Page 23

R olling pleasure draws me from a deep sleep. My nightgown is pushed up to my hips and my legs are wrapped around Alexander’s shoulders.

Blinking away the sleep, his gaze comes into focus as he looks up the length of my body at me.

“Good morning.” He lifts up from my body just long enough to mutter the words.

“What are you… oh God.” My eyes roll as his tongue flicks across my clit.

His hands slide beneath my ass, lifting my hips from the bed to feast on me as though he’s been starved for a lifetime.

I moan with need as I press up into his mouth. He seals his lips over my clit and strokes it with his wet, hot tongue.

“Alexander.” I fist the sheets at my sides, pushing up at him even more. “Oh, fuck.”

He spreads my ass cheeks a little, sliding one hand between them and pushing a finger against my ass.

“Shhh, baby, let me in.” He kisses the little spot just above my clit as he pushes his finger past the tight ring, into my ass. Slowly, he pushes in and pulls back, while keeping me on the edge of pleasure with his tongue lashing over my clit.

I gasp at the sweet burn as he slips a second finger inside, stretching me as he pumps his fingers in and out of me.

“That’s my good girl,” he mutters against my sex as his tongue swirls over my clit, through my folds, then down to my needy entrance. I can’t help but push up harder at his face.

“Do you want me to fill you there too?” he questions just as he thrusts his tongue inside.

“Oh, fuck. Yes,” I groan.

“Soon, baby.” He fucks my ass faster with his fingers, spreading them and stretching me while he feasts on me. Licking my clit, nibbling, sucking me hard into his mouth.

Rolling waves of pleasure run over my body, drawing me closer and closer to the edge. My skin heats and I’m sure my next breath might be my last. But then he flicks his tongue again, and I’m even tighter. I’m so fucking close to exploding, I can barely register anything other than his touch.

“Come, baby, give me what I want.” He curls his fingers and sweeps his tongue across my clit, sending a shock wave of pleasure through my body as my orgasm rips through me.

Rolling my head to the side, I lie there, catching my breath. Slowly, he climbs up my body and settles beside me, pulling me into his arms and pressing a kiss to my forehead. The scent of my arousal covers his face.

As soon as my mind settles, I reach between our bodies, seeking out his cock, but he grabs my wrist.

“No. Later I will feel your lips wrapped around my cock, but not this morning. This day is special. It’s for you.” He strokes my hair away from my face.

“What does that mean?” I sit up a little. “Why is it for me?”

He’s up to something. Last night when we finally came home from the club, he sent me to bed alone, saying he had business to deal with. I have no idea when he finally came to bed; I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

“You’ve never told me about your hair.” He picks up a lock of the white strands. “It’s not dyed, but there’s no color.”

“My mother had the same thing. She said it’s called poliosis,” I explain with a shrug. “I don’t have any other discoloration on my skin, just those two patches in my hair.”

He runs the back of his hand across my cheek.

“Your mother died when you were just out of high school, but I didn’t find much information on your father.”

I rest my head on his chest. “He disappeared when I was in second grade.”

“What do you mean, disappeared?”

“He left us. He dropped me off at school, hugged me, and then left. He was supposed to pick me up that afternoon, but he never came. I sat in the playground waiting for him until finally a teacher noticed me still sitting there and called my mom.”

His body tenses beneath me.

“The police weren’t able to find him?”

“Mom didn’t bother with the police. When we got home that night, his closet had been cleared out. After he dropped me off, he packed his stuff and left.”

I haven’t explained my father’s disappearance to anyone in so long, a fresh wave of pain rolls through.

“At least he had the decency to let my mother get a divorce quickly.”

“She saw him?”

“Just once. He said he couldn’t handle a family, signed the papers, and left.” I look up at him. “It’s fine. We were fine without him.”

His jaw tightens.

“I will never walk away from you, Megan,” he says with such conviction, I can’t help but want to believe him.

“Eventually, you’ll have to. Marco has to give up at some point, right? And then I can go home, and you can go about your business.”

He rolls over me, pressing my back to the mattress and framing my face with his hands.

“Marco won’t give up until he has what he wants.” He cocks a grin. “It’s the only way we are similar.”

“Alexander!” Insistent knocking breaks through the room. “The dresses are here!”

He sighs.

“Elana!” he barks, then rattles off something in Russian.

“Got it!” She knocks once more, then there’s silence.

“What did you just tell her?” I ask.

“If I wanted you to know, I would have said it in English.” He winks, then rolls off me.

“What did she mean, the dresses are here?” I push up to my elbows. “And what’s special about today?” I recall his words only a little earlier before he distracted me.

Standing beside the bed in his black boxers, he hooks his hands on his hips.

“Today is our wedding day,” he announces as though he knows a battle is about to erupt.

And he’s right.

Flinging off the covers, I jump out of bed.

“Absolutely not.” I slice my hand through the air. “I’m not marrying you. I told you that.”

He nods. “I know what you said.”

“Then why aren’t you listening to me?” I glare in his direction as he casually walks around the bed toward me.

“I hear you fine, Megan. You are the one not listening.” His eyes darken and I can tell this isn’t going to be an easy match. But I will win this round.

He can’t just expect me to marry him because he says so.

Although, he does that with pretty much everything else.

“There’s no reason for you to throw away your life because I have some crazy asshole looking for me. You said you have one of your friends looking for Mira, right? When he finds her, we’ll figure out a way to pay Marco off.” It could work.

Marco was taking the money before, so why would he stop now? He’s a business guy after all.

“You think marrying you would be throwing my life away?” Somehow, he’s gotten more irritated.

He steps up to me. My body tenses beneath his hot glower, and I want to take a step back. To put more room between us. But there’s no point. If he’s taught me anything in these past weeks, it’s if I run, he chases.

And he will always catch me.

“I think you’re looking at a permanent solution to a temporary problem.”

“Yesterday you seemed to finally understand the danger. But now you’re pretending like the money is the only issue.”

I swallow.

“Dexter Thompson’s death.”

“Murder, Megan. His murder,” he emphasizes. “With my name, you are safe. No one would dare come after you. It will assure anyone who thinks you may speak out of turn, that your lips are sealed.”

“Marco will give up because we got married?” It can’t be that simple.

“Others that might side with Marco will step away from it. They would not dare go against me in this.”

“Marrying you might give me protection, but what about Mira? If he can’t come after me anymore, he’ll start going after her.”

“Your loyalty to your friend is admirable, Megan. It’s one of the things I like most about you. But in this case, you need to protect yourself first. Rurik will find her, and he will bring her home. But you’re here now.”

“Marriage doesn’t work, Alexander.” Mom tried to keep herself together after Dad walked out on us, but late at night, when she thought I was asleep, I heard her sobs. The man she’d called the love of her life had walked out without looking back.

“It can.”

“How? By letting you do whatever you want, like your dad obviously did? Will I have to watch you have mistresses and watch them give birth to your children the way your mother did?”

His jaw tightens.

“I am not my father,” he says so low, so raw, I know I’ve struck a live wire.

“And when you tire of me? When you finally break me and are bored with me, what then? Will you send me away?”

He snatches me, his hand firmly wrapped around the back of my neck as he drags me forward.

“I will bend you, Megan. But I will never break you. And life with you will never be boring. We’ll fill the house with children. The girls will keep us both on our toes because they will be like you, and the boys will give us both gray hair too soon because they will be like me.” He squeezes my neck.

But I can’t believe him. I won’t.

“And when you realize we’re all too much for you?” I breathe out my question as tears threaten. I will not cry over a future that will not happen.

“I would never walk away from you, from our family,” he vows.

“Alexander. You don’t want this; you don’t want me. You’re only trying to protect me.” I pause. “When the danger is gone, you might change your mind.”

He kisses my cheek. “My mind is made up. The judge will be here this afternoon. We’ll stand before my family, and we’ll speak our vows.”

“And what I want has no meaning? Still?”

His sigh is heavy.

“I will do whatever it takes to keep you safe. If I have to drag you downstairs and force you to say the words at gunpoint, I will do it to keep you safe.” He moves his hand to my cheek. “I will protect you, even from yourself.”

“I can say no. You know that’s an option, right?” I point out.

“I know you can try, yes.” He nods and walks to the closet.

“The judge won’t marry us if I say no,” I call after him when the inner light flicks on and he’s stepped inside.

“You can believe that if it makes it easier for you.” He walks back in wearing a pair of jeans and pulling on a black t-shirt. His dark hair is mussed once the shirt’s on and he combs it back with his fingers.

“There are a dozen dresses for you to choose from. Pick whichever one you want. Elana will be up with them and she can help you.” He opens the top drawer of the dresser and pulls out a pair of socks.

“There’s no need for all that.”

He stops at the door, the socks and a pair of shoes in one hand.

“Be dressed and ready by four o’clock. The judge will be here, and we’ll have it all done and settled by five.”

“All done and settled? But I haven’t even agreed yet!”

“I’m not worried.” He flashes an arrogant grin. “Four o’clock, Megan.” He winks and leaves me to seethe all alone in his beautiful, gigantic bedroom.