Page 65 of Volatile

Fuck me, I’m not prepared to see an excited Stasi. She nods and looks so innocently giddy I could eat her face. She doesn’t have any shoes on, so I stand with my arm banded around her waist and haul her up until she’s sitting on my shoulders. She turns rigid and grabs the robe. “I don’t have anything on underneath.”

I shrug and hold her calves as I kiss each of her knees, walking towards the stable.

“My head is blocking anything from being seen. And I’ll kill anyone who says anything. You just keep your pretty head above everyone where it belongs and let me deal with anyone who’s lower than you.”

The edge of her hood brushes my forehead as she leans over me to kiss the top of my head. The neighing and nickering gets louder as we enter the stables with my girl on my shoulders, her legs hooked under my arms. A perfect day.

I grab the box of sugar cubes, apples, and carrots for her to feed them. She’s cute as fuck, wanting to be on her feet to get close to them. I let her down to stand on the bench and pick her up so she’s facing me, but she twists her head with her face melting as she stares at the animals.

I’d eat hay if she looked at me like that.

I don’t go to Viktor’s horse. That bastard is temperamental as fuck, but he pokes his head through the stall and stares at my girl without snorting. I have to threaten him, so he knows not to do some crazy shit like smacking his head into her.

“Be nice to my girl or we’ll sell you, okay?”

She laughs — her real laugh — and hugs me as she playfully gives me shit. “Are you expecting it to answer you?”

I nod and walk closer. “They’re clever as fuck, especially him. He smiles at Viktor but hates everyone else. We should call him Vlad.”

She takes an apple for the horse, and I stop in front of the stall. For some reason I keep talking as I watch her face light up. “When Vik came home after them fuckers took him, Thunder laid down and let him curl up on him in the paddock. He’s intelligent but a full-on asshole.”

He nods, proving I’m right andmygirl strokes his mane, speaking in the sweetest voice that she’s ever had.

“He’s lying, isn’t he? You’re a good boy.”

The fuck? I swear the fucker is smirking at me.

I move back to get her to stop touching the damn thing, but she stretches forward, making it worse with a cooed, “Pretty boy.”

The horse is definitely smirking at me, the smug fuck.

Stasi lets out a huff as I drop her on her feet and I grab her jaw to slam my lips over hers. She holds my biceps, moaning into me as I bite out, “Don’t call anyone else a pretty boy. Or good boy.”

She freezes then throws her head back, laughing so hard that tears spring to her eyes. I love the sound and bite her neck as though it can allow me to own it. The beautiful sound ends in a sigh, and she kisses my cheek, easing me.

“Don’t be jealous of a horse, luchik, it’s a bad look.”

“I’m jealous of anything that has your attention when it’s not something you give freely.”

It’s weak to admit it, but there’s no lie. I’d happily become an inanimate object if it meant I got an ounce of her attention. There’s no deflection, she simply kisses me and pushes herself against me as though she wants to be inside my chest as much as I’m begging her to take over me.

TWENTY-THREE

Vitali

Having my woman sleep beside me has spoilt me. She’s deluded to think I won’t follow her since she’s decided to leave like a thief in the night. I pick up the ring that seems to always fall off her finger and magically find its way to my dresser before I get ready to go to her place.

All Stasi has to do is say she wants to sleep there instead of making me fucking chase her every other night.She keeps doing this shit and running away when she spends all of her time with me anyway. I thought we’d come to an agreement during our blissful morning surrounded by horse shit, but the woman is maddening.

My room still smells like her and I don’t waste any time as I leave. I need to find a way to keep her with me at all times and I sway between handcuffing her to me or buying a remote island and dropping us both on it without any means for escape. Knowing my girl, she’d fucking swim for miles just to be a pain in the ass. I’m not insane and stop to get us food before going to her house.

Her building is the best purchase I’ve ever made. She doesn’t need to know that I bought it from Dima. Unless I evict her. That could force her to keep her ass in my bed. Yeah, that could work. I try to plan it out as I pull up outside of it.

Her lights aren’t on so I take the elevator up to her floor and have the master key for her door ready. Once the doors open, I can’t stop my giddiness at waking up with her again. There’s shuffling behind the door when I reach it and I already have my hand on my knife when I step through. I flick the lights on to reveal whoever thinks they can break into my girl’s house and fucking survive. It only reveals Stasi standing opposite me with a gun in her hand. It falls when she sees me and her beautiful face scrunches with anger.

“I could have fucking shot you.”

But she didn’t and she wasn’t aiming at my head so I would have survived. That pisses me off, we’re going to have to go over some rules.