They both knew he could easily come like this, lose himself in her mouth, but she had other plans, so before too long she was pulling off with a pop, kissing his dick one more time before she pushed herself up and onto her knees.
“I hope you’re not planning on teasing me all night,” Alexei said, and there was a glint in his eyes that Emma liked a lot.
“Not all night,” she said and got herself into position.
“Oh,” Alexei breathed, eyes wide as he watched her.
Emma laughed, and it was a throaty sound. She grinned at him from astride his hips, rolling her own as she moved on his cock. There was something powerful about this position, and she liked it. Liked that it gave her control over the movements and made it so that she didn’t seem so small.
And she liked that she got to watch Alexei’s face. To see the pleasure and desire flicker over those handsome features, knowing all the while that she was the reason for it.
“You look very smug right now,” Alexei said, hands gripping her hips as he pushed up into her body deeper.
“Do I?” she replied, panting and swiveling her hips in a move that made him groan and think his head back against the pillows. “I wonder why that could be.”
“Tease. You are just a tease,” he accused once more.
“You like it.”
“I do,” Alexei admitted. He slid one hand up from her hip to tease her breast, thumbing lazily at a nipple. It hardened even more under his touch, and when he pinched it and twisted it hard, she moaned and arched. “But then, you like this, too.”
Emma made a face at him and went tight around his cock, moving her hips faster until she was riding him with fervor.
“That’s it,” Alexei urged her, voice husky and deep. “That’s it. Take what you want. God, you’re gorgeous like this.”
She would have been blushing at the way he was talking to her, but she was already flushed from the exertion and from pleasure. He kept teasing her nipples while she rode him, her movements making him pinch and tug on them harder, and the slight pain of it was just the edge she needed to keep her going.
It felt so good, feeling that heat roll through her, and she knew it wasn’t going to take long. They had been sleeping together for long enough that they knew what the other liked. They knew the little places on each other’s bodies that made them sing with desire.
She knew that Alexei knew that she liked to be on top, liked to have that control, but he also knew that she liked having it taken from her, and so when he let go of her nipples and grabbed her up, rolling them so that she was pressed down to the bed and he was on top, bearing down and still sheathed inside of her, she gasped, mouth open as the heat doubled.
Alexei smirked. “Thought you’d like that.”
“What are we doing?” Emma replied. It hadn’t been what she’d meant to say, but the words had spilled out of her from the back of her mind.
“Well,” Alexei said. “Right now, I’m in the process of making you scream my name. And then I was thinking a nap followed by more of this.” And by ‘this’ he apparently meant pulling out just enough that he could slam back in with a short, hard thrust that stole Emma’s breath and her train of thought.
Who could focus on asking stupid questions when there was a very attractive man hovering over her and pumping himself into her again and again?
He took control like he was born to have it, the bed squeaking and bouncing as he worked his hips. They breathed together, mouths open and barely touching, just mingled breaths and light brushes of lips that almost turned into more. Emma would lean up to kiss him, but then his cock would hit that spot inside of her, and she was moaning instead. Her hands sliding up Alexei’s arms to his shoulders where she dug her nails in and held on like she was worried about being swept away.
She moaned sweetly for him, soaking up the noises he made in return and the grunted half sentences about how she felt so good.
“Emma,” he panted, eyes open as he stared down at her. “Emma, Emma, Emma.”
“Alexei,” she breathed back, fingers moving to thread into his curls as she dragged his head down and claimed a kiss. It was messy and breathless, and she could barely hold it because his hips were thrusting and she was so close, but she wanted to come with the taste of him on her mouth. “Please.”
“Come on,” he whispered, lips moving against hers. “Come on. Come for me, pretty girl. Come on.”
And she did, voice cracking on a high pitched whimper as all that heat and fire broke open inside of her, dragging her under and stealing her breath with the force of it. She could feel herself go tight around him and heard him groan her name as he took her even harder and then found his own release, shuddering hard.
She kept waiting for it to be less good. For them to get tired of each other or find something that they disagreed on so much that it outweighed how good everything else was. But it never happened. Everything was just hot and wonderful, and the chemistry didn’t seem to be fading.
“What are we doing?” she asked again, once she had caught her breath and was lying under him with his head tucked against her neck.
“Why do you keep asking that?” he wanted to know.
“Because I want an answer?”
“We’re…” Emma could feel him making a face against the skin of her neck. “I believe the word is cuddling.”
She snorted at that and shook her head. “What, they don’t have a word for cuddling in Russian?”
“I didn’t say that. I’m just not used to using the word. Or doing the act, either.”
“You know what I mean, Alexei.”
He sighed and leaned up on one arm, looking down at her. “Yes, I know what you mean. I suppose I’m wondering why it matters. If we like what we’re doing then why do we have to label it to death?”
He had a point, and she knew it. It was what she’d been telling herself for the last several days, in fact, but when it came down to it, she needed to know. She needed to know before she stumbled upon him and some other woman and had to face the fact that he meant more to her than she meant to him.
“Because,” she said. “For one, you’re being dramatic. I don’t want to label it to death. I just want to know what you think. What you...what you want.”
“I want you,” Alexei replied simply. “And I want to not be having this conversation. I’m no good at this conversation.”
“I can tell you’re trying really hard at it, too,” Emma muttered, stung. She hated being dismissed.
Alexei huffed and ran fingers through his hair. “What do you want me to tell you?” he asked. “That I think long and hard every night about where this is going? About how I want to introduce you to my mother and meet your parents and ride off into the sunset.”
“Don’t patronize me,” Emma snapped. “That’s not what I’m saying, and you know it. But, fine. You don’t want to talk about it? We don’t have to talk about it.”
“Emma.”
“No. Whatever. It’s fine. I’ll just keep coming over here and sleeping with you and we’ll do that until one of us gets tired of the other one. Maybe you’ll overcome your issues with sending messages by then and at least let me know when you get sick of me.”
“And what if you get sick of me?”
“Maybe I’ll send you an email. I still have your card, after all.” She folded her arms, leg jiggling with her frustration.
“Are you actually mad about this?” he asked her.
“Yes. Because I’m trying to have a real conversation with you, and you’re just...making jokes and being childish. I don’t even know what I’m doing here.” Emma pushed herself up and swung her legs over the bed. “I should just go. Clearly.”
“Emma.”
“No, I mean. What’s the point, right? If that’s how this is going to go, then we should just speed up the process. I’ll get out of your hair right now, and you don’t have to worry about having this conversation anymore.”
Before she could leave t
he bed, though, Alexei was reaching for her, wrapping fingers around her wrist and tugging lightly. “I don’t want you to leave,” he said softly. “I don’t want you out of my hair. I’m not tired of you, and I don’t think I will be for a while. Can you just...bear with me?”
She’d never heard his voice sound so soft and pleading before, and it made her turn her head to look at him. “Why?”
“Because I meant it when I said I want you. I like this. I like how you make me feel. I like that I can just be myself around you, and I don’t even know how that happened. So just. Please? I promise I’ll think about it and we can have this conversation for real. Sometime soon. Just don’t go.”
Emma sighed, feeling the fight drain out of her. She hadn’t needed an answer right then and there, it was more the fact that he hadn’t been willing to give her one at all that had annoyed her. And hearing him talk that way about her made it better.
“Okay,” she murmured, letting him pull her back into the bed and against his chest. “That’s fair.”
“Thank you,” he replied, kissing the top of her head.
They lay like that, together in the silence.
At least it was silent until the ringing sound of gunshots outside ripped through the air.
Emma jolted upright, heart pounding in her chest. “What was that?” she hissed, eyes wide.
Alexei shook his head. “Stay here.” It should have been funny to see him getting up and going over to the large picture window that took up a good section of one of his walls with no clothes on, but panic made it hard to find humor in anything, really.
As soon as he made it over to the window, another shot rang out, and he flinched and moved so that he was covered by the remaining section of wall and could look out from behind the blinds.
“What’s going on?” Emma asked, compelled to keep her voice down.
“I can’t see anything,” he replied. “Just-” He was cut off by the sound of glass breaking, and it took them both a minute to realize that a bullet had just gone through the window and embedded itself in the opposite wall.
Alexei swore under his breath and dove for the ground, scrambling to find his clothes. “Get dressed,” he shouted at her, all the silence was broken in that moment. “We can’t stay here.”
“What!?” Emma rolled off the bed and crouched on the floor, trying to pull her clothes on with trembling hands. “Where are we going to go?”
“It’ll take five minutes, tops, for the police to get here,” he said. “But it’s not a coincidence that they’re shooting at my apartment. We just have to go.”
“Do you think they’d follow us if we went back to my place?” Emma asked. She didn’t want to lead them there, but she knew they couldn’t stay where they were, either.
“I’m not taking that chance,” he said. “You go back to your house and I’ll go to my mother’s.”
“Alexei, no! What if…”
“They won’t follow you if they’re after me,” he promised, dragging a shirt over his head and moving to get his keys. It was quiet outside now, but that didn’t mean anything necessarily. They could just be waiting.
“That’s not what I’m worried about! What if you get hurt?” Emma demanded.
He paused long enough to kiss her hard on the mouth and pull her to her feet. “I’ll be fine. I’ll call you when I get to my mother’s house. I promise. Now go.” He pushed her in the direction of the living room, and Emma stumbled and then ran for the door.
Chapter 10: Mad Dash
Waiting until Emma had left the parking lot hadn’t been part of the plan he’d laid out, but he wasn’t going to run away before he knew she was safe. That was beyond cowardly, and it was his fault that she was involved in this mess in the first place.
As soon as she was gone and it was clear that no one had followed her, he got in his own car, taking the Buick instead of the Porsche so as to blend in more. In a moment of quick thinking, he’d grabbed his gun from its safe and had it with him, so it ended up tucked into the glove compartment of the car.
He sped out of the parking lot, passing the cops who were racing by on their way to respond to the disturbance that someone had obviously called in. They were late, and Alexei was annoyed, but he didn’t have time for that. Not when he didn’t know if he was safe yet.
Thanking anyone listening for his car’s built in phone option, he called his sister.
“Hello?”
“Vera! Are you at the house?”
“Home? Yes, I am. What’s going on?”
They hadn’t spoken since he’d talked to her the last time, but he was hoping that maybe things would be easier with her than they would have been with his mother. “Someone just shot at my apartment,” he explained. “A bullet went right through the window and into the wall, and if I’d been standing there, it would have gone through me. Are you and Mother alright?”
“Yes,” Vera said. “Someone...shot at you?”
“Not at me, at my window. Well, I guess they were aiming for me, I don’t know. The point is, it’s not safe there, and I’m coming to the house. I just wanted to make sure things were safe there. That you two were alright.”
“It’s been quiet all evening,” Vera told him. “I’ll wait for you at the gate. We need to talk.”
Before he could get another word out, the call ended with a click, and Alexei sighed. His sister was blunt at some of the worst moments, but at least she was willing to talk to him about this.
He watched his mirrors the whole way out to the estate, sighing with relief when no one seemed to be following him.
He made it to the house in record time, and there was Vera, waiting by the gate as she’d promised, holding a large handbag. Alexei unlocked his doors and she got in the passenger seat. “Drive,” she said.
“Uh...to the house?” he asked her, confused.
“No. Somewhere else. Don’t you think coming here is obvious? If they’re watching you then they know you’ll run home. They’re probably watching the house, too. Go somewhere unexpected.”
“And you’re coming with me?” he wanted to know. “What about Mother?”
Vera sniffed. “She’ll be fine. She’s determined to act like this isn’t anything of importance, so.” She shrugged. “Do you want to go in there and try to persuade her to come with us?”
He really, really didn’t, so he shook his head and put the car in drive again, turning around to head back the way he came.
The car was quiet for the first few minutes of the drive, and when Alexei looked at his sister, she seemed to be lost in her thoughts, staring out the window. He couldn’t remember the last time it had just been the two of them together like this, at least when they hadn’t been fighting, and he wished it was under better circumstances.
“Did you really tell Mother that you thought I’d make a better head of the business than you?” Vera asked suddenly.
Alexei looked at her, surprised, before putting his eyes back on the road. “Yes,” he said. “Not that she listened, but. You always cared more, paid more attention. You’re much better at that sort of thing than I am.”
Vera inclined her head, long dark hair hiding her face for a moment. “I thought...I was so angry. With you. Because I thought that you just wanted everything. I know you don’t care about running the business, but I thought maybe you were just determined to have it anyway. Because you could.”
He barked a laugh. “Sorry. But, no. Definitely not. If I had my way, you’d be sitting in that seat where Father sat. But Mother seems determined to hold onto tradition.”
She nodded at that. “I know. It’s her way. I think maybe it’s all she has left.”
Alexei had never thought about it like that before, but it made sense. She’d been raised a certain way, to do a certain thing, and now that her husband was dead, there was only so much she could do, and clinging to tradition was probably much safer than anything else.
“I don’t want to end up like Father,” Alexei admitt
ed. “I know Mother’s acting like it’s just par for the course, but I can’t do it, Vera. We need to find out who's behind this, but then there could just be someone else. Another group, another company. Someone angry and jealous and bitter because we have what we have and they don’t. It sounds exhausting, and I don’t want any parts of it.”
To his surprise, she smiled at him. “I understand. But someone has to take over.”
“As far as I’m concerned it’s you, Vera. We’ll figure something out, okay? As soon as we handle this mess, we’ll sit down and work it out. Deal?”
Her smile was brilliant, then. “Deal.”
Alexei hadn’t been intending for them to end up in Emma’s little town, but when he looked around, there they were. Apparently that was just where he went when he was working on autopilot, and he shook his head at himself and decided that he may as well drive on to Emma’s house.
“Where are we?” Vera asked, looking around with interest. “I’ve never been here before.”
God, was he really about to take his sister to meet his...his whatever Emma was to him? Well, if that wasn’t a declaration, then he didn’t know what was. “A friend of mine lives here,” he said. “We should be safe there. And we can wait and see if the police found out anything from being at my building.”
He parked the car in Emma’s driveway, sighing when he saw that the lights were off. It was closing in on midnight, and Emma did have to work in the morning, so he felt bad for being about to disturb her, but then a light flared to life in the living room, and he could see the curtains moving when she peeked out.
Before he could knock, the door flew open. “What are you doing here?” Emma demanded. “And what happened to calling me when you got to your mother’s? I’ve been worried sick!”
Alexei winced and held his hands up in surrender. “You’re right, you’re right. I’m sorry. I was only at the house for about five seconds, and then I was just...I’m sorry.”
She deflated and sighed, stepping out of the house to wrap her arms around his waist and press her face to his chest. “Stop making me think you got shot, you inconsiderate loser,” Emma mumbled into his shirt.
Crash into Me: A BWWM Russian Billionaire Romance Page 10