Page 146 of Scarlet Promise

I take a breath. “Will you marry me?”

“We’re already married…”

“For real. Without a deal or anything else. Just a marriage based on love.” I glance at Albert. “Go to her.”

He barks again, trots up, and licks her hand as she comes down to her knees, too.

Then she gasps when she catches sight of the string around his neck and what’s hanging from it.

Gently, she pulls it from him.

The ring is an oval diamond. I forget the number of carats. I don’t really care. All I care about is the classic platinum setting, the way the gem shines like she does.

“I’m in love with you, too,” she says. “And you’re my gift, my precious gift. You and our baby.” She pauses. “And Albert. But mostly you, Ilya, the man who’s always been there. I’ve always seen you, and now is our time, so yes. Yes. Yes! I’ll marry you.”

Grinning, I get up, slip the ring onto her finger, pick her up, and take her to the bed. Once I lay her down, I slide my tongue into her mouth, letting the heat and passion rock up over us.

Everything about her is familiar and always thrillingly new, like there’s a well in her where all the wonders of the universe are hidden, and I’ll never, ever reach the bottom.

I pull off her dress and underwear and strip off my clothes too. Then I push two fingers into her as she wraps her hand around my cock.

I’m desperate to be inside her, whether it’s her mouth, ass, or cunt. I love all of it. But this is about her. And I want to show her exactly who and what she is to me. My queen, my girl, the love of my life.

So I kiss my way down her body, thrusting my fingers into her as I curl them to drive her higher into pleasure, and because I need to, I suck and lick her clit.

She always tastes good, but today, she tastes even better because this is the real start of our lives together. Just us and our love.

As her tight, wet heat grips my fingers, her clit hardens. She pushes into my face as her canal flutters. I pull out because I want to be inside her. I need that.

I surge up and plunder her mouth as I push into her, all that tightness gripping me. The growing flutters almost push me over the edge. I roll us, keeping her mouth on mine as I push up into her, one hand at her hip, the other tangled in her hair.

She tries to ride me, to find her own rhythm. She grunts and whimpers, her body’s flutters coming together into deep throbs and spasms.

We’re both on the edge, both ready to lose it, but I need to hold out. I need her flooded with orgasmic bliss, need her to know that this is just the start.

I drop my hand from her hair as I kiss and bite down along her throat, sucking on her artery, the hot throb of blood in time with the spasms in her cunt.

I find her clit and rub it. She flies over the edge, a scream of pleasure on her lips as her head tilts back and she arches, spasming hard on my cock, setting me off. My balls are so tight, they may have retracted into me.

My orgasm barrels forward, my seed shooting into her, the same seed that made our baby. It turns me on, the thought of this act doing something so incredible. I lose myself completely, pulling her into me, dragging her mouth to mine as I hammer into her, pushing every last drop from me.

We drift, wrapped in each other. While I stroke her back, she succumbs to our early morning workout.

As Albert climbs on the bed to curl into her sleeping form, I slide out of bed and dress in black. Then I take my phone and head downstairs, where I wait outside for Demyan.

Melor hangs from a hook.Bloodied. Bruised. Battered.

It’s not enough.

But it’s a start.

This isn’t something I enjoy normally.

“He awake?” I ask Demyan’s henchman.

The guy grunts and nods.

I’d normally speak Russian, but with this fuck hanging from the wall, speaking our mother tongue may bring some form of comfort, something I’m not willing to give him.