by Lucy Monroe
CHAPTER TEN
THEY TOOK TWO LIMOS to the church.
Maddie didn’t pay attention to who went where except that she had Vik on one side of her and Romi on the other.
The Holy Virgin Cathedral looked like it had been transplanted right out of Russia, with its cross-topped triple-domed spires and white facade. The inside was awe-inspiring, with its domed ceilings decorated with iconography and the ornate public altar area.
She lost herself in the beauty of the service, but nothing was as moving as the moment before the crowning ceremony when Vik sidestepped tradition and lifted her veil to kiss her again and whisper that now even God knew she was his.
The words might be considered irreverent by some, but they settled in Maddie’s soul. He left her veil folded back so that when the crown was placed on her head signifying the sacrament, Maddie felt both bound and freed at the same time.
They skipped the civil ceremony that would have been required to make the wedding legal in Russia because it wasn’t necessary in America. Consequently, they broke crystal glasses at the reception in front of a few hundred of her father and Vik’s nearest and dearest.
Both glasses shattered into rubble, though there could be no doubt that Vik threw his with an impressive force beyond what Maddie used. Everyone cheered.
“It will be a long and blessed union,” Misha announced loudly.
She was a little surprised to discover the man hired to be toastmaster was a well-known Shakespearean actor, and one of her favorite up-and-coming performers sang for the guest’s enjoyment.
They ate, cut the cake and toast after toast was made to the happy couple.
It was all sort of overwhelming and amazing. Nothing about this wedding felt like a business arrangement. When she mentioned that to Vik, he smiled.
“Because this marriage is not a business arrangement,” he said firmly.
“But—”
“It’s a marriage of dreams. Accept that for what it is.”
Happier than she had ever been, Maddie nodded and did just that. She wasn’t at all surprised when Romi caught her bouquet.
Maddie had been aiming after all.
What was surprising and even a little worrisome, was that Maxwell Black caught the garter. The look he gave Romi would have had Maddie running for the hills, but her friend just blushed. And looked more than a little interested.
Huh. That was something to think about.
After Maddie’s own honeymoon.
She smiled so much during the reception that her cheeks hurt by the time the white Rolls-Royce arrived to take them away.
* * *
Maddie was surprised when the car pulled up in front of the Ritz-Carlton instead of Parean Hall.
She turned to Vik. “I thought we were going home.”
“I like the sound of that.”
“Going home?” she asked, confused and not minding a bit.
“Home. Our home,” he emphasized.
Heat she did not understand crept into Maddie’s cheeks. “But we aren’t there.”
“No, we are here. And this moment the only three people who know that are you, me and the driver.” Vik sounded very proud of that fact.
“What about security?”
“Not even them. Not tonight. No friends. No family. No security. No press.”
Delight suffused her. “Tonight is ours.”
“Yes.”
“I like it.”
“Good.”
He carried her over the threshold of Suite 919, one of the two most luxurious sets of rooms on the club level.
Its beauty was lost on Maddie, though. She was way too focused on Vik to pay attention to marble floors and Chippendale furniture.
“Champagne?” he asked without putting her down.
She shook her head.
“Snack?”
A smile flirted at her mouth as she said primly, “No thank you.”
His eyes darkened with primal intent. “Bed then?”
“Oh, yes.”
He carried her into the bedroom and lowered her to her feet. “Did I tell you how lovely you are today?”
“You may have mentioned it, yes.”
He nodded, as if in serious contemplation. “I can only imagine one circumstance in which you could be more breathtaking.”
“Yes?” she asked.
“Let me show you.”
“Okay,” she breathed out.
He removed her crown and veil with careful, deliberate movements. Then he took off the jewelry he’d helped her put on earlier.
“I don’t think I told you. The pearls are exquisite. Thank you.”
“They are just little white beads until you are wearing them.”
“Oh, wow...I don’t know even know how to take some of the things you say.”
“As truth. We’ve established I do not lie to you.” He brushed his lips over the back of her neck.
She did nothing to suppress the shiver the small touch elicited. “Or at all, according to Jeremy.”
Vik came around and faced her, and then leaned down to press their mouths together softly for only a brief moment. “Or at all.” He kissed down her neck and along her bare shoulder.
Each caress of his lips left a trail of goose bumps in its wake and she was trembling with desire by the time he made it around to the back of her dress.
He undid the bodice, trailing kisses down her spine as he did so.
The silk of her corset was no barrier between his lips and her skin. He helped her step out of the dress and then took the time to carry it into the dining room and lay it on the table.
When he came back into the bedroom, she said, “Thank you.”
He looked at her questioningly.
“For caring about my dress.”
He shrugged as if his consideration wasn’t important, or maybe rather that it should be taken for granted. “It is a living memory for your family.”
She hoped she never stopped appreciating the big, but especially little things he did to take care of her.
“So, is this what you were talking about?” she asked with a sweeping gesture toward herself with her hand.
Maddie stood before Vik in her corset, panties, sheer silk thigh highs and glittery Jimmy Choo heels, but nothing else.
His smile was predatory when he shook his head. “Almost, but not quite.”
She stepped out of her heels.
“Closer.” Sensuality oozed through his voice.
She swallowed. They’d made love every night for the past five weeks, so nothing about this one should make her nervous.
But as much as he’d claimed to consider their promises at the Marin Headlands overlook to be enough to bind them, the look of possession in his eyes was about ten times more intense than it had been the past weeks.
She reached down to unhook her stockings, but he put a staying hand. “Let me.”
“Okay.” She straightened and waited.
With no consideration for the expensive fabric of his tuxedo trousers, Vik knelt in front of her. But rather than undoing the slide button holding her stocking in place, he settled his big hands on her hips and leaned forward to press a kiss between her breasts.
Her breath caught and her knees went weak. “Vik, please.”
“Please what?” he asked, his voice dark with passion. “This?”
He nuzzled the slopes of her breasts, his tongue flicking out to taste her skin. Little sparks of pleasure chased the path he took with his mouth.
His hands slid around to cup her bottom and then fingertips teased the exposed skin between the bottom of her panties and the tops of her stockings.
She only realized he’d undone the hooks when the soft silk slid down first one thigh and then another—with a little help from Vik.
Over a month ago, she’d never been touched like this, but now her body knew the delight to be had. She felt empty inside in a way she never had before she’d known what it was like to be filled up.
&n
bsp; Her thighs quivered with brush of his fingertips while part of her craved even more. Firmer touch, more intimate caresses.
Her nipples had already drawn tight in anticipation of his attention.
Images of what he’d done before melded with the present to intensify every brush of skin against skin.
Vik reached behind her to undo the corset and she was grateful she’d gone for one with a zipper rather than laces. It parted and came away from her overheated skin in a matter of seconds.
“Mmmm...” he hummed, his expression both pleased and predatory. “Almost there.”
There was no surprise when he hooked his fingers in the waistband of her panties and tugged them down. Only a sense of breathless anticipation.
With one final kiss on each of her nipples, he stood. “Now, that is the most beautiful sight I could ever imagine.”
Heat suffused her body; she’d lost her ability to suppress her blushes around this man.
None of her defense mechanisms came naturally around Vik anymore.
“You’re still dressed.” Her voice sounded like a croaking frog.
“Would you like to change that?” he asked, his tone filled with sensual challenge.
In answer, she stepped forward and undid his bow tie.
“I’m starting to understand how you feel about unwrapping gifts,” she said as she pulled the tie slowly from the starched collar of his shirt.
“Yes?”
“Oh, yes.” She took her time on the buttons as well, leaning forward to inhale his masculine scent and nuzzle the chest hair not covered by his white silk undershirt.
Maddie reveled in each new inch of golden skin revealed, taking her time to touch and kiss as he had done.
Funny how quickly she’d gained the confidence to do this, but then he’d never reacted with anything but all-out enthusiasm to any sexual overture she made. No matter how small.
When she had him completely naked, she stepped forward so their bodies were flush. He was so much bigger than her and yet they fit together like they’d been created as adjoining pieces of a puzzle.
They kissed for several very satisfying minutes, no sense of urgency, just pleasure as they connected as intimately as when he was inside her.
But there was something she wanted to do, something she hadn’t yet tried, something that intrigued, but also intimidated her.
What better time to take the plunge but on her wedding night?
She pulled back to break the kiss, but he drew her back in. This happened a few more times before she finally managed to separate their lips and bodies.
“I want to taste you,” she told him.
A supernova flared in his eyes. “I’m not about to tell you no.”
“I didn’t think you would.” She dropped to her knees in front of him.
“Wouldn’t you be more comfortable on the bed?” he asked, sounding like it really mattered to him.
And she knew it did.
She took his large erection in her hand and caressed up and down. “Maybe, but not yet.” Maddie stroked him a second time.
Groaning, Vik swayed.
She loved the velvety smoothness of his skin here and knowing that small touch affected him in such a primal way.
Leaning forward, Maddie took her first real taste of Vik’s straining sex. The skin should taste like any other skin on his body, but it was even more addictive to her taste buds.
Drops of preejaculate burst with flavor on her tongue and she thought how she would be the only one who got to experience this. Never again would another woman know him in this way.
Only Maddie.
Vik was hers.
She swirled her tongue around the spongy skin of his head and he made a sound between a growl and a groan. “Please, milaya moya.”
He could deny it, but the wedding made a difference to Vik. He’d never spoken in Russian to, or around her, before today. He was bringing her into his inner sanctum.
And that was as alluring as the naked man in front of her.
“What does that mean?” she asked, tipping her head back to see his face.
Their gazes locked, his dark eyes filled with passion.
“My sweet.” His hips canted forward, seemingly of their own accord, and the tip of his erection brushed her lips.
She took him into her mouth, bringing forth another deep sound of pleasure from Vik. Hollowing her cheeks, Maddie sucked, moving her mouth forward and backward, but never so far forward she choked.
His hands settled softly against her head, but he made no effort to hold her in place or guide her movements. It was like he was giving her silent approval, as if he thought maybe his sounds of pleasure weren’t enough.
It was wonderful, but her jaw got sore faster than she expected and she had to pull back.
“That was amazing,” he said with apparent sincerity.
She smiled up at him. “Short, you mean.”
He laughed, the sound husky. “Much longer and I would have come.”
“You’re easy.”
“For you? Definitely.” Vik pulled her to her feet and right into a mind-numbing kiss.
Not just easy, but hungry.
She hadn’t known that missing a single night of lovemaking would make him so impatient, so ravenous for her and the pleasure they created together.
But Vik lost no time backing her up to the bed. He ripped the coverlet and top sheet off with a single, powerful yank and then maneuvered them onto the center of the king-sized mattress.
He guided her legs apart, her knees bent and she expected immediate penetration. What she got was his mouth against her most intimate flesh.
In moments, she was writhing with the need to climax, but an even stronger desire to have him inside her.
“Please, Vik. Make love to me now.”
His head came up, eyes nearly black with passion meeting hers. “What do you think I am doing?”
“Not like that.”
“Oh, yes, like this.”
“But I’m going to come.” Desperation overrode her every inhibition.
“Yes, you will,” he promised in a sexy growl.
“But—”
“At least once.”
Then he went back to what he was doing, taking her to the edge and over, her cries echoing around them in the luxurious bedroom. His tongue laved her gently through aftershocks until her body went boneless, her legs flopping down to the bed.
He pulled the sheet from its tangle with the comforter and wiped his mouth on it before surging up and over her. “Condom, or no condom?” he asked.
They’d been lucky and their first time without protection hadn’t resulted in pregnancy. He’d been very careful to use condoms since.
But they were married now and had agreed to start a family right away. Equally important to her, she wanted the intimacy of no barrier between them.
“No birth control.”
He nodded, if anything, his expression turning even more feral with a voracious sexual need. His desire came off him in waves and he still managed to enter her carefully, giving her most sensitive flesh a chance to adjust to his granite-hard erection filling her.
After her recent explosive climax and the way he incited aftershocks until she simply couldn’t respond anymore, she’d been prepared to share the intimacy with him and revel in the emotional connection. But not much more.
Maddie was not prepared for the way her body reacted to their joining. The physical ecstasy ignited again, as if it had never been banked, burning hotter with every movement of his body in hers. Pleasure that she should be too sated to feel rolled through her, making her womb spasm and the muscles around his hardness contract.
He set a slow, but thoroughly penetrating rhythm that built the ecstasy inside her until she was on the verge of another inconceivable orgasm.
As if he could read her mind, or maybe it was just the clues her body was giving him, Vik sped up, pounding into her, jolts of pleasure going through her on every th
rust.
He stared down at her, his face a rictus of sexual ecstasy, his coffee-brown eyes burning with demand. “Come now, milaya moya.”
And improbably...she did, screaming as rapture sent her body into tremors that could have toppled cities.
He went completely rigid and joined her in the ultimate sexual pleasure, their gazes as connected and intimate as the most passionate kiss.
“If that didn’t make a baby...” she said breathlessly.
He pulled her close into his body. “We will keep trying with great delight.”
Which they did for the rest of the night, falling into exhausted slumber after the sun lit the morning fog.
* * *
He woke her to shower at noon. Not alone. Showering together was one of her recently discovered perks to sharing physical intimacy with Vik.
They came out of the bathroom to find clothing lying across the freshly made bed.
A familiar black-and-white polka-dot set of hard-sided luggage was sitting against the wall beside a black fold over garment bag and matching leather duffel as well.
“How long are we staying here?” she asked as she donned her bra and then tugged on a black silk shell over it.
Vik flicked the suitcases a glance and then met her eyes. “We are checking out in an hour.”
“Where are we going?” Not home.
Both their personal possessions had been moved to Parean Hall the day before the wedding. So, there would be no need for luggage.
He pulled on his briefs and then a pair of dark indigo designer jeans. “Palm Springs.”
“Why?”
“Our honeymoon.”
She stilled in her own efforts to get dressed. “But I thought we weren’t going on a honeymoon.”
“I do not recall agreeing to that.”
“We never talked about it,” she pointed out.
He pulled on a black-and-white Armani X polo. “It is traditional.”
“Our marriage isn’t exactly.” The jeans she stepped into were a pair of her favorites.
“I disagree.”
She shook her head, knowing he wouldn’t budge on his outlook. Vik saw nothing odd in marrying a woman he didn’t love so he could build a legacy for the children he most certainly would.
“So, Palm Springs.”
