At the first touch of my hardness to her tender flesh, she jerked as if I had electrocuted her, but she didn’t pull away. Instead, she shifted her hips until my length was stroking between her pussy lips. Her lashes lowered as she watched me while she rubbed herself over my bare cock, her lips parted, her breaths coming in little gasps and pants.
My balls tightened, my toes curling in my shoes as I tried to fight back the need to release every drop of come I had building up for her.
Victoria’s head fell forward. She brushed her lips over my neck and ear. “I want to feel you come on my pussy,” she moaned out. “Let me feel how much you want me, cuore mio. I need your come on my skin again. Mark me as yours.”
“Fuck,” I growled, my cock erupting in powerful spurts as my entire body seemed to clench from the force of it.
Minutes felt like hours as they passed and I slowly came back to myself. She was slack in my arms, having come just as hard as I had. Never, not one single time, had I ever let go like that with a woman. I hadn’t trusted them enough to give them that kind of power over me, but with Victoria, I was different. I would have given up every part of myself for her, including my self-control.
She shifted against me, nuzzling sleepily against my neck. “I’m so thirsty,” she said with a sigh. “I think you drained me of every drop.”
“Give me two more minutes to recover and I’ll order us some drinks.” I kissed to top of her head, reluctant to move just yet. “I have to remember how to walk first, though.”
Her laugh was sweet and infectious.
Lifting her head, she cupped my face in both hands. “Ask me if I’m only pretty sure now.”
I turned my face into her left hand, pressing a kiss into her palm. “Are you only pretty sure now, kotyonok?”
“No,” she murmured softly, causing something wild to unfurl inside me. “I know I’m one hundred percent, completely, head over heels in love with you, Adrian Volkov.”
***
It was getting late, but I wasn’t in a hurry to take Victoria home. I could have sat on that couch with her all night, listening to her laugh, watching her dance for me when the DJ played one of her favorite songs. She entranced me as I silently sat back while she told me of how it had been with her and her twin growing up in the Vitucci compound.
Her brown eyes lit up whenever she spoke of her brother and sister, and she seemed to glow when she told me about her father, but the few times she had mentioned her mother so far, she had lost some of her brightness.
I topped her glass of wine off with the bottle a waiter had brought while she had been cleaning up in the bathroom, then shifted so I was facing her better. She gave me a smile, but I noticed it didn’t completely reach her eyes. I wanted to know why talking about her mother had killed some of her happiness.
“Do you miss your mother?” I grasped her chin between my thumb and forefinger when she looked away, making her look at me so I could see what was going through her mind.
Her sigh was sad, but resigned. “I barely remember her. She died when Scarlett and I were barely walking. But my father says that I’m just like her, in looks and personality. He says that I’m her clone in every way.”
“You? Not you and Scarlett both?” They were identical twins; how could one be their mother’s clone and not the other?
Her lips twisted with grim amusement. “Maybe in looks, but Scarlett is nothing like our mother. She’s too much like Papa, whereas I’m so much like Aslinn that it breaks Papa’s heart.”
“Tell me about her.” I knew very little of the woman who had given life to the Vitucci children. I had heard her name only a handful of times over the years I had been in New York, and every time her name had been spoken with reverence, as if it was sacred and powerful.
“I suppose you have heard the stories about her?” Her brows lifted when I merely shrugged, and she grinned. “Come on, Adrian; surely there are a few brave men in the world willing to tell you everything you possibly need to know about my family.”
“I know plenty about your father and his side of the family, kotyonok. It’s your mother’s side that no one ever wants to speak about.”
“I can’t say I blame them, really.” She grimaced and looked down at her wine glass for a moment before blowing out a tired breath. “I’m half-Irish. I’m sure you know that much at least. When they got married, it united one of the most powerful families in Sicily with the most powerful family in all of Ireland, or so my brother likes to say.”
She rolled her eyes but there was a loving look in their depths as she spoke of her brother. “Supposedly, Papa and Aslinn’s romance was one fairy tales are made of. The kind that little girls dream of having. Papa knew the minute he saw Aslinn that he was going to marry her. She was so beautiful, so full of fire and life, and he couldn’t not make her his, or so he told me. I think at times he embellished the story a little to make me feel better about being so much like her.”
“That sounds just like you.” I took one of her hands, lifting it to my lips so I could kiss her palm. She didn’t look particularly happy to be compared to her mother, and I wanted to know why.
“It didn’t matter to Papa that Aslinn wasn’t Italian, although I’m sure Nona had a lot to say about it at the time. He rushed her through what Cristiano calls ‘the world’s shortest courtship,’ and had his ring on her finger and my brother in her belly within days.”
“Smart man,” I murmured, trying to put a real smile back on her beautiful face, even as I wondered if I could get away with doing the same thing. I could find a way to end my marriage without disrupting Theo’s life, but it would take a while. Putting my ring on Victoria’s hand and a baby in her belly would show the world—and her father—that she was mine now.
“I’m sure he thought the same thing.” Even, white teeth sunk into her plump bottom lip for only a moment before she leaned forward to put her glass on the tray beside the bottle of wine. “I don’t know if I want to tell you everything, Adrian.”
I pulled her into my side. “Why? Because you are supposedly just like this amazing woman?” I brushed my lips over hers, kissing away the hurt she had given herself when she had bit her lip. Pulling back a short time later, I tipped her chin up again. “Maybe you are like your mother, maybe you aren’t. Either way, you are still my kotyonok. Now and always.”
Pleasure filled her brown eyes, and she melted against me. “She was a good woman, most of the time at least. She loved Papa, when he wasn’t making her crazy with all the I, man; you, woman bullshit. And even though I don’t remember her, I’ve made Cristiano tell me about her. He adored her, and I like to think she was a good mother.” A smirk teased at her lips, but it quickly faded. “She was reckless, easy to anger and, at times, dangerous.”
“You are reckless,” I informed her and got a glare in return. “You sneak out of your secure home to come play with a man I wouldn’t ever want a daughter of mine to be in the same room with. That’s extremely reckless. But I’m not complaining.”
“I’m not denying that I do as I please, Adrian. No one has ever been able to control me, and no one ever will. That includes you.”
“Did I say that I wanted to control you?”
Her eyes started to lower again, but I tightened my hold on her chin.
“I don’t want to change you, Victoria. I like you just the way you are.”
Her lashes lowered, forcefully hiding away her thoughts from me. She looked up at me through them for a long moment before pulling away. “I love this song,” she murmured, getting gracefully to her feet and taking my hand. “Come dance with me.”
Letting her put the brakes full-stop on the topic of her mother, I followed her over to the window that overlooked the club below. I didn’t dance often, but with her in my arms, it felt natural to do it for hours.
By the end of the song, she was laughing and back to being the Victoria I adored.
Our time was growing shorter as
the night wore on, but I was basking in the here and now. We danced for another hour before she started fighting back one yawn after another.
I wanted nothing more in that moment than to take her home with me and tuck her into bed beside me, but for now, I had to take her home.
With a final kiss, she climbed from my car in the same spot she had left me the night before. “Goodnight, cuore mio,” she murmured before shutting the door behind her.
Victoria disappeared into the night as if she hadn’t even been there, and I waited until her text lit up my phone, telling me that she was safely in bed, before pulling away.
Chapter 9
Victoria
For the first time in a long a time, I found myself sleeping in late the next morning. Normally, I was an early riser, but after the last few nights of getting in extremely late, I was drained.
I got out of bed around noon, but didn’t go downstairs. For one, I didn’t want my twin to see how overflowing with happiness I was. She still thought I was drowning in my unhappiness over the whole Adrian thing after Anya had called her, trying to cause trouble.
It was because of Adrian that I didn’t want to see Papa or Cristiano, either. Neither of them wanted me to be with him, and I wasn’t sure I could put on the façade that I wasn’t madly in love with the enemy. Nor could I hide the fact that I was angry at them for making me have to sneak around to be with the man I was so crazily in love with.
Therefore, I camped out in my room. Calling down to the kitchen to have the cook send me up a tray for lunch, I had a picnic in bed while I flipped through mindless midday television talk shows and news. Nothing could hold my attention for longer than it took for the next commercial, and I flipped through the hundreds of channels several times before muting it and picking up my phone.
I had gotten a text from Adrian when he had gotten home, telling me goodnight and that he couldn’t wait to see me again. Feeling giddy just rereading the message, I curled up against the pillows. I hit connect on his name and lifted the phone to my ear, needing to hear his voice again.
It rang almost a dozen times before it went to voicemail. Biting down on my lip, I hung up and called again. This time it barely rang twice before going to voicemail, so I knew he had sent me there. Disappointed, but figuring he was busy, I shot him a simple text to tell him I missed him and would see him later that night.
I made use of the downtime that afternoon to take care of some emails, most of them from the various charities I contributed to. There were also a few from family members. One from Nona, who with the help of my cousin Allegra, we had taught her how to do basic things on the computer. Emailing was just one of the new skills she had, and she emailed me every few days. Seeing her name pop up in the inbox made me smile, and I read through her message with a lighter heart before returning the email.
There was also one from Allegra and even one from her father, Gio, who was Papa’s younger brother. He was lord and commander over the compound in Sicily, and honestly, he ran a considerably tighter ship than my father did. Poor Allegra was so sheltered I was worried she was never going to get to grow up.
The task took less than half an hour to finish, and then I was left bored. Adrian hadn’t returned my message yet, and I didn’t dare try to call him again in case he was in the middle of something important. My closet was already organized, and if I attempted to do any more work in there, it was going to look like I had OCD.
Deciding I needed to pamper myself, I checked my glucose levels then ran myself a steamy bubble bath. I soaked for over an hour. When I got out, I painted my toenails and made sure my feet were ready to wear my favorite heels later.
I washed my hair then took my time drying and styling it. By the time I was dressed and had my makeup on, it was nearly time to meet Adrian outside the compound. Happy with the way I looked, I swiped another layer of gloss over my lips and left my room.
The thing about getting out of the compound was all about timing. I had spent months as a teenager studying the guards on the night shift—how often it took them to go from point A to point B and back again, how often they took breaks, when they did a shift change. I memorized every single detail, and surprisingly, it hadn’t changed all that dramatically in all the years I had been doing this, or even in the time I had been away.
It wasn’t the guards I really had to worry about, but the dogs. And more importantly, the security monitors that took surveillance over every nook and cranny of the compound. Getting the dogs’ schedule had been pure hell to learn, and in the end, I had decided it wasn’t going to work in the long run.
Instead, I had gone to the kennels and made somewhat friends with them, when actually I was just training them to know my scent and to always assume I had a treat for them. If they smelled me, they wouldn’t bark, but stop and wait for me to give them the little treasures I kept in my purse, along with my insulin and lipstick.
The cameras were state of the art and could change angles from the control room where someone was always watching. I had to learn to keep to the shadows and make myself as invisible as possible. It had been tricky, and I had to try it out during the day several times before I even dared it at night. When I was a teenager, I had gotten caught by my brother a handful of times.
I had lied to him, telling him that I was only exploring the compound, but I wasn’t completely sure he believed me. He had never ratted me out, though, and at times, I had felt guilty for lying to one of the two people in the world I knew would have my back no matter what. But he would have locked me in my room if he knew the truth—that I was sneaking out right under his nose when all he wanted to do was control my freedom.
Scarlett had once joked that the CIA needed to hire me because I could easily get out of the compound without triggering a single alarm or alerting the dogs or men on the grounds or wall. I thought it was a compliment, but I was sure that my father wouldn’t feel the same way. It wasn’t that the security in and around the compound was lax, I was just that good at getting in and out. If given enough time to observe the White House security long enough, I could probably get in and out of there just as easily, if not more so.
As I slipped from the grounds and walked down the street several blocks from the compound, my purse slung over my shoulder, I glanced around for Adrian’s car. There was no sign of him or anyone else. Glancing at my phone, I saw that it was a good ten minutes past the time he had promised to be there to pick me up.
I was immediately concerned that something had happened to him. Maybe he had run into trouble. Lord knew that Papa faced all kinds of dangers just leaving the house each day. But he would have texted me if something had gone wrong, I assured myself.
Unless he was hurt or …
… dead.
No, I refused to think that. Nothing like that had happened. It wouldn’t. Adrian was a law all unto himself. There wasn’t anyone sane enough to fuck with him. There was another reason. There fucking had to be.
I stood there for another ten minutes, hoping he had just hit traffic or something and wasn’t just standing me up.
With each minute that ticked by, I felt let down and hurt. I hadn’t expected this from Adrian. Maybe I had only met him a few days before, but I had thought I knew him. Had thought he would have more respect for me than to just leave me hanging.
Disappointed that he wasn’t there, that he wasn’t nearly as excited to see me again as I was to see him, I debated what I should do next.
I could have easily just gone back to my room and fallen into bed. I probably could have used an early night. But I looked good. My hair was glossy and flowing down my back, my dress fit perfectly over every one of my curves, and just thinking of going to bed without seeing Adrian left me almost depressed.
Unsure of where to go, I called for a cab and continued to stand there, impatiently waiting.
It was nearly fifteen minutes later when the cab showed up, but as I opened the back door and started to get in
, a familiar car growled to a stop behind it.
A mixture of emotions swam inside my chest as I just stood there, staring at the black car as Adrian practically jumped out of the driver’s seat and stormed toward me. Relief was the first emotion I could put a name to. He had shown up. He was okay, safe, healthy.
He was there for me.
The next was hurt. He hadn’t texted me all day. Not once. Not even to tell me he was going to be late. I could have understood if he had been busy. Could have respected that if he had simply told me he had business or other things to take care. I wouldn’t have held it against him. I was used to it, for fuck’s sake. The men in my life always seemed to have something more important come up, so I was used to taking a backseat to work or whatever else needed their attention. Still, he could have at least taken two seconds to tell me he was going to be running late.
“Where are you going?”
I attempted to pull my hand free when he grabbed it, but he only tightened his hold. “I hadn’t decided yet. I thought you weren’t going to show up, and I didn’t want to waste all this by going back to bed.” My tone was cool, neutral, as I waved a hand down my body, drawing his eyes.
Even in the dim lighting provided by his car’s headlights and the single streetlamp at the end of the block, I could see the way his eyes darkened with hunger. He licked his lips, and it was as if he didn’t even realize he was doing it.
“Yo, lady!” the cab driver called from the front seat. “You going or not?”
“Not,” Adrian growled at him without taking his eyes from my body. Pulling a money clip from his pocket, he pulled two fifties free then tossed them into the backseat. “Thank you for your troubles, but the lady has a ride.”
Muttering something to himself, the driver drove away no sooner than Adrian had shut the door I was still holding. Long after his taillights had faded into the night, we were still standing there, staring at each other.
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