“We can’t do this,” I manage, already putty in his hands.

Ivan gets up and captures my mouth in a devouring kiss, while Max’s hands explore my body, registering each curve with his curious, probing fingertips.

“We’ve been telling ourselves the same thing but to no avail,” Ivan purrs in my ear, then nibbles on the lobe until I whimper helplessly in their arms.

I take a deep breath and tilt my head back while Max kisses me deeply.

He kneads my breasts through my sweater, massaging my flesh until I melt in Artur’s arms. It quickly gets to a point where my temperature spikes and I lose control.

“Take me,” I whisper.

“You don’t have to ask twice,” Artur replies.

“We’ll regret it in the morning,” I say.

“Morning is still far away,” Ivan points out. But he’s already out of his jacket and loosening his tie. I hear Artur’s clothes falling to the floor, one item at a time, while I watch Max take off his shirt.

“It doesn’t mean we’re back together,” I feel the need to reiterate.

Ivan hooks his fingers through the waist of my pants and pulls them down. “It doesn’t mean anything unless we decide to give it meaning.”

A moment later, I’m naked and wanting, trembling with desire as my men gather around me. Their hard bodies respond to my touch, cocks thick and twitching and ready to dismantle me down to my very core.

“Come here,” Max beckons me toward the armchair, then has me sit down. “Spread your legs for me, baby.”

I gladly oblige as Ivan and Artur watch with dark delight. Max eats my pussy, his tongue sliding between my wet folds, flicking my swollen clit faster and faster. My hips tilt up and down, responding to his laps, while whimpers escape from my throat. He suckles on my tender nub, causing an eruption to blow through me before sliding his fingers inside of me.

By the time I register what’s happening, the world’s entire axis has shifted under me. I’m trembling, crying out in sweet ecstasy as Max finger-fucks me out of my mind. I grip Ivan and Artur’s cocks and take turns pleasing each of them with my mouth.

My breasts bounce gleefully with every thrust, prompting Max to wrap his lips around each nipple to tease, lick and suckle, just the way I like it. My core tightens, pressure quick to gather again. I lose my mind and body at once, and when Ivan and Artur fill me with their cocks I realize this never should’ve ended in the first place.

I come again, shaking and screaming, unraveling in every which way, forgetting that there’s a whole world out there that’s dying to see us part ways. To destroy us.

“I’ve missed you so much,” Max leans down and whispers in my ear.

“Me, too. I… I…”

“It’s okay,” he says.

Artur gives me a lazy, sweet smile. “We’ll figure something out.”

“But we’re better off staying apart for now,” Ivan adds.

It’s a bitter moment, despite its sweetness. As we all come down from the clouds, basking in the afterglow of what is likely only the first of many lovemaking sessions tonight, reality creeps up to remind us that we are still at war.

That the odds are still stacked up against us.

22

Lyric

One thing that has worked in Max, Ivan, and Artur’s advantage is that they’ve managed to shake every federal tail they’ve had. They’re never in the same place for too long, and the city of Chicago is basically their oyster. They have friends and Russian family allies who will happily cover for them. Different apartments and penthouses, various cars and offices where they can conduct their business from—none under their names.

It got to this point because the FBI has been ramping up its harassment tactics, courtesy of Director Smith and the local field office.

Smith is hell bent on taking the Bratva down unless they stay in the same system that has worked so well for him and his horde of crooked cronies. But my men persevere, and the more they resist, the more their partners are inclined to believe that maybe there’s something else in store for the Bratva aside from the same old, same old.

On my end, I have a reckoning to deal with.