She swallowed hard. “Understood.”
Once the fire was roaring, I walked naked across the library and picked up my jacket. I heard her inhale sharply, and she popped up from the blankets and scattered pillows now on the floor.
“I’m not leaving.” I told her, and searched my pockets for what I was after. I found it in the inside pocket and held it up for her to see.
“My cigarette case!” she said, “I thought it was lost forever.”
I popped it open for her and handed it over. “I told you I’d find it for you.”
She narrowed her eyes. “So, what exactly did you need to do at your father’s today?”
“There were things we needed to discuss.”
“And Petre? Did you see him?”
I tried to act casual, but even the mention of his name made me nauseous.
“I saw him briefly.”
“Does he know about us?”
“Not yet. But when he does, I will protect you, Valeria. You have my word.”
She kept her eyes on mine, sizing me up, then nodded and looked down at the case in her hands.
“What sort of things did you discuss?” she asked, a tight worry in her voice.
“Things. Things that will protect you, and me. Things for us. That’s all I want to say right now. There is more to it, but until things are settled, leave it at that.”
There was a long pause. She kept her eyes on mine, waiting for more, but I kept silent and after a few more deep breaths, she softened, leaving the subject alone for now which was a relief. I know she hates our family business, and in time I’ll prove to her things are going to change.
“Thank goodness you found it,” she said, with a happy flush in her cheeks. She rose up on her knees, naked and sex-ravaged. I’d marked her shoulder with a greedy bite mark, and already bruises were forming on her hips from where I’d gripped her as we fucked. Tucking her feet beneath her, she popped open the small clasp. “Want one?”
“I’ll share yours,” I told her, and lay down beside her on the rug to watch her.
She had a particular dark sexiness when she lit her cigarette, and having it in her hand made her bolder right away. With a few graceful shifts of her knees and body, she straddled me there in front of the fire. Her spread pussy pressed into my abs, and my half-hard cock sprang to life instantly.
“Fuck,” I said, letting the inside of my elbow cover my eyes.
She was so fucking sexy, it had to be a dream. It just had to be. I tried to force myself to wake up, but there she was when I opened my eyes, taking a long draw of the dark cigarette, letting her eyes flutter shut with the pleasure of it as the sweet smoke trailed out of her nostrils.
She passed it over to me, watching me now, and letting her golden honey curtain of hair fall over her shoulders, the loose curls tickling my pecs.
Handing the cigarette back to her, I exhaled and watched her take another draw. She closed her eyes on a sigh, and plucked a stray bit of clove off of her tongue, flicking it aside with her thumb and ring-finger.
Every goddamned thing about her was perfect. Everything.
“I love you,” I said.
The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them. But as soon as I said them, I knew they were the God’s honest truth.
Her eyes popped open in surprise that quickly gave way to a seductive stare from behind her thick, sexy eyelashes. The green of her eyes darkened as her pupils dilated and I waited.
It was mere seconds I’m sure, but in my heart it was a hundred years.
“I love you, too.”
I exhaled in relief.
I tucked one arm behind my head so I didn’t have to crane my neck to watch her. The scent of her pussy was distracting as fuck, all the more so because I could see my own cum dripping out of her, like milk-white honey.
“But I do worry,” she said, blowing smoke off to the side. Her expression had become more serious—her eyes were harder, the set of her teeth firmer. “About the gambling.”
Of all the times to have this conversation, she picked the one when her pussy lips were resting on my chest. Manipulative little brat. I growled at her as I took the cigarette from her fingers to have another draw.
“Nothing to worry about.”
She didn’t look convinced. “I saw you at that poker table, Vasile. You’ve got the itch. And that terrifies me.”
This—of all things—was not worth her getting worked up over. My brother, her fucking fiancée, was just this side of a goddamned serial killer and here she was busting my balls about poker.
“I’ve got it handled. I never bet more than I can spare. I know when to walk away from a table.”
Valeria eyed me with doubt. I could see she didn’t believe me. It made me angry to think that the men in her life had treated her so badly that she had this mistrust of everything. It was something I would have to change, with kindness and with punishment as necessary. She had to learn that I would never let her down, and I would never give her reason to doubt me. She needed to be content with that safety.
“I’m not your father, Valeria.”
“I never said you were,” she said, softening a little. But not much. “It just pisses me off that you can’t see why I might have a problem with gambling,” she said, getting worked up. “The only reason I’m—we are in this position, Vasile, is because of gambling. I won’t tolerate it. No way.”
She offered me another draw, but I passed. It wasn’t very often that someone called me out on something. But a part of me liked it. A part of me enjoyed the claws coming out.
All this talk could wait. I needed to be inside her and I needed it now. So, I glanced down at her dripping-wet pussy and ran my hands up her creamy curves.
“Seems to me that you’re pretty happy about being in this position.”
She smiled and tossed the remainder of the cigarette into the fire. When she turned back to me, she was fighting a sly smile that threatened to break out over her swollen cherry red lips.
“You’re a cocky bastard sometimes, you know that?”
Somehow, I felt her words in my bones, in my dick, and even in my heart all at once.
Christ, what was this woman doing to me? Every fucking time I felt like I had the upper hand, she flipped it around on me. But still, if she thought she was going to be the boss of me, she’d better think again.
“This is how it’s gonna go: You’re either gonna take all of me, or none of me. And that look in your eyes right now says you’d rather take none.”
She didn’t even flinch. She met me right where I was—anger to anger, rage to rage. Instead of shrinking from me, instead of saying it was all a misunderstanding or some wishy-washy shit like that, she said nothing.
Then, very slowly, she slid her hand down my chest, shifted her weight to one side, and reached between her legs. This time, she gripped my cock hard. She was greedy as she placed me at her opening and slid down onto me.
I arched my head back and growled as her tight, hot walls clenched around me.
“Does this feel like all, or none?” She challenged making my head spin.
Once she had me positioned inside, I took her face by the jaw and said, “No more talking.” And then pressed my palm over her mouth and instructed her on how to ride me.
Fuck almighty, how she rode me.
Chapter 19
Valeria
The morning of what was supposed to be my wedding day dawned frozen and crystal blue. Every bare branch sparkled with ice, as if candied with sugar.
Bundled up in a fur jacket and wearing riding breeches and boots that Vasile and I found in a packing trunk, I stood outside the manor house, helping him tack up Vela. I tightened the second of the two billets on the saddle unevenly, but my mind was so distracted that I stood there blankly, staring at the mismatched buckles, letting my mind drift.
Vasile stepped in to help me. Stepping back to let him get things squared away, I looked out at the horizon, letting my worrie
d thoughts unspool.
Vasile assured me that word had been sent to my parents about a change of plans. I was safe and secure in the Greengallow family home, being readied for the nuptials. He said his father had played the villain, letting them know the family was put off by my feigning illness the other night in order to leave, and they wanted to be sure I was going to keep up my father’s end of the bargain.
I was sure this caused both my parents some distress, but it was far better than the alternative. My father showing up to retrieve me from school and I’m nowhere to be found. This way, we have some time, not much but hopefully enough.
A clear single toll of a chapel bell down in the valley reminded me that it wouldn’t be long before the wedding guests began arriving. Petre and I weren’t to be married nearby, though; it had all been planned for the Coronation Cathedral, where royals always married, with its pealing bronze bells and gold-gilt ceiling, where strange Byzantine saints look down on the parishioners, judgmental and skeptical.
There would have been no way to stop the guests from coming as planned. Messages traveled slowly during this time of year; carrier pigeons couldn’t stand the cold and the riding was hard going in the further flung corners of Praque.
In a handful of hours, I imagined relatives and friends of my parents stepping out of their carriages, stretching aching legs, and my poor family having to explain that no, the bride isn’t here. No, we don’t know where she is. And yes, she was always a willful girl. But we never expected her to do this.
Inhaling hard, I let the freezing air sting my lungs.
Up above, a hawk circled, diving and spiraling to catch its unsuspecting prey. Usually, I was in awe of hawks on the hunt, but not today. Today it nearly made me sick to my stomach to watch. That ruthlessness was admirable in a bird, but terrifying to consider in Petre Greengallow.
“When he realizes I’ve stood him up, he’ll hunt me down himself,” I said. “We should have just called off the wedding; saved him the humiliation.”
“No.” Vasile’s voice was thick with conviction. “We needed Petre to believe everything was still in place. If he knew, he would have tried to find you for sure. And me. But I’m not worried about myself. I wanted to do this the best way to keep you safe. My father didn’t agree, but I made him promise to keep everything as it stands. You have to trust me, remember?”
Vasile turned to me, with dark eyes glistening in the cold air. He was more imposing and handsome than ever. He wore a huge, beautiful shearling coat that made his shoulders look even broader, and his thick-soled riding boots reminded me of something a warrior might wear.
He looped the bridle over his horse’s neck and then took me in his arms. He was so big and warm, so protective and certain, that for an instant I believed that surely, he could stand between me and the rest of the world. Whatever was to come, he would protect me.
But holding onto him tightly, I knew the truth. He was just one man. Strong and single-minded though he may be, there would be nothing either of us could do stop the tide that his brother would unleash on me. I was sure of it.
“Tell me again,” I said, my voice muffled slightly by the shearling lining of his coat.
His broad chest rose as he inhaled. I could tell he was losing his patience with me; if I’d asked him once, I’d asked him a hundred times. But if he was getting irritated, he thankfully didn’t let on. Instead he held me closer, shifting my hair aside, and leaning down close to my ear.
“We ride for my father’s estate. Once we’re there, there’s nothing my brother can do to get to us. My father has our back, he’s on our side. We will sequester ourselves in a secret quarters in the dungeon of the estate. Only my father will know where we are. He’s sent word to a priest. One loyal to my father who will not whisper a word to tip off anyone why he’s en route. We will be married by sundown.”
Married.
It was the simplest of plans, but to me it seemed like a suit of armor that was held together by gossamer threads. I’d fought so hard to regain some semblance of control over my own life and destiny, but I had no more control over how all this was to unfold than if I were bound and blindfolded.
It was hardly nine o’clock in the morning; so many things could happen between now and nighttime. So much could go wrong. And if it did, I would be ripped away from Vasile forever. I had already pleaded with Vasile a dozen times to just run away with me; we could book passage and head East, be married on a sugar-white beach in Mykos and send for my parents after.
But Vasile had told me he wouldn’t spend a life on the run with me, nor endanger my family by not being here to protect them. Not unless it was our last option to save our own skins.
I looked upward just in time to see the hawk dive to make its kill, then it disappeared from view.
I leaned back slightly from Vasile’s embrace and raised my eyes to his. He was smiling at me, looking as handsome and sexy as ever.
The intense winter morning light allowed me to see the barest hint of a dimple on his left cheek, something that I’d never seen clearly before. I touched it softly with the pad of my thumb and then summoned up the courage to ask the question I hadn’t dared ask until now: “What did you do to get your father on your side in all this?”
Vasile gave me a look that suggested that he’d rather not say.
But now was no time for more secrets. Whatever the cost had been, I needed to know.
“Please,” I said. “Please tell me. I do trust you, but this is my life too. I deserve to know.”
He pulled me close and placed a tender kiss to my forehead before saying, “I agreed to rejoin the family business.”
He what?
A wave of nausea made my knees buckle. It was as if he had punched me in the stomach. I was so shocked that it took me a moment to even name the emotion I was feeling. But soon enough I had it: betrayal, complete and total betrayal.
I pushed my way out of his embrace and lifted my furious gaze to him, feeling as if I had traded one criminal brother for another. Theirs was a terrible, dangerous, ruthless business, and I knew it was no life for me. Not now and not ever. Not with Petre and not with Vasile either.
I felt so blindsided and upended that I hardly knew what to say or how to say it. And so instead of trying to explain this wave of hurt and upset, I planted my hands on Vasile’s broad chest, pushed him away from me, and did what every animal would do when they felt trapped, scared, and in danger:
I ran.
He pursued me through the forbidding winter gardens, close on my heels. I took a quick left and made a break for the untamed forests beyond, but he caught up to me, tackling me and pinning me face-down against a snow drift.
The frigid ground stung my cheeks. As I clawed to get away, a layer of thawed and then refrozen snow dug painfully into my hands.
“I will not be a part of this,” I half-sobbed into the snow, thrusting my elbow into his stomach.
He groaned and released me just enough for me to get to my feet again. I was so close to being away from all this—all this fear, all this love, all this not being in control.
I wasn’t ready for any of this.
I hadn’t asked for it and I didn’t want it.
And I was right there, on the brink of getting away—the deer about to get free from a wolf—but Vasile was too big and too strong, and in a single moment he had his huge arms around me, lifting me off the ground so that my feet had nowhere to go.
Once again, the world began to close in—I could feel myself beginning to faint.
Damn it, damn it, damn it.
I sucked in big breath as Vasile’s huge arms gripped me tight. Fighting him with both hands and both feet, I did everything I could to make him let go so I’d fall to the ground and hopefully maintain my tenuous grip on consciousness.
“Please, please, please,” I sobbed. “Stop. Please just leave me alone!”
“Fuck almighty. Stop fighting me, Valeria. I saw you faint once. You don’t have to fuckin
g demonstrate it again.” He planted his knees in the snow, lowering me to the ground, planting one hand on either side of my shoulders and staring down at me.
Fighting back tears, trying my best to quell this wave of panic, of terror, of hope, of so much uncertainty, I clapped one hand over my mouth to stop myself from sobbing.
I hated this feeling, this whirlwind of emotions, and I was desperate to pull myself together. But it was no use. The emotions were coming and there was no way to stop them. He searched my face with concern when he saw a trickle of tears spill down my cheeks.
Vasile eased down onto me, letting my hips take some but not all of his massive weight. He brushed aside my tears. Though he was being tender, he still looked furious. And who could blame him? It had become nearly a daily occurrence that I either tried to bolt or fight him tooth and nail.
Still, I wouldn’t apologize for it. He’d have done the same if our roles were reversed, I was certain of it. I never apologized to an opponent in fencing and I wouldn’t do it with him.
He slipped one of his hands behind my head, keeping it off the snowy ground, and pulled me in for a kiss that felt desperate and greedy. But I was still so angry and upside down that even that was unwelcome, and I tried to shove him off me, keeping my lips tight and my cheek turned.
“Leave me alone!” I growled, clawing at him and kicking hard to get him away from me. “How dare you think you could just kiss me and everything is forgiven.”
He recoiled from my wild lunges and squirms just enough for me to open up my hand and wallop him with a ferocious smack on his cheek.
The crack of my palm against his face rang out through the still forest air. The sting of the slap shocked me as much as it shocked him and he stared at me with a look in his eye that absolutely petrified me.
So much anger, so much fury. So much need and love and hate.
Wild Heir (Fated Royals Book 4) Page 13