Page 24

“I am not entirely sober,” I admit, stubbing out my cigarette and following Anya into the house.

We’re back at her brother’s house, and things are winding down for the night. Most of her siblings have gone to their rooms, and only Ella and Anton stay awake, tidying up in the kitchen. Anya catches my hand and pulls me in, a look in her eyes that I recognize immediately.

She pushes me back against the wall of the hallway and kisses me, hard and quick, her tongue darting to meet mine.

Our tongues stroke along each other, and she sets her hands on my chest, holding me in place.

From the other room, I hear the clinking of glass and the running of the faucet, but all I can think about is how badly I want her. It’s been too long.

Too long since I’ve had her lithe little body beneath me, and my dick is letting me know it, already growing hard from her kisses.

She kisses her way along my jaw to my neck, and I let my hands wander over her back, dipping beneath the open back of her dress.

Of course she was dressed to the nines tonight, skimpy dress, dark makeup, high heels.

One look at her and I wanted to get on my knees and beg for forgiveness.

“Anya,” I warn, as her teeth sink into my neck, “your family is right there.”

She flashes a devilish look up at me and continues sucking at my throat, her hands sliding down my chest to palm my cock through my pants.

“Filthy girl.” I skim down her lower back and grab her ass with both hands, sinking my fingers into it. “You’re not quiet enough for that. Not with the way you moan.”

Stroking her hand over the length of me, she ignores my warning.

Getting caught in the hallway with my hands all over the youngest Milov is not the way to win over her family, but I can’t think straight when she’s doing that.

She moves one hand to my belt and starts to unbuckle it, the other keeping a steady rhythm over my dick.

I shake my head and catch her hand, stopping her. “Not here, princess.”

“But I want you,” she says, sticking her lip out in a pout that makes me want to kiss it. “Right here. Right now.”

Fuck. I bite back a groan and spin her around so she’s the one against the wall, pinning her to it with my hips pressed against hers. She grinds against me, and the friction feels so good that I almost undo my own belt.

“Let’s see how quiet you can be, then,” I say, kissing her once before getting to my knees in front of her.

Her dress is so short, I barely have to pull it up at all to reveal her panties.

“Matvei,” she whispers, dropping her hands to my shoulders, “what are you doing?”

“Just a little test of how quiet you can be,” I reply, hooking my finger through her panties and pulling them to one side to reveal her perfect pink pussy. “Be very, very quiet now, or someone will hear.”

She glares at me and tries to pull me to my feet, but I ignore her and bury my face between her thighs.

I lick a long slow path up her pussy, tasting how wet she is, and her fingers tighten on my shoulders.

Cupping my hands around her ass, I pull her forward, giving her nowhere to go as I start a steady pace with my tongue.

I slip my tongue inside of her and drag it back up to her clit, swirling there until she bucks against my face.

She tastes so fucking good. I suck and tease and lap at her until my face is covered in her slick and my dick strains against the front of my jeans.

I glance up and see her muffling her moans with her hand, biting into the meat of her thumb with her head thrown back in pleasure.

Knowing her family is just on the other side of that wall while I eat her out makes it all the better. She gasps when I focus in on her clit and I pause for a moment, meeting her eyes in a warning.

“Quiet now, and you’ll get a reward,” I say before diving back in. I’ll never get enough of her taste, of her desperate, needy thrusts against my tongue, of having the power to destroy all of her self-control.

I hook her leg over my shoulder, giving me more access.

I want to taste every inch of her. She digs her nails into me, and I know she’s close, know she’s fighting to keep quiet when all she wants is to moan.

She squirms against my tongue, and I want to keep her there on the edge forever, but we’re already taking a risk.

I lick in steady circles just the way she likes until her legs quiver and her orgasm hits. She curls over me and lets out a muffled cry. I lick twice more from one end to the other before getting to my feet.

“Good girl,” I say, tugging her dress back into place. “So you can be quiet when properly motivated. Let’s test it further.”

I pick her up, wrapping her legs around my waist, and carry her up the stairs to our temporary bedroom. There are Milovs on either side of us, but I have no intention of holding back.

“I can’t believe you did that,” she says, her heart thumping against mine. “Right there in the hall. Anyone could’ve seen us.”

“I needed to be sure you could be quiet.” I lay her down on the bed and finally take off my belt, stepping out of my pants.

I wrap my hand around my cock and pump it a few times, not that it needs it. I’m already hard and dripping precum just from eating her out. “Take off your dress.”

Her eyes flare, and she hurries to do as I say, pulling her dress off and kicking her panties beside it. Once she’s naked, I step between her legs and drape them over my shoulders, pulling her to the edge of the bed. “Grab that pillow, love, you’re going to need it.”

***

The next morning, we have coffee with her family before deciding to return home.

She looks better, happier, brushing up against me and flashing me quick, secret smiles.

It’s nice to see her at ease, and her family is, to their credit, doing their best to treat me like a brother-in-law, rather than a potential rival.

Still, I’m ready to be back at our place with just the two of us.

“Are you sure you don’t want to stay a little longer?” I ask her, lifting her bag in one hand and mine in the other. “I can come back and pick you up later, if you’d rather.”

She shakes her head. “Everyone will be heading back soon anyway. You know how it is, there’s always work to do.”

I hang back as she says her goodbyes and marvel again that she’s chosen to stay with me, rather than return to her family. It’s obvious how close they are. As she and Ella share a long hug, Viktor and Anton pull me aside. The twins are stone-faced and pitch their voices low.

“Take care of our girl, Abashin,” Viktor warns, his handshake tightening.

Anton steps in and claps me on the shoulder, hard.

It’d look like a friendly farewell to anyone who couldn’t hear the threat that he mutters.

“Or else. She chose you, God knows why, and we’ll respect that choice for her sake.

But one wrong move, one hint of her being anything but perfectly happy? It’s over.”

“For you and your family,” Viktor adds.

Ella and Anya break apart, and Anya turns to find me, her eyes darting between me and her brothers. She frowns. “Enough of whatever this is,” she says, gesturing between the three of us. “Come on, Matvei, let’s go home. Ignore my brothers. I always do.”

“Love you too,” Anton teases, pulling her into a side hug. He shoots me one last glare as we walk out the door, but his threat is meaningless to me when I have every intention of keeping Anya perfectly happy.

“Were they awful?” she asks once we’re in the car heading home. I take the slightly longer, scenic route that skirts the coast, where the roads are empty apart from a few rare cars.

“Just protective brothers. Concerned for you. I’d expect nothing less.”

She reaches across for my hand and laces her fingers through mine. “I can’t believe you got them all to come. Thank you. It was really sweet of you.”

I raise her hand to my lips and press a kiss to the back of it. “I’m just glad you’re back.”

Anya flips through her phone, putting some music on and resting her head on my shoulder.

A dark car flies up the road, catching my eye in the rearview mirror.

It pulls right up to my bumper, too close for comfort, and I press the gas to put some space between us.

Another car flies up behind it, and another. My pulse quickens.

“What is it?” Anya asks, reading my expression. She looks behind us, and her eyes widen.

The first car races up beside us, then passes an inch from our bumper, pulling in front of our car and quickly tapping the brakes. I brake just in time, and in that moment, the second car edges in on our side, pushing us toward the guard rail.

“Shit,” I say. “Are you carrying?”

“No,” she replies, “are you?”

“Of course.” Not that it’ll do me much good in this situation.

They’ve got us boxed in, and I need both hands on the wheel to keep on the road.

The car on our side veers closing, scraping against ours and knocking us into the guard rail.

I fight to regain control, scraping along the metal guard rail with a terrible screech before driving back toward the car on the other side.

The car in front slams its brakes, and I’m too focused on correcting our angle to respond in time, hitting the back of the car with force.

It all happens in a blur. Airbags explode from the dash, and I’m dazed, reaching for the gun at my hip as the men jump from their cars. We’re completely boxed in.

“Are you okay?” I look over at Anya. She’s conscious, blinking hard and looking dazed. “Get down!”

We duck as one of the men shoots out the window, the bullet whizzing over our heads and shattering glass all over the interior. I draw and fire back, but my aim is off and the quarters are too close; it’s too risky to get into a firefight with Anya right beside me.

“Stay inside,” I shout, leaping from the car and taking aim at the nearest man.

Anya screams at me, “Matvei, no! It’s too dangerous!”

But I know there’s no other choice. I take the first man down with three shots to his shoulder, but there are too many, at least six men with their guns trained on me.

All I care about is protecting Anya. I’ll draw all their fire if it means keeping her safe.

I race for the car we slammed into, hoping to draw their attention away from Anya, and fire off five rounds at the two men in front of me.

One goes down. The other returns fire, and I feel a blaze of pain through my leg that knocks me to the ground.

Blood flows from the wound, but I crawl to my knees and fire again.

I take out the second gunner just as I hear footsteps behind me.

Something hits the side of my head once, twice, and blackness envelops me.

***

I wake on the side of the road with a roaring headache and a throbbing pain in my leg, but all I can think about is Anya.

My car still sits on the side of the road, but the others are gone, and Anya with them.

Kidnapped. Hostage. But at least she’s not dead.

They would’ve killed her right here if that was their intention.

Which means there’s hope, if I move fast enough.

Limping my way back to the car, I find my phone and dial Anton as I try to get the car started. He listens to my retelling of events in silence.

“It was the fucking Shevchenkos, Anton, they’ve got her.”

“I’ll find out. Send me your location and we’ll come pick you up.”

He hangs up before I can get another word in. I rip a strip of fabric from my shirt and tie it to stem the flow of blood from my leg, which has slowed to a trickle. Luckily, they missed anything vital. Time ticks by painfully slow, minutes wasted that I could be spending getting to Anya.

The car is totaled, so I have no choice but to wait for the Milov rescue. Viktor pulls up a short while later, his cool eyes taking in the scene and my condition in a single sweep.

He helps me into his car and starts to drive. “It wasn’t the Shevchenkos.”

“Bullshit.”

“They proved it. It’s someone else.”

I grit my teeth. “Who?”

“Don’t know yet. Some third party that saw an opportunity while the three of us duke it out, I’m sure. We’ll find her.”

I watch the road and pray he’s right.