by T. L Smith
“Ladies,” he greets us, his accent is delicious.
Gosh what’s wrong with me, I’m a married woman.
“Are you Irish?” I ask him before he speaks again.
He nods his head pulling out a seat and sitting with us. “I am indeed, ladies. What can I help you two lovely creatures with?”
Angelina smiles and lays her hand on top of his. “Are you still looking for staff?”
He nods his head looking down at their hands. “You planning on leaving the hospital, Ang, and start working for me?” he asks winking at her.
She shakes her head. “No. Actually, my friend here is looking for a job and I think she’d be perfect. The only drawback… she’s never worked in a bar before.”
He looks at me and smiles. “You ever poured a drink?”
“I’m Russian, vodka is my water.”
He laughs at me. “Fair enough. How about you come in tomorrow and we can play?” He stands and leans down to kiss Ang’s cheek and mine then he leaves. We watch him walk away, and before I can say a word she spits something out that shocks me.
“I fucked Anton.”
What the fuck!
My mouth opens—I think I’m catching flies it’s open that far. I close it again once what she’s said sinks in. After picking up my drink, I drink almost the entire glass in one mouthful trying to think about what I’m going to say and then, “You what?” flies out of my mouth in disbelief.
Her cheeks flush red as she nods her head. “It just happened. He was wounded, I was wounded, I don’t know. But now I haven’t heard from him at all.”
I shake my head. “Anton’s a slut. You do realize that, right?”
“I can see why you say that.” Her cheeks go even redder as she picks up her drink gulping it down and finishing it.
I shake my head still not believing what I’ve heard. “Wow! Maybe don’t expect too much, Ang. Honestly, I don’t think he’s what you are looking for.”
“I know, but I like him. I like the way he made me feel.”
My phone starts ringing in my pocket and I notice it’s Viktor. I haven’t spoken to him in over a week.
Why is he ringing now? I hit ignore and place it back in my bag.
“You still haven’t spoken to him?” she asks as we get ready to leave.
“I don’t plan to. Not yet anyway,” I tell her honestly.
She talks about Anton constantly on the drive back to mine. I’m afraid her feelings for him are too strong and that she won’t like the outcome of what will most definitely come. When we stop I spot someone standing at my door and when I look closer I notice it’s Elina. I hug Ang while I get out and walk up the steps to her, Elina smiles when she sees me.
“We missed you on your honeymoon.”
I’m sure my eyes look like they’re popping out of my head right now. “Excuse me?” I ask clutching my keys.
“We got back this morning. Kazier has been trying to get hold of Viktor with no luck, so thought I’d try him here. Is he with you?”
I turn and unlock my door. “Last I saw of him he was getting on a plane with you.”
She follows me in and closes the door. “He didn’t go,” she tells me.
Which leaves me wondering… Where the fuck is he?
Chapter 23
Viktor
I’ve been sitting in this house all fucking week, destroying it, nothing is left untouched but the bedroom we shared together. I had booked us a getaway, a honeymoon, to try and make up for being a dick, but she wouldn’t accept it. She wouldn’t even give me a chance to explain, she just got in her car and drove away like it was easy for her to do. It’s not easy, it’s fucking hard. I don’t know how she was able to do it so simply.
Everyone’s back, my phone hasn’t stopped ringing or chiming and my door has been banged on multiple times, I’m just not in the mood to deal with any of it.
I’ve been trying to come up with a plan to win her back. To show her, no prove to her that I won’t hurt her, or so she will trust me again. I keep coming up blank. Nothing is sticking.
It’s night time now and when I walk out to our sitting area the couch has been cut—the very expensive couch that I can’t even sit on anymore. I took a knife to it and it made me feel better for around five seconds, but then because the high didn’t last I went and finished up a job. So to help me sleep for the night I took out my knife and sliced someone up until I was wearing their blood.
But then I think maybe that’s the problem. Maybe I’m too dark for her? I don’t think the same way others do. I’m used to being around people that are like-minded, we were raised the same, live the same. She hasn’t been raised like us, for the simple fact that she’s a woman not a man, and therefore she was treated differently in some ways.
“Open the door, jackass,” a girl’s voice comes through. I ignore it like I do every other time they come around. “I just saw Freya, don’t you want to know how she is?”
Stepping over to the door I pull it open and Elina looks me up and down then she walked in past me. She stops dead when she sees the mess my place is in.
“What have you done?” she asks turning back to me.
“Redecorated.”
She scoffs then shakes her head. “You have blood on you.” She points to my face and I wipe at it feeling the dried blood still stuck there.
“What did she say?”
“She’s just as bad as you I’m guessing, except she didn’t destroy her place.” Her eyes roam the room again before they come to stop at me. “I’ve come to help you… form a plan.” She nods pulling a small bag from her handbag, she passes it to me and when I look inside it makes my eyebrows pinch together.
“What the fuck is this?”
“That… my friend is a pair of vibrating panties. Now you two have done the deed, go have some fun. Get her worked up. Go and woo her.”
I hold them up. “With vibrating panties?” I ask in confusion.
She shakes her head. “That’s just for fun. What does she like to do? Eat? Do something with her, and include those. By the way there’s a remote… you control it.” She winks and walks past me to the door. “Clean yourself up before you go see her, you look like shit.”
I shut the door on her and hear her laugh as she walks off. I try thinking of the things Freya likes to do, anything she likes, but I have no fucking idea. Not knowing her well, I have no clue about what interests her. Then I remember her love of cupcakes.
If that’s all I’ve got to go on, fucking cupcakes it is.
***
I walk back and forth while watching the door. I’ve shaved, my head is now bald and back to what it was when we met. I’m clean, I’ve showered, I even dressed in black slacks and a crisp white shirt. Now I’m waiting for her to arrive. No, let me rephrase that… hoping she will. Otherwise, I don’t know what else the fuck I’m going to do. I check the time and thirty minutes have passed from the time I asked her to arrive. I continue pacing waiting for her, my breathing now heavy and slightly angry. I sent her a card, hand delivered with the most delicious cupcakes I purchased from a high-end bakery. Just as I’m about to give up she opens the door dressed in all black with her hair tied up.
“Sorry… I had work,” she huffs as she looks around. “Shit,” she says in surprise.
“Do you have them on?” I ask her, she nods her head and looks me over, her brown eyes roam me up and down then she looks down at her outfit.
“I didn’t have time to dress.”
“You’re working?” I reply in surprise.
She nods her head and smiles. “I am.” She giggles. “I completely suck at it, but the place is so cute, I couldn’t say no. Today was my first day and I may have broken about ten glasses already, fingers crossed he doesn’t fire me.” She laughs nervously while picking at her nails.
“You don’t need to work.”
Her nose scrunches up. “I know that, Viktor. I have more money than you, did you forget that?”
; Shaking my head, I don’t care how much money she has, I have enough for the both of us to live a comfortable and happy life even if I never earn another cent.
“I have to go back to Russia soon, I wasn’t sure if I was going to tell you or not.”
My heart squeezes, she’s leaving for good. She can’t, a deal is a deal. She must be my wife because I sure as shit don’t want anyone else. “You can’t leave,” I tell her stepping closer.
“I have to.”
“No, you don’t.”
She nods her head. “It’s my father’s funeral, Viktor, I have to.”
I breathe a sigh of relief. “So you’re coming back?”
She nods her head. “Good, I’ll come.”
“You don’t have to.” She takes her eyes off of me and looks around. “I can’t believe you did all of this.”
I’ve booked out a bakery and asked the owner to make up one-thousand cupcakes which are spread all through the shop, decorating every inch of it. There is color everywhere—bright red, blues, indigo, greens, violets—the shop is decorated in all the colors of the rainbow.
“I’d do anything for you,” I tell her.
She doesn’t smile at my words, she just looks away. “Why am I wearing these panties?” she asks having no idea.
So I slip my hand in my pocket and place my finger on the button. She turns to pick up a cupcake and just as she places it in her mouth I push it. It drops from her mouth and she squeaks loudly. “Holy shit!” she swears at me. “What the fuck is that. And why did it just play ping pong with my hoo-ha?” She steps over the cupcake on the floor and walks closer to me.
While pressing the button again, she stops in her tracks and her eyes go wide. She looks dazed, so I hold onto it for longer this time and her knees hit each other and she squeaks.
“Stop that! Oh my God, stop it.” But her voice doesn’t sound like she wants me to stop it at all. She clenches her hands together as she bends, and I like it. I like the power of not touching her and making her weak at the knees. I wish I’d thought of this device, not Elina. Because this is golden.
“Viktor…” she screeches, in between a moan of pleasure. I take my finger off the button, but it takes her a bit longer to stand up straight again.
“Do you still want me, Freya?”
She shrugs her shoulders trying to loosen her body up, her eyes go to the remote then back to me. “That’s not an easy question to answer.”
“I think it’s pretty simple.”
She shakes her head at me. “It’s not. Just because you buy me a shop full of cupcakes and vibrate my pussy with whatever that thing is. Do you think I can trust you again so easily?”
“It’s a start.”
She bites her bottom lip. “I’m not going to lie, I don’t want to be with anyone else. I will stay married to you, not for the fact that I don’t have a choice but because I want to. I just need you to prove to me that you will put me first like Kazier and Death put their women first. You don’t put me first…” she trails off in a whisper.
Now I understand and nod my head. I’ve never dealt with this before, so I had no idea what to expect. Needing the words, I’m glad she’s just given them to me.
“How do you like my device?”
She bites her lip again. “I like it a lot.”
And I know she’s telling the truth. I put the remote back in my pocket and follow her as she walks around trying a little piece of each cupcake that takes her fancy. She seems to love the red velvet ones the most, something to do with the icing. I ask her questions that I’ve never bothered asking before. Favorites, close friends, she mentions the dude that was with her that night and her bodyguard. How he has, and will always be, one of her closest friends, but he never talks. But she knows he’s always there for her if she needs him. I find it weird and confronting in some ways, but don’t comment on it. She tells me about her new job, how she got it, then proceeds to tell me about Angelina and Anton. Again, I don’t comment, because nothing will come of it. For someone to tame him, she would have to be just as crazy as he is, and that’s saying something. She stops talking then turns to me and smiles.
“I destroyed your furniture.”
“So you didn’t like it?”
“It seemed like a good outlet at the time. I was mad, but it didn’t help much.”
“I won’t be moving back there, Viktor. That place holds too much bad for me now.”
I figured she would say that but was silently hoping she wouldn’t, though. “I’ll move in with you then.”
“No,” she answers looking away.
“I’ll buy us a new house… a bigger one,” I tell her.
“I don’t want bigger. I want small, tiny, with maybe three rooms and a wraparound porch… and I want it to be an old Victorian style, maybe?”
Taking mental notes in my head, I nod. “When do you leave?”
“Two days from now, his body arrived yesterday…” she pauses then turns to face me and picks at her fingernails. “Who organized the holiday?”
“I did.”
“Why?”
“Because you deserved it,” is all I say as I walk off.
Chapter 24
Freya
Guards are everywhere when we arrive. I left last night, and have only just arrived home.
Viktor came with me just like he said he would. He stands by my side with my hand in his. I didn’t ask him to, I even told him he could stay. He refused and has been by my side the whole time without one complaint leaving his mouth. Patrick nods to us, he has two men armed standing behind him. I recognize most people here. My family likes to keep those that serve us for a very long time, I just haven’t seen many of them for years due to living in America now.
“You have a few hours, your room is still the same,” he says then offers his hand to Viktor. They shake but don’t say a word as Viktor lets go of my hand. As he lets go, his hand comes to the small of my back. I didn’t see Viktor for two days after his surprise, being shocked that he thought to do something so special like that for me in the first place.
He isn’t a romantic. Hell, I don’t even think he’s bought flowers before. He did good though, that bakery was absolutely beautiful, and I wish I lived in it full of fresh cupcakes every day. He had them delivered to my house the following day and they filled my fridge and kitchen countertop. There’s still some left, but I did try very hard to eat them all and failed.
He picked me up to go the airport and kissed me softly on the lips. Viktor didn’t go for a hard, dark, lingering kiss and I was kind of disappointed because I wanted that from him. I’ve missed his kisses and the way he holds me when he would do so—grabbing me, claiming me, possessing me as he did so. I’ve never been kissed so passionately before him.
Viktor follows me as I walk to the bedroom, his hand leaves me and I instantly miss it. As I open my door I see he was right, it hasn’t changed at all since I left. Not one thing has moved—my king size bed sits at one end of the room, my walk-in closet still holds all the clothes I left here. My room is possibly the size of two large rooms combined. It was a great bedroom growing up, I hardly ever had to leave it. Let’s face it, it was like having and living in my own home due to its sheer size.
“We should change.” I walk past him and go to my bathroom. Turning on the shower I hear the door close behind me. Then his hands touch me. I turn my head slightly to the side to see Viktor looking down at me, lust written all over his face. Maybe forgiveness won’t be so bad, maybe it won’t be so hard after all.
Kicking my shoes off, he picks me up and steps with me into the shower, fully clothed. The water comes down hard on us—he only has pants on with no shirt. His hands skim under my arms and work their way up, pushing them up so they’re above my head and he leans in to kiss me, his body touching mine. I can feel him everywhere, especially between my legs as he grinds on me. Viktor’s tongue invades me taking over all my senses and I’m glad he has me pinned by my arms because I’m af
raid I’d fall right now. His teeth nip at my tongue then my lip as he pulls away. Keeping my hands where they are, his mouth travels down and he bites through the clothing of the fabric still covering me to my nipples. I moan when he does it, and push my body forward wanting more of him.
The minute he releases my hands I pull my shirt fast over my head. I’m not wearing a bra. His hands pull at my pants and then his own. We are both fully naked now, soaking wet from the shower. He grabs my ass and gives it a little squeeze, then picks me up so my legs wrap around his waist.
It’s fast when it happens then I slide down on him. It takes a moment to adjust. I use his shoulders to start moving, his hands on my ass lifting me and dropping me as he goes. My nails claw at his back, his kisses burn like fire, and I know right then that I love him. It has slapped me in the face hard in that exact moment as he kisses my body while he fucks me. I can feel that he loves me too.
Hate didn’t win, love did.
I wonder if either of us will be willing to say it, or who will first.
***
We’re dressed and ready to leave. Our family has our own graveyard, so that’s where my father is to be buried. People are milling everywhere, some I recognize some I don’t. Some, though, just came to make sure he’s dead. That doesn’t matter, though, because Patrick’s still alive and won’t be taken out anytime soon. He will rule with an iron fist just like father.
Viktor sits next to me in the front row, Patrick to my side. We listen as the priest speaks. Well, we half listen, my mind is too wrapped up in my epiphany I made an hour ago. I loved my father, admired him for his strong ethics, but then I hated him right at the end and I’m sure that is clouding my judgment. I know he did what he thought was best, even if what was best wasn’t best for me. Now I’m the one to blame as to why he’s dead right now.
Viktor squeezes my hand once again and I turn to face him, his eyes are on the men surrounding us. His leg is twitching and I know he doesn’t want to be here.
First rule—never put yourself somewhere unsafe.
This right here is unsafe for him, because he doesn’t know any of these people. He hardly even knows Patrick.