion between them. Only hours earlier she had been making love to this man. Yes. It had been sex. But it had also been more. She’d wanted more. At least she did if she was honest with herself. There had been fantasies of snuggling under the covers and laughing and telling jokes. When Maksim wasn’t stressed or being an ass he was a really great guy.
“What?” he demanded.
She raised a brow.
“You’re looking at me like you want an answer, but you haven’t even asked a question.” He scratched the back of his neck, looking uncomfortable. That was when she realized that she hadn’t even gotten to see his tattoo earlier. What a waste.
Nika pointed at him. “I don’t know what’s wrong. Okay? Obviously you got some news that pissed you off. But you can’t just take it out on me and expect me to be fine. That’s not how this works.”
“One of our informants told us that the police were closing in on that safe house. That’s why we needed to get out fast.” His voice was quiet, almost final in nature.
“Then why didn’t you just say that?” she asked, dumbfounded. “I would have taken things a lot more seriously if you had just said that.”
“I guess I’m not used to explaining myself.” He looked uncomfortable with that admission.
Nika reached out slowly and placed her hand flat on his abdomen. She felt the strength there, the vitality of him in the beat of his heart. She didn’t want to fight with Maksim. Not really.
“Take off your shirt,” she told him.
“Why?”
“Please? Just do it?”
He gave a grunt that sounded less than cooperative, but he did pull his T-shirt over his head. In the torchlight his skin was burnished gold. She placed her palms on his chest and let them roam across the rippling muscles of his abdomen. She traced his ribs on the right side as she stepped around toward his back.
“What are you doing?” He sounded uncertain. Could he be self-conscious?
Nika nervously bit her lip. “I’ve spent years wondering what the ink on your back looks like. Now I want to know.”
&n
bsp; He didn’t protest, but she could see the subtle tightening of his jaw. Whatever the tattoo was, it meant something to him. Then she took a step back and gazed at the word scripted across his shoulders. Oh yes. It was very personal.
“Absolution,” he whispered.
Her heart seized at the realization that this man carried a heavy burden she would never come close to understanding. “Is that what you think you need?”
“Don’t I?” He turned his head, catching her eye over his shoulder. “Look at the pain and suffering I brought to you and your father. You don’t think I need to beg absolution for that? What about the hundreds of other people that I intimidated or threatened? I’ve been doing this a long time, Nika.”
She knew that. Yet she also knew how it haunted him. Bad men weren’t haunted by the things that they did. Maksim Petrov wasn’t a bad man.
She took his hand in hers. “Let’s go to bed, Maksim.”
Chapter Ten
Maksim ran one hand down Nika’s side, over her hip and down to her thigh. Her skin was so incredibly soft. Placing a kiss on the taut muscle of her inner thigh, he was gratified when her legs fell open in welcome. The room was dark, lit only by the flickering torchlight from outside. The only sounds were the waves crashing onto the beach and the ragged breathing of the woman beside him.
He couldn’t see her expression, but somehow that didn’t matter. He could smell her arousal. The light, feminine scent made his mouth water. For the first time in a long time Maksim wanted to taste a woman. Somehow the intimacy of this act surpassed any other, but he wanted to share it with Nika.
Her belly quivered when he placed a kiss just above her mound. The short blonde curls shielding her sex were damp with her cream. He nuzzled her, enjoying the way she responded. Her hips jerked and she gave a little moan as if she was afraid to seem too eager.
“I’m going to make you come with my mouth, Nika,” he told her. “Would you like that?”
He heard her swallow. “God, yes!”
Maksim settled his shoulders more comfortably between her knees and let the lower half of his body hang off the bed entirely. With Nika’s knees bent, he had full access to her delectable pussy. Very gently spreading her vaginal lips with his thumbs, Maksim gave her one long lick.
Those little moans turned into broken cries of arousal and need. He used the flat of his tongue to manipulate her clitoris. He rolled the tiny bundle of nerves in little circles, finally sucking it between his lips and giving it a good tug. Nika’s resounding cry of pleasure was followed only seconds later by her first orgasm.
Her hips arched off the bed as if she had been shocked. Maksim held on as she began to tremble. Then he lapped at her opening until she moaned and thrashed on the bed. He could actually feel her next climax building. The tension curled throughout her body and the taste of her cream became more intense. He pushed his tongue inside her body and stroked her inner muscles until he felt her quivering on the edge of bliss.
“Maksim!”
She shouted as she came again. He withdrew his tongue and gently licked and sucked at her sex while she throbbed and shook on the bed. Just the sheer power of her orgasms was enough to make his cock beg for mercy. He wanted so badly to be inside her, but he wanted to bring her pleasure first.
“Maksim,” she panted. “I need your cock. Please don’t make me wait any longer.”
The words pushed him over the edge of restraint. He got to his knees between her legs and positioned himself with shaking hands at the opening to her body. His cock was rigid and almost painful to the touch. He was half afraid he was going to come just as soon as he breached her opening.
Exhaling to give himself some control, he began to penetrate her in slow increments. Nika arched her back and tilted her hips, grinding his shaft against her pelvic bone even as he was entering her body. There was nothing sexier than the look of her at that moment. Her full breasts jiggled with every motion and her hair was in wild disarray. She had twisted her fingers in the sheets and her body was telling him that she wanted him badly.
He groaned when he bottomed out inside her channel. She wrapped her lithe legs around his waist and pulled him even deeper. Then she began to roll her hips to create friction. The movement rocked his world. Maksim grabbed her thighs and surged into her. He pushed as hard as he dared, and still her body begged for more.
Sweat dribbled down his spine and gathered at his hairline. The room was dominated by the sound of their flesh slapping together and the scent of their mingled fluids. Finally he felt his sac tighten beneath his body as his climax stole over him. He needed to come. Some primal instinct inside him demanded it.
Reaching between them, he found her clit and began to rub tiny circles over the taut bud. Nika gasped and cried out as she began to spiral toward a peak. The smooth muscles of her channel squeezed him tightly and Maksim finally came. Seed poured from his cock as he strained to get as deep inside Nika as he could.
He wasn’t sure how long he stayed in that position, deep inside her warm body. Slowly he became aware of his heart hammering away in his chest and the limp woman who looked as sated as he felt. Then Maksim rolled to his side and pulled Nika close.
“I love you,” he told her softly. “Even though I know that’s crazy.”
***
Nika couldn’t help but chuckle. Or at least that was the sound she meant to make. It came out more like a strangled moan, considering she was having trouble remembering how to breathe. Yes. It was crazy for Maksim Petrov to love her. Of course it was also crazy for her to love him back. But she wasn’t about to tell him that, so what did it matter?
“You know, when a man tells you that he loves you, it’s usually not a good idea to laugh.” Maksim sounded disgruntled at best.
“I think it was your timing that made me laugh.”
“That’s fair.”
She snorted. “I’m so glad you think so.”
“You’re harsh.”
Maybe she was. Nika just didn’t know what to think about all of this. She loved being with Maksim. Sex with him was amazing. He was hot and he definitely made her hot. The guy had just given her two orgasms with his tongue for goodness sake. But it all came down to the future. What sort of future could the two of them possibly have?
“Maksim, have you ever wondered what it would be like to be something other than Ivan’s enforcer?” She tried to keep her voice soft and neutral. She had no desire to make him angry about her question.
“All the time.”
Nika thought about her work at the flower shop. She didn’t want to be a florist, but it was the family business. She swiped at her eyes, feeling the first sting of tears. “Sometimes I wish I could make my own choices and not worry about what my family might think.”
“I know how you feel.” He gave her a squeeze and pressed his lips to her hair. “I used to think about what I would do if I was on my own. I thought about what job I might want, or if I could make money doing something else. Then Ivan would need me and the whole idea of being on my own just sort of died.”
“It’s not fair.” She felt that for herself as much as him.
“Some might say it’s the price of belonging to a family.”
“Then maybe I don’t think the price is worth it. Can I opt out?” she teased.
“Baby, most days I believe you could do anything you damn well pleased.” He nuzzled her neck and gave her a kiss.
It was flattering, but the truth was when this was all over she was going to go back to her father’s shop and he would go back to helping Ivan. Her sister would get married and live happily ever after and Nika would wither away like one of her father’s roses left out of water too long.
“I don’t want to work in the shop anymore,” she whispered. “I haven’t for years.”
He stroked her hair. The tenderness in his touch nearly undid her. His lips brushed her forehead. “Then why don’t you find something that you want to do?”
“I suppose I was afr
aid to leave my father alone.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem now,” he pointed out. “We certainly aren’t collecting from your father anymore. Ivan considers him family.”
Maksim was right. She had stayed for so long because of the mess their family was embroiled in with the mafiya. Now there was no mess. She could do something else if she wanted to.
“What about you?” she asked suddenly. “Don’t you want to do something other than work for your brother?”
“I used to think that I would like to open a gym.”
“A non-mafia run gym?” she teased.
His chuckle vibrated against her back. “Yes. Exactly.”
“Maksim, what if we just ran away together?”
There was a long pause, and she was almost certain she had made him angry. Then he exhaled a shuddering sigh. “How would that be possible?”
“I don’t know. Maybe we don’t even have to know.” She thought about what it would be like to fall asleep next to this man and then wake up beside him in the morning. What would it feel like to see his face over the table each day and laugh with him and even get pissed at him? They would likely fight like cats and dogs, but it would be so much fun she didn’t even care.
“Running away isn’t an answer, Nika. It’s a whole new set of questions.”
“Maybe what I’m saying is that I’m tired of the answers. All of them.” As the words kept coming she realized they were exactly how she felt. “Please, Maksim?
“I can’t do that, Nika. Not now. Maybe once this situation with the Tretiaks is settled. Maybe then. But I cannot leave my brother to his own devices when we are so close to ending this feud.”
“Wait. I thought we were hiding here because the dirty Tretiak cops were closing in on our location.” Nika was losing track of the game.
“We have Petrov men on an operation tonight. Once this is through, we should be nearly in the clear. And the heat is off your father’s shop. As soon as you like, you can probably go visit him.”
“Oh.” Nika should have been happier about that. Right? Seeing Papa and going back to her regular life was supposed to be the goal. Yet this whole adventure with Maksim had been exciting.
