by Katee Robert
“You keep saying that.” She cocked her head to the side. “I might be a little misguided, but I’m not stupid. It’s in your best interest to keep me happy and occupied so I play good little wife to you. I get that. But I’m taking you up on your offer, and you will deliver.”
He held himself perfectly still as she stood and crossed to stand in front of the desk. “And what, exactly, will I be delivering?”
“Everything.”
He didn’t speak, didn’t move, didn’t seem to so much as breathe. She leaned forward. She had to get this all out there now. “I want full partnership. I won’t contradict you or challenge you in front of your men, but all bets are off behind closed doors. You give me equal weight in important decisions, and I’ll return the favor. And you remove the order for house arrest. I need to get out of this damn house, and I will not ask again.” Through it all, she kept her tone even and professional. She’d already thrown enough fits tonight, and it didn’t matter how justified her reaction was—she’d screwed up. She brushed her hair back. “And you won’t call me yours. Not like that. Not again. I might be your wife, but you don’t own me.”
His lips thinned. “You’re insisting on misinterpreting what I meant when I called you mine.”
“I’m doing nothing of the sort. That macho bullshit might work with other women, but I’ve been owned, and I have no desire to continue to be so. I might never be free, but fuck if I’m going to keep letting everyone around me make decisions that impact my life.” There was no thrill at being owned by him. She didn’t have a submissive bone in her body, and she might like the way the Russian fucked, but that didn’t mean she’d kneel for him.
You called me your queen, and I’m going to make you choke on it.
Chapter Fifteen
Keira made an effort to keep her shoulders back and her spine straight as Dmitri stared at her. She could practically see him mulling over her words and considering the best way to guide her into the actions he wanted her to take. She didn’t give him the chance. “Alethea Eldridge is going to use Mikhail to leverage her way into our reception next week.” The writing was on the wall. She’d called to feel Dmitri out and give him enough information to drive himself crazy trying to find his man and the Eldridges. In a day or two, when she figured he was really desperate, Alethea would call and give him an ultimatum.
It’s what Keira would do in her situation.
“That’s what I suspect.”
“She’ll kill him anyway.” The Eldridges were still new players in the game as far as Keira was concerned, but Alethea had proven to be both brutal and merciless. Her daughter and heir, Mae, was even more so. “She’ll do it for spite.”
“That’s my thought as well.” He nodded. “Tracking his cell is the first step. A moment.” He picked up his phone, and it was like watching him cloak himself in a mask. Gone was the man who watched her with that indefinable emotion in his gray eyes. The easy posture, the lack of tension in his shoulders, gone as well. In their place was the cold bastard who could order deaths without losing sleep at night, the one who didn’t see people as people but as objects on a scale that needed to tip in his favor.
He dialed, his long fingers moving over the keys. Whoever was on the other end of the line answered almost immediately. Dmitri’s voice sounded even colder, as if he’d breathe ice instead of air. “Alexei, I have a task for you. Track the last known location of Mikhail’s phone.” He listened for a moment, and then his voice went hard. “Then find someone who can. Immediately.” He hung up.
She whistled. “Do you practice that voice when you’re alone? It’s not as douchey as Batman’s, but it’s something else.”
“Keira.” He shot her a look, and a flicker of amusement lit those gray eyes before he doused it. “It’s entirely possible that Alexei won’t be able to find a tech expert who’s trustworthy to carry this out. Mikhail took the only one we have with him.”
Which meant he was likely already dead if Alethea wasn’t using him as leverage as well. It wasn’t a good sign that she apparently knew exactly which pressure point to use to trigger Dmitri to do what she wanted, but they’d deal with that after they had his man back safely.
Then she realized what he was very carefully not asking her. “You want me to bring in Cillian.”
“That’s your decision.”
She rolled her eyes. “That’s very nice of you to give me a choice, but you just said Alethea has your man, which means he’s at Mae’s mercy, and I saw Charlie’s cuts from that bitch.” Mae only had Charlie for an hour or two, but it was more than enough. She’d had Mikhail for longer. “You know that whatever Cillian knows, Aiden will know.”
“It’s a risk I’m willing to take.”
That decides it. Dmitri wouldn’t ask for outside help unless he absolutely had to. That he was so willing meant he was desperate. Her asking was barely one spot removed from him, and he had to know that. She held out her hand. “Give me the phone, please.”
He grabbed his cell from where it’d fallen on the floor and passed it over. She considered for a second and then dialed the landline to the O’Malley home. If Aiden was still keeping his normal hours, he’d be up. Her brother didn’t sleep much, especially when there was a crisis in progress—which felt like more often than not these days.
Sure enough, he answered with a brisk, “I don’t have time for your shit, Romanov.”
“It’s Keira.” She put the phone on speaker.
Instantly, his tone changed. “I can have men there in a few short hours.”
She sighed. Always the same song and dance with her brother. Keira didn’t hold it against him, though. He wanted to protect her, and his heavy-handed tactics might be annoying as hell, but he genuinely loved her. It didn’t mean she was going to let him steamroll her, but she still had to steel herself against the soft feelings that rose when she thought of it. Soft wasn’t what she needed right now. Dmitri called her a queen, but she wasn’t a queen to the O’Malleys. “My decision hasn’t changed. I’m actually calling to talk to Cillian.”
A hesitation and then her brother disappeared, replaced by the leader of the O’Malleys. It was a tone she was familiar with—he wore it every time she fucked up and had to be hauled before him in his office to explain herself. Aiden’s words were clipped. “It’s business, then. Otherwise you would have called him directly.”
“It is.” She’d considered going around Aiden, but there wasn’t a chance in hell of Cillian keeping this request a secret, so it was better to do it officially. Neither of them would like it, but she wanted to be taken seriously, and time was of the essence if the Eldridges had Dmitri’s man.
“Give me a minute to get him.”
“Of course.” She could feel Dmitri’s gaze on her, but she kept her attention on the painting on the wall behind his desk. It was a winter landscape, a dark forest under a blanket of new fallen snow. Breathtaking in its stark beauty, but something about it gave the impression that, just behind one of the trees, blood marked the virgin snow. An unwary soul would face certain death in that forest, be it from the weather or the predators that she was certain she could feel out of sight.
She loved it.
Rustling on the line brought her back to the present and then Cillian was there, faintly breathless. “Keira. I was sorry to miss you earlier.”
“Me too.” She didn’t ask what he’d been doing. He wouldn’t tell her the truth even if she had. She cleared her throat. “I need a favor.”
“I’m listening.” Once upon a time, Cillian was the impulsive party boy brother. He’d grown up a lot in the last three years, and his business voice was almost as good as Aiden’s these days.
She took a careful breath. “I’m assuming that I’m on speakerphone.”
“You’re assuming right.”
There was nothing of the brother she adored in his words, but she’d expected as much. By calling, she was putting herself firmly in Romanov’s camp in a way that her marriage hadn�
�t. They could comfort themselves that she hadn’t had a choice in saying her vows, but that justification wore thin when she was calling and asking for an official favor.
No point in pussyfooting around. “One of our men was taken by Alethea Eldridge. He was tracking her and apparently got too close, and we need the last location on his cell phone in order to narrow things down and retrieve him.”
“What makes you think we won’t take that information and track her down ourselves?” This from Aiden.
She still didn’t look at Dmitri. It was hard enough to focus with him in the room, his presence soaking into the very air. “Because you’re going to give me your word that you won’t move until our men are in position. You have reason to hate the Eldridges just as much as we do—more after what happened to Charlie. I’m not interested in a pissing contest over who gets to carve the bitches up. My main priority is retrieving our man and ensuring they’re removed as threats.”
“You keep saying ‘we.’” Cillian cursed. “Are you one of them now, Keira? That didn’t take long.”
Her heart lodged in her throat, but none of her sorrow showed in her voice. “I married Dmitri. I would think that goes without saying. Will you help us or not?”
“What I—”
“Yes,” Aiden cut in. “Text Cillian the information he needs and he’ll track the phone. We won’t move unless it’s a coordinated effort, but we expect you to be transparent with your information.”
“Of course,” she lied smoothly. That call wasn’t hers to make, and Aiden should damn well know that. If he didn’t, it wasn’t her problem.
She finally shot a look at Dmitri and found him wearing a satisfied smile. He did this on purpose. He knew that nothing she promised would be binding, as long as he had some degree of reasonable doubt. Sneaky, sneaky Russian.
“In return, you will owe us a favor to be repaid at my choosing.”
“Deal, with the exception of demanding I come home. It won’t happen, and if you try to fuck with my marriage or my people, the fact that you’re my brothers won’t save you.”
Aiden cursed long and hard. “Damn it, Keira, if you’d just—”
“Thank you for the favor. I look forward to hearing from you.”
Keira ended the call. “What’s Mikhail’s cell number?” She typed out a text to her brother as Dmitri rattled off the information, but her mind was a million miles away—or two hundred, to be more accurate. She hadn’t missed the reservation in Aiden’s tone—or the fact that Cillian hadn’t spoken much after initially answering the phone. She’d made her choice, for better or worse. Dmitri over her family. She could comfort herself saying it was a choice she’d made to protect them—and it was the truth—but if she wanted to step into the role of partner, she needed to do it in full.
Which meant she had to let them go.
Something must have shown in her expression, because he studied her. “That was more difficult than you expected.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. It went swimmingly.” She might be willing to work with him while they figured this out, but that didn’t mean she was going to lay herself bare for his perusal. Fuck that.
The look on his face said he wasn’t about to let it go, so she acted before she could think too hard about what she was doing. Keira stood and shrugged off the robe—his robe—letting it fall to the floor to pool around her feet.
Dmitri inhaled sharply, and his gray eyes seemed to swallow up the light in the room. “You can’t dodge hard questions forever, moya koroleva.”
“I know. But I’m dodging them tonight.” It was easier to rattle off the words with a confidence she didn’t feel when he was looking at her like that. She took a step toward him, and then another.
His lips quirked even as he raked a look over her from the top of her head to her toes. “We tried this already, and it went poorly.”’
“My fault.” She could offer him that truth. They’d already talked about it, after all. Keira skirted the desk and moved into the small space between his chair and the polished wood. Dmitri didn’t retreat, which left his face in line with her breasts. Feeling almost shy, she cautiously reached out and stroked her fingers through his dark hair. “It won’t happen again.”
He closed his eyes, not quite leaning into her touch. “It’s challenging to argue with you while you’re naked and I can scent our sex on your skin.”
She kind of loved how his accent got thicker when he was turned on. Keira kept stroking his hair. He wasn’t going to turn her down, and they both knew it, but she was willing to let him take his time coming to that conclusion. “I’ll remember that.”
“That’s exactly what I’m afraid of.” He opened his eyes and tilted his face up to meet her gaze. The move had his breath ghosting across her nipples, and she shivered. Dmitri noted the move the same way he seemed to note everything in his vicinity. “You chose earlier.”
“I did.” She might not have liked what he’d said while they were fucking—or been proud of her reaction to it—but she’d made the choice to get them there despite his cautioning her otherwise. Keira traced a finger along the shell of his ear. “I’m choosing now, too.”
Still, he didn’t touch her. “Make no mistake, Keira. You’re mine. You may not like hearing it, but it’s the truth. You see it as my wanting to put a collar around your neck. That’s not what being mine means.” He shifted to take her left hand and lifted it between them. Her giant ring gleamed unnaturally bright in the low light. Dmitri stroked his thumb over the backs of her fingers. “You took my ring. You’ll take my name. You are my wife.”
“All that means—”
“Let me finish.”
He twisted his hold until his hand was on top. It was only then that she realized he wore a ring, too. Should have noticed that before now. It was thick silver with a darker silver band in the middle of it. Nothing close to as flashy as hers, but she’d bet it was damn near unbreakable—it didn’t look like normal silver. So typically Dmitri.
He lifted his ring finger and let it drop. “I wear a ring, too. We are meant to play different roles in this and my men will always answer to me first, but that doesn’t mean your role is the lesser of the two. You are mine, yes, but I am yours as well.”
Yours.
“Mine.” She tried the word out, liking how it fit. But she wasn’t about to let him take full control of this the same way he had on everything else—no matter how attractive she found the idea. “I’m hyphenating my name.”
Dmitri barked out a laugh, the sound shocking in its authenticity. He lifted her onto the desk and slid his chair closer, forcing her to spread her legs to accommodate him. “O’Malley-Romanov.”
She didn’t actually care one way or another, but she liked pushing his buttons. “I don’t know. Romanov-O’Malley kind of has a nice ring to it.”
Dmitri guided her feet up to the armrests of his chair and then pushed her knees out, leaving her totally exposed. “I’ll make you a bargain.” There was nothing in his tone to show he was affected by having her in this position, but his eyes burned hot, and his touch was almost reverent as he coasted his hands from her ankles up the outside of her legs, and then around to her inner thighs.
Yes, yes, yes. She had to work to keep her anticipation in check and forced her voice to sound as polite and distant as his. “I’m all ears.”
“If you can keep from coming until two, you can have the order your way.” His lips curved in a wicked smile. “But if you cannot hold out, you will be Keira O’Malley-Romanov.”
She kind of liked the ring to that, but she refused to give in on principle. She checked the clock. “I don’t know, Romanov. You only gave yourself five minutes. I can last that long.”
“We shall see, won’t we?” He kissed the side of her knee. It was a chaste touch as such things went—there wasn’t even a hint of tongue—but she felt it like a bolt to her core.
Keira clamped her lips together to keep a moan inside as he dragg
ed his mouth up her inner thigh. Dmitri took his time as if he wasn’t the least bit worried about the seconds ticking down to her victory. He licked the dip at the top of her thigh and then pressed his face to her pussy and inhaled deeply. He growled in Russian against the most private part of her as if telling her all the things he planned on doing to her.
It shouldn’t be so hot to hear him speak his native language against the most private part of her…except, she couldn’t think of a single thing hotter. Keira gripped the edge of the desk and fought to hold perfectly still.
He ran his tongue reverently over her, exploring her folds. Tasting her. Savoring her. Dmitri used his thumbs to part her. “You are beautiful everywhere, moya koroleva. But a man could become addicted to seeing this little bud swell for him.” He breathed on her clit. “So responsive. So fucking sexy. I could spend a lifetime fucking this pretty pussy with my tongue, my fingers, my cock. I’ll never get enough of you.”
“Dmitri.” His name came as a whimper instead of the command she’d been aiming for. She cast a wild glance at the clock. Two minutes to go. I am so fucking screwed.
As if sensing her thoughts, Dmitri spread her folds and circled her clit with his tongue. Once, twice, and then flicks that had her crying out. It was too much and not enough, and the seconds ticking down only made the whole thing immeasurably hotter. He pushed two fingers into her, pumping slowly as if he had all the time in the world while he worked her with his tongue.
She looked down her body and found those gray eyes on her, hot and possessive. It was too much. She’d never stood a chance to begin with. Keira dug her fingers into his hair and came with his name on her tongue.
Chapter Sixteen
Dmitri licked his lips and cursed when someone knocked on the door. “Hold,” he barked. It was one thing to have Keira spread for him on his desk. It was entirely another to have any of his men witness the show. It was for Dmitri and Dmitri alone. He kissed first one thigh and then the other. “I have a task for you.”
