Page 35 of The Bratva’s Captive (The Ivanov Syndicate #1)

SLOANE

I never tried to learn the names of all the guards and soldiers who came and went in the building, but I was vaguely aware that the man who escorted me back to the elevator that would bring me directly into Maxim’s apartment was a different one.

That lack of familiarity prompted me to speak up, which I never did. “Is…”

He didn’t react, merely watching me as we rode the elevator together.

“Is Maxim okay?” I hated the nervousness in my tone. I loathed the worry I couldn’t erase. Tension pulled me tight, and I fought hard not to show it.

I heard that gunshot and I believed that other guard when he told me and Anastasia that Maxim hadn’t been hit.

But I didn’t like this distance between us. I had to see for myself that he wasn’t wounded. I couldn’t claim to know Maxim. I bet he didn’t let many fully into his life like that. Aloofness was simply part of who he was.

This intrusion or attack on his property would be a hit against him. Perhaps he was used to this level of danger and could take it in stride, but still, he had to be upset about it, and I didn’t care for him to be upset or bothered at all.

“He wasn’t harmed,” the guard said as the doors opened to Maxim’s home.

I nodded, not bothering to make eye contact with this guy. He wouldn’t give me any further information, and I wouldn’t waste my time asking.

“Thanks.” I got off the elevator and knew I’d be in for an anxious and long night of waiting for Maxim to return.

Still wearing the short dress that I’d chosen to seduce him in, I stood immobile and stared at the untouched dinner that I’d made for us.

It was a work in vain now. Despite the domed plate covers likely keeping the food partly warm, it wouldn’t be eaten now.

All the dinnerware remained as we’d left it in a hurry.

I’d distracted him with my dance, but I hadn’t counted on the meal going to waste.

There’s no chance of getting that opportunity back now.

The mood was ruined.

That sensual moment of dancing for him was gone.

A strike of danger had changed it all, and as I felt the change of air behind me that indicated that the elevator doors were sliding shut, I sighed heavily and tried to snap out of this funk. Out of this trance.

I’d rehearsed and gathered the courage to tell him my secret tonight, and it still weighed heavily on my conscience.

I wasn’t sure when I’d get another opportunity to tell him now. With whatever happened tonight, he’d be more on edge and probably busier.

Is his father okay?

That question pricked my mind, and I frowned as I considered that another family member lived here. Until tonight, I hadn’t realized his father was alive or nearby.

Because Anastasia is right. I’m not family. Not family enough to meet them all.

Dejected, I put the dishes in the kitchen and stored them for later. I’d spent so much time perfecting it all that the food would be decent reheated. I could have the leftovers tomorrow when Maxim was undoubtedly busy in an office somewhere.

Moving on autopilot, I tried not to dwell on how I’d missed my chance to come clean. It mattered to me that I could be honest, but I wasn’t so stupid as to lose sight of the reasons I hadn’t told him all this time.

Telling him that I was pregnant was only half of what I wanted to happen tonight.

Then, based on his reaction, I would demand to know what that would mean.

If I’d be allowed to keep my baby and be involved in raising him or her.

It was becoming too easy to imagine this as my life—as a kept woman, living with Maxim, counting on him to provide for us both so we’d want for nothing.

Sweet daydreams of his being present with me to raise our baby filled my mind as I got dressed for bed to lie there and wait for him.

Worried when he didn’t return, I tried to read that crusty old bodice ripper until my eyes were tired enough for me to sleep.

When I woke from a short slumber, I checked for him in bed and frowned when he wasn’t there. But I could tell he’d come back. The faint and distant scent of soap reached my nose. Smells were so much more sensitive now, something I’d previously heard of as a side effect of pregnancy.

Getting up, I frowned and wondered why Maxim hadn’t just come to bed to be with me. I headed out of the room and sought the warmth and steam wafting from the bathroom. The shower had been turned on recently, but it was the huge tub that he’d taken advantage of.

He lay there, head back on the rest with his eyes closed.

As I entered the room and took in the tempting sight of him under the water, his thick, muscled arms draped along the rim of the tub, he opened his eyes and met my gaze.

“Did I wake you?” he asked, his voice calm and tender.

I shook my head. “I tried waiting up for you.”

He sighed, taking a long, appreciative look over me in the lightweight nightgown I’d put on. We always slept naked—together—but in light of the urgency from that alarm, I figured it might be wise to have something on in case I had to leave his apartment again.

“You didn’t have to,” he replied.

“I wanted to.” Without waiting for an invite, I tugged at the straps of the nightie and let it fall and pool at my feet.

I had his full attention. His hot stare didn’t leave me once as I approached the tub.

This wasn’t the sexy dance and strip I had planned for him tonight, but I felt like I was giving him a sensual display merely walking toward him and then stepping into the hot water.

He didn’t protest, holding his arms out to welcome me under the surface with him. Every inch of contact between us made me more aroused and aware of him. The hard contours of his muscles gave me the anchoring presence I could lean on.

Once I rested back against him, my skin slipping slickly against his, I exhaled a long breath and snuggled in close.

He lifted his arms to hold me against his chest, and as we situated ourselves in the water, he began to stroke his fingers up and down my arm.

His other hand stayed flat on my hip, keeping me over him.

“I want to be by you,” I added in a soft whisper.

He nodded before kissing a trail of soft kisses along my jaw. “I know.”

Smiling at his cocky remark, I sighed against him.

“Because I feel the same.”

My heart skipped a beat at the slight promise of commitment in his words. He’d warned me that he didn’t commit, that he never would. But that sounded like something so much more than his insistence that he owned me.

“I feel sane when I know you’re here for me,” he added as he continued to stroke his fingers over my arm.

Taking his hand that he rested on my hip, I slid it under the water until it was pressed against my stomach. Beneath his touch, his baby was growing inside me with every day that passed.

Tell him.

Just tell him.

Don’t be scared.

The circumstances of our relationship still intimidated me, and I tried to build up the courage to just come out and tell him already. To have some inkling of hope that he wouldn’t just take my baby from me.

“And I feel tempted to trust you with all that I am, Sloane.”

He just had to go and say something like that. That he wanted to trust me. I wasn’t giving him much reason to when I was keeping the secret of our child from him.

“But right now…” He lowered his fingers until he stroked them over my entrance. “Right now, I just want to hold you and know that I can keep you waiting for me.”

Is that a promise?

My mind worked on overdrive, and I was alert and in a rush to interpret his words. Was he telling me that he wanted me to wait for him to let me in fully? That he’d want to commit to me somehow?

He gave me no chance to think any further, though.

With his fingers pushing into my pussy, he coaxed me to drape my thighs open over his legs.

Bracing himself lower against the sloping wall of the tub, he lined his dick up with me, and as he replaced his fingers with his cock, I slanted more to the side so I could crane my neck and reach his mouth.

Kissing him hard, I reveled in the exquisite stretch of him filling me completely. His shaft was seated in me, making me desperate to move. His finger was against my clit as he rubbed me there, further urging me to come for him.

And as we rocked and splashed water out of the tub, it felt like we weren’t in any rush at all to make each other come.

No—to make love .

Because that had to be this sweet, crushing emotion that consumed me under his drugging kisses and perfect dick impaling me as I came in the complete bliss that I feared only he could ever give me.