Page 32 of The Brutal Arrangement (The Ivanov Syndicate #2)

DAMON

L ucy’s fingers tightened on my hair, tugging at my scalp with a bite of pain that I needed. I needed that sting to distract me from going too fast. Too hard. Because after the distance between us over the last week, I didn’t want this to be over too soon.

Knowing how much she liked it when I sucked on her nipples like that, though, I couldn’t help but do it again. And again. Each time I pulled that peak into my mouth, I relished her gasps and groans, the instinctive tugs on my hair as she arched her back and thrust her tits up to me.

“I don’t want you to look at me and think about being stuck in this,” I said without lifting my head. Letting my breath whip against her wet flesh seemed to make her squirm more.

“I don’t… I don’t want to do that either.”

Kissing down her stomach, I urged her to lie back on the counter further.

“I don’t want to think that I’m stuck with you. I don’t,” she admitted, not losing her grip on my head as I went lower and pulled off her shorts and panties.

“I don’t want you to think about getting out of this marriage.” I shoved her thighs apart, diving into her pussy like a starved man. Swiping my tongue over her slit, I gathered a taste of her juices and growled at the tangy, sweet perfection.

“I don’t want to hold myself back from this.” To emphasize, I lowered again to push my tongue into her cunt and fuck her with it.

“I don’t want to worry about your leaving me. Of wishing you were with someone else.”

She cried out as I sucked on her clit, then flicked my tongue at it with the fast rhythm she liked. “Oh, fuck. Damon!” She sobbed my name again, humping against my face as she tried to ride it. “No one else,” she cried. “No one… but you.”

I doubled down, determined to make her come more than once tonight.

“I don’t want you to assume I’m doing anything to manipulate you into being my wife.” I stared up at her as I fingered her, enjoying every sluicing suction of her, so wet for me.

She shook her head, her blue eyes so wild and lit up with need. Leaning back on her elbows, she could see all of what I did to her.

“You are my wife, Lucy. And I want you to stay my wife, no matter what.”

She reached one hand out to slip her fingers through my hair, caressing me as I lowered to suck her pussy again.

I knew how to connect with her like this. Sexually. Her bare skin revealed for me to touch and taste. Her cunt and breasts within reach for me to pleasure.

But I couldn’t stay strong against this need to know she’d want to be my wife past the agreement about her mother.

As soon as she came, her cream coating my tongue and her cries sounding out loud in the apartment, I replaced my tongue with my fingers, prolonging her climax. I’d never tire of seeing how deeply I could please her.

“I paid for your mother’s care because I care,” I told her.

She shook her head, still in the throes of coming. Trembling and quivering, she lay sprawled on the counter, under my command.

“I took over that worry so you wouldn’t be stressed about it,” I said, watching her as her chest heaved with frantic breaths.

“I will learn how to care for you. You can show me. We can figure this out together, Lucy, because I don’t want you to ever think that I’m married to you for any other reason.”

She moaned, low and long, as I changed the angle of my fingers inside her. Leaning down to suck on her nipples again, one then the other, I felt her come again, louder than before.

Without giving her a chance to come down from those two orgasms, I shoved down my pants low enough to free my cock.

Ignoring the pain from the hit I’d taken on my side, I slid my arm under her back and dragged her off the counter.

As I sat in the stool, she settled on my lap.

Together, we shifted until she sank onto my erection.

She was seated on me, swallowing every inch of my cock. But before I’d let her ride me, I held her close and kissed her.

“I want us to be married for good, Lucy,” I whispered against her lips as she clung to me. Slowly, she began to rock on my dick, not fully recovered from her first two climaxes.

“I want to see my child swell here.” I put my hand over her flat stomach as she arched back.

Fucking me with abandon, she let her head fall back. Her breasts bounced as she rode me faster and with more urgency, taunting me to come too soon again. Trapping her hands behind her back, I held them with one hand so I could suck on her breasts, nipping then licking the stings away.

“Please, Damon,” she begged.

I held her hips and met her thrust for thrust.

“Please… Husband .”

That did it.

Just hearing that word from her—for the first time—triggered me.

I roared at the rush of pleasure, digging my fingers into her flesh as I came. Spurt after spurt of cum left me, flooding her womb, and still, it didn’t feel like enough.

My heart hammered so fast I felt like passing out. My lungs strained to hold enough air so I wouldn’t be dizzy. Without her in my life at all this last week, I fought guilt and confusion, and slept so poorly because of it.

Now with her pussy snug around my dick, her eyes drowsy with satisfaction, I knew I’d be in for a full night of finally relaxing with her at my side again.

Where she belonged.

The next morning, I got up before her and asked if Saul would come talk to me in my apartment. I could’ve left to find him on his floor, but I hadn’t wanted to leave Lucy for that long.

We’d made up, somehow. We’d reunited, in some way. And I was determined to ride with this trend and not fuck up again.

“Well, well, well,” Saul teased as he entered. “With that smug-as-fuck smile on your face, it seems you and the wifey made up.”

I rolled my eyes.

He chuckled, patting my back as he went toward a chair. “Seriously happy for you, man. It’s always nice to see two adults get over a miscommunication.”

“That’s what you’d call it?” I replied.

“Hey, we all fuck up now and then.” He shrugged.

“I wanted to see if I could delegate this business with Nik.”

He laughed once. “You’re asking me if you can pass the buck?”

This wasn’t a joke. Nik’s disappearance was a serious thing. But with what we’ve all been seeing, it appeared that he was staying hidden to reap intel.

“I want to focus on my marriage.” Damn, did it feel good to say that. “I want to make up for lost time with Lucy. To focus on her.”

He nodded, smiling. “Glad to hear it.”

No more staying apart. No more assuming anything. I wanted her, all of her that she could give me, and I didn’t want the distraction of hunting for my brother to pull me from her.

“No worries, Damon.” He leaned over and patted my back again. “I understand. You’ve got your hands full and I’m more available at the moment. Don’t worry about it.”

“You’re sure?”

He nodded again. “Yes, brother. I’ll give Maxim a heads up. And I’ll meet with John. He’s been your main point of contact with this, right?”

“Yes, John and Hugo.” I spent a few more minutes going over details, but once he left, I felt free. Not guilty, but released from extra obstacles that could keep me from Lucy.

From my wife.

Smiling at the sound of her getting into the shower, I hurried to join her and ask her for help with another lesson of how we could learn to be a real couple, a real husband and wife with no end in sight.