by Raven Scott
“Malen’kaya ptitsa…” whispering softly, my heart ached for her and I walked over to her bed to lay down across from her.
Yelene looked exhausted, even in her sleep. Bruises spotted her chin and jaw.
I wrapped a lock of her hair around my finger absently. “I am sorry.”
“I know.” Yelene cracked open her eyes and covered my hand with hers. “I heard you come in. How’s your eye?”
My lips quirked up. “There’s worse things to go through…” My gaze trailed down to the grip bruise on her arm. “Are you sure you’re all right? Erik tried to attack you and when I got there, you were stabbing him furiously in the face…”
“I—Honestly, I kinda don’t—really remember. He— he said he killed my parents, and the rest—it’s all blurry.”
Guilt clawed at the back of my throat and I gingerly scooted closer to Yelene as sadness settled deep in her eyes. Cupping her head, I pressed my forehead to hers to soak up her warmth.
She whispered, “Are you okay, Igra? You killed him—your own brother.”
“Ophelia shot him, actually. I just had to get him on the ground.” Surprise heightened her hum and I resisted the scowl that threatened to overwhelm me. “You’re not the only one that was lied to long before it became impractical to tell the truth. For months while I was in America, Ophelia refused over and over again to kill Aleksander despite having plenty more opportunity than me. I’m extremely unhappy with her right now.”
“She convinced me to live here by telling me my parents were alive.” Yelene tucked her head under my chin to hide. “I hit her. Hard. If she’d told me the truth, I wouldn’t have gone all this time waiting for this day—only to have it ripped from between my fingers. She told me she hadn’t planned anything for me—then what was the point of lying about my parents? I wasn’t any safer here than in Saint Petersburg. But instead of being my friend, like she said she was, she lied about everything.”
I sighed. “I wrestled with telling you, but she changed the plan right after I got here. I have no doubt the invitation was long agreed upon and she only sprung it on me so I couldn’t say ‘no’. If things hadn’t moved so fast, I would’ve broken the news to you when you mentioned the emails.” Suddenly, I felt incredibly ugly and I buried my face in her hair as Yelene’s heavy breath rolled down my chest. “I’m so, truly, sorry. I will work as hard as you need, and I don’t expect you to forgive me, Yelene.”
“I think I can, eventually. It wasn’t you who lied to my face, Igra and I understand why you were hesitant to bring it up. Ophelia—Ophelia used us both. I can’t blame you as much for being forced to participate. Most importantly—you apologized and I doubt she will—especially after I slapped her across the face.” She peeked up at me, and the dull, mid-afternoon sun that crept through the closed curtains hit her face just right. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I’m perfect right here, malen’kaya ptitsa.” Caressing her cheek, I ducked to hover close to her mouth.
Yelene didn’t hesitate to close the distance. Her lips crackled slightly and I slung my arm around her waist to hold her closer. Passion coated the roof of my mouth when she opened hers, and I tangled my tongue around hers.
She wiggled closer, her knee settling low against my thigh, and my heart raced. Grabbing a handful of her taut ass, goosebumps swept down my arm when Yelene moaned softly. Her night shirt rode up and delicate palms explored my chest before inching down. My abdomen clenched, her fingers leaving trails of fire in their wake as my other hand slipped up her smooth, creamy thigh.
Deftly pulling down the fastenings of my jeans, Yelene paused when I pulled back. Shallow breaths dried my throat and a rosy color painted my already bleary vision.
Gazing at me under heavy lids, she grabbed my wrist to press my palm against her bare, hot pussy, and her gasp rose above the blood drumming in my ears.
“I don’t want to take your choice again, Yelene.” I groaned when she pushed down my pants to palm my cock. Biting my inner cheek, my legs stiffened. “What about the annulment?”
She licked her lips heavily through her soft puffs of breath. “You’re all I have left, Igra—my parents are dead. Ophelia isn’t my friend like she’s been pretending. I have no friends or family. Y-you—you’re my husband and you can provide for me and keep me safe?”
Yelene’s words mirrored mine from the bathroom and my heart melted from her hot, shaky sigh.
“I don’t want to be alone, Igra.”
“I won’t leave you alone, malen’kaya ptitsa.” Her lips found mine almost ravenously, and I rolled onto my back so Yelene could climb on top of me. I buried my free hand in her hair, deepening the kiss, as the monumental actions of the day seemed to blanket us. She pumped my cock firmly, squeezing and releasing.
I groaned when she pinched the tip lightly. Spreading her pussy lips, I thumbed Yelene’s clit while she rocked against my palm. Tension gripped my body as her juices coated my fingers, and the taste of her overwhelmed my buds. Her whimpers rose above the blood drumming in my ears, faint and soft but so potent. Tilting her hips, she sucked in a sharp breath as I sunk two digits into her pussy. Long, slender fingers flexed around my cock, and her pussy walls tightened as she sat back on my palm.
“Oh-h…” The guttural moan echoed in the room and I curled my fingers to watch her shudder delicately. The muscles in her neck pulled taut and she braced her palms against my chest. Hovering above me like an angel, she tinged pink, so beautifully, and flipped her hair to the side. I gripped her hip to push her back, and her juices coated my shaft as she ducked her head with a moan.
“Holy fuck—” Just the sight of her face skewed in pleasure was almost enough to drive me home, and I wiggled my fingers. Yelene’s pussy clamped down and rippled as she scrunched up her nose. Her lips parted and I hooked my arm around her neck to draw her down again and roll us both on our sides. Creamy cum leaked onto my palm, and I slathered her pussy before groping her ass cheek.
Grinding between her folds, I panted heavily as Yelene writhed against me. Her kiss blew away any thought with her passion, and my abdomen tightened when she hiked her leg up over the small of my back. Her pussy lips hugged my cock so nice and the soft squelch of her wetness only added to the symphony of her moans.
Yelene pumped my cock from base to tip and pleasure coiled in my gut as we rocked in sync. Tangling our tongues, I reached to circle her clit, and her moan clogged my throat and nose. Slipping into her quaking pussy, I drove knuckle-deep again and again, and her body spasmed from ecstasy. Her lips and tongue stilled against mine, and I rolled her onto her back before her palm left me to bury into the blanket beneath us.
“Malen’kaya ptitsa.” Drilling her pussy as it tightened, I relished her shudder at my growl. Her juices squirted onto my palm and up my wrist, and I held her thigh out before she could clamp them together. Her soft cry seared into my ear drums, and she arched as I worked a third finger into her. Ducking to lick her nipples, I kissed down the valley of her breasts. The hairs on my arms and chest bristled as she writhed, shivering and bucking against my palm.
Sinking into the bed as her pussy eased around my fingers, Yelene gasped for air.
I braced my arms on either side of her head. Kissing her hard, with all the passion I could muster, I ground against her slick pussy lips. My sac slapped against her twitching ass cheeks, and I groaned when she reached down to rub my shaft.
“Fuck-k—malen’kaya ptitsa.” I pulled back too far, Yelene’s fingertips pushing me inside her, and I clenched my jaw hard. My sac tightened, pleasure rippling down my thigh and up my shaft as my cock throbbed painfully. Her entrance tightened around my head and I buried my face in her chest as shivers ripped through my spine.
Cum spurted up my shaft and the head of my cock ached as I emptied myself in Yelene. She was so still, only her heart beating furiously against my forehead. Sloppily kissing up to her chin, I sucked in a sharp, deep breath of her scent before capturing her lips.
Rolling off her and onto my back, I gathered Yelene to my side before my arms became useless. She snuggled so nicely against me, her leg across my abdomen and head on my shoulder. Sweaty and panting, I barely felt the pain in my face when I pressed my cheek against her forehead.
For the past two weeks, this moment had been building, and the satisfaction of it was so intense that even the foreboding of the next few days couldn’t penetrate the bliss filled fog in my mind.
17
Yelene
Staring out the window as Sascha and Ophelia prepared to light Erik and Aleksander’s bodies on fire, I crossed my arms tightly over my chest.
Tears pricked my eyes, but not sad ones. Lost ones. Fear of the unknown.
Being under Aleksander’s boot for so long, I wasn’t sure how to live without that pressure. Calloused palms settled on my shoulders, as Igra wrapped an arm around my sternum. Warmth enveloped me, and I leaned against him as the scene played out on the snow.
“We’re okay, malen’kaya ptitsa?”
Mumbling softly in my ear, Igra drew my attention from the pyre. I nodded mutely.
His eyes glistened with earnestness. “I don’t want you to regret what happened earlier.”
“I don’t. We stopped before anything drastic happened.” I knew the question was on his mind, and Igra grimaced against my temple. Sixteen was old enough, but I wanted to date, and maybe my first time would be with someone special. “If I’m being honest, it’s pretty much how I wished. It’s a little backwards, but…”
“I’ll take you on a date if you’d like, Yelene.”
Flames licked up my cheek, and I hummed softly in agreement.
Igra tightened arm around me before pointing down below almost dismissively. “Are you sure you want to watch this?”
“I’d rather this than think about what’s going to happen next. Aleksander is dead, but the snake still writhes after it loses its head.” When I looked down, the pyre was being drenched in petrol by Sascha. Something just seemed to be so ugly about the color a white sheet turned when wet with gas. “Won’t your family be after you?”
“Anatoly, if he manages to escape. Aleksander has a following, but I couldn’t say how fanatic they are or if they’ll come after us. Ophelia’s the one that killed him. We just got into another fight, him and I.” Igra’s nonchalance betrayed the dark lilt in his tone. “That bitch will blame me for it, though, I’m sure.”
“I wouldn’t put anything past her. She called me a true friend, but she’s been lying since the day we met.” Bitterness lodged in my chest.
Igra squeezed me reassuringly reaching to push back my hair behind my ear.
I pressed my hand against the cold glass. Goosebumps swept up my arm and far below in the garden, Sascha and Aleksander’s driver worked in silence to douse the pyre. “What about the meeting?”
“It has nothing to do with me, but I would like to express my condolences to my father.”
Humming quietly in acknowledgment, my mind churned leisurely.
Beyond the frosted pane, Ophelia looked up at us, but there wasn’t a flicker of guilt anywhere on her face that I could see. Pursing my lips thinly, my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth.
She looked away first.
“I won’t tell you how to feel, Yelene, but power is loneliness. I’m sure, even though she wasn’t a good friend to you… you were a good friend to her.”
“Yeah? Well, it goes both ways. She could’ve told me…should’ve told me, and it would’ve been horrible, but at least she wouldn’t have spent the past year lying to my face.” I shook my head and squared my shoulders. I didn’t want to be stuck on Ophelia forever. In the long run, her betrayal was more unnecessary than it was damning. “Do you know where they are? My parents, I mean?”
“Unfortunately, no. Aleksander wasn’t in the habit of respecting the dead. I’m sorry, malen’kaya ptitsa.”
A hard shiver lodged between my shoulder blades at his mumble and I deflated when the air knocked from my lungs. Sadness slithered up and down my spine, flirting with a certain sense of hopelessness. I couldn’t do anything about it, now. I clenched and released my jaw in the terse silence. “You were right. We should go.”
Fire engulfed the wood and flesh below in a dense plume, as the smell of burning hair instantly seeped through the edges of the windows.
Turning to Igra fully, I almost winced at how heavily he favored his left leg, and I reached to touch the bandage on his right thigh. “Are you hurting?”
“Nothing unbearable, no. You didn’t do any real damage, Yelene.”
Relief slumped my shoulders.
Igra smiled down at me as he drew my hands to his mouth. His eyes brightened, and my abdomen cramped lightly as he lipped my fingertips. “I told you, didn’t I? I will accept all the pain you wish on me. At the very least, I’ve wronged you, Yelene.”
“It means a lot that you say that, Igra.” Caressing his sharp jaw, I pushed myself onto my toes to kiss him. Igra’s tongue slipped into my mouth, and he cupped the back of my head before shuffling back. Deepening the kiss, I moaned as need threaded my veins. He sat down on the bed, his free hand pressing against the small of my back to draw me into his lap. Straddling his thighs, I wrapped my arms around his neck, and he laid back to grab a handful of my butt and squeezed. “We should go to my place, if it’s still there.”
Surprise rippled through me, and I pushed myself up.
Igra smiled warmly. “This was never permanent, and since we’re being honest—I’m not sure I want to deal with the next mess Ophelia tries to force onto me.”
“O-oh, it’s been months, though, right? Is your place still…you know— your place?”
“I’d like to think my father would step in, but I don’t really know. We’ll find out when we get there. It’s not far from Red Square.”
A little, awkward giggle escaped me.
Igra arched a brow as his hands settled on my hips heavily. “Did you think I was homeless?”
“No. I just—I didn’t think about it at all.” Flames licked my cheeks at my own confession. “I haven’t really left this house in a long time. Sometimes, it feels like the rest of the world doesn’t exist.”
“Let’s go out, then.” Excitement glimmered in Igra’s eyes and he sat up with a low grunt.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, but a strange thrill gripped my heart in a vice.
“We’re not prisoners here, Yelene. Our work is done, so there’s no reason to stay. You can wear your best dress, and I’ll wear my expensive shoes.” He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.
Another laugh breached my lips even as they curved upwards. Pushing him back down, I climbed off Igra’s lap to stretch my arms over my head. Somewhere, under the fleeting light sensation tingling behind my eyes, I wondered how long this would last. When word spread that Igra was the one that killed Aleksander, even if that wasn’t the technical truth, he would be hunted.
Lowering my arms with a heavy sigh, I nodded before my worries could overwhelm me. Igra stood up to hold my cheeks in his warm, dry palms, and I closed my eyes briefly to savor his touch.
“If something happens, I will handle it. Trust me, malen’kaya ptitsa.”
When I opened my eyes, Igra’s purpled face was all I could see and I reached to touch his injured eye gingerly.
He didn’t flinch, if he felt anything at all, but he covered my hand with his firmly. “I’ve gotten into worse scrapes and come out okay. My eye is fine. Even the weakest person can become the deadliest with a gun in his hand.”
“I trust you.” And I did—even if only because I didn’t want to think of anything else. Not my parents, not Aleksander’s dead body burning, or Ophelia’s betrayal. Everyone around me couldn’t or wouldn’t apologize for taking advantage of me, and I rocked forward to press my forehead against Igra’s sternum. “Thank you for—for apologizing—and for sincerely apologizing.”
“It’s only fifteen times. There are many more
hours in the day to apologize.”
I hummed softly, stepping away to run my hands up my face and through my hair. The throbbing in my jaw wasn’t terrible right now, but much like Igra, it would be worse tomorrow. Glancing around the room, an ugly frown twisted my lips.
“What?” he asked.
“Nothing in here is mine…”
Igra snorted as he waved a hand dismissively. “Fuck her. If she gave it to you, it’s yours, Yelene. Just because you didn’t buy it, doesn’t mean it’s not yours. And if you ask me, you’re not obligated to leave anything. You can sell whatever you don’t want, but it’s yours to do so.”
He seemed so careless about these things that failed to fill my life. Walking past Igra to the dresser, I gingerly popped open the jewelry box sitting on top. Inside were a few bracelets, some earrings, and a necklace my parents had given me when I turned ten years old. Now, looking at the jewelry, their glittering almost seemed malicious and dull.
One of the bracelets, Ophelia had given me for my birthday. A few others and a pair of earrings were from Christmas. Tentatively picking up a pair of pearl earrings, I would never wear, the cold seared my palm, and the sharp edges threatened to slice my skin. “She said she saw these and thought of me, but—I don’t have pierced ears.” What if, in some sick way, Ophelia was commemorating my parents’ murders, and I didn’t even know it? My breath hitched, and I dropped the pair to jump back as electricity buzzed just under my skin. I held my offended hand to my chest.
Igra grabbed my shoulders to stable me.
“You’re right. Fuck her… ” My lips trembled before I sucked them between my teeth and my throat closed almost completely. The huge wave of horror that slammed into me took my breath away, and I clawed at my throat uselessly. How dare she? How dare she!
Ophelia was no better than Aleksander—she was just smarter than him— smart enough to hide what a fucking terrifying bitch she could be until it didn’t matter anymore. She lied, schemed and connived, then she threw me away when she got what she wanted. Losing me wouldn’t hurt her. My hatred and my pain wouldn’t hurt her.