Page 17 of Bride of the Bratva King (Blood & Bride #1)

Chapter sixteen

The Desire

A lexei

I wake up before dawn with Mila's naked body pressed against mine and a revelation burning in my chest like fire.

I want everything with this woman. Not just her body, not just her partnership in bringing down Roman Volkov, but everything.

Her laugh when she's truly happy. Her fierce protectiveness when something matters to her.

The image of her someday holding our children, carrying a piece of me and a piece of her into the world.

The thought hits me like a physical blow. Children. A family. Legacy that has nothing to do with crime or violence or the ugly necessities of my world.

Mila stirs against me, making a soft sound as she wakes. When she opens her dark eyes and smiles at me, something fundamental shifts in my chest.

"Good morning, husband," she murmurs, her voice husky with sleep.

"Good morning, beautiful."

She stretches with sinuous, feline grace, and the movement presses her breasts against my chest in a way that makes my cock harden instantly. After last night—after the love confessions and the tender lovemaking and the promises about forever—I should be satisfied, sated.

Instead, I want her more desperately than ever.

"You're staring," she says with a smile.

"I'm thinking."

"About what?"

"About you. About us. About the future we're going to build together."

"What kind of future?"

The question hangs in the air between us, loaded with possibility. This is the moment. The moment where I tell her what I really want, what I've been afraid to admit even to myself.

"A future with children," I say quietly. "Little boys with your intelligence and little girls with your courage. A house full of laughter and chaos and the kind of love that lasts generations."

Her breath catches. "Alexei—"

"I know it's fast. I know we've only been married for a few days.

But Mila, when I look at you, I see the mother of my children.

I see Sunday mornings with tiny feet running down these hallways.

I see family dinners and birthday parties and all the normal, beautiful things I never thought I could have. "

"You want children? With me?"

"I want everything with you. Marriage was just the beginning."

I can see her processing this, trying to understand the intensity of what I'm offering. In my world, children are vulnerability. They're targets for enemies, weapons for people who want to hurt you. Having a family means accepting that your heart will forever walk around outside your body.

But looking at Mila, imagining her pregnant with my child, the risk feels worth it.

"What if I'm not ready?" she asks softly.

"Then we wait. However long you need."

"What if I'm never ready?"

"Then I love you exactly as you are."

"And if I said I wanted to start trying now?"

The words hit me like lightning. My grip on her waist tightens involuntarily, and I can feel my pupils dilate with pure, primitive want.

"Then I'd say we stop using protection and see what happens."

"We haven't been using protection."

"No. We haven't."

"So technically, we've already been trying."

"Technically."

She shifts in my arms, and I can feel the heat of her against my hip. The knowledge that she might already be carrying my child makes possessive satisfaction roar through me.

"Alexei," she says, her voice dropping to a whisper. "I want your babies."

The confession shatters the last of my restraint. I roll us over, pinning her beneath me, and claim her mouth in a kiss that's desperate and hungry and full of promises about the future we're going to create.

"Say it again," I growl against her lips.

"I want your babies. I want to be pregnant with your children. I want—"

I silence her with another kiss, but my hands are already moving, already worshipping the body that's going to carry my legacy. When I break away to trail my mouth down her throat, she arches beneath me with a gasp.

"You have no idea what you do to me when you talk like that," I murmur against her skin.

"Tell me."

"It makes me want to keep you in this bed until you're round with my child. Makes me want to worship every inch of you while you grow our baby."

"Then do it."

"Do what?"

"Worship me. Make love to me like the woman who's going to have your children."

The request breaks something primal loose in my chest. I begin at her mouth, kissing her slowly, thoroughly, like I have all the time in the world. Then I move lower, trailing my lips down her throat, across her collarbone, over the swell of her breasts.

"Perfect," I whisper, taking one nipple into my mouth. "You're going to be so beautiful when these are full of milk for our babies."

She gasps and arches beneath me, her hands threading through my hair. "Alexei, please."

"Please what?"

"More. Everything. I need you."

I continue my journey downward, mapping every inch of her skin with my mouth. When I reach her hips, I pause to press kisses to her flat stomach.

"Our children are going to grow here," I say against her skin. "Safe and protected and so loved they'll never doubt their place in the world."

"Yes," she breathes. "God, yes."

I move lower still, settling between her thighs with reverent attention. When my tongue finds her center, she cries out and bucks against my mouth.

"So sweet," I murmur against her. "So perfect. I could spend hours right here, making you come apart with my mouth."

"Alexei, I need… I need you inside me."

"Not yet. First I'm going to worship every inch of you. Then I'm going to make love to you until you're shaking. Then I'm going to come inside you and hope it takes."

The words make her shudder beneath me. I can feel how close she is, how desperately she needs release, but I keep the pressure light, teasing, drawing out her pleasure until she's sobbing my name.

"Please," she gasps. "Please, I need to come."

"Then come for me, beautiful. Come for the man who's going to put his babies in you."

She shatters with a scream that probably carries through half the house. I don’t give a damn. Let them all know she belongs to me, body and soul.

Before she can recover, I'm moving up her body, settling between her thighs with my cock positioned at her entrance.

"Ready for me?" I ask.

"Always. Always ready for you."

I enter her slowly, savoring the way she stretches around me, the soft moan that escapes her lips. When I'm fully seated, I pause to look down at her—hair spread across the pillow, skin flushed with arousal, eyes dark with love and need.

"Mine," I say, and it's not a question.

"Yours. Completely yours."

I begin to move, setting a rhythm that's deep and possessive and designed to remind both of us exactly what we're doing here. This isn't just sex—this is creation, legacy, the future taking shape with every thrust.

"You feel so good," she gasps, her nails digging into my shoulders. "So deep, so perfect."

"You were made for me," I tell her, driving deeper. "Made to take me, to carry my children, to be everything I never knew I needed."

"Yes. Yes, I was made for you."

"And I'm going to fill you up," I promise, feeling my control start to fray. "Going to come so deep inside you that there's no question you're mine."

"Do it. Fill me up. Give me your baby."

The words push me over the edge. I drive into her harder, faster, chasing the climax that's building like a storm in my blood.

"Come with me," I command. "Come with me while I put my child in you."

She does, her body clenching around me as she cries out my name. The sensation of her orgasm triggers mine, and I bury myself deep as I empty everything I have into her welcoming body.

We collapse together, breathing hard and trembling with aftershocks. I pull her close, one hand already moving to rest on her stomach.

"Think it worked?" she asks breathlessly.

"If not this time, then the next. Or the one after that. I plan to keep trying until it takes."

"Is that a threat or a promise?"

"Both."

She laughs, the sound bright and joyful in the morning light. "I love you, you know that?"

"I love you too. More than I ever thought possible."

"Even if I don't get pregnant right away?"

"Especially then. It just means more practice."

"You're insatiable."

"Only with you. Only for you."

We lie tangled together as the sun rises, and I can feel the future spreading out before us like a promise.

Children with her eyes and my determination.

Family dinners around the table downstairs.

Bedtime stories and scraped knees and all the beautiful chaos that comes with loving someone completely.

"Alexei?" she says softly.

"Yes?"

"Thank you."

"For what?"

"For wanting forever with me. For wanting children and a family and all the normal things that seem impossible in your world."

"Our world," I correct. "And they're not impossible. They're just going to require more security than most people need."

"I can live with that."

"Good. Because you're stuck with me now."

"And our future children."

"And our future children."

The words make my chest tight with anticipation and hope. A week ago, I was a man carrying guilt and living for duty. Today, I'm a man in love with the most incredible woman in the world, planning a future full of possibility.

My phone buzzes on the nightstand, interrupting the moment. I glance at the screen and see Dmitri's name.

Emergency meeting. 10 AM. Roman made his move.

Reality crashes back like cold water. While I was making love to my wife and planning our future, our enemy was putting his own plans into motion.

"Business?" Mila asks, reading my expression.

"Roman. He's made his move."

"What kind of move?"

"I'll find out in an hour."

"And then?"

"Then we finish this. Whatever he's planned, whatever he thinks he's gained, we end it."

She sits up, the sheet falling away to reveal the marks I left on her skin. The sight makes possessive satisfaction purr through me.

"We end it together," she says firmly.

"Mila—"

"No. We're partners, remember? In everything. That includes whatever war Roman wants to bring to our door."

"It could be dangerous."

"Good thing I'm married to the most dangerous man I know."

The confidence in her voice makes my chest swell with pride. This woman who was planning my destruction a week ago is now ready to fight beside me against the real enemy.

"Together then," I agree.

"Together."

I kiss her once more, tasting promise and determination on her lips. Whatever Roman has planned, whatever challenges we're about to face, we'll meet them as a united front.

And if I'm very lucky, we'll meet them while my child grows in her belly, a perfect symbol of the future we're fighting to protect.