by Alexa Riley
“I’m sorry.” I don’t want to think about not having my parents, and my heart aches for him.
“Don’t be sorry. I let them go a long time ago. Frost and I felt we owed them a meeting today, but it’s the same bullshit.”
“You’ll always have Frost, and you can make your own family one day.”
A wicked smile crosses his lips, and for all I know I could be pregnant right now. Neither of us voices that aloud, but I know we’re both thinking it.
“I will make my family inside you, krasota, but for tonight I will let you go.”
He releases his hold around me and slowly pulls his cock out. I moan at the loss, but he helps me fix my clothes and kisses me the whole time. When he opens the car door, I see we’re back at my house. He leans down and gives me one last kiss as he brushes his nose against mine.
“This will be the last night I sleep without you.”
I stare at him in shock, unsure what to say. Is he saying I’m moving in with him?
“Go inside. Your mother and sister are watching you.”
I laugh as I let go of his hand and walk inside. When I glance back over my shoulder, I see him get into the car and then watch me as the car pulls away. God, did we really just have a drive-by fuck?
As I go inside, I stop when I see an envelope on the ground in front of the door. Someone must have dropped it when they brought the mail in. I pick it up, but when I flip it over it only says my name on it.
“What’s that?” Cookie asks when she sees me opening it.
“Someone left it at the door.” We stare down at the pictures and it’s of a beautiful woman with her hands on Miller.
“Is that the woman we saw him with earlier?” Cookies asks, and I silently nod.
Behind the picture is an engagement announcement and as I read it, I think I’m going to throw up.
Chapter Sixteen
Miller
“You left me,” I tell Frost as I walk in his house and take a seat on the couch across from him.
“I had nothing left to say.” He shrugs as he takes another drink of the vodka in his glass.
A moment of silence passes between us and then I sigh. “We are cutting off contact with them.”
He nods as he places his empty glass on the table and fills it again. “For tonight I wish to forget.”
That was the reason I went to Pumpkin. I wanted to get lost in her and forget about our past. I wanted to lose myself in her body, and she’d welcomed me. She opened for my cock and my heart as I used her as a balm for my aches. Even now, not moments after I’ve left her, I crave her once more.
“Will you marry this woman?” Frost asks, reading my thoughts.
“Da, in time.” I sit back and drape my arm over the back of the sofa. “But I would like her pregnant first.”
“Why?”
“A paper is nothing.” I wave a hand dismissively. “I will make my vows to her, but my child in her body is the unbreakable bond.”
“There is no woman I wish to be bound to.” Frost tips back his glass, and I smile at him.
“Yet.”
“Never.” He shakes his head. “I will not do what they did to us.”
“And you think I will?” He looks up at me, and even though I can read his thoughts, he still says them aloud.
“No, but you are stronger than me.”
“You’re wrong.”
He remains silent to close the subject, and I allow it. Frost is as cold as his name, and if he truly shuts down, then there’s no going back. But I would feel sorry for him if he closed off his heart to what he could have. To what I feel for Pumpkin.
“Do you want to know who our mother thought our bride should be?” I ask, teasing a smile out of him.
“Did she tell you?” Frost can’t help but be curious.
“She showed up, late of course.” When he cocks his head to the side expectantly, I decide to tell him. “Chel.”
He barks a laugh so hard it surprises the both of us. “You are joking.”
“Nyet.” I shake my head.
Frost sobers after a moment and then looks into my eyes. “I have this feeling that it’s not over.” I nod in agreement. “You should keep a close eye on Pumpkin.”
I clench my jaw because he’s not wrong. There’s not many things our parents wouldn’t do to get what they want. Especially if someone was standing in the way of that. I think about what they might actually follow through with, and the thought turns my stomach.
Pulling out my phone, I send a quick text to Pumpkin telling her that I miss her, and I want to call her tonight so I can hear her voice. She doesn’t text back right away, but I assume that she’s busy, and I try to be patient.
There’s a knock on the door, and Frost scowls as he stands up from the couch. “I knew this would happen.”
We both go to the front door, and when he opens it our mother is standing there alone. I glance behind her to the town car, but there’s no one else besides the driver.
“He’s not with me,” she says softly, but neither Frost nor I make a move.
“You’re not welcome here,” he says.
“You were always the cruel one,” she hisses at him, and when he moves to step toward her, I block his path.
“What do you want? You knew coming here would only upset us.”
“I just came to apologize. I guess I misread the relationship.” She motions between us like we’re strangers to her. “But Chel is more than willing to make exceptions.” Our mother smiles as she shrugs. “But she seemed so eager to have both.”
“What is wrong with you?” I want to scream at her, but her slight frame and skittish manner make me keep my calm. “You are selling us like cattle for the sake of your social status.”
“Arranged marriages are common in our culture,” she hisses and then looks down her nose at us. “You are both spoiled.”
I wish there was a way to get through to her, but I know there can’t be. “You made the choice to stay with him.” I level her with a glare, and for once she doesn’t respond. “We tried to get you to leave him, but you stayed and blamed us.” Frost grabs my shoulder to stop me, but it needs to be said. “You were a terrible mother, and we succeeded in spite of you.”
“Miller—” she begins, but I cut her off.
“You will not get your way with this. I don’t care what you do, you will not make us bend.”
There’s a long pause, and the smile I see curl at the edge of her lips sends a chill down my back.
“We shall see.” With that, she walks off the porch and silently gets into the waiting town car.
Frost and I stare after her for a long time before he closes the door and looks at me. “What now?”
As I pull out my phone and send another text to Pumpkin, dread fills my stomach. There’s still no response from her, but I have to trust that if there was a problem, she would tell me.
“We try to make it through the night.”
Chapter Seventeen
Pumpkin
I see my phone light up, and it buzzes on my nightstand. I’ve gone from crying to being pissed, and now I’m wondering if he was with her tonight. Did he jump at the chance to be with her after I told him that I couldn’t spend the night with him? I don’t understand any of this. When he let me go, he all but said we’re moving in together.
This happened so quickly that there might be sides to Miller that I don’t know about. Am I the mistress? He acted like he wanted to wife me, but maybe I’m the fling. The thought of him being with another woman makes me sick to my stomach. Hell, it makes me feel sick when I think of myself being with another man. I guess sex is different to him.
Cookie walks into my room and sits on the side of the bed. “You should talk to him.” She grabs my phone and reads his text. “He misses you.”
Damn it, why are my eyes filling with tears again? I was sure I was past the crying stage.
“If you don’t say something or respond, he’s going to show up here.” She has a
point. “Do you want me to sleep with you tonight?” she teases.
As kids we'd always sneak into each other's rooms to whisper late into the night. We’ve always been close and didn't go through a phase in our teenage years of not liking each other.
“I’ll text him.” I take the phone from her hand. “If he shows up here and gets his hands on me, I’ll forget why I’m upset. That man has put a spell on me or something.”
“I think that’s love, Pumpkin. You’re in love with him.”
She is right, and my heart aches. The way he touched me and the sweet things he said don’t make sense when I think about him being with someone else. I can’t wrap my mind around it, and I’m starting to see why my sister refuses to date. She gives me a giant hug then leaves me to send my text.
I debate if I should call but chicken out quickly and go with a text. I can’t stop myself from rereading all the texts we’ve sent each other, which only makes me miss him more.
Me: After a lot of thought, I think that we should end things. I’m not ready for a relationship.
When I hit send, I see the time stamp change to show he’s read the message. I stare at the screen waiting for him to say something, but he doesn't. After five minutes, I drop my phone on the bed and close my eyes. What the hell?
He didn't even ask why, which pisses me off. He probably can’t text back because he’s with the blonde in the picture. She was beautiful and looked like a woman who would fit perfectly on his arm.
I get out of bed and go downstairs to make hot chocolate. Everyone else is already in bed, so I search the cabinet as quietly as I can for marshmallows. When I turn, a hand comes down over my mouth and I scream against it until I realize it’s Miller. He’s standing over me with a scowl on his face, and I wonder how the hell he got here so fast…and made it inside my house.
He slowly drops his hand from my mouth. “I don’t want to wake everyone up.”
“How did you get in here?” I hiss at him. “And why do you have to be so handsome all the time?” It’s my turn to scowl as I hit him with the bag of marshmallows.
I so desperately want to jump into his arms and kiss him, but I can’t.
“Krasota, you think you can break up with me over text?” He lets out a deep chuckle like this is some kind of joke. “I bet our baby is already inside of you. There is no getting away from me.”
My mouth falls open as a protective hand goes to my stomach. I don’t realize I’m crying until Miller picks me up and begs me to stop. I sniffle and bury my face in his neck as I breathe in his scent. This time I don’t smell anyone else on him, and I wonder if it would be horrible to have one last night with him.
“Take a ride with me.” Before I can answer, he’s walking out the back door of my house and pulling me with him.
“I know what happens when we end up in cars together,” I say, glaring at him.
His eyebrows furrow as he watches me. He looks as confused as I was when I saw those pictures and the engagement announcement.
He pulls me into his lap, and I know I should fight him, but I don’t. He brushes his mouth against mine, and I kiss him back. My body is a traitor as his fingers dig into my hair and the kiss becomes possessive.
“I’ll never let you go, krasota.”
“I don’t want you to let me go.” But I do want to be his only.
“Then why did you text me such things?” His accent is thicker now, like when we make love.
I rest my head on his shoulder, feeling tired already. His hand slips into my silk pajama shorts as his other hand snakes up to cup my breast. His thumb toys with my nipple and my body melts for him.
“Krasota, you are always wet for me.”
I’m shameless when it comes to him as I rock against his fingers. I want him so badly that when he slips them inside me, my hips rock forward. His thumb rubs my clit, and I wish it was his cock.
“Miller.” I feel the orgasm coming as my sex clamps down on his finger. With just a few quick strokes, I come apart in his arms and bite his neck at the same time. It’s so hard that I wonder if I’m subconsciously marking him.
When it’s over, I don’t move, and I close my eyes. I listen to the sound of his heart beating as I breathe him in, and he pulls his fingers out of me. I instantly want more because I’m greedy and I know that I’ll never be able to share him.
“I love you,” I tell him. “You made me fall in love with you.” It comes out as an accusation, and he holds me tighter.
“I love you, too, my krasota.”
I shake my head and sit up to look him in the eyes. “I don’t fit into your world, and it will never work. We should end things before we get even more attached.”
“I will never let you go,” he growls. “I don’t care what it takes, but you belong to me.”
“You’re getting married.”
“Da,” he says, confirming the invitation.
“I need to go inside. I have to be up early.” Now I want out of this car.
“I won’t let you go, krasota.”
“What did you do today?” I ask, anger flaring inside of me.
“I told you. I met with my parents.” He gives me a confused look.
“Anything else?” I push for more.
“I went to my brother’s to check on him. Our meet-up with them didn't go well.”
He’s not going to tell me, so I lean in and kiss him softly one last time. I slip off his lap and open the car door quickly before he grabs onto me again.
He said he loved me, but it’s clear that Miller can lie without hesitation. It’s also clear he doesn't only belong to me, so I have to let him go.
I jump out of the car and rush to the house, but I only get a few steps before I feel Miller’s hands on my hips and then I’m thrown over his shoulder.
“We’re not done yet,” he growls and stomps back to the car.
I try to wiggle off of him, but he smacks my ass hard. “Let me go, you cheating asshole.”
He puts me in the car, and I hear the locks engage as the car takes off. I see now Miller wasn't teasing about not letting me go.
The look in his eyes tells me he won’t stop until he owns every part of me.
Chapter Eighteen
Miller
“Cheating asshole?” I bark when Pumpkin crawls away from me and crosses her arms over her chest.
“I know all about her.” She sniffs but still won’t look me in the eyes.
I let out a stream of curses in Russian because I can’t get my mouth to catch up with my translation. “Explain,” is all I can manage to calmly say as I move closer to her.
“The woman I saw you with.” When she finally turns her eyes on me, they are filled with anger and tears. “Someone was even kind enough to send the engagement announcement.”
“It’s a lie,” I hiss, grinding my teeth. I’m going to burn my mother’s house to the ground for distressing Pumpkin like this.
“How do I know?” Her shout ends on a whimper as she slumps in the seat.
When I pull her to me, she begins to cry harder, and I beg her to stop.
“No, you cannot cry.” I hold her tighter and bury my face in her neck. “You’re breaking my heart.”
“God, Miller, how is this happening?” She looks up at me and pleads, “I don’t even know you yet, but it was love at first sight. I thought this was it and you were the one.”
“I am.” I run a frustrated hand through my hair. “Who was on the announcement?”
She blinks a few times and sobers as if thinking it over. “Someone named Chel.”
I curse again in Russian and shake my head. “It is not real, it is a lie.”
“What?” Her eyebrows pull together as she leans back a little.
“It’s my mother, krasota.” I bury my face in my hands and I feel her touch on my back. “I’m so sorry she’s done this to you.” I take a deep breath and try to think of the best way to explain this. “She is a wicked and selfish woman. She would stop at
nothing to have what she wants. And that certainly includes getting in the way of the woman I love.”
I cradle her face in my hands and stroke my thumb over her lip.
“You were right, it was love at first sight. You are my soul mate, Pumpkin. I didn’t know I was looking for you, yet here you are.”
“Why would any mother do that?”
“I believe she is broken inside. She is a victim of abuse, yet she is unable to leave our father. We tried many times to help her leave, but she has chosen to stay.” I shrug my shoulders in defeat. “She’s tried everything to manipulate us, including today.”
“I saw you with a young blonde today.” She looks down at her lap, and I force her to meet my gaze.
“My mother brought Chel there as part of an arranged marriage with Frost and me.”
That causes her to pause, and she tilts her head to the side. “To both of you?”
“Da.” I roll my eyes because it’s embarrassing to admit. “Chel put her arms around me before I could step away. She took me by surprise, but her touch repulsed me.” I lean into Pumpkin’s hand and close my eyes. “There is only one woman that will ever touch me as long as I live.”
“So this was all just a misunderstanding?”
I open my eyes to see her biting her bottom lip. “In time we will learn how to speak with open hearts so that there is nothing unsaid.” I place a soft kiss on her lips and then look into her eyes once more. “But we have our entire lives to do that. Until then, we may stumble, but always together. Da?”
“Da,” she agrees and smiles as she throws her arms around me.
“You know how hard it makes me when you speak to me in Russian.”
She leans close to my ear and licks the shell before she whispers. “Ty mne nuzhen.”
My body stiffens and my hands go to her ass as I grind her down on my cock. “You need me?”
“Da,” she says again, and I have to close my eyes and ask God for control.
“I don’t want to fuck you in a car again. Let me come to your bed tonight.”