The Life (The Russian Guns)

by Bethany-Kris

  Anton’s mind was already starting to drift to the next possibilities. His brigadiers, their issues, if there were any, and why. After all, that was the next valid choice to who was the closest, who had access, means, and mode. There weren’t a whole lot to consider as they were all on a pretty tight leash and there hadn’t been any problems. Well, except for Viktor, the brigadier who had his fingers and jaw broken for hurting Viviana when Anton sent for her the year before. But even that seemed unlikely as Viktor was another one, complacent in his place, unfit for the job of Pakhan, and happy to stay where he was.

  “It really messed me up today,” Anton said as his grasp on the steering wheel tightened. “I was dealing with crap from Viviana but on the side, I couldn’t get this out of my head. I was sitting there with Ivan and Erik, just laughing like we do, and I couldn’t help but wonder, Dad. What if they were coming in on me and I didn’t know it? What if, right? I couldn’t …”

  “Stop looking at them.”

  “I am. I just needed you to tell me to do it, too.”

  Daniil wheezed into the phone before asking, “What are you doing right now?”

  “Driving out to the lodge,” Anton said with a chuckle. “It was the only place I could think to find some peace from this crap. Take a week to think, maybe.”

  “Take a week,” Daniil repeated. “Don’t be Pakhan, Ant. You said you were dealing with Vine, too, so …”

  “This husband job is something else. Ten times more stressful than being a mob boss. Sometimes I swear she’s just being difficult because she can, or because she wants to push my buttons. She hid stuff from me and I couldn’t believe it. Ate at me all damned week.”

  Anton swore he could see his father smiling as Daniil laughed. “The diabetes?”

  “Yeah, how’d you know?”

  “Your mother mentioned something about it. You know she’s chatty when she’s bored. And about Vine … She’s a woman—yours, actually—so did you think it was going to always be easy? Marriage is tough, son. Take this week and work on loving your wife like she needs you to right now. It’ll clear your head a little more about the rest if you focus on her for a while, trust me. Nicoli taught you about being a boss. I taught you how to be a man. Vine is teaching you how to be hers. Everything else in your life has worked out, why wouldn’t this, too? Have a little faith.”

  Faith wasn’t going to save his father.

  “What am I going to do without you, huh?” Anton asked brokenly.

  “You’ll go on with your life.” Daniil’s words held that confident knowing he always seemed to have. “You’ll raise that boy of yours like I did you because that’s how you’ll remember me and our life. You’ll smile a little less for a while, but it’ll get better. I’m not leaving you, Ant, I’m just leaving here.”

  “But—”

  “But nothing. Don’t be afraid of losing me, Anton.”

  “How can I not?”

  “Because you’ll always have me, somewhere. That’s life. It’s how we continue beyond beating hearts and breathing lungs. Things live, they die, and then memories take over.”

  “He’s never going to know you, though. My son, I mean. Not like I do.”

  Once more, Daniil laughed, but it was more distant than before. “I’ll see him once, I have to. After that, you’ll tell him the rest. I have no worries there.”

  “Promise?”

  “Yeah, son. I promise.”

  *

  A breeze of air skimmed Viviana’s naked shoulder. From the curve of her neck down to her arm, the draft followed the softest touch trailing her skin. In the background of her hazy senses, bleary from just beginning to wake up, she could hear a throaty hum building with desire.

  Oh, yes, she could feel that desire growing hard against her backside pressed tight to Anton’s groin under the sheets. His fingers curved into her hip grabbed tighter, pulling her closer into his heat and want.

  Blinking away the sleep from her eyes, Viviana sighed into the warm body of her husband. Had daylight come already? She barely remembered the night before. It was only vague flashes of them leaving the house, toting a sleepy Rocco along for the ride. She hadn’t been in their SUV for more than five minutes before Viviana passed out. Apparently she had been more tired than she thought.

  Actually, she couldn’t even recall where it was that they had ended up.

  “Morning,” she mumbled sleepily.

  Anton shook his head behind her. “It’s only like four in the morning. I just …”

  As he trailed off, she realized he was right. The room they slept in was still dark, and the window she was staring out of still blinked stars brightly in the sky.

  “You just what?”

  Anton breathed heavily, his face burying into her neck as his palm rolled over her side to lay flat against the hard roundness of her stomach. “Needed you,” he said darkly. “Just need you, Vine. Right now. I haven’t been close to you all week, and I can’t fucking sleep because I haven’t touched you or tasted you on my mouth in way too long. I need you.”

  The desperation echoing in his strong tenor had Viviana’s insides reacting instantly. It was like every inch of her soul was suddenly clawing to get out, to reach him. Already, her blood was singing as tendrils of lust and love swarm in expanding veins. Her lungs expanded as his hand roamed lower, spreading her legs gently as deftly talented fingers slipped and pressed between the folds of her sex with no hesitation.

  “I love the feel of you like this. Warm and soft and wet.” Anton’s two fingers were slipping into her throbbing core. The groan he hid in the side of her throat reverberated to her heart. Nothing would ever dim the sound enough that she wouldn’t hear it. It was his approval doused with a heavy mixture of need. “So fucking hot for me, baby. Always soaking me with that sweet honey of yours. I want you twisting in these sheets, screaming my name. I just … fuck, I need to feel you.”

  Viviana whimpered, turning her face into the heated flesh of his arm that she had been using as a pillow. Her hips rolled involuntarily into the hand fucking her as her toes curled into soft sheets. When his teeth nipped along the tender spot behind her ear, she shuddered and turned again to find his lips ghosting over her cheek.

  “I’m sorry for this week,” she said, wanting him to know while she could still think to speak. Anton hummed a dark sound that had her lust spiking higher before he kissed the corner of her mouth. Maybe he didn’t want to hear it, she didn’t really know, but Viviana didn’t feel like she had a choice, either. “So sorry, Anton.”

  “God, none of that, please.” Anton dotted kisses along Viviana’s cheek, his fingers taking on a deeper, harder rhythm. The tone of his voice seemed to come from inside his chest, forcing its way out from the back of his throat. Her sex’s juices were smearing between her thighs, the sticky fluid coating her mound, slicking up her skin. “Not now, maybe tomorrow … I don’t care.”

  Viviana shook her head, feeling wildly out of control. That burning coil in her middle was beginning to twist so deliciously, a pressure already building in the base of her spine. How her husband always managed to get her body reacting so quickly, rising to beautiful, blissful heights so easily, she would never understand.

  “Screw all of that,” Anton said forcefully. “I only want to feel this.”

  “Jesus. I’m s-so, so close.” Another shudder wracked her shoulders. His teeth bit into her jaw as a thick cry rolled over her trembling lips. “Anton …”

  “There we go. That’s what I needed, baby.”

  It was whispered over her skin like a prayer, soothed into her rushing ears as the orgasm threw her off the waiting precipice without abandon. Repeating his words throatily into her mouth as he turned her body in his embrace, Viviana immediately felt the loss of his fingers. Their kiss deepened as she drowned in the safety and warmth of Anton’s strong hold. Allowing him to dominate the kiss, to hold her tighter because she knew he needed to, she finally felt okay for the first time in a week.


  “More.” Already, Viviana wanted to beg. “Please.”

  Anton shook his head under her jaw, tilting his head up enough to kiss her chin. “Sleep, Vine. That’s what I wanted the most, to feel you, hear you. Sleep for me.”

  “But—”

  A soft click of his tongue stopped her argument up short. “You’re tired and I know it.”

  The sudden flurry of activity from her midsection had Anton chuckling darkly in the room. The baby gave a sharp kick to the spot under her ribs and she whined low. Demyan was a strong little thing for having such a tiny presence. Without a word, Anton pushed the sheets from her body, moving down to roll hot hands over the baby that didn’t seem to appreciate the surprise wake-up from his father. Near silently, he kissed and soothed with words Viviana couldn’t hear let alone understand, but the familiarity and love in his actions rang loud and clear. Eventually, the baby boy’s movements calmed enough for Viviana to be comfortable again.

  “Sleep for me?”

  “Love me so good in the morning?” Viviana asked.

  Anton smiled lazily. “Like crazy.”

  Chapter Nine

  Anton’s breaths came out shallow and ragged. The constant throb in his cock as it found heaven and home inside of Viviana’s pussy was a beat out of control. Tension had his muscles locking up tight like nothing else. Hot, overworked, and ready to blow, he reveled in the teasing bliss just beyond his grasp—he was nearly fucking there.

  The faint sting of pain felt like heaven as his wife’s fingernails scored lines from the top of his chest to the clenching abs of his midsection. There were sure to be marks left as her hands curled into balled fists, her shaking legs resting to either side of his body tightening as her walls clamped down on his cock hard and hot and sweet.

  The smell of their sex saturated the room, and Anton was pretty fucking sure that was his favorite aroma in the entire world right then. He’d had access to the most expensive wines and perfumes in the world, but not a damned one of them compared to this right here. Nothing could seep into his senses, take over his heart, and creep around the edges of his mind for the rest of the day like he and his wife.

  Above all else, Viviana was still life to Anton.

  Golden, beautiful, and true.

  Ripe with pregnancy, flushed with love, and her body burning up to a fever, Anton couldn’t take his gaze off his wife if he tried. With her head tossed back and tendrils of wavy, raven colored locks fanned over her naked shoulders, she was so fucking sexy it hurt.

  After all, every king needed his queen.

  Her rolling cries had reached a gasping octave. Tiny beads of perspiration gathered between the valleys of her heavy breasts that he had cupped in each of his hands. She rode him slow and lazy, soaking up every inch of his body, taking in every inch of his length. Her pace was tantalizing and her concentration strong, determination and want for that ecstasy writing lines over her face.

  Anton couldn’t help but remember an earlier time—one when they both were young, stupid, and new to them. She’d been so nervous taking him like this, then. Worried how her sweet sixteen looked to his older eighteen. Embarrassed because she didn’t know what to do, or how to move. Shocked and awed when it felt so good when she finally did find that rhythm.

  It surely wasn’t the same, now, but it was still so much better.

  Wetter than ever and working on her fourth orgasm of the morning, Viviana seemed to have found that previous lustful drive her pregnancy had hidden from her for a while. While the start of her condition had left his wife insatiable for sex, touch, and love in any physical capacity, he hated seeing it dim like it had in the last couple of months.

  Anton sure as fuck wasn’t about to complain.

  He needed his wife like lungs needed air.

  She made his heart beat so fast it ached.

  Slicked with arousal, fist-tight, and hot like a fire, Viviana’s sex was heaven as it took in his cock, letting it fill and stretch her. Anton had the very best view of his member sinking in with every rise and lower of her body on top of his.

  He was soaked from tip to hilt with her.

  Holy fucking hell, his whole nervous system felt covered in her.

  Pinching her nipples between his thumb and finger, it earned Anton one of Viviana’s quiet gasps. Taking his cock in again, she rolled her hips roughly, her walls flexing with the movements in a way that had Anton’s air catching in his throat like a choke hold.

  “Shit,” he hissed, feeling that familiar built up of pressure starting to release. “Holy hell, slow down for a second.”

  Viviana’s pretty, pink lips curved with a slow, sly smile as she shook her head above him. When her hips came down, rolling a circle over his groin, taking his cock so fucking deep, Anton couldn’t ignore the tension building in his stomach at a rapidly surprising pace. She fit him like a glove. There was no chance of him beating the orgasm back. None at all.

  “Vine, Vine, Vine …” Anton felt suffocated by the singing release that was edging around his wits. Losing it, he was so fucking close to losing it all. “Baby … Viviana, you’ve got to stop … you need to or I’m gonna—”

  “Come,” she said on a high sigh.

  Yeah, that did it. Anton dug his fingers into the soft flesh of her ass, wanting to hold her still and tight as he groaned a low, throaty noise. Those hands of hers laid flat to his stomach, her thumbs sweeping from side to side as he came deep inside of her pussy, his seed filling her in thick, ropey streams.

  This time it was Viviana above him with her voice quiet and shushing soothingly as her hands travelled upwards to his jaw. Anton didn’t realize how fiercely he’d clenched his teeth, how tight his jaw had turned, until her fingers were dancing over his face to calm and hold.

  Slowly, he released his grip on her backside, rubbing over the spots to help aid any ache he may have caused. Viviana didn’t seem to mind as she hummed above him. Anton breathed a sigh through his nose, blinking up at his wife with a shake of his head. She grinned, her tongue peeking out between her teeth.

  “Love you.”

  “Like crazy,” he said, surprised at the hoarseness of his tone. “Jesus, you could have given me a moment to think, baby.”

  She shrugged her dainty shoulders. “That was kind of nice.” Anton’s confusion must have shown on his face, because she added, “Seeing you lose all that control. I never get to see that. I loved it.”

  Damn, his cock sure as hell loved it, too.

  Leaning down over his form, Viviana snuggled tight to Anton’s chest. Holding her tight, he brushed the black hair off her shoulders, exposing skin so he could kiss away the damp sweat that had gathered. In his ear, her voice was muted and soft, her lips brushing over his chest as she spoke.

  “About Velvet Ropes yesterday.”

  Anton froze. “What about it?”

  “I overreacted a little, huh?”

  “A little,” Anton said. “I had to meet Boris there because he had things to do at the club on the work side of things. I was telling the truth.”

  “And?”

  “And nothing. I know you don’t like it, but I’m not there for the show, baby.”

  Anton really wished they weren’t having the conversation in bed, but Viviana seemed to be taking it well. While he was known for his jealousy when it came to his wife, he didn’t think she realized how strongly her emotions burned when she thought another woman was in the picture, either.

  Viviana cleared her throat, pushing up out of his embrace. Something unknown flashed in her brown eyes, something worrisome. “I really don’t want to ask. I shouldn’t have to.” Viviana frowned, not meeting Anton’s gaze. “I know I shouldn’t. It’s not even a possibility, and I know it inside …”

  “Ask what?”

  “If you’re finding something elsewhere,” she said.

  Anton’s first instinct was to deny that statement. To correct what he considered to be totally ridiculous assumptions, but he heard what she had said, too. Th
ere was no doubt Viviana’s insecurities reared their ugly heads because of her pregnancy and the hormonal shifts were something her husband was only now starting to learn to roll with.

  He lived a tricky life. Drugs, dangerous situations, and women made a daily appearance. And if he really thought about it, more than anything, Viviana believed what she had seen and what she was told because that’s what she knew. He also knew she was a different kind of woman because she would ask when others wouldn’t.

  “I’m only yours,” he said strongly, reaching up to grab her face and force her to look at him.

  “I know,” she said, blinking away tears. “I feel so crazy thinking about it because I know it’s not even a thought in your head. I worry, though. I hate some of the places you do business, Anton. If I own that business, I should sell it out from under you. That’d make me feel better. I’m just saying.”

  He hid his amusement at her rant with kiss. “You’re terribly cute when you’re jealous, baby.”

  “I’m not—”

  Anton didn’t allow her to finish the sentence before he had her lifted from his body and her back falling to the bed. Viviana hit the mattress with wide eyes, flowing hair, and an oomph falling from her pretty mouth. Looming over her, he barricaded her body under his, feeling the gentle kicks of his son between their forms

  “You are jealous, admit it.” Anton kept his tone teasing and light.

  Viviana drew her plump bottom lip between her teeth. “Okay, I’m jealous as hell.”

  “Kind of like when I want to throttle any man who glances your way for longer than a second, right?” When Viviana didn’t answer, Anton heaved a sigh. “Not that you need to worry. I don’t even need to tell you, really. I love waking up beside you in the morning, hearing you hum in the shower, watching you baby the shit out of our dog even when I tell you not to.