by M. Robinson
The woman curled her nose with distaste, and I bristled, instantly pissed that she acted like Arlo was beneath her, like I was beneath her. He was better than all these people, good at heart even if he did bad things.
“Oh… him,” she said in this haughty voice that caused my hands to curl into tight fists.
I didn’t bother showing the disgust on my face as I looked between the two of them. I had to leave, because if I didn’t, I’d surely start a fight. People like them would see me as white trash, the shit on the bottom of their designer shoes.
This place wasn’t for me. I wasn’t made to be surrounded by these types of people or this opulence. All I needed was Arlo, so without looking at the couple again or even responding, I stood and went once more in search of the man who held my heart in his blood-soaked hands.
Chapter Three
Galina
My wandering led me past guests and waiters, security and judgement. I found myself in an extravagant library, the floor-to-ceiling shelving filled with leather-bound stories that could take a person away to any world they wanted, could make them forget all about the evil and dirt that could stain a person’s soul.
The clack-clack of my heels along the floor as I walked farther into the room seemed overly loud, echoing off the high ceilings. The scent of lingering cigar smoke, aged whisky, and a deeply rich, masculine aroma permeated the air as I stopped in front of one of the bookcases and lifted my hand to run a finger down the thick spine of one.
I pulled the book out, the heavy weight substantial in my hand. The gold-leaf-embossed cover was aged, distressed around the corners, the brown leather soft from many loving reads over the years. It was a book of Latin poetry, a language I couldn’t read, but I still gently flipped through the thick parchment pages and found it all beautiful nonetheless.
I was lost in scanning each page, when I felt another presence and knew I wasn’t alone in the room any longer.
“Not enjoying the party?”
Despite feeling someone else, the deeply accented voice behind me pulled a startled squeak from my parted lips. I spun around, the heavy book falling from my hands to land with a great thump on the ground.
The large man stood in the open doorway with his hands in his pockets, his shoulder leaning against the frame. An easy smile was on his face, but it made me feel on edge, uneasy.
I knew him… one of the two Russian men who stopped at the table to speak with Arlo. The one I knew was named Nikolai.
For a long time, he just stood there staring at me, that smile still on his face. It was an unnerving feeling, as if he was trying to peel away the pieces that made up me to find a weakness. As if he was a predator that scented injured prey.
And then he pushed off the doorframe and stalked toward me, the material of his tuxedo stretched across his muscular body. I was frozen as he moved closer, then bent at the waist to pick up the book.
He stared down at it for long seconds, flipping through the pages, his smirk still in place. Nikolai started reciting a passage from one of the pages, his Latin smooth and fluent. And when he was finished, he closed the book with a snap and lifted his head to stare in my eyes.
“I should go,” I said with a voice that sounded stronger than I felt. “I’m sure Arlo’s waiting for me.”
He didn’t move, his body blocking my way. “He’s otherwise engaged.” He leaned forward, and I tensed.
He froze and looked at me, just a tilt of his head, his gaze holding mine as he slid the book back in place on the shelf, his warm breath moving along my cheek and teasing a tendril of hair that fell from my chignon.
His chuckle was low and deep as he straightened. “As beautiful as you are, I have no interest. Didn’t Arlo tell you?” He lifted a dark brow. “I’m an engaged man.” His tone was easygoing, but the air around him spoke of other things, dangerous intentions.
“I should go,” I said again. Nikolai didn’t move, just stood there staring at me for a long second. When he did adjust his stance, it was to lift his arm, his hand extending toward me, his fingers so close to the tendrils of my hair that had come down for my updo. I held my breath, about to move out of the way, when suddenly there was a darkened shape taking form behind Nikolai, a massive shadow growing behind him that had everything stilling in me.
And then Nikolai was suddenly away from me, his big body no longer blocking my way, the shelf suddenly shaking behind me, some of the books falling to the ground as Nikolai’s body slammed against the aged wood.
I stared at Arlo with wide eyes as he wrapped his fist around Nikolai’s thick throat, his bicep bulging under his tuxedo as he lifted Nikolai up slightly, keeping him pressed to the bookcase.
Arlo started whispering low and deep, his words a menacing rush of Russian. I couldn’t understand him, but I could feel the danger circling Arlo and the very real threat that he’d kill this man without a second thought if provoked even more.
“You actually tried touching what was mine, Nikolai?” Arlo seethed in English. “I should cut your hand off because you thought you had a right to.” He leaned in an inch and bared his teeth. “I should take your eyes out for even looking at her.”
I felt how wide my eyes were as I took in the scene before me, but although any normal man would have pissed his pants just being in the same room with Arlo, Nikolai wasn’t struggling, wasn’t fighting back. Although his face was turning red as he stared Arlo right in the eyes, his lips stretched wide over his straight, white teeth, his sadistic grin and the way he leaned into Arlo’s grasp telling me he felt no fear right now. He might even enjoy this, got off on it.
I shouldn’t have interjected, but I placed my hand on Arlo’s bulging bicep, knowing things needed to de-escalate. The survival part of me said not to get involved right now, that it was like getting in the middle of two dogs in a brutal fight. But if anyone could ease things and bring Arlo back, I knew it was me.
“Let’s go,” I whispered softly, and he looked at me right away. He held my gaze for long seconds, as if he was in this internal battle, his hand still wrapped around Nikolai’s throat, his knuckles white from how hard he pressed against his trachea.
And as the seconds ticked by, I could physically see the tension leaving Arlo. I saw the fight being pushed back to the deep, dark recesses of his soul. “Let’s just get out of here,” I whispered again, and like a snap of fingers, Arlo blinked once, let go of Nikolai, and wrapped his arm around me.
He immediately pulled me in close to his body, my head on his chest, his hand cupping my nape. I could hear Nikolai sucking in ragged breaths, but I didn’t look at him. I didn’t want to have Arlo snapping all over again, another catalyst simply because I was too close to the other man, who Arlo saw as a threat.
Without a backward glance or another word, Arlo led me out of the library and out the front doors. The SUV was waiting for us, and once we were both seated and back on the road, the silence was heavy and thick. I looked over at him and could see how tight his jaw was, his hands on the steering wheel, the leather creaking and his knuckles white from the force of his hold.
“I didn’t want to leave you alone at the gala.” His words were low, barely audible in the interior of the vehicle. “Dmitry had to speak with me, pulled me away, kept me engaged in conversation that could have been dealt with at any other given time.”
His accent was thicker, his anger making the brutal side of him, the side that had grown up in violence and poverty, the side that had been shaped and molded into the warrior he was today, twisting and changing the inclination of his voice.
“Dimitri did it on fucking purpose,” he finally said and glanced over at me, but it was hard to read his expression.
“But why? To what purpose?” I didn’t understand the hierarchy or politics of this underground world, where mafia and powerful families formed alliances and waged wars. Why would it matter if Dmitry kept Arlo occupied so Nikolai could be in the same room with me?
Although I definitely felt a threat from Nikolai, t
hat feeling like an inky stain you could never get out, I hadn’t felt like he wanted to hurt me. He hadn’t even touched me. Was it an intimidation tactic? Was he trying to prove something that only Arlo and the people who ran in their circles would understand?
“Yes,” Arlo said deeply, answering the question I thought had stayed in my mind. “Dmitry and Nikolai are Bratva. Dmitry is the new Pakhan, so he was making a point. I knew some shit would have gone down tonight. It’s all games. They wanted me to know they could get to you.” His hands tightened dangerously on the steering wheel, and I was afraid he’d break it from his anger. It was still there at the surface, boiling and threatening to spill over.
“Arlo,” I whispered. I wasn’t sure what else to say.
“He wanted me to know without saying the words that if they ever called upon me again, if I didn’t comply, it would be easy to bend me to their will through you.” He looked at me then, and he didn’t have to say the words for me to know the truth.
I was his weakness, because he’d lay his life down for me, to protect me, to make sure nothing ever again hurt me.
“You got all that from Nikolai being in the library with me?” I believed him without a doubt, and he’d know these things, the motives with these psychopaths, better than I would. But God… would those men actually do a thinly veiled threat like that?
As I stared into Arlo’s eyes and let his words echo in my head, I had my answer. Yes. Yes, they would.
My heart was racing so fast, my pulse a steady beat at the base of my throat. “Pull over,” I found myself saying before I could stop the words from spilling forth. Arlo didn’t question me, didn’t hesitate. He pulled over on the long stretch of deserted road and put the SUV in park, his focus straight ahead.
“No one will take me from you,” he said in an utterly detached voice, yet I knew him well enough to know how much he meant those words.
He looked at me then, the lights from the dashboard casting a glow across his hard features, the shadows making him seem almost sinister. Yet he’d never hurt me. He loved me. Unconditionally.
I didn’t know what I was doing until I had the seat belt unlatched, pulled up part of my dress so the hem was now above my knees, and crawled over the console to straddle his lap. He didn’t look surprised, and he didn’t stop me. In fact, his hands landed on my waist, his fingers digging into me painfully, possessively.
His nostrils flared slightly, his teeth clenched as I pressed my upper body to his, lowering my pussy down on his already hard dick beneath his pants. I let him feel my breasts against his pectoral muscles, my hard nipples against the expensive material of his tuxedo.
He slid his hand up the center of my body, between my heaving breasts, and curled his fingers around my throat, collaring me with the heavy pressure that made me wet.
“You drive me crazy,” he murmured and lowered his gaze to my mouth. “So crazy I want to slaughter anyone who even looks at you.”
I couldn’t get enough air into my lungs, and it had nothing to do with the tightness of Arlo’s hand around my throat.
“I want to lock you in my room… never let you go.” His voice was low, as if he said the words to himself. He slowly lifted his gaze from my slightly parted lips to look back into my eyes. “I’d chain you to my bed to make that a reality, to keep you close, safe.”
My eyes fluttered closed on their own from the intense pleasure those words ignited in me.
“Look at me,” he demanded softly. When my eyes were open again, he tightened his hand on my neck just enough I knew he felt the steady thump-thump, thump-thump of my pulse under his fingers. “I need you. And I need it hard and rough.” He leaned in so our mouths were so close that when he spoke, I felt his lips brushing against mine. “I want to fuck you like an animal. I want to fuck you until it hurts.”
I couldn’t hold in my moan.
“Now put me inside you.”
The way he said that, it was so demanding but with cool composure, as if this was an everyday conversation and he wasn’t about to fuck me. I didn’t know why that aroused me even more, but my pussy clenched in response. I was so wet, my pussy juices all but dripped out of me, making the skin of my inner legs slick.
I reached down and grabbed the end of my dress, hiking the material up so it bunched around my waist. I leaned back enough so he could work the button free and pull the zipper down on his slacks. Arlo pulled out his massive erection, and I rose up, about to reach for his length and notch him at my entrance, when he stilled me with a hand on my hip.
Arlo was looking at my pussy, and I knew he could see me clearly by how spread my legs were on either side of him, the interior of the SUV ample enough to give us plenty of room to fuck. I knew he could see how aroused I was, could see how my wetness coated my inner thighs and glistened under the slightly illuminated vehicle. And that was cemented when he groaned, that sound reverberating out of him.
“Were you a dirty fucking girl and didn’t wear panties, baby?”
I licked my lips and moaned, not bothering to respond, just letting him continue to look at my pussy and know the truth. “If I would have known your cunt was bare under this dress, I would have fucked you in a darkened corner,” he growled. “Look at how fucking soaked you are for me.” He urged me forward slightly until he could rub the thick crest of his dick up and down my cleft, gently adding probing when he got to my pussy hole before sliding it back up and adding pressure to my clit.
I was panting, my head dizzy, my heart racing. “Do you want this?” He pulled back slightly and started slapping his cock against my pussy, the wet, sloppy sounds of skin against skin turning me on even more.
“Yes,” I gasped as he kept slapping his dick on my pussy.
He hummed in approval. “Then put me inside you, and I’ll fuck you nice and hard.”
I didn’t hesitate as he let go of his cock, and I grabbed the girthy length. I rose just enough to place his cockhead at my pussy hole and slid down in one hard thrust. He lifted his hips at the same time, fucking into me in a brutal thrust that had me crying out and Arlo barking out from the pleasure and pain of it.
He groaned in Russian and rested his head back on the seat, his eyes hooded as he stared at me, the dim lighting in the vehicle making it seem as if his eyes glowed from the inside out. Nothing mattered but making all the worry and fear, all the unknown and uncertainty fade away so it was only Arlo and me.
I braced my hands on his shoulders and started fucking myself on him, riding his big cock, slamming my pussy down on his length. He allowed me that control for just a moment before I felt his hand tighten in my hair. He jerked my head back, and I gasped from the sharp pain. That sensation went right down to my cunt, heightening my arousal.
“Take it all, moy svet.” He leaned forward and growled, his mouth pressed to mine, yet he didn’t kiss me. He just held his position as he lifted his hips up, fucking me as I slammed my pussy down on him.
And as the seconds ticked by, I was no longer the one in control.
He had one hand on my waist, the other painfully tangled in my hair. He slammed his hips up, forcing me to take all of his cock whether it fit comfortably or not. He stretched me so good, filled me so much there was no part of me he wasn’t touching.
I could hear the sounds of our wet, almost sloppy sex filling the SUV, smell the sweet and musky scent of my pussy driving my lust higher. Arlo made deep, animal-like sounds, the vibrations slamming right into my body and zeroing in on my clit.
I moaned long and loud, my thighs burning as I knelt above him, my muscles protesting from the position of being spread wide open for his pistoning cock.
“You’re going to let me come in you,” he grunted and slammed up especially hard into my body. “You’re going to take every last drop of it, become so filled that when I finally pull out, my seed will drip out of your sweet cunt and slide down your thighs.”
I curled my nails into his flesh and bit my lip hard enough I tasted blood coating my
tongue.
“And then I’m going to let it dry on you, Galina.” He pulled me down so we were fused wholly, stayed there for a second as he let those words sink in. “I’m going to make it so you smell like me.” He let go of my hair and gripped the other side of my waist as he fucked me hard, lifting me up and pulling me back down.
He did this over and over again until my orgasm came out of nowhere, tightening my body, my pussy clenching around his shaft, more wetness spilling out of where we were connected to cover his lap.
“You hear that,” he said in a barely restrained voice, his movements getting faster, jerkier. I knew he was close. “You hear your cunt sucking at my cock, how filthy that sounds?”
I gasped as another smaller orgasm claimed me when my clit ground against the root of his erection.
“Dirty girl,” he growled and slammed up in me once more, and he kept me flush with his body, filling me up with his cum as he found his pleasure. “You’re mine, and I’m fucking marking you.” He tipped his head back but had his eyes on me the whole time, his neck muscles straining, his mouth slightly parted.
For long seconds, we both rode out the ecstasy until I couldn’t keep myself upright anymore and sagged against his chest. Immediately, he curled one hand around the back of my head, his other arm around my waist. We said nothing for a moment, our respirations erratic as we caught our breath.
“Don’t ever let me go,” I murmured against his throat, my eyes closed, the warmth from what we’d just done filling me. But I knew without Arlo it would just be an empty heat. With him… it burned me alive, and I’d never wanted to be consumed by flames so much in my life.
“Never.” His arms tightened around me, and he kissed my temple. “And if that means taking every life to make that so… I’ll be the monster everyone fears.”
I knew Arlo wasn’t the good guy. I knew he’d never be the hero of a story. He was mine, and I was his, no matter what anyone said or did. And if there was anyone against us, who thought to part us… well, they’d end up dead at our feet. I knew that as deeply as I knew I was held tightly by my Russian.
