by Bella Rose
Chapter Five
Viktor waited to see what Katie would say. He had laid his heart on the floor in front of her. Now it was for her to say what would happen next. It was an uncomfortable feeling. He had obviously caught her relaxing at home for the evening. She wore turquoise lounge pants with pink spots and a plain gray T-shirt. Her feet were bare and he could see that her toes were painted a pale blue color. Her gray eyes were unfathomable, and she seemed to fidget as though she couldn’t decide how to react.
Then she took a deep breath. “I don’t know where to go from here. Everyone tells me you’re bad news.”
“What does your heart say?” He very lightly brushed his fingertips over her chest just below her throat.
There was a moment when he thought she would shut him out for good. Then her expression cleared and she gazed at him in the same way she had all those years ago. Reaching out, she rested her fingers on his breastbone. “My heart has always belonged to you, I think.”
“Katie,” he groaned.
He wrapped his arms around her and crushed her to his chest. She was both familiar and unfamiliar. The same warmth and scent, but her curves were definitely that of a woman fully grown. He covered her mouth with his and kissed her as though no time had passed at all.
The passive girl was gone. Katie made tiny noises in the back of her throat and tangled her fingers in his hair as she moved her lips against his. It was she who gently moved her tongue along the seam of his mouth until he opened for her. She tasted him and allowed him to taste her in return. Her spicy flavor overwhelmed his senses. Every nerve in his body was on high alert as he savored the sensation of having her so close to him.
He backed toward the couch, coaxing her to follow. When he sat he pulled her down on top of him. She automatically straddled his lap. He could feel the heat of her even through the fabric of her lounge pants. He wanted more, but he didn’t want to push her just yet. When he took her and made her his, she would be begging him for it.
Katie pulled back a little, gazing into his face. She gently traced the line of his jaw before touching the scar on his mouth. He didn’t want to talk about the scar, but she didn’t ask. Instead, she seemed to be studying his features. Her hands moved to his shoulders and then down his chest. When she reached his waist, she tugged at his T-shirt to raise it above his belly.
“Wow.” She pulled the cotton up and over his head. “That is even more impressive than I expected.”
***
Katie was having difficulty catching her breath. Kissing Viktor was both the same and different. Seeing his naked chest, she was hard-pressed not to drool in admiration. The man was gorgeous!
She scored the taut skin over his pectorals with her nails. He gave a little shiver. Then she plucked at his nipples and he gave a soft moan. Finally she let her hands glide all the way down his abdomen to his waistband. She could see the hard outline of him there. Her crotch was spread open over his groin. He was so close and yet so unbelievably far.
He began to kiss her again. Cupping her head in his huge hands, he dragged her closer and took her mouth in a slow, mind-numbing kiss that left her brain completely fogged over. Every nerve in her body was thrumming with need. She was so turned on that her lounge pants were getting soaked in the crotch area. Now was probably not the time to mention that she wasn’t wearing panties. She had a feeling he was going to discover that soon enough anyway.
“Your turn,” he told her.
There was a gleam in his dark eyes as he gently lifted her T-shirt over her head. She had taken off her bra, and felt self-conscious about her bare breasts. She quickly covered them with her arms. Viktor wasn’t having any of that. He pried her arms away and pulled them up around his neck. Then he leaned forward and laved his tongue around her left nipple.
Katie forgot to be shy. In fact, she was the opposite of shy. Moaning like a wanton thing, she grabbed the back of Viktor’s head and dragged him closer. She wanted more. Then he began to lick and suck while twisting her other nipple with his fingertips. He switched off, using his mouth on one while he fondled the other with his hand. It was a glorious feeling and she couldn’t get enough.
She was moving against him and she soon realized that the riding motion was grinding her sex right over the ridge of his erection. She continued to rock her hips until she realized that she was actually going to come.
A deep ache started at her core. She closed her eyes and threw her head back as she tried desperately to assuage the need she felt. His hands left her breasts, finding a spot on her hips and helping her discover a rhythm of motion that pushed her even closer to the edge of reason.
“Come for me, Katie,” Viktor told her softly. “Show me your passion. Come on, sweetheart, let me have it.”
The erotic words were too much. Katie climaxed in a rush of warm cream and a shout that left her throat feeling raspy and raw. She could barely breathe. And when it was all over she collapsed to Viktor’s chest.
***
Viktor was going to die of acute sexual frustration and he didn’t care. The taste of Katie’s breasts was on his tongue and the scent of her pussy was in his nose. His cock was throbbing with the need to be inside her.
She was trembling against him and he gave her a moment to come back to herself. Carefully rubbing her back, he began to gently massage her warm skin. Then he nudged her. “Stand up for a second, sweetheart, and let’s get these pants off.”
There was a moment when he wondered if she might protest, but she dismounted from his lap long enough to slip her pants down over her hips. After that, Viktor was almost too entranced by the beauty of her to pay attention to his own clothing. How he managed to get his pants unfastened and down over his hips was a mystery when he couldn’t stop looking at the pretty strip of dark hair atop Katie’s mound. His pants hung up somewhere in the vicinity of his calves, but that didn’t matter. Nothing else did.
“Come here.” He took her hand and drew her back onto his lap.
Viktor realized that she was watching everything. The thought was erotic as hell. He palmed the length of his cock in one hand and very deliberately dragged the tip through her wet folds. She gasped and gave a little shimmy as if she were seeking penetration. It was the ultimate compliment.
“Viktor,” she gasped. “I need you. I need you inside me.”
“Slowly,” he told her raggedly. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
Her hands settled on his shoulders as he very carefully fit the head of his cock against her slick opening. He felt her flex and nearly lost control. His balls were straining beneath his body, trapped between his legs in this position. Her inner muscles relaxed and he slipped inside her inch by agonizing inch.
She moaned at the contact. The way she sucked in a quick breath told him that she felt the intense friction of their joining in the same way he did. Viktor bracketed her hips with his hands and urged her to move. It took very little prompting. Her instincts seemed to take over and she began riding him with long, penetrating strokes that sent his cock deep inside her body. He felt his orgasm begin to overcome his senses. Everything was tingling and he knew nothing but the sweetness of her body surrounding him.
The sight of her was intoxicating. She was such a beautiful woman with high breasts that bounced gently with each motion of her body. Viktor gazed at her and wondered what he could have possibly done to earn such a prize.
***
Katie was drunk on pleasure. She had never experienced anything like the sensation of riding Viktor’s cock. There was no doubt from the way he held her hips and set the pace of their lovemaking that he was in charge. Yet she felt so powerful sitting astride his body with his erection lodged deep inside her.
Each rolling motion of her hips created a wave of tiny frissons that seemed to begin in her pussy before spreading to the rest of her body. Her fingers were tingling and she knew she was close to coming a second time. The heat inside her pussy blossomed until she felt every single ounce of her focus sh
ift to that one place. It was like being suspended above a chasm and looking out at the intense beauty spread out below. She felt him moving beneath her, the careful way he held her, the raw passion of his pleasure mingled with hers, and finally the sensation of her body’s orgasm as she clenched tightly around his shaft.
Viktor groaned, the sound meshing with her high-pitched cries and drowning out all other noise. She dug her nails into the hard muscle of his shoulders and squeezed her eyes shut. Then she felt him stiffen beneath her. He arched his back and pushed up into her body as a rush of warmth bathed her womb with his seed.
Sudden fatigue hit hard and Katie collapsed against Viktor’s chest. Her lungs were working overtime as though she’d just run a race. She exhaled a gusty sigh and wrapped her arms around him. It felt good to be held by him.
“How are you, sweetheart?” he murmured against her hair.
“I’m not sure I can walk. We may have to stay like this forever.”
His chuckle rumbled in his chest, vibrating through her body. “I think I can live with that.”
“Will you stay the night with me?” She yawned.
There was a long pause. Katie wondered what he was thinking, yet she didn’t want to know.
“No. It’s not a good idea.” He stroked her hair. “It isn’t that I don’t want to fall asleep with you in my arms and then wake up in a few hours so I can make love to you again.”
“Sounds like you’ve given this some thought.”
“I have.” Something in his voice suggested he’d been thinking about it a lot longer than she had. It was a little intimidating to consider.
Viktor started to get up. Katie was going to protest, but he swept her right up into his arms. He did an awkward little dance to pull his pants back up over his butt, and then he settled her securely against his chest.
“What are you doing?” She linked her arms around his neck, looking for a way to hold on.
“I’m taking you to bed.”
She started to get excited, thinking he’d changed his mind.
Viktor looked down at her and winked. “Meaning I’m going to tuck you in and then lock up.”
“Come on, Max,” she called.
The dog had retreated to his bed during their love play. Now he followed along, leaping up into the bed before Viktor laid Katie down. She snuggled into her covers and Max curled up around her legs.
“Sleep tight, sweetheart,” Viktor whispered. “You’ll hear from me tomorrow.”
“How?”
“You just will.”
Chapter Six
You just will? Katie rehashed Viktor’s words in her mind for about the millionth time that morning as she tried to focus on work. Her job wasn’t particularly difficult, but it did require her to pay attention and she was making a muck of things.
“You’re certainly out of it today,” Anne commented. She handed Katie a file she had been trying to find for at least ten minutes. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you like this before. Late night?”
“Oh you know me,” Katie said with a guarded smile. “I just love to go out drinking on a school night and then go to bed late and wake up feeling exhausted.”
Anne gave Katie a critical once-over. “I’m going to suggest it was more like a date followed by you getting some, if you know what I mean.”
Katie threw a surreptitious glance out toward the reception area where they had three patients absently skimming magazines while waiting for their appointments. “I might have had dinner with a friend last night. Yes.”
“Friend?” Anne said dubiously. “I’m not buying it. Unless your friend was male and super hot.”
“Maybe.”
Anne clapped her hands eagerly. “Girl, I am so glad to hear that! You need to get out there and date. I know you don’t talk much about your past, but I can tell you’ve got some boy drama going on. So that makes it even more important to find someone new and have some fun.” Anne leaned forward eagerly. “So, tell me his name.”
Katie realized her dilemma, but it was really too late to backpedal out of it now. She cleared her throat. “Viktor.”
Anne’s face paled a few shades. “Are you serious? Tell me you’re not. You cannot seriously be thinking about dating Viktor Urevich.”
“I’ve known him practically all my life, Anne,” Katie said in a reasonable tone of voice. “He’s not the devil. Everyone makes him seem like he’s some bloodthirsty pirate or something. He’s not. He’s just a regular guy with a great sense of humor and a good heart.”
“Only you would say that Viktor Urevich has a good heart.” Anne shook her head and went back to her computer, getting ready to check out a patient who had just walked up to the counter.
Katie hadn’t really expected Anne to understand. If their positions were reversed, Katie would have like to think she would be more accepting, but it was impossible to say.
“Excuse me?” Someone approached the counter in front of Katie’s workstation. “I need to see the dentist, please.”
“Do you have an appointment?” Katie asked, and then she looked up. Viktor’s friend Sasha was standing at the counter. A huge lump formed inside her throat and she could hardly breathe. What was Sasha doing here?
“No. I don’t have an appointment, but my back tooth is killing me.” He was holding the right side of his jaw as though he were in excruciating pain.
Katie couldn’t turn him away. No matter how badly she might have personally wanted to tell him to take a hike, he needed help from the dentist. And it sounded as if he needed a root canal.
She offered him a pleasant smile and kept her heavy sigh of irritation to herself. “Let me see if we can squeeze you in. Have you ever been to our office before?”
“Once or twice maybe,” Sasha said with a careless shrug. “It’s been a while.”
Katie was trying to decide if she could just put him in an operatory and have Dr. Torres take a look when Sasha seemed to recognize her.
“You’re that chick who has Viktor all tied in knots, aren’t you?” Sasha leaned over the counter and looked at her with obvious interest.
Katie forced herself not to react. “I suppose that’s one way of putting it.”
“If you really like him, you should stay away,” he told her.
“Excuse me?”
“I said that if you care anything about Viktor, you need to stay away from him,” Sasha said again. “My uncle doesn’t like anything that gets him distracted from his job.”
“But he doesn’t work for your uncle,” Katie pointed out.
Sasha shrugged. “He’s not a full member, no. But my uncle is the only one who will give him work. You don’t want to ruin that for him, do you?”
“What makes you think I can’t help him find some other job that doesn’t leave him beholden to some mafia kingpin?” Katie demanded quietly. “Viktor is better than this. And obviously you and your uncle know that, otherwise you wouldn’t be standing there obsessing over who he talks to and whether or not it will put a crimp in your plans.”
“You better watch it,” Sasha told her irritably. “You’re going to land yourself in a world of trouble.”
“And you need my help with that tooth,” she reminded him. “So how about you be nice?”
That burned him. She could tell. And Katie had a feeling that Sasha wasn’t one to forgive and forget. He would remember that she had threatened to make him suffer through his toothache, just like she would remember that Sasha and his uncle wanted Viktor to feel as if he had no other options.
“The doctor will see you now,” she told Sasha politely. Standing up, she grabbed a new patient chart and led the way back to the operatory.
***
Today was not a good day for Viktor. He’d been awoken at an ungodly hour by one of Karkoff’s men banging on the door of his tiny basement apartment. Now he had easily been standing in the foyer of Karkoff’s home for an hour or more. Two of Karkoff’s beefy enforcers were there. Presumably to make cert
ain that he didn’t just wander off. They’d been glaring at him for the better part of an hour.
“You guys wouldn’t happen to know how much longer this is going to take, would you?” Viktor asked casually.
“Does it matter?” the taller man asked in Russian.
The other guy smirked. “It isn’t as though you have anything else to do.”
“That’s a pretty bold statement, don’t you think?” Viktor answered back, also in Russian. “What if I have some knitting that I’ve been working on? If I’d known that I would be waiting here for this long, I would have brought it with me. I’m working on a new line of sweaters, you know? I could have used the two of you as models for my big-and-tall line.”
There was a lot of muttering and a few dark looks before the taller guy actually balled up his fists and started heading toward Viktor as if he were spoiling for a fight. Viktor stood light on his feet, keeping his hands low at his sides and preparing to defend himself. Then a door opened at the far end of the foyer.
“Denis, leave him alone,” Karkoff shouted. “Viktor! Get in here. Now!”
Viktor smiled at Denis. “Saved by the boss. How fortunate.”
Heading for Karkoff’s study, Viktor left Denis’s wounded pride behind him. Apparently he had just made another enemy to add to the growing list of people who probably wanted him dead.
“Shut the door,” Karkoff barked.
Viktor carefully closed the heavy study doors without letting them slam. He knew exactly why he was here, and he intended to play stupid for as long as possible. That was about the only strategy he could think of that would get him out of here alive.
“Last night I sent you to retrieve a shipment, da?” Karkoff sat behind his desk, his fingers steepled in front of his face and his beady eyes glued to Viktor.
Viktor nodded. “That’s correct. I found the van at the docks in the same spot as usual. I got into the van, exited the wharf neighborhood, and didn’t turn on my lights until I was well away from the pickup location.”
