Page 91 of Ruinous Need
“I didn’t know what to do with that. You trusted me, Lisette. You gave me everything. And I…” His voice cracks and he turns his face away.
I pull him back.
“You what, Viktor?”
“I couldn’t protect you. When you needed me. I said I would be there and I wasn’t. If I had listened to you, if I had stayed by your side…”
That night was the worst of my life. I think of it, how I shivered in the cold alone, how I waited for him, convinced that he would return for me even as my limbs froze. The terrible pain of trying to warm up again, without him, knowing that we might never see each other again. Then thinking he was dead…
“But Viktor, if we had stayed together, we would have been torn apart anyway. And if the Irish had got me, or the Italians.” A shudder runs through me. “We would still be playing this game. This dangerous game where you have to risk your life to protect me. And Semyon would still be out there, twisting everyone into this pathetic war so he can feel like a king.”
Viktor’s shoulder shakes against me. Now it’s me who gets to steady him, wrapping my hand under his bearded chin and making sure he doesn’t take his eyes off me.
“You did the right thing,” I breathe. “It hurt me. It hurt both of us. But I’m here now.” If that’s enough for him. I bite my lip with doubt.
Tears spill from my eyes, tracing a hot path through the thick layers of make-up that Semyon’s people painted onto my skin.
He rubs his thumb over my lower lip, chewed ragged from my nerves. “What is it, Lisette? I’m alive. I’m here.” His brow creases in confusion as he watches me cry.
I sob again. “I’m glad you’re alive, Viktor. But you’re the Pakhan now. You said, that if you ever were… You’d have to make decisions on everyone’s behalf. That you didn’t want that.”
He shakes his head, slowly, firmly, and tilts my face to meet his eyes. I blubber with tears, ready for the impact of his rejection again. I can never be enough for him.
Not now.
“Then you’re lucky I’m a selfish bastard, Lisette. Because I don’t care if I have to destroy the entire Bratva. We’re staying together.”
He kisses me, softly at first, and then with the irresistible, crushing force that I remember. He pulls me tight against him and rips off the frilly wedding dress that I hate.
It’s such a relief. To be touched by him. To have this craving that I’ve felt for months satiated.
To let myself believe what his touch promises me… A life, with him, forever.
Viktor unpins my hair so that it falls around my naked shoulders and strokes his hand through it tenderly, even as he’s pushing me against the wall and making me feel the bulge of his cock.
“Fuck, Lisette, it’s been so long. I don’t think I can wait.”
“Then don’t.”
He pauses as he pushes the dress to the floor, fingers trailing over my tiny but noticeable baby bump. “Is there something you’ve forgotten to tell me?”
Even as he asks me about my pregnancy, he can’t stop touching me, his fingers exploring my soaked cunt.
“Maybe,” I say slyly. “You did cum inside me, a lot.”
“And it’s a habit I intend to continue,” he growls, sliding a finger to rub over my clit. “I need to hear you say it,” he groans against my neck as he flattens me against the wall so I can feel exactly how hard this conversation has made him.
“I’m pregnant, Viktor. With your baby.”
“Fuck, Lisette.” I feel his cock leap against me and he pushes me harder against the wall, trailing his mouth down the center of my belly and pausing just above my cunt. “You filled with my baby is the hottest thing I’ve ever seen.”
He gives me a devilish smile as he yanks my panties aside and licks me from ass to clit, his tongue spread flat so he catches every drop of my juices. “Did you miss this?”
My cry catches in my throat as he slides a finger inside me and curls.
“Mmm.”
“Use your words, Lisette,” he growls. His breath is hot against my inner thighs.
