I couldn't get enough of his skin and I clawed at his shirt, pulling at the buttons until they came away and I could bare his chest and drink in his muscled pecs, touching him greedily everywhere that I could. My lips couldn't get enough of him.
On his large couch, when he stripped my dress off I wrapped my thighs tight around his waist, groaning greedily at the press of his arousal. He was so hard he was trying to punch through the fabric of his pants and his seams were in danger of ripping apart like he was the Incredible Hulk. I already knew his cock was monstrous, but now I knew exactly what it felt like buried deep inside me, I wasn't afraid of it any longer.
The only thing I knew was that I had to have him again and again, and I wanted him to come deep inside me because that was the only way I'd know for sure that I was his. I wanted that. When I was with him nothing else mattered.
Crazy for him and feeling starved of his touch even though he couldn't get much closer to me, I tugged at his fly, pulling the button open and the zipper peeled down all on its own. And then I was tugging his pants down over his hips and he was kicking them away.
This time I felt more confident, knowing that I knew how it was going to go. I wasn't a clueless virgin any longer and pussy was already dripping wet for him as though it remembered exactly what his cock felt like.
Words deserted me, but it didn't matter as I shoved the waistband of his boxers down and shimmied out of my panties, greedy for more of his hot skin and his throbbing sex burning right against mine. I shuddered with need, clenching my thighs hard around him, desperate to draw him closer.
His eyes were dark and dangerous with lust and he let out a low, thrumming growl, pulling me even harder against him. I squeezed my hand between us, grabbing Valentin's thick, pulsing cock and splayed my thighs as wide as they would go.
He shifted, on his knees as I lined his fat, hot head against my entrance and he pushed between my slick pussy lips. I gasped as he breached me, not quite prepared for the stretch his girth demanded, but he covered my mouth with his own, kissing me hard as he shifted his hips and wave, after wave of glorious pleasure swam through my veins.
"Valentin!"
His hips pistoned faster, until I could barely cling on and there was nothing for me to do but lie there and take it, my head thrown back with abandon as everything exploded into a world of red and swirling color behind my eyelids.
He kept on going through the swell of my first orgasm and the rising push of the next flowed right on into it until I was so sensitive I could hardly take any more.
I heard myself whimper, barely knowing whether I wanted him to stop or keep going, and I clawed my hands down his back, clinging on for all that I was worth. After this, I wasn't going to be able to walk right for a week, but I didn't care.
Right when I thought he was about to come inside me, Valentin scooped me up with his arms under my bare ass so that I had to cling to him, desperate not to let him slide out of my body. I clung to him as he got to his feet, groaning at the shift his rigid shaft made inside me. Everything was hotter than before and I was thoroughly impaled.
On the way to his bedroom, he slammed me up against the corridor wall, and I came again with him ploughing me against it. The man was a dynamo and there was nothing stopping him. When he finally pushed his bedroom door open and we collapsed down onto his bed, I locked my ankles around his waist and he thrust long and hard and slow half a dozen times before his whole body tensed.
My pussy clenched around him, clinging on to coax out all that it could get as he painted my insides with all the come his balls had been holding onto. I kissed him hard, unable to do anything else but tremble and shake, delirious from the pleasure he'd wracked through me.
Valentin turned me into a gibbering wreck, but I didn't give the slightest damn. In his arms I was the safest I'd ever been, and it was exactly where I wanted to stay.
When I finally stopped shaking, Valentin rolled off me and pulled me under the sheets with him. Sweaty and delirious, it took me long minutes to get my breath back, but it didn't matter. I was right where I was supposed to be, in Valentin's large bed, stretched out against his chest. There wasn't anywhere else in the world I would have rather been and stayed right there all the way through until morning.
I woke up from what felt like the best dream in the world to realize that it was all real life. Snuggling in against Valentin's side was the best feeling in the world.
"Valentin?" I whispered, and he tilted his head, lifting it from the pillow to squint at me.
"My love?"
"I want you to meet my parents."
Valentin's sleepy smile burst onto his face with a rush of warmth I hadn't been expecting. "I would like nothing more in the world."
"Really?"
"Really. I will show them that you are in good hands with me."
"You don't think I'm being silly - that it's too soon?"
"Why would it be too soon? This, between us, this is strong. It's not going anywhere. They should know that I plan on being with you for a very long time. I want them to be happy for you."
"I think they will be. Once they get to know you."
Valentin let out a short grunted laugh. "You think they will worry that I am too old for you?"
I met his eyes, but I felt myself chew on my lower lip. "I don't know. Even if they do, it doesn't matter. You're the only man I've ever felt like this about. You're the only man who makes me happy, so they'll just have to get used to it."
Valentin's gaze on me intensified, and suddenly I was very aware that he was looking at me exactly the same way he had right before we ended up in his bedroom the night before.
"You're beautiful, Mia," he said, voice all gravelly and low as he pulled me into another slow, winding kiss full of everything he wanted to do to me and more.
I didn't want to pull away, but- "Wait - wait. I have to go to work."
He let out a grumble, shifting his hands over my hips and pulling me harder in against his already straining erection. "Call in sick."
"Valentin, I can't…"
It must have taken everything he had in him to pull away and he did so with a fierce groan. Sitting up abruptly on the edge of the bed, his bare feet flat on the floor he sat there for a single deep breath before he stood up and pulled on a fresh pair of boxers before he strode across the room and out into the hall.
"Stay there."
With the covers pulled up over my breasts, I did what he said and a moment later he was back in the doorway, erection still standing tall. His eyes roved over me again, but it was as though he didn't trust himself to step any closer.
He threw something and it landed with a heavy drop onto the sheets. "For you."
I picked up a set of keys and looked at him quizzically. "What?"
"I want you to come and go as you please. I meant what I said: my house is your house."
My eyes widened, and my smile felt like it was going to split my face right open. "Really? I love that. Thank you!"
I gripped the set of keys hard in my palm, half thinking that I must still be dreaming.
"Really, Mia. Stop doubting this, there is nothing I want more than to be with you."
"Not even Moscow?"
"Not even the world. Now get out of my bed before I tie you to it and keep you as my prisoner all day."
I laughed. "That sounds all kinds of tempting. Maybe I should stay here after all…"
My hair was still damp from the hurried shower I'd taken before I left Valentin's when I rushed past the couple of overly muscled men in suits on the door of the theater on my way to the rehearsal studio. I was barely in time to set my bag down by the wall and strap my shoes on before we were due to start, but for the first time in years I didn't care. I was glowing with everything the morning had brought, and there was no way that I was going to be able to get Valentin out of my head all day.
I could still feel the stretch of him inside me, and the discomfort of never before used muscles was only going t
o become more evident when I flexed. It felt like everything had changed, and somehow I was surprised that I was the only one who knew it. It felt like Eva should have been able to take one look at me and know that I was in a real relationship now, that Valentin was truly mine. But she had her own preoccupations when she came over to me.
"Did you see those two guys on the door?"
I nodded, looking back over my shoulder automatically, even though the door had fallen closed behind me and there was the whole length of corridor between them and us as well. I'd hardly looked at them and they'd hardly looked at me, but now that she mentioned it, it was a little bit strange.
"Yeah. What's all that about?"
Eva shrugged. "They've been checking everyone's bags and only letting you through if your name's on the list."
My eyebrows darted up towards my hairline. "Seriously?" They hadn't checked anything at all to do with me; I'd just walked right past them. So what did that mean?
"There must have been some kind of security threat to the theater."
"A security threat? Really?"
"Oh, you know. Somebody who wants to plant a bomb or something."
I frowned at her, suddenly feeling alarmed. The voice of my mother started panicking in my head, demanding I get right on the first flight back home. "In the Bolshoi Theatre?"
She shrugged, seemingly laid back about it all. "Last year we had animal rights activists complaining about the feathers the costume designer used for the Swan Lake tutus."
I laughed. "No way."
"You have no idea."
I watched her tape her feet and strap on her practice shoes, falling quiet while I did the same. Maybe she was right, and all this was because of some heightened threat to the theater itself. That would have made the most sense. But I couldn't shake the feeling that maybe Valentin had something to do with it. After all, why else would they check everyone else except for me?
But maybe that was just paranoia.
It wasn't as though I was suddenly under threat just because I'd started something with Valentin. How could I be? Nobody aside from Eva and Maria knew about us. Not really. Yuri hardly counted, and why would he even care? The only other person was his security guy Viktor. But he was a good guy. I could tell he wouldn't cross Valentin even if his life depended on it.
Both of us looked up as the choreographer strode into the room, and we scrabbled to our feet side by side, hurrying to take our places in the line as he clapped his hands, unwilling to test his patience.
"Heads high, ladies! Posture, posture! Turn out your feet!"
They were still there when we broke for lunch, and they didn't move from the door all day. One of the girls heard an argument between them and the front of house manager who wasn't going to let them set up a checkpoint to make the audience go through additional security when they already did their own checks.
Maria gave me a pointed look across the stage, and I felt myself flush even though I didn't know for certain this had anything to do with Valentin at all. What did he think was going to happen to me here? The whole thing was ridiculous and it definitely could not go on like this, that was for sure.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Mia
It felt kind of wonderful letting myself into Valentin's apartment when I was done with for the day. As usual, I'd barely had time to get myself together and grab something to eat before the performance, but for the first time since I'd arrived, it felt like I had somewhere truly homely to come back to afterwards, rather than just my bedroom in an otherwise empty place.
Valentin had asked me to call him when I left the theater so that he could come and meet me, but it seemed so silly to do that when I knew he couldn't make the performance himself because work was keeping him late.
Sneaking into his apartment to surprise him sounded better to me. And I couldn't stop myself from grinning as I stepped into the hall and rounded the corner into the main room to see him there, working away, fully absorbed in spreadsheets and paperwork.
I cleared my throat. "Hello handsome."
"Hello Mia." His smile when he looked up to see me standing there was definitely worth it. "I told you to call me when you were done."
"Yeah, well. I'm a big girl." For a minute I just stood there, letting the feeling of being completely in the right place sink deep into my bones. "There were a couple of bodyguards checking everyone who came into the theater today."
Valentin looked back to the screen of the laptop he was working at on the dining table, giving it more attention than it probably needed. "Oh yes?"
"They wouldn't have anything to do with you, would they?"
He stopped what he was doing, leaning back in his chair and folding his hands behind his head so that I caught a full view of the stretch of his chest and the way the fabric of his shirt strained across his muscles. I wondered whether he was trying to distract me. "Why would you say that?"
"Oh, no reason. Only that the theater manager didn't put them there, and they weren't cops. And then they sat in on the show, like they were on presidential bodyguard duty or something, only there were no celebrities in the audience."
Valentin frowned. "Fine. Yes. I sent them."
"Valentin! You can't do that! It's really disruptive. I'm trying to settle in."
"Usually I would come myself, but I had meetings I couldn't get out of this evening."
"But they were there all day, Valentin! Come on. You don't need to guard me."
"You don't know that. Timoshenko walked right into the theater…"
I let out a huff. "I know that there's no way I'm living like this. Sooner or later someone's going to figure out it's me they're watching. You think that's going to go down well at the theater? The roses were bad enough. Half the dancers there think I'm way too big for my boots already, and the director's going to start thinking I'm more trouble than I'm worth!"
Valentin slammed the lid of his laptop closed and let out a grumble. "I won't let that happen. And what was wrong with the roses? I thought you liked the roses?"
"Oh my God. Yes I liked the roses. But every night? I'm the newest dancer in the theater and - you can't tell people what to think. This isn't helping me out, Valentin! I'm trying to start my career here, I don't need you getting in the way!"
"I am not getting in your way."
"Yeah, you kind of are. I just - I want to work my way up, just like anybody else. I want to prove myself, and having all these distractions is really not helping!"
"So I am supposed to sit back and watch while someone attacks you? That's not fair."
"No one's going to attack me! And, yeah, you know what? It's not fair."
Valentin snarled, standing up sharply. But he didn't stride towards me, instead he stalked the width of the room like a caged tiger. "You're being ridiculous. I'm not getting in the way of anything. You're trying to do something that will never happen."
"What?" I felt my eyebrows hitch up sharply. Had he just said that?
"You can't work your way up. The ballet doesn't work that way."
I felt myself go numb and I couldn't make myself any louder than a whisper in case the sudden surge of tears I could feel building got the better of me. "You don't know what you're talking about."
"I know exactly what I am talking about. My mother used to have this conversation with girls just like you all the time. Either you are a Prima Ballerina, or your work for the Corps. You cannot do both."
I shook my head. That wasn't what I wanted to hear at all. He didn't know what he was talking about. And he was painting me as some kind of clueless dreamer when the opposite was true.
"You don't just walk into being a Prima Ballerina, Valentin!"
"No. And you do not get to be one by working yourself ragged dancing every night of the week without getting a single solo, or if you do get one, being too exhausted to perform at your best."
I gritted my teeth. "There isn't any other way! This is the job that I have and that's the only option open to me.
"
"No."
"Excuse me?"
"No. That is what you have been telling yourself because it is comfortable to be where you are. To say that you could not get this solo or that solo because you do not have the time, or that you are too tired, or that Maria is a better dancer. It is bullshit. She is mediocre and she always will be. But you are scared of the big wide world, and you want ballet school to continue forever."
I swallowed hard, feeling his words hit me like the slap that they were. "How dare you!"
I had tears in my eyes and fury in my chest and before I knew what I was doing, I crossed the room and slapped him. Valentin's hand bit into my wrist and he dragged my hand down from his face where already a red mark in the shape of my hand was starting to rise to the surface beneath the shadow of his stubble.
"You don't know a thing about me."
My chest was heaving with the effort of breathing through the rage he'd summoned, but despite myself I could feel my body reacting to his closeness and the ferocity of his grip. The last thing I ever should have wanted was him to manhandle me, or boss me about, but the sudden hardness of my nipples and the tingling in my clit was undeniable. I wanted him badly, even in the middle of a fight, and maybe all the more because of it.
For a moment I thought he might hit me back, and I tried to pull away, but he held me firm. "You need to decide whether you want to be brave, Mia."
"I'm here, aren't I?"
"So what?"
"I could have stayed back in America instead of coming all the way here."
Valentin laughed and his grip on my wrist loosened. "That was only the first step. You have to take what you want, Mia. No one is ever going to give it to you just like that. I should know. And you will be wasted in the Corps. Even I can tell you that. Why would you want to torture yourself through the impossibility of blending in with a dozen other bland, tutu-clad women who couldn't hold a flame to you?"
I eyeballed him, and snatched my arm back out of his grip, nursing my wrist where I could still feel the bite of his fingers.
Bratva Boss Page 12