Page 20 of Darkest Craving

WOLFGANG

I ’m supposed to be working, but I find myself staring at my laptop instead. I tell myself I’m just tired and distracted by all the shit going on in the business—seizing Nikolai’s assets, deploying operations in the Irish territory we now own, and overseeing the usual.

But deep down, I know this has nothing to do with work. And everything to do with my wife.

Because she… defended me.

Mikhail ambushed her in the library, when he knew she’d be alone, and tried to poison her against me.

And instead of agreeing with him, like she should’ve, she bit his head off. She saw exactly what he was showing her. The jealousy. The resentment. The limits he’s willing to cross to step over me so he can get what’s rightfully mine.

But Victoria is smarter than he gave her credit for. And she stood up for me, even after I said that shit to her after our wedding night.

I pick up my phone and shoot Corinne a text, asking for my wife. After a few minutes, she replies.

C: she says she’s busy, and that you do not summon her

C: sorry, not sure what to do

I smile, turned on by the way she still defies me. This woman has been testing me every day since I brought her here, and it’s only made me want her more.

I don’t fucking understand it, but if that’s how she wants to play, I’m more than happy to indulge her.

W: She has two minutes to get here, or I’m sending someone to collect her

Then I switch over to my contacts and dial Ivan’s number, instructing him to find my wife when the two minutes are up.

Because I know Victoria. She won’t give a damn about my threat.

I get back to the work I’m supposed to be doing. Soon her agitated voice approaches from the hallway. Ivan opens the door to my study for her, pressing his lips into a thin line, as if to say, “good luck with that.”

My eyes shift to Victoria, who dusts herself off and steps inside, arms crossed at her chest. Ivan leaves, and I sit at my desk, watching her.

“What part of ‘I’m busy’ don’t you get?” she sneers.

“Come here, Victoria.”

She huffs a breath of frustration, but otherwise walks deeper into the room.

“What do you want?”

I tap the top of my desk, loving the way she frowns when she understands where I want her to sit.

“No. I told you already, you won’t be getting anything from me anymore. If you want to fuck, get yourself a hooker.”

“Love… this is the last time I’m asking nicely. Be a good girl and sit on my desk. Now.”

The look she throws me is murderous, but she complies.

With slow, graceful movements, she inches forward, rounding my desk before entering my personal space, hauling herself up on the mahogany between my legs.

My gaze lowers to her naked thighs, only covered by the short, thin layer of a pretty sundress.

I don’t fail to notice the way she presses them together.

“Let me tell you something,” I say. “If I ask one of my men for an apple, they bring it to me. If I ask for my wife, they bring you to me just the same. And if I feel like bending you over this desk with your pretty legs spread and your cunt wet and ready, there’s not a soul in this house who’d dare stop me. Because why?”

Her upper lip curls. “Because you own me?”

“Because I own you, Victoria,” I say, planting both hands on her thighs.

Her mouth parts, a silent gasp pushing past her lips.

“And if I wanted to get a hooker, I would’ve done so already. And you would’ve known.”

“Please… as if you’re not fucking other women when you’re not with me.” She rolls her eyes.

I want to tell her that I don’t, but the fact that she brought it up means it matters to her. So I refrain from answering just to see if this is going to brew inside her. To see if she confronts me about it at all down the line.

“I heard what you said a few days ago. When you were in the library.”

A crease settles between her brows. “You’re spying on me?”

“I don’t need to. The walls have ears around here. And they all report to me.”

She keeps watching me, probably wondering where this is going. And to be honest, I don’t fucking know. All I know is she defended me, and I didn’t deserve it. Not from her.

“Why did you do it?”

She looks away, knowing exactly what I’m asking. I swipe my hand across her smooth thighs, drawing a deeper breath from her chest.

“Why did you defend me, love? You said it yourself… I don’t deserve you.”

“It doesn’t matter. If I were truly your wife, that’s what I would do. I defend my own like…”

“Like I defended you in the church?”

She’s silent, but I don’t need her to answer more than that. Something tightens in my chest, my breathing mimicking hers. No one has done that for me before. No one has ever taken my side without asking for something in return.

“Why does Mikhail hate you so much, anyway?”

“It’s a long story. What were you doing?”

“What?”

“When you said you were busy. What were you doing?”

She shrugs. “Helping in the kitchen.”

My brows rise at the confession. I didn’t expect her to want to help anyone in this house.

“Find something else to do. I don’t want you there.”

“Afraid I’m going to poison you?” She smirks, but I’m in no mood for jokes.

I pay my staff three times more than what they asked, and make sure they have all the help they need to maintain the house. My wife shouldn’t be working, especially not for free. In fact, it really fucking rubs me the wrong way that she is.

“I said don’t go there anymore. Here.” I pull out my black Amex card and place it on the desk. “Buy whatever you want to keep yourself occupied.”

“Wow. You really think I’m stupid, don’t you?

” She throws her head back, laughing a little.

And fuck, it’s without a doubt the most beautiful laugh I’ve ever heard in my life—warm, candid, and full of life.

“No, thanks. I don’t take money from anyone, let alone my enemy.

God knows what I’d be getting myself into to settle the debt. ”

I don’t realize I’m smiling until after her laugh is gone. And I’m annoyed at knowing there isn’t anything I can do to make her do it again. Because she hates me.

“You’re right to think that I’m your enemy, I won’t deny that. But I’m also your husband. And like it or not, this is your money too now.” My gaze lingers on her immaculate skin, my fingers digging a little deeper into her thighs. “So you weren’t busy, then. You just didn’t want to come to me.”

“Why should I, Wolfgang? All you’ve done is humiliate me. Threaten me…”

“Is that all I’ve done, love? Was there truly nothing else?”

She looks away, her thighs pressing together more. I wonder if she realizes she’s doing it. My cock hardens at the thought of pulling her sundress up just an inch or two, hooking my fingers behind her panties, and revealing her bare cunt to me. To my watering mouth.

“You won’t even tell me anything.” She sighs.

“What do you want to know?”

“I asked you why you picked me over my sister. I asked you why Mikhail hates you so much. What you’re planning to do with me… should I go on?”

“Kiss me,” I say, taking both of us by surprise. “Kiss me and I’ll tell you whatever you want.”

“Wolfgang…”

A wave of heat traverses my body, from the back of my head to my chest, down to my cock.

Just looking at my wife heightens all my senses, muting everything else around me.

And it’s not only because she’s beautiful.

It’s because it’s her. It’s because she’s wearing my ring on her finger and my diamond collar, and looks at me the way she does.

I suck in a breath, groaning on the exhale without meaning to.

“I told you, Victoria, I’ll never lie to you. So if you want your answers, do it now, love, because I’m burning inside. I want that pretty mouth of yours on mine.”

Her eyes shift across my face, not quite believing me, but wanting to. She inches forward, then a little more, leaning down, planting her hands on my face, until her breath tickles my lips and my heartbeat grows.

“Fine. But don’t take this for more than what it is,” she whispers.

“I’d never dare.”

Then her lips are on mine, so fucking soft, and warm, and perfect. I stick my tongue out, pushing it against the seam of her mouth until she opens, inviting me in like the good girl she is.

Her tongue meets mine, and I grunt at how sweet she tastes. Her hands travel to my hair, her delicate fingers burying themselves in it, tugging and making a complete fucking mess of my breathing pattern. Of all that I am.

I’m about to pull her into my lap and wet my fingers with her arousal when—

“I gave you what you wanted,” she whispers, pulling back. “Now tell me what I asked.”

Her body leans away, hands leaving my hair as she takes away her lips, keeping them to herself. I sit there, eyes closed, bewildered by the way she just toyed with me. Bewildered, and amused, and needing more of what she just did, like I need air.

But I’m nothing if not a man of my word. So I open my eyes.

“It’s not pretty—my story. Are you sure you want to hear it now?”

“Yes. I want to know.”

I lean back in my chair, cracking my neck.

“My mother died when I was four. Around the time Father was getting started with the business, so he was making enemies fast. But we were happy… and I was so young.” I inhale, seeing the patches of my past flash through my mind.

“She died on her birthday. A bullet took her life.”

“Oh my God,” Victoria says.

“Two years later, Father married Ekaterina—Katy, as he calls her—and they had Mikhail. But tradition is…”

“The first son becomes the next Pakhan ,” she says, her lips swollen a little from all the blood swarming there.

I nod once. “I was born with an unusually high IQ. It’s been an asset for the family business, and all the more reasons to take Father’s place.

But Mikhail doesn’t see that. To him, I’m an abomination.

I don’t even have a Russian name—and that, among other things, makes me ineligible to take Father’s place, even if it’s my birthright. ”

A small pause settles between us, and it’s the first time we sit together in silence. As if some sort of mutual understanding passes through both of us.

How strange. And how easy it is to feel this way.

“It’s why I defended you,” she says. “I know what it’s like. I mean, you saw it… at my birthday party when my parents… they simply let me go. They didn’t lift a finger to—” She looks away, her eyes glassy.

I swipe my hand across her face, putting all my attention on her instead of what I just revealed. And I don’t know why, but I feel for Victoria. What happened that day was fucking wrong, and I’ve never been happier to put her family to shame than I am after seeing how they treated her.

“It’s also why I chose you,” I say, echoing her.

She looks back at me. “What do you mean?”

“It would’ve been in my best interest to marry your sister. Because she was wanted and you… were not.” She flinches. “My job was to take whatever your father valued most. But then I saw you, talked to you, and I knew it had to be you. It just made sense. You made sense to me.”

She keeps silent, and I delude myself into thinking she feels the same. But I know she doesn’t—she has no reason to. Only in my dreams, perhaps, she’ll kiss me again. Only there she might show me she craves me as much as I’ve come to crave her.