by Bethany-Kris
“It’s all good, Vine,” Ivan said. “I should go … grab something from my car.”
“That’s what, twenty minutes?” Anton asked.
“Just about.”
Good enough, Anton thought. “And the guard?”
Ivan shrugged. “That’s the maybe. This is your space in the courthouse for the duration of the trial while you’re in this building. You can’t escape without going right past him. Someone needs to be in this room with you at all times.”
“Someone is,” Viviana said pointedly.
“Exactly,” Ivan responded with a wink to Anton.
Without another word, Ivan made his move to leave the room. Anton followed his lawyer’s steps with a watchful eye, not missing Ivan’s hand slipping up to flick the lock on the doorknob before the door clicked shut behind him.
Anton sighed when after the man was gone, no knock immediately came for the door to be reopened. “That’s better.”
“About Demyan.” Viviana had his full attention again with just their son’s name. “You were right. I was wrong to keep him from you, no matter my intentions.”
Anton sniffed away the remaining tears still lurking along his lashes. “Nah, baby. I understood, really. But I was going out of my mind thinking he needed me, and I wasn’t there.”
“He never forgets about you, Anton,” Viviana said, reaching up to brush away the wetness under his eyes. “Talks about you every single day. He’s got your picture in his room, and he watches all those videos of you and him on my phone over and over. He’s got his papa, all the time. Whenever he wants you, you’re there. I promise, you’re the first thing I talk to him about in the morning and the last thing he hears before bed.”
“But it’s not me, Vine.”
Biting the inside of her cheek, she agreed. “I know, but until this over, it’s the best we can do for him.”
“And what about us?” Anton asked.
“We haven’t been doing well, huh?”
“Not going on like we have. Pretending, whatever you want to call it.” In all truth, it fucking sucked. She needed to know that. “If you’re pissed off at me for all of this, I need to know. I want to, Vine. Just talk to me about something more than your day. Tell me if our kid is being a brat. Cry, I don’t care. But don’t pretend for my sake, if that’s what it is, not anymore.”
“Okay.”
Anton raised a brow. “Just okay?”
“Yeah, Anton. Just okay.”
A brief, uncomfortable silence passed before Anton asked, “Are you ready for this day?”
“No, I’m terrified,” she confessed sadly. “That fear doesn’t rule me. It can’t. I need you home, especially now.”
Yeah, that Anton knew. With the pregnancy, Viviana must be facing more stress than normal. And thinking of which, she still hadn’t told him about it. Anton wasn’t about to let her go one more minute dealing with that alone.
“Vine, I know about … Well, I just know.”
In his embrace, she practically turned to ice. Color drained from her pretty face, pink lips popping open in shock. That wasn’t exactly the reaction Anton was expecting.
“You know?” Viviana asked, the air in her voice disappearing. At his confused nod, she added, “And you’re … okay with it?”
Anton’s confusion only rose further, as did the ache in his heart. The choice to have another child had been shared equally between them, but he knew those feelings might have changed for Viviana after everything they had dealt with, and were still handling.
“Do you not want to have the baby? I mean, it’s not the greatest time and the last pregnancy didn’t end well—”
“The baby,” Viviana interrupted. “You’re talking about the baby.”
“Is there something else?”
“No,” she rushed to say. “No, of course not. That was really the last thing on my mind today is all.”
Anton laughed, relief sweeping his senses. “The last thing? You’re pregnant. You must be sick half of the time, tired the other half, and sick and tired of keeping it a secret, aren’t you?”
Viviana hummed a sound that had his insides waking up all over again. “I am.”
“Pregnant.” Needing to feel more of her skin against his, Anton slipped his hands up under the white blouse she wore, laying both his palms flat to her smooth stomach. Electricity danced along the edges of his fingers as he swept them over her flesh. “With my baby.”
“Yes, Anton. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you right away. There was so much going on, and I was scared of losing this one, too. I had an early ultrasound at nine weeks to check for the heartbeat. They could see it. That helped. I’m thirteen weeks along now, so we’ve passed the first trimester. That helped a hell of a lot more.”
“No way, baby. No apologies. I’m so fucking excited, you don’t even know.”
The smile Viviana graced him with was the most honest and open thing he’d seen in so long. Again, Anton found his lips caught in hers while his hands stayed pressed to her midsection. Their second kiss was much slower than the first. Tantalizing and promising. So hopeful and loving. He took his time exploring her mouth with gentle flicks of his tongue, needing to taste and savor the beauty of his wife.
“I’ve missed you, Vine. I love you.”
“Always,” she echoed.
What happened then between them was as fast as it was rough. Anton removed his hands from Viviana’s body just long enough to bend down and grasp the backs of her thighs. She seemed to expect his move, finding purchase on his shoulders to hold her steady as he walked her backwards. At the long, sturdy table that was certainly not meant to be used in the way Anton planned to use it, he sat his wife down at the very edge.
Viviana’s thighs opened further under gentle urging. Born from a want that had been building from the moment Anton knew his wife was in the same room as he, the desire swirling in his gut grew.
It was the first time Anton took a serious inventory of her outfit choice for the day, as he’d been so focused on just her that he hadn’t noticed at all before. The royal blue skirt she wore was tight to her body, falling just above her knees. The blouse kept her covered, but with the pop of three buttons under his hand, her olive toned skin was exposed to his mouth.
Anton nipped a gentle path along the hollow of Viviana’s neck, and down to her collarbones. The sweetest gasps rolled from her lips in perfect tune with the shifts of her hips that rocked into his groin. Frantic and rushed, he was all too aware of just how much time they didn’t have. That anyone might knock on the door. That the guard might hear the sounds he created just by touching his stunning wife. It was only urged on further, needier, by her hands skimming between the opened front of his suit’s jacket, sneaking beneath to try and flick open the buttons on his dress shirt.
The buttons didn’t slip through the loops as fast as she wanted them to. Viviana’s frustration showed when she tugged roughly on the tail of his shirt to pop open the buttons quicker.
“Careful,” Anton warned.
“I need to feel you,” Viviana said, her voice airless but full.
Viviana drove her opened palm from Anton’s navel, up over the railroad path of his abdomen, to the spot on his chest where his heart lay beating beneath. It was mixture of the softest touch with the strongest pressure. A sensation he hadn’t been expecting to feel at all. It damn near brought him to his knees.
All over again, Anton’s body was reacting to his wife’s close proximity. Not just the obvious, no, but the things she couldn’t see. Like the way his pulse picked up, beating fast and hard straight down to the shaft of his hard cock. Or, how his lungs seemed to ache with every expansion, but it hurt so fucking good. The heat of her skin pressed to his, tapping straight in to his blood and bones.
God, this girl owned him.
Just like she always had.
So, when her fingers curled against his chest, her fingernails digging in to claw down, Anton could only sigh. He felt everything, and it
reached everywhere. Viviana always did know how to get him moving faster, after all.
The skirt she wore was bunched up over her hips, exposing simple, black cotton beneath. Anton wasted no time reaching in between the creamy, smooth contours of Viviana’s thighs to lay his palm flat at the seam of her core. With his fingers hooking under the side of her panties, he slipped in one digit between the fleshy, soft folds of her sex, giving no notice of his intrusion.
Abruptly, Viviana tensed and cried out. Anton caught her next lower, sultry moan in his mouth, shushing to keep her quiet while he worked a tender beat with the second finger he added. Slick, warm arousal coated his fingers and Viviana’s pussy. That’s what Anton wanted, to have her ready, and so wanting for him. It’d been so long since he took her, and the last thing he desired for her to experience was any discomfort.
“No time,” he heard her say. “We don’t have—”
“Like fuck,” Anton muttered through his teeth.
Using his free hand, Anton pushed Viviana back until she lay flat to the table. Leaning over her form, he opened her shirt, pushed aside the black lace of her bra, and took her pink nipple into his mouth. Beautifully, her back arched like a bow. Anton bit down roughly around the taut peak.
“Shit,” Viviana gasped.
“Mmhmm.” Anton grinned, releasing his bite. A perfect set of his teeth marks stared back imprinted into her flesh. Face to face, he reveled in watching her lips part and eyes roll back. “You’re going to feel that all fucking day, baby. You’re going to feel all of me when I’m done with you.”
Anton pumped his fingers deeper, seeking for that spot to make her shake. When Viviana’s eyes flew wide open, her head falling back to the table, he knew he'd found it. One of her hands grabbed onto his wrist like a vise while her other reached back to hold the edge of the table. The faintest sheen of perspiration marked her skin. The silken, hot walls of her pussy clamped down around his two fingers as he thrust up into her G-spot again.
Viviana came with a broken cry, the sweetly tart wisps of scent from her sex finally starting to waft through the room.
“There we go,” Anton soothed, stroking with his fingers to coax her orgasm out as long as he could.
Who knew how long it would be before he touched her again. Viviana looked so fucking amazing laid out underneath him, too, with her skirt gathered up and her blouse opened. Like maybe they weren’t where they really were, and what was happening around them wasn’t actually happening. After all, they’d done this so many times before. For a short time, he could pretend.
“God, baby, look at you.”
There was a quake in Anton’s voice that Viviana didn’t miss. Those melted, milk chocolate eyes of her locked on to his damningly, soaking up every inch of his face with a simple sweep of her stare.
“We have to hurry,” Viviana said.
That might have been right, but it didn’t mean Anton wanted it to be. He said nothing when she fumbled with the button and zipper of his pants. Her shaking hands pushed the fabric of both his pants and boxer-briefs down in a frenzy. There was no question in her desire, only the hot, tight grip of her palm wrapping the steel-hard length of his erection in satin.
Anton barely had time to remove his fingers from her body, keeping her panties swept off to the side with his thumb, before Viviana was pulling him closer. She didn’t seem to need his help guiding her home, so he cupped her cheek with one hand. The moment the head of his cock rubbed against the slit of her pussy, Anton choked. The cold grip of something he was unaccustomed to feeling gripped him fiercer than ever.
Fear.
“Anton?” Viviana asked, glancing up.
A shudder crept up Anton’s spine. What was stopping him from taking Viviana?
“Not the last time,” he said through an audible swallow. The statement was vague at best, but his wife seemed to understand, responding with a faint nod. “Never, Vine.”
“Never.”
It only took a single, well-aimed flex of his hips and Anton was buried to the hilt in the heaven that was his wife. At the same time, he let go of the hold he had on her panties. Using both his hands, Anton grabbed hold of Viviana’s wrists and pulled her up from the table to meet him. Their mouths crashed together with a strength Anton never felt before. Teeth clashed as her tongue swept alongside his. The muffled moan that escaped from his chest mingled with Viviana’s gasped cry of his name.
What control Anton thought he had, was suddenly all but gone with a snap.
It was the heat, the wetness, and the tightness surrounding him.
Pulling away from her sex, Anton didn’t make it halfway out before he was slamming back in. Viviana’s nails cut into the skin of his hands, marking him like he loved. Something brutally swift came down on him harsh and strong, taking the wind right out of his chest. Anton filled her, stretching her open as her thighs dropped from his waist and widened further so he could get her deeper.
Like hell just picked him up and dropped him off in the best goddamned place.
“Fuck, Vine … Fuck, I can’t …”
No, Anton couldn’t do a damned thing. Even thinking was a lost cause. The only thing he understood was his cock was covered in her, slicked up with the arousal he wanted smeared on his mouth, and suddenly he was balls-deep inside her walls again. The trembling lips pressed to his opened at the same time her eyes opened wide. Fire burned in her gaze like the passion boiling at the very pit of his stomach. Over and over their hips met, the drag of skin on skin taking him a little higher, and a little lower.
Viviana brought their connected hands up, turning her face away from his view just long enough to press her lips to his knuckle. Then, she bit him, too. Air cut through his teeth, but her mouth was already back on his, their hands falling back down to the table.
“Faster,” Viviana pleaded, holding his stare, refusing to let go.
It should have been slow, soft, and sweet.
It wouldn’t be anything like that at all, and Anton knew it.
Brutal and dirty, it was how they always were; how life had made them.
When they were done, Anton would clean her, fix their clothes, and hold her like he’d wanted to. In the courtroom, he’d take a moment to kiss his wife, holding her chin between his forefinger and thumb to keep her gaze like she did him, just to remind her. While the prosecution laid the groundwork for a case that had to fail, he’d stare at nothing but the bite mark on his knuckle.
That’s what Viviana did for Anton.
No one could do it better.
So, he let her.
Chapter Seventeen
Viviana fumbled to answer the ringing cellphone in the darkness of the bedroom, not wanting the noise to wake the sleeping child beside her. It took three swipes of her hand over the top of the bedside table before she finally grasped a hold of the vibrating, screeching device.
“Do you know what fucking time it is?” she asked when she brought the phone to her ear.
“Oh, good, you’re awake.”
Ivan sounded as sarcastic and cocky as he always did. Viviana was starting to wonder how in the hell her husband managed to put up with his best friend and lawyer for as long as he did. Then again, Anton had a similar attitude, so maybe that was why their bond was as strong as it was.
“No, I’m not—”
“Do you have someone to watch Demyan?” Ivan asked suddenly.
Viviana wiped the sleep from her eyes, glancing at the clock blinking a time that shouldn’t be legal for someone to wake her up at, given the week she just had. The first week of Anton’s trial had been nothing more than the prosecution repeatedly dragging her husband through the mud. It was hard to sit there in the galley listening to it all.
It was harder keeping her act up. The one she held for Anton, the one reserved for the public, and an entirely different one that reminded a certain judge of the position he was in.
No, Viviana had no patience for late night phone calls that sported Ivan being a fucki
ng smartass.
“Ivan, it’s—”
“Only one in the morning, so get up,” Ivan interrupted.
Viviana screwed her lips shut with a huff, chancing a look at her sleeping boy. “Listen, Demyan is in my bed. I’m not in the mood for this tonight.”
The next words Ivan spoke chilled the room by several degrees.
“We found her, Vine.”
“Her?” she asked quietly, knowing he’d get the point.
“Yeah, we fucking got her. One of Adrik’s men followed that lead and it led straight to her. We owe him a lot for this. It’s going to be done by the morning, and it’ll all be over.”
The cellphone dropped out of her hands to the bedspread. Viviana didn’t dare pick it back up for fear what Ivan said might actually be true. Natalie was the last piece to their puzzle. The one thing that could still put Anton away, even with the judge being blackmailed.
There were things the justice system could not ignore. A witness giving testimony, for one.
Quickly, Viviana plucked up the phone again, running on adrenaline and heartache. Their phone call couldn’t be recorded as they had used burner phones for as long as she could remember. They switched them out every couple of months just to be safe.
“Where is she?” Viviana demanded lowly.
Ivan replied, “At the club. You want a drive, or no?”
No, she didn’t need a drive. And she wouldn’t want someone seeing the breakdown on her way home, either.
“You could leave it alone, Vine.”
“What?”
“Leave it alone,” Ivan said again to her surprise. “Forget about it and let us handle it. You’ve already forgiven what might have happened between her and Anton, whether it did or didn’t occur. You’ve moved on. You don’t have to come.”
Ivan made a valid point, sure. Unfortunately, there was more to it than he could ever possibly understand. Anton was so adamant that nothing could have possibly happened between him and Natalie that Viviana wanted desperately to believe him. But, the truth of the matter was simple. He didn’t know.
Anton couldn’t know for sure, he didn’t have the memory to make his words fact.
