by Ashley Hall
One time, at least one time, she would scream out my name while orgasming. Other women had in the past, but I hadn’t wanted them to, not as badly as I wanted Rachel to. I didn’t want to think too much about why that was. I only wanted to give of myself, to give her pleasure. Watching her draw closer and closer to her climax made me that much harder, and I knew that as giving as I was being, it was also selfish too, because giving her pleasure gave me pleasure as well.
Her squirms became more and more frantic each time my tongue flicked against her clit in between licking up her juices, so I changed tactics and lavished her clit with more attention from my tongue and lips and shoved a finger then two more inside of her. Her walls clenched tightly, and she came almost instantly.
“Did you like that?” I asked, pulling away slightly but still fucking her with my fingers.
She nodded meekly, eyes closed. Her forehead was covered with sweat, some hair sticking to her cheeks. That combined with the fresh pink glow of sex made her gorgeous. “Yes,” she murmured, opening her eyes, her expression a little dazed. “Oh, yes, I liked that.”
I smirked, feeling invincible. “What’s next?”
Her eyes widened, and she grinned. Fuck, I loved it when she grinned. “I think I have an idea…”
She sat up then got onto her knees, and I allowed her to lay me down on the bed. I normally wasn’t a fan of girl on top—probably because of my control issues—but I gritted my teeth and vowed to bear it. This was about her. Not me. Not us.
What would it be like to have a go around that was for us both mutually? For us to both be leading and sharing our deepest secrets, to give into our basic desires, to let loose, have no worries?
I had never had all that I needed from a woman before. I liked to push the limits. I liked to take things almost too far. Would she be the first woman I would feel comfortable letting her in?
Only time would tell, but that would be a matter for another day.
Rachel didn’t mount me right away. Instead, she pinned my hands above my head and kissed my eyelids, my nose, my cheeks, my lips. She sucked along my neck and nibbled on my nipples. She licked the ridges of my abs and then the length of my cock. Her hot breath caused my cock to twitch, and she giggled.
I leaned forward slightly to be able to watch this woman destroy me. Her having her way with my body and expecting me to just lay here and take it was amazing. It was fucking unreal.
But I needed more. I willed her to open her lips, and she did. I desperately wanted her to put me in her mouth.
She licked her lips and…maneuvered herself to plunge down straight on my cock. What a tease and yet this was so much better. Her walls massaged me, and she rolled her hips up and down, her head back, her tits bouncing, and just watching her enjoy herself was almost enough for me to lose control.
I couldn’t sit back and do nothing anymore, not with her tits bouncing around. I reached up and palmed her breasts. Rachel glanced down at me before slamming down hard and throwing her head back again. She was moaning loudly, and I was moaning myself. God, this felt un-fucking-believable.
And then she did something unexpected.
She reached behind her and tickled my balls, and that was all it took. The forcefulness of my orgasm left me gasping for air, and the way she kept on going, riding up and down, her walls squeezing every drop of cum out of me as she orgasmed too…damn it all if that wasn’t pretty close to perfection.
Rachel collapsed on top of me. I wasn’t much for cuddling, but I still wrapped an arm around her, tracing lazy circles on her soft skin. To say I was relaxed would be an understatement, and she sure seemed distracted. Mission accomplished.
She lifted her head and stared at me, her eyes shining. “That was…”
“What?” I asked as I brushed her hair back and tucked it behind her ear. She always looked her best in the moments right after we finished.
“Our fifth time this week, wasn’t it?” she asked.
I slowly dropped my hand. “Yes…” I said, drawing out the word. So she was keeping track of our romps. I had enjoyed them so much that I hoped she wouldn’t mind if we ever did do more than four times in a week. She certainly seemed to enjoy them as well. I sometimes forgot that the purpose of them wasn’t pleasure but to get her pregnant.
“But this time hadn’t been about making a baby, had it?” she murmured, staring at me intently. “It had been for me. Wasn’t it?”
Fuck, she could read me. That wasn’t good.
I just lay there, not saying anything, but my silence had to be confirmation enough.
She settled back down on my chest, and I resumed tracing patterns on her skin. We were sticky, and my room was hot, but I didn’t mind. I was oddly comfortable.
All too soon, though, she sat back up again. “Do you know anything about the man who threatened me?” she asked. “I tried to get a good look at him, but there isn’t a whole lot to go on. He was wearing—”
“I don’t know why someone would threaten you,” I said smoothly, trying to get her to lie back down on me, “and I’m sorry that happened to you. If you would stay here, you won’t ever have to worry about that happening again.”
Her eyes clouded over, and she shifted away from me, although we were still touching. “You would have expected me to stay here, to do nothing, when I found out that my mom was in the hospital?”
Way for her to kill the afterglow. “I would expect you to not leave without your bodyguard.”
“Ah, yes, my bodyguard. Because that’s normal.” She snorted and pulled away completely, disentangling her limbs from mine. Her back to me, she started to get dressed. Even her movements showed how upset she was, all jerky and forceful.
“Our agreement is so normal,” I tossed back. I thought about sitting up but opted not to. My bed was too comfortable, and maybe I would seem less threatening if I stayed reclined. I could be an intimidating man, but one person I didn’t want to intimidate was her. “You will be safe within these walls. That I can promise you. If you leave without a bodyguard, then I can’t guarantee your protection, but that would be on you, not me.”
“Right,” she muttered, shaking her head, her back still to me. “Should’ve known…”
“Should’ve known what?” I asked.
“Should’ve known that you wouldn’t want me to know more about you than is absolutely necessary.” She finished dressing.
“Damn straight.” I crossed my arms, muscles flexing. “That’s not in the contract, and it’s not up for debate.”
Now dressed, she stood, turned around, and stared at me, her grimace tearing me apart. She inhaled deeply, and her face turned curiously blank. Rachel nodded. “Understood,” she said stiffly. Like a robot, she marched out the door and slammed it shut behind her.
Well, that hadn’t gone well at all, but I wasn’t about to tell her everything. It wasn’t her place to know every little thing about me, and the more she knew, the more danger she would be in. I couldn’t—and didn’t—blame her for wanting to visit her mother, but she needed to be smart about it.
In my world, only the smartest and the most cunning survived. I had every intention of being the smarter and more cunning of the two between myself and Vanya Golovkin. Looked like I would have to be even more so if I also wanted to ensure Rachel survived as well despite her too-caring heart.
Damn it all. How had Golovkin found out about her already? And to threaten her after leaving the hospital from visiting her sick mother was especially cruel.
The sooner I have my revenge, the better for everyone’s sake.
Chapter Seventeen
Rachel
What the hell? Ivan had been so kind and tender and almost loving when we had sex. It hadn’t been fucking this time. It had been so much more. And it had been just what I needed. It made me feel alive again after the taint of death that always seemed to hover over me when I visited my mom or brought her in for her treatments. It made me forget about my grief and my guilt and my wo
rry. It burned me with life, even gave me hope.
And afterward, I knew bringing up the guy again might set Ivan off, but I had every right to know. I had been the one threatened. I was the one being tailed. And it was because of him. He was the reason why I was in danger. That the guy had approached me outside of the hospital my mom was currently getting treated at only made things that much more terrible for me. What if the guy went after my mom to get to me in order to get to Ivan? This was making my head spin. My chest ached. Fear and anger brewed inside of me, generated at myself, Ivan, the guy, and the guy’s boss—he had said we after all.
I shouldn’t have been blinded by the dollar signs, should’ve never agreed to this. I certainly shouldn’t have had sex with him again today when it had been more times than the contract stipulated. I had been desperate, and I would be just as desperate now if I backed out and had to repay him the money I had already spent, but was it worth it to stick around and fulfill my obligation? I should’ve done more research. I should’ve demanded more information up front. I should’ve done a hundred things differently.
How could he act like he had a right to keep me closed off from the details that were pertinent to the whole threat? He hadn’t acted surprised at all, only furious. But it hadn’t been unexpected. And that, in turn, only fueled my fury. What the hell kind of a twisted mess had Ivan ensnared me in? I had signed the contract, but he hadn’t disclosed all relevant details. Wouldn’t that be enough to get me out of the contract legally?
I should’ve walked away the moment I suspected he was a mob boss. That a mob boss was paying two million to have a baby should’ve been another red flag. He wanted a kid as soon as possible for some reason.
A reason that was becoming slightly clearer.
Because someone was after him. Someone was threatening him too.
And now they were threatening me to get to him.
Too bad they didn’t realize I wasn’t a girlfriend. I was just a uterus.
And since Ivan had this bull’s eye on his back, and now that there was one on me for that matter, how could I possibly give up a child to him? The child would be in danger from day one! And to grow up under the guidance of a mob boss…it would be irresponsible of me to give him a child.
I had made a huge mistake in signing that contract.
But what the hell was I going to do about it? The last thing I wanted was to piss off a mob boss. If Ivan turned on me, what would happen then? I had no illusions that I meant anything to him, this last bit of mind-blowing sex notwithstanding. Sure, it had been more intimate, and he had given himself to me, but he didn’t care about me as a person. Maybe he couldn’t care about anyone period.
So I couldn’t back out. Or at least not yet. If only I could find another well-paying job before I got pregnant.
But what there the chances of that? I had tried to find a second job before I got canned, and there hadn’t been any jobs available other than Ivan’s offer.
I was screwed. In more ways than one.
***
The next day, I waited until Ivan left and decided it was well past time to do some snooping in this huge house. I had seen a few of the rooms, but now I wanted to see the ones that were supposed to be off limits to me, the ones the servants had turned me away from on more than one occasion when I had just been walking around the place, not even trying to be nosy.
Leo, my bodyguard, was busy on the phone, so I ducked down the hall and around the corner out of his field of vision. I had a feeling Leo was going to hear about it from Ivan, and I sure hoped that Leo wasn’t fired over my leaving the house. I wasn’t a child. I didn’t need to be babysat. And if I wanted to leave the house, I was going to leave the house. This place wasn’t my prison. I’d always thought it strange that Ivan had Leo assigned to me as my bodyguard. Well, now I knew why.
Damn. I had gotten so upset with Ivan that I hadn’t even managed to ask him about my mom and leaving in the future. Because if something came up with my mom again, I would not hesitate to leave again. If he wanted to keep me around as his surrogate, he would grant me the ability to come and go as I pleased. I signed the contract, but this was a partnership, and I was going to have some say.
Whether he wanted me to or not.
If I had to bring Leo next time, so be it, but I was going to go. Ivan wouldn’t stop me. No amount of money in the world would stop me from being there for my mom when she needed me the most.
Time for some digging. If Ivan wouldn’t talk to me about himself, I would just have to learn more through good old-fashioned detective work.
Some of the rooms I peeked into were boring and looked like studies or extra living rooms. Nothing worth exploring. A few rooms were locked, and that really had me intrigued. I had no idea where the keys might be, and I didn’t know how to pick a lock, so I had to pass them by, unfortunately.
The room next to Ivan’s bedroom was unlocked, which surprised me. Hadn’t one of the servants turned me away from it before when I had been looking for Ivan’s bedroom? The room looked like another bedroom, but when I opened the wardrobe, there weren’t any clothes inside. It was full of nonperishables. What in the world? What was this for? A stockpile for emergencies?
Feeling like a thief, I walked over to the closet and opened it. No supplies, at least not food supplies.
There were so many guns and bullets and other weapons that I gasped. Ivan had quite an impressive collection—enough to start a war. Did the guy who threatened me belong to another mob? Had I gotten myself in the middle of a mob war?
“Rachel. There you are.” Leo appeared in the doorway, arms crossed.
I jerked back and shut the closet, my heart pounding. It wasn’t that I was afraid that Leo would do anything to me. I trusted him, even if I wasn’t sure I could trust his boss.
“You shouldn’t be in here,” he said.
“Then why isn’t it locked?” I asked, mimicking his stance by crossing my arms.
He motioned for me to exit the room and go into the hallway.
I ignored him and stayed put. “Leo, what’s going on?”
My bodyguard shook his head and shrugged. “It’s not my place to say.”
“Please?” I begged. “Ivan’s not exactly the talkative type.”
He said nothing, his gaze dropping to the floor.
Maybe making him uncomfortable would provoke a response out of him. And I knew the perfect way to make him uncomfortable.
“He doesn’t talk to me,” I explained with a slight grin. “He just moans.”
Leo’s face turned bright red. “Yes, well…” he sputtered.
I pointed to the weapons. “What’s all this?”
His face twisted into one of compassion. “You really should know better. You’re too naïve.” He shook his head.
I glowered at him. “He sleeps next to an arsenal large enough to do some serious damage. How can he sleep at night?” I demanded.
“Some things are better not to think about,” was all he said.
“Doesn’t make it go away if you ignore it,” I muttered.
“Maybe not, but you should worry only about how you can sleep at night, not Ivan. Come on. I’ll escort you back to your room.”
I took one last look at the weapons before following Leo out.
You should worry only about how you can sleep at night.
It was a small wonder that my sleep hadn’t been affected by more than just Ivan’s late night activities. What exactly was he capable of? His eyes, his face…he had looked almost murderous for just a split second when I mentioned the guy who accosted me. Would Ivan have that man killed? And the one who sent him?
Somehow, I didn’t doubt that.
And the terrible thing was that in that moment, I wanted both men to die. They frightened me—the guy who threatened me and the faceless, nameless one who had sent him. If they were willing to go after me, they would be willing to go after the baby.
I really shouldn’t have signed that contract, but
if I hadn’t, another woman would have. Ivan shouldn’t have had the contract in the first place. Not if his life, and by extension his unborn child’s and the baby mama’s, was in danger. He should have taken care of the threat first.
And if taking care of the threat first cost Ivan his life? What then?
