Page 47 of Hunter's Trial

I hope that I’ll be ready to listen when that day comes.

I can’t even imagine the things that he’s had to live through to have this many scars.

When he’s clean, I wrap my arms around him from behind.

“I’m sorry that I scared you with all of this. But I don’t regret doing what I did,” he says without trying to turn around.

“I just needed to feel you, that’s all. I really thought that this might have been it. Thinking that I was losing you once was hard enough, but then seeing you all locked up like that. I’m not going to be able to sleep without seeing that. It was terrible.”

“Nothing that I didn’t deserve, I promise.” Nikolai says.

“Nobody deserves that.” I argue.

He doesn’t refute it. “It’s over now.”

Nikolai spins in my hold, and I can’t bring myself to look at him. I don’t want to cry. I’ve managed to keep from crying this whole time. The scent of the expensive soap swirls around us, the steam making me a little dizzy, but I don’t want to move. I don’t want to get out of this shower because I can’t even start to think what tomorrow is going to bring. Right now, I just want to know that Nikolai is alive. I want to feel him.

Nikolai moves the pair of us to the small built-in bench in the shower and sits with me in his lap. I shift to sit astride him. Desire rears its head inside of me but I ignore it for a moment.

“Tomorrow is going to be hard. I’m sure that Alek and Daniel are talking over the terms and conditions of my new employment with Daniel and the new metaphorical leash that they will keep me on. You have to know that they aren’t going to actually trust me for a good long while.” Nikolai says as he pushes my wet hair over my shoulders. His fingertips trail down the wet skin of my arm, leaving gooseflesh in their wake.

I nod that I do know. “I don’t want to be left out of whatever plans those are supposed to be. I want to do this together, if that’s what you want.”

Nikolai smiles softly. He crooks a finger under my chin and makes me look at him properly. “Of course that’s what I want. Nothing would make me happier than that.”

He kisses the point of my chin, then one cheek and the other. He kisses the tip of my nose and the space between my eyes.

“No more running away, no separation. Whatever comes next will be handled together.” Nikolai says in a voice that makes it sound like a promise. I like the sound of that very much.

I let him kiss my lips softly, just a whisper of his skin against mine. “However, shall we seal the deal, Mr. Volkovich?”

“Hmm, I think something will come up.” Nikolai’s hands drop to the curve of my ass, pulling me forward on his lap to feel his hardening length growing between my legs. Pushing insistently on the place that it belongs. I lift up onto my knees as he positions himself underneath me and I lower myself as slow as I can manage, inch by inch, until he’s filled me up. I don’t think that I’m ever going to be fully used to the incredible way that he feels.

Unlike the other times, where our bodies met hard and fast, I set a slow pace. His hands guide my hips, keeping me moving at a slow pace. It feels heavier, like we are sealing something bigger than ourselves.

Nikolai’s hand rounds the top of my thigh, his thumb working against my clit in a way that matches my pace. I just keep tracing his face with my fingers, like I’m going to magically discover new details that I’ve never noticed before. I push my hands up into his wet hair, making soft fists and holding tightly as my forehead falls to his.

My breathing starts to come in shallow bursts as I move my hips faster, rocking against him as he teases me higher. “Right there,” I breathe, and he kisses me. He doesn’t stop even as my orgasm rocks through me, and he starts to pulsate inside of me. He kisses me like I’m the oxygen that he needs to breathe. He kisses me like I’m his whole entire world and I soak up every moment of it.

I don’t know what I would have done if Alek and Daniel hadn’t agreed to the deal. If Horus hadn’t convinced them. I don’t think that I would have been able to leave that cell. I couldn’t have walked out of there with Nikolai still in there. They would have had to drag me out. I wouldn’t have stopped fighting for him nonetheless.

I don’t intend to ever let him go.

EPILOGUE

KATE

Three months later

The move to Fort Worth was an easy one to make. Nikolai absolutely hates it when I call Daniel his boss, but that’s what he basically is. It only made sense for us to purchase and renovate a nice house where Nikolai can be close to the action. He’s ready and available whenever he’s needed against the Camorra.

He didn’t want to come here, it took a great deal of convincing. But at the end of the day he said that he would much rather be able to come home to me and Liz instead of having to spend so much time on the road driving and constantly being tired.

After the first month of being here, I even got the guts to open my own firm. Just a small thing in a little strip center for now. But, given my new infamous reputation, the sheer number of letters that I get begging for representation makes me think that I’m going to be able to move to a much bigger office incredibly soon. There’re a few other attorneys in the area that have asked to come work and learn with me. It’s a very exciting prospect.

Alek, Daniel, and Nikolai all offered to fund the new building for me. They offered to buy me a whole office building and put it in my name even. There were also offers of being able to collect rent and still make money while working that had been tossed around but at the end of the day, I need to do this for me. I need to do this for myself. I will build a company for myself from the ground up. That was always my dream and I’m not going to cheat just to make it happen a little bit sooner.

A woman has to have vision.

---