by Bella Rose
“Just go back to your own room and forget about me,” Maria snapped, daring to look him in the face. “That’s what you intended to do anyway, isn’t it? I heard Olga and Ana talking about it earlier. Something about a penthouse apartment away from all of them where I could just quietly be nobody’s problem.”
Sasha’s angry expression made her close her mouth and draw back in surprise. Oh, he was mad! Maria felt the urge to apologize, but couldn’t get the words out. Then Sasha gently put his arms beneath her legs and plucked her off the floor as if she weighed next to nothing.
“Olga and Ana had no right to say such a thing,” he told her gruffly.
Sasha set Maria on the bed. He pulled a soft chenille blanket off the chest by the footboard and wrapped it around her shoulders. She shivered a little, but it wasn’t from the cold. She felt strangely hot, in fact. The careful way that Sasha handled her was flattering. She felt cherished and important. And mostly she remembered what it felt like to have him touch her so intimately.
Sasha saw Maria’s eyes dilate and knew that she was becoming aroused. Good. He had wanted to train her to respond to his touch. Apparently he had been more successful the night before than he had realized.
He turned away from the bed toward the fireplace. The merry little fire was going to go out if he didn’t add some wood.
“Are you leaving?” There was a note of panic in her voice. “Are you going back to your own bedroom?”
He did not look at her. He focused on the fire instead. “Do you want me to go back to my room?”
“No.”
“So you want me to stay here?” He needed to hear the words. Then he would know that it was time.
“I want you to stay with me.”
He threw a rather large log on the fire and brushed off his hands. Standing, he gazed at her for several moments. “Then you realize I’m going to take you tonight. I’m going to have you as many ways and as many times as I want.”
“Yes.” The tip of her tongue snuck out to wet her lips. “I know that.”
“All right, then.” He walked to the door of her suite and locked it. Then he took off his shirt. Turning back to her, he gestured to her dress. “Strip for me. I don’t want a stitch of clothing on that body.”
She did not protest, but he could see her reluctance. Or perhaps it was more nerves than anything else. Her hands trembled as she unbuttoned her dress and pulled it over her head. The virginal white lace bra and panties went next. Then she wore nothing, and he was finally satisfied.
“This is how you should always be when you are in the bedroom with me,” he growled.
Again, he noticed that she was not a traditional beauty with voluptuous curves and a generous body. Yet her pale skin and pert breasts appealed to him. He enjoyed the way her nipples peaked as he watched. He loved the smooth expanse of her flat belly and narrow hips. Her legs were long, and her lips were so perfect. Tonight he was going to see them exactly where he wanted them.
“Come here,” he said roughly.
She obeyed instantly, climbing off the bed and moving toward the fire. She was shivering just a little. He gently took her upper arms in his hands and moved her just a bit closer to the glowing heat.
“Does that help?” Sasha asked softly. “I do not want you to be cold.”
“Yes.”
“Have you ever given a blowjob?”
Her eyes widened in surprise. “Um. Once maybe? It, uh…it didn’t work very well.”
“Probably because boys are idiots who think with their dicks and not their brains.” Sasha cupped her cheeks and then placed his hands atop her head. “Kneel here on the floor and get comfortable.”
He felt a jolt of instant excitement when he realized that she was the perfect height for him. Her mouth was right by his groin. She looked up the length of his body and met his gaze, and he thought it was quite possible that he was going to come as soon as her lips touched his cock.
Maria was so nervous she thought she might be sick. A blowjob? Her first and last experience with such a thing had been a disaster! Now she had to impress Sasha, who had probably gotten blowjobs from women so experienced that they were practically professional! Or maybe even from actual professionals.
Then he gazed down at her and smiled. “You are so sexy. Did you know that? Just the idea of your lips and tongue on my cock is making me hard. Unzip my pants. Touch me. You’ll see how badly I want you.”
Power thrummed through her veins. She had never felt so confident or sure of herself. It was as if his praise bolstered everything inside her. She reached for his zipper and unfastened his pants. She reached inside for his cock.
She would never forget that first brush of her fingers against his cock. He was hard and hot, as if the length of him were steel covered in silk. She could not resist. She rubbed the head of his cock against her cheek. Fascination took over, and she brushed her lips down the length of the shaft. Sasha trembled with each swipe of her lips up and down his cock.
Feeling braver, she licked him. She remembered the musky taste as unpleasant. Not Sasha. It was as if the very essence of him was contained in the scent and taste of his skin in this most intimate place. She used the flat of her tongue to rub the broad head of Sasha’s cock. She energetically moved her mouth and her head as she experimented with pressure and speed. Then the urge to swallow him whole overwhelmed her.
Maria inhaled deeply and held her breath. Then she put as much of Sasha’s cock into her mouth as she possibly could. She felt him touch the back of her throat. His entire body seemed to clench. He groaned, and his hands settled on the top of her head. She sucked deep and long. Breathing through her nose, she managed to bob her head up and down. The motions came naturally, as if every instinct in her body wanted to pleasure this man.
A tiny drop of fluid spilled from the tip of him. She tasted it and reveled in the flavor. Sucking and licking and fucking him with her mouth, Maria placed her hands around the base of his shaft and squeezed lightly the way he had shown her the day before.
Sasha gasped and shouted something in Russian before he finally switched to English. “No more. No more. As much as I want to come in your mouth, I need your pussy far more.”
Chapter Eight
Sasha was going to die. In fact, he was almost certain he was already losing his mind. He tightened his buttocks and tried like hell to calm down. Something about Maria and her unskilled and yet passionate touch fueled his need to the boiling point. He’d be surprised if he managed not to ravish her like some beast in full rut.
Pulling his cock free of her mouth, he shoved his pants down to his ankles and kicked them off. He got tangled in his shoes and underwear and heard something rip. It didn’t matter. Nothing did. He plucked his little wife off the floor and nearly laughed out loud at the bemused expression on her face. Her eyes were glazed with passion, and her lips were swollen from sucking his cock. She looked so damn perfect he could not have resisted her had he wanted to.
Sasha lay Maria on her bed and climbed up beside her. He wanted this to be good. He didn’t want to hurt her. And yet he was so fucking turned on he couldn’t wait one second longer to be inside her.
“This is going to hurt,” he said hoarsely. “I’m sorry.”
She lifted her hand and brushed her fingers over his cheek. “It’s all right. I want you inside me. I want to be yours.”
Her words set him on fire. With trembling hands, he pressed her thighs apart and stroked her satin soft skin. She was wet. He could smell her arousal. He touched her pussy and spread her folds. The pink petals glistened with the juices spilling from her opening. She was so hot and ready, yet he feared that she wasn’t quite ready to take the length and girth of him just yet.
Carefully spreading her wide, he used his finger to penetrate her in one long thrust. Maria cried out, arching her back and thrusting her breasts into the air. Sasha took one nipple in his mouth as he continued to work her inner muscles. He sucked and licked and finally set
his teeth to the distended bud. He tugged at her breast, pulling hard enough to make her writhe beneath him. He wanted her mind on nothing but the moment. He wanted no fear inside her. She needed to be desperate only for joining.
Her pussy began to open. Her inner muscles quivered on the edge of release. This was the moment. He let go of her breast and positioned himself between her knees. Gripping his cock in one hand, he nudged her opening until he felt himself slip just inside. She was so tight. The urge to thrust hard was overwhelming. He ground his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut to hold back. Then inch by agonizing inch, he entered her.
The pressure of Sasha’s cock inside her pussy was like nothing Maria had ever experienced. Any fumbling experiences with silly boys at prep school were so irrelevant that they might as well have never happened.
Her inner muscles bore down on this unfamiliar intrusion. She squirmed a bit and tried to decide if she was uncomfortable or something else. There was heat and friction, and for some reason she could not explain, her body could not stop moving. She rolled her hips against Sasha. She planted her feet flat on the bed and ground back against him, even as he thrust inside her.
She arched her back and clenched her buttocks and spread her legs so very wide to accommodate her husband’s massive body. Reaching around him, she brushed her fingers over the muscles of his back. She’d never touched anything so amazingly supple and yet hard as a rock. Every inch of him was covered in ropes of hard flesh. She let her nails scrape over the bump of his ribs. She felt the sharpness of his shoulder blades and the thickness of his neck. He was made for the brutal life he led.
Sasha’s hands bracketed her head, and he bore the full weight of his body on his arms. She could see the bulging muscles of his biceps from the corner of her eyes. The sheer power of him made her breathless with excitement. This man—this incredible man—wanted her. It was more validating than she ever could have imagined such a thing might be.
He surged into her body. With each stroke, he was watching her reactions. She could not hide from him. Her face revealed every emotion. She knew it. He could see each gasp and moan of pleasure and each grunt as he would find an angle that sent him particularly deep inside her. It was all there in her expression.
Finally she could feel her climax coming. The muscular walls of her channel heated and tightened. Every stroke of his thick cock inside her was agony and ecstasy in one. She was so close. And then all too soon she was there.
Maria grabbed Sasha’s arms. She dug her nails into his supple skin and held tight as the most intense wave of passion overtook her body. She cried out and could not have said what words her tongue managed to speak. She was insane with lust and satisfaction all rolled together. She shut her eyes and squeezed them closed. It seemed like the room was spinning so fast that she could not find an anchor.
Then Sasha groaned and snarled something in Russian. He thrust hard—so hard she thought she might split in two. But the pleasure! The pleasure of it when he came was beautiful. The heat of his seed as he filled her made her almost lightheaded with joy. This was what she had wanted. She belonged to Sasha Tarasov. She was his wife in every way that mattered.
Sasha could not move. He could not even manage to roll off of Maria’s slender body so that he didn’t crush her. His brain was mush, and his limbs were jelly. He was breathing so hard that his heart was in danger of bursting.
Finally, he managed to roll onto his back. The air felt cold on his overheated body. Turning his head to one side, he noticed that the fire had burned low. How long had they been at this? Surely it hadn’t taken much time to seduce and fuck his little bride? Yet it felt as though hours upon hours had gone by.
“Sasha?”
Maria’s reedy whisper called forth a wave of tenderness that was unlike anything he’d felt for a lover after sex. He could not suppress the urge to have her skin against his. Reaching over, he tugged her closer until they lay hip-to-hip.
She squirmed a bit and turned onto her side. She threw one leg over his and rested her cheek on his pectoral muscle, snuggling into his side as though it were the most natural thing in the world. Her hand rested on his belly. Every few seconds her fingers would trace a pattern low on his abdomen as though she were inscribing what she was feeling. It was odd. No lover had ever petted him like this before, but that’s exactly what it felt like she was doing.
“Were you going to ask me something?” He finally remembered that she’d spoken his name a few seconds before.
“I think so.” She gave a wry chuckle. “I think my brains are scrambled. Is sex always like that?”
What an odd question, and one he didn’t care to expand upon. “No.”
“Will you miss being with all those other women?” Her fingers danced lower, brushing the coarse hair at his groin.
“Will I miss…?” The meaning of her words sank in, and instant outrage made Sasha pull away and sit up. “You’re assuming that I will never have another lover now that we’re married?”
“Well, I want my husband to be faithful to me.” She rolled onto her back and reached for the covers. Obviously she was feeling a little uncertain.
As far as he was concerned she should be feeling uncertain. “What sort of man allows a woman to dictate his decisions?” Sasha bit out angrily.
She cocked her head, staring at him as though he’d grown a second head. “What are you talking about? We’re married. I just thought that meant your days of sleeping with other women are over. Am I wrong?”
“Hell yes, you’re wrong!” As soon as he said it, he was sorry.
Anger he could have handled. Had Maria screamed at him and railed away like some shrew bent on dominating his life, he could have yelled back or gotten angry and left the room. Instead, Maria went very quiet. Her gaze dropped and she gave a very demure shake of her head.
“I’m sorry,” she finally said. “I made assumptions and should not have. I’ve apparently forgotten my place. It won’t happen again.”
Maria wanted him out of her room. In fact, she wanted him so far away from her that she would never see him again. Except she didn’t. Not really. The telltale prickle of tears made her angry with herself. She should be willing to fight for what she wanted. But how could she fight when she had no value, no purpose, and no real meaning to this man she had married? He was a powerful pakhan. She was just a piece of property that her father had signed over to cement an alliance.
As if in proof of her thoughts, Sasha got up, and she watched the play of his muscles as he bent to collect his clothes.
“Please close the door on your way out.” She kept her tone very neutral. “And I hope you enjoy the rest of your evening.” Maria swallowed back her tears. “The maids told me you prefer to sleep alone.”
“I hope you have a good evening as well.”
They were like two polite strangers. Then Sasha tossed everything onto the end of the bed and headed for the fire.
“What are you doing?” she asked. “I can put some more wood on it later.”
“There’s no need for you to freeze. I’ll at least stoke up the fire for you so that you can be warm while you fall asleep.” He went about the task with an efficiency that seemed almost impersonal.
It was a sweet gesture. Maria pursed her lips and wondered what the deal was with this new husband of hers. He was an alpha male for sure. There was no doubt about that. Yet he seemed to be of two minds about marriage. Maria had always assumed she would eventually be a wife, but she had wanted to marry for love to a man that shared her Sokolov background. Now she realized it was very possible that Sasha Tarasov had never wanted to get married at all. But she couldn’t square that with the tenderness with which he treated her.
Sasha got the fire roaring in the grate. The delicious heat wafted over to the bed and made Maria feel toasty warm. She’d been about to pull the covers up, but now she basked in the warmth. Sasha turned. His polite smile shifted somehow when he saw her—as if the sight reminded him of their intimac
y from moments ago. Her body moved instinctively, it, too, remembering the pleasure of his nearness. Oh, how confusing this entire situation had become.
“Sasha?” She wondered if she was pushing him too far. “Did your mother try to make decisions for your father?”
“No.” He heaved out a gigantic sigh and perched on the end of the bed. “It was a bit of the opposite actually. My father treated my mother like a trophy. She always had to be perfect.”
“And if she wasn’t?” Maria’s gut clenched as she waited with bated breath to hear the answer.
“He beat her.” Sasha’s voice was so low that she could barely hear it. “He was an insensitive ass.”
“Did he beat you, too?”
“No.” Sasha snorted. He sounded disgusted. “He treated me with respect. It was the fact that my mother was a woman.”
Maria picked at the sheets, wishing Sasha would just get back in bed. “You’re not like that with women. Considering the example you had to follow, you’re not a complete barbarian. At least not like you could be.”
“Oh, you think?” He seemed amused. She could see a smile on his face in the firelight. “You would call me a barbarian then?”
“Sometimes,” she agreed. “Sometimes you treat me like I’m a second-class citizen or a brainless piece of fluff.”
“Sometimes you act like a brainless piece of fluff,” he said darkly. “Then you say something else, and I’m alerted to the possibility that you’re actually manipulating me. It’s rather disconcerting.”
“There is always more than one way to get something done,” she pointed out. “Are you coming back to bed?”
He sighed. It seemed to take forever for him to get up and move back to the side of the bed. He pulled the covers over them both, and she curled up beside him. He was warmer than the fire. She tried not to think about how much she was beginning to depend on Sasha’s presence in her life.
“I like this,” she whispered. “Just you and me. No business and no drama and—well, nothing.”
