Page 76 of Wicked Refusal

She whacks me lightly with the sponge. “You’re not supposed to speak ill of the dead.”

“Why not? He spoke plenty ill of me when he was alive. Actually, the last thing he did was try to get me to step down.”

“Why?”

He thought I was going to get them all killed. That I was no longer fit to lead them.“Desya’s got them scared,” I tell her, swallowing my doubts. “He thought a change in leadership might make him stop.”

“And would it?” She drops the sponge and starts massaging the knots out of my shoulders. “Make him stop?”

“Not when it comes to us.” I flex my fist. “He’ll never stop. Not until there’s only one of us left standing.”

“Then you make sure it’s you.” She appears in my field of vision. I tilt my head to catch her burning blue gaze. “He’s already taken enough. Promise me, when the time comes, you won’t let him win.” She puts my hand on her belly. “We need you here. All of us.”

I feel the firm swell there. It’s showing now, its shape round and clear. Impossible to ignore. “All of you?”

“Yes,” she whispers. “Our baby needs you. Eli needs you. And I… I need you, too.”

I drag her to me and kiss her senseless.

She gasps into my mouth, breathless, drowning. Then she climbs into my lap.

It happens fast after that. We’re heated, worked up, desire burning through every inch of us. I slide my fingers into her andfind her slick, wanting, waiting. When she starts stroking my cock, I can feel how hungry she is for this.

I grab her hips, pull them flush on mine, and thrust up into her.

Mia’s head jerks back. A gasp flies from her lips, hot and needy. “Yulian.”

Her hands twist into my hair. I fuck up into her, hard and fast, and she meets me halfway. Soon, her hips are rolling in sync with mine.

It’s primal. It’s animalistic. It’s our bodies doing the talking for us, making promises we can’t keep.Forever—such a ridiculous concept.

But for once, I want it, too.

She shakes apart around me, but I don’t stop. I drive my cock in deeper, harder, faster, until she’s begging for it all over again. Riding me to death.

If this is death, it’s a sweet place to go.

26

MIA

I’d told myself never again.

Turns out, “never again” lasted about five minutes.

After the tub, it becomes Yulian’s mission to christen every flat surface of the house with my body. Counter, ottoman, washer—you name it, we’ve done it there.

I wish I could say I regretted it, but it’s kind of hard to lie when you’re being fucked upside-down on the coffee table.

“Look at you,” Yulian groans from above me, pistoning into me without a shred of mercy. “So fucking wet for me.”

And, well. Can’t exactly denythat.

Every morning, once we’ve taken Eli to school, we drive right back to the penthouse and tear each other’s clothes off. Just like clockwork, but without the L.

“What do you want,kotyonok?” Yulian’s rumble vibrates through me, just as the vibrator he’s holding starts vibratingintome. “Say it, or I won’t give it.”

“Fuck me,” I gasp, all restraint gone, except for the literal restraints at my wrists, pinning me to his headboard with zero chance of escape. “Please, just—mmph!”