Page 200 of Rise of the Queen

I grabbed his shoulders, trying to hang on as my back arched and my body gave in completely to him. It was my favorite way to wake up. Sore muscles aside, this man could make my body feel things I never thought possible. His rhythm increased slightly just before he found his own release, groaning quietly as he collapsed on top of me.

“Definitely going to need to find ways to make you jealous on a regular basis,” I said, after a few minutes of silence. His body vibrated as he laughed quietly on top of me.

He got up, pulling me with him. “If we can have a repeat of last night, I’ll happily be jealous more,” he said, picking me up to carry me to the shower.

“You drive a very hard bargain, but I accept,” I said, leaning my head on his shoulder.

That afternoon, we moved to the house. It took us three times as long to get there, as Henry still had people watching the building. They would try to follow us each time we left. Adrik was enjoying it. He would have at least ten different SUVs all leave at the same time, all heading in different directions. The tails would inevitably pick the wrong ones to follow, leaving us to go where we pleased. The other SUVs would just drive around the city for hours, keeping the tails busy while we went wherever we needed to go.

I had to admit to enjoying it almost as much as Adrik. The more Henry tried to find out about Adrik, the angrier I got at him. I was very much looking forward to the day that Stephen could break him.

Once at the house, we had a few hours of relaxation before Niko and Vito were set to arrive. Adrik wanted to be at the house so Henry wouldn’t see us, should we need to step in and help with the situation pertaining to the underbosses collecting taxes.

Vitaliy’s team was ready as well, along with Boris, to step in and help if needed. Given the ample firepower that our side now had at their disposal, we were hoping we wouldn’t be needed, but we were ready just in case.

It was easy to turn it all off and just enjoy a few quiet moments at the house. Adrik gave the house staff the rest of the week off, just so we could be alone and didn’t have to worry aboutanything. We still ended up discussing the situation at hand. We couldn’t help ourselves.

“So what happens after Stephen breaks Niko and Vito? Do we send them to the same home that Armando is in? It can be our collection home of zombie bosses,” I said.

“Somebody else besides Stephen has to deliver them though. They might catch on if he shows up with them,” Ivan said.

“I’ll allow someone else to deliver each of them. I needed to drop Armando off for me. I don’t have the same need when it comes to Niko and Vito,” Stephen said.

“It is fun to make up back stories on all of them, not gonna lie there,” I said, laughing.

Ivan’s phone beeped, alerting him to Niko and Vito’s arrival. He glanced at it, telling everyone, “They’re here. Now we just have to wait and see how long it takes them to stir up trouble.” Both he and Viktor sent the necessary messages to the necessary people letting them know Niko and Vito had landed and were back in the city.

Now, the waiting really began.

The hardest part of waiting was feeling like we needed to be ready to leave at a moment’s notice. If things got bad in any part of the city, we all felt like we should be there as quickly as possible. It made trying to do anything else next to impossible.

The first day was spent largely sitting around trying to stay “available” just in case. The second day, we finally got tired of doing nothing, so we went about our day as normally as we could. Even though we all felt like we were waiting for the othershoe to drop, we still managed to have a good time. It was one of the countless things I adored about the guys. I knew we were at least going to have fun doing whatever it was that we were doing.

We ended up on the couches in the back room that afternoon. There was a storm rolling in, with dark clouds above us. We could hear the thunder in the distance. Otherwise, I would’ve dragged them all to the lake with me.

“Okay, so now that we’re all in one spot, I have an experiment,” I said, trying to think of ways to pass the time. Adrik and Ivan were able to still talk to me, no matter where they were. Adrik was able to find me anywhere now. Even I couldn’t do that yet. I think he was making sure that he could find me quickly in the event that we were ever separated again. I loved him a little more for it.

“What kind of experiment and does it involve dissection at any point?” Misha asked.

I chuckled. “No dissection. At least not that I know of,” I said, thinking for a minute. “Look, I’m not going to rule it out now that you mention it.”

The other guys looked at Misha like he was in deep shit, which just made him laugh. “Okay, gazelle, what’s your experiment? Save me before they all beat me for giving you ideas,” he said.

I grinned at all of them. “Adrik and Ivan can both still communicate with me and with each other even when we’re not together, but I haven’t been able to do it with you three yet. I want to see if we can make it happen.”

Misha clapped his hands together, like he usually did when there was fuckery afoot. “This is like an advanced level hide and seek game. I’m completely on board with this,” he said, jumping up from the couch. He ran from the room toward the gym. Once he got farther down the hallway, he yelled, “Count to twenty! I know the perfect spot!”

We were all too busy laughing at him to bother counting. Ivan said, “I think we should just wait and see how long it takes him to come back. Tell him it didn’t work.”

“You’re a little bit evil, Squish. He’s clearly bored,” I said, still laughing at Misha’s exuberance.

“And stressed. We all know he turns up his antics to relieve stress,” Stephen said.

“I’m wondering if this will work as well. I’ve heard Misha before, but I think it was through your head that I heard him. He was with you when we were talking,” Adrik said.

I concentrated on Misha, trying to see if he could hear me the same way he could when we were in the same room. I waited to see if he answered. When I heard nothing from him, I looked at Adrik and Ivan, seeing if either of them could get through to him. There was now a chance that Adrik would be able to do it, even if I couldn’t, since his latest level-up.

Misha eventually came back after ten minutes. He was still smiling, clearly enjoying being a test subject. “I could hear you, but I’m guessing you guys couldn’t hear my response?”

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