by C. M. Steele
“I’ve got to be crazy.” She sat on the bench at the foot of the bed, lost in thought.
“Then you’re perfect for me, baby.”
She didn’t respond. Did she go into shock or some shit? Suddenly, she stood up and blurted out, “Oh my goodness. I just remembered that I promised Alessandro’s wife that I’d bake her a cake.”
The sound of Alessandro’s name coming off her lips while she stood there in just a towel caused a distinct level of possessiveness inside of me. I picked her up, tossed the towel onto the floor, and then sprawled over her on the bed, pinning her naked body with mine against the mattress.
It took me a second to realize she said Alessandro’s wife and not Alessandro, but I was still jealous as fuck. “Her name is Isabella. And if you ever mention another man’s name while naked with me, I’ll kill the fucker. How do you know his name?” I growled.
She bit her lip, and I pulled it out with my thumb before slamming my mouth on hers. When I pulled away from her lips, she added, “I’m not interested in your friend, Maxim. She scolded him in the kitchen this morning, but he never called her by name.”
“Sorry, babe, but the thought of another man catching your interest is enough to drive me insane. Especially my oldest friend.”
“Yeah, well, it’s only a short trip. You could walk there.” She rolled her eyes, so I rolled my hips, sliding my cock over her heated pussy. “Are you saying I’m crazy?”
“Yes,” she moaned.
“Maybe I am, but that doesn’t change that you’re mine.” I grunted, grinding my shaft along her folds without penetrating her. I held still, attempting to regain control before I went too far when we didn’t have time for it.
“I shouldn’t even be here.”
“Yes, you should.” I dropped my head down and pounced on her tits, teasing one with my hand while my mouth ravaged the other. I just killed a man for touching what was mine. Did she think I’d just let her leave me? I ground my hips forward, letting the tip breach her entrance. God, she was going to make me nut before I was even inside her warmth.
“Maxim,” she cried out, arching her back. She lifted her hips thrusting them up and taking my cock deeper into her. I felt the tiny little barrier give way, and it was like the leash had broken and I was free to lose control, and I did.
“Fuck, you’re mine, Maria.”
“Yes, Max. I’m yours.” She clung to me, mewling, clawing her nails down my back as I stretched her virgin womb. Fuck. I growled like a beast and grunted as I rocked my pelvis to give her time to get used to my big meat.
Grabbing her hair, I pulled her head back and attacked her neck while I kept my movements shallow. The last droplets of water on her skin mingled with the heated sweat from her arousal, sending a furious need to pump her full of my seed.
“I’m going to come, lyubov. Come with me.” Slamming into her tight womb, I let go and came, creating the next generation.
“Oh God. I’m coming.” She moaned and I crushed my mouth to hers, needing her taste more than I needed my next breath. It took a minute for me to catch my breath, and then I moved to give her room to breathe. I couldn’t believe how fucking selfish I’d been to my queen. This wasn’t the way I wanted our first time to be.
“I can’t believe. Shit.”
“What? Did I hurt you?”
“No…”
Someone knocked on the door, forcing me to pull out of her which caused us both to groan. “What do you want?”
“I need to have a word with you when you’re free.”
“Give me ten.”
“Okay.”
I jumped off the bed, hating that I was leaving her there, but I had things that needed to be tended to and they couldn’t wait.
“Slip on some of my clothes and then you can go back to your room and change. I’m probably going to be busy the rest of the day. Try to relax.”
“Okay.” I bent down and kissed her lips before slipping on a pair of jeans and a tee shirt. We were going to get messy, so why ruin good clothes? I stepped out in a hurry so I didn’t forget about my priorities and focused solely on Maria.
I ran into Alessandro with his tongue down his wife’s throat, so I grumbled and told him to hurry the fuck up before I went to get my guns out of my secured room.
Five minutes later, Yuri, Alessandro, and my new head of security, Piotr, met me in the foyer. “I’d like your bride-to-be to be with my wife while we deal with it. She’s in the kitchen. Maybe the women can do some baking or something.”
“Maria is getting ready right now.” I’d prefer if the women were together as well. It would make it easier for his men to be watching them.
“You made quick work of that.” He laughed, nudging my elbow.
“Fuck off.”
He chuckled and said, “I’m not busting on you busting quickly, I’m talking about claiming her ass. That didn’t take long.”
“No, but when you know, you know.”
“That’s for sure. Come. Let’s get them ready for the farm." We spent the next four hours chopping up the bodies and preparing the meal for a dozen hungry pigs out on my farm. By the time we returned, all I wanted to do was shower, find my wife, and treat her like the queen she deserved to be.
“So you’re going to be leaving this week?”
“Yeah, but why don’t you bring your soon-to-be wife with you and come join us?”
“I’ll consider it.”
We parted ways as I dashed upstairs, hoping that Maria wasn’t in our room. I needed to be clean before I touched her again. I didn’t miss the look of disappointment and disgust on her face when I left her to deal with the mess. She wasn’t made for my world, but she was made for me, and I’d have to find a way to get her to see past the bad.
Chapter Seven
Maria
The second he left me alone, I pulled open his dresser drawer and took a pair of boxers and a tee shirt. I didn’t want to wear his clothes on principle. However, I breathed them in anyway because a part of me still longed for the bastard who took my virginity without the hearts and flowers I freaking fantasized about.
I hurried out of the room, nearly forgetting that there’d been a dead body on the ground an hour ago. When I looked down, you wouldn’t have been able to tell that there’d been anyone bleeding out. The fact that he killed his man for accosting me gave me a hint of relief.
Once I got downstairs, I decided that I didn’t need to change. Why dirty more clothes when I was going to spend time in the kitchen? Who cared if I ruined his nice shirt since he’d ruined me for anyone else?
I stepped in the kitchen and Isabella looked up from her tablet. “Oh, I’m so glad you’re okay.” She tossed me a genuine smile, making me feel a little less alone. “Alessandro spoke to me briefly before he left with Maxim. How are you?”
“I’m not sure yet. How about we work on some food and that cake you wanted? I do know that I’m famished.”
“I bet. From the marking on your neck, I’m betting you wish you were still in bed.” It came off as a joke, but I could see that she was concerned about my emotions. I didn’t know her, but she was already proving to be the nicest person I’d met since I arrived.
“No. I’d rather cook than think about that.” I didn’t want to admit that Maxim took my virginity before cutting out like it meant nothing.
Reading my distressed look incorrectly, she asked, “Igor didn’t…you know…”
“No.”
“Well, I know that Maxim wouldn’t hurt you.”
“No, probably not intentionally, but I’m just another notch on his belt.” I pulled out the eggs from the fridge.
She let out an unladylike snort and laugh that took me by surprise. “Cara, how long have you known Maxim?”
“We met yesterday, but I didn’t know he was Mr. Kazakov until this morning.”
She pursed her lips into an “O” and then sighed. “Well, that explains it. I only met him personally yesterday, but I heard about h
im from Alessandro. If you saw him at dinner, you’d know that you’re more than a notch on his belt. In fact, he threatened Alessandro at least twice when Alessandro teased that he wanted to take you with us to Naples to be our personal chef.”
“Well, that’s because he loves my cooking.”
“Oh, it’s more than that, and deep down you know it. Things don’t always work like they do in these romance books I love to read.” She waved her Kindle in the air. “Life intrudes. He had important business that couldn’t wait. I’m sure that he had a harder time leaving than you think he did. In fact, I know he did. He was grumbling to Alessandro about taking too much time kissing me. He wanted to get back to you.”
“Really?” A hope in my heart lit a fire in me. I understood that the situation was unusual, and I didn’t help the issue by forcing him to take me. If I didn’t spear myself on his cock, he might have waited to take me. He’d been in the middle of disposing of the other guy when I walked in.
“Yes.”
“How did you meet your husband?” Did she accept her husband’s violent side easily?
“It’s a very long story. So how about you teach me something about cooking, and I’ll tell you all about it.” She hopped off the chair and moved toward the stove, waiting for me to acquiesce.
“That works for me.”
We worked in the kitchen, eating a small lunch from the leftovers last night. Then we relaxed on the sofas until the timer went off. I’d gone in and checked the cakes, taking them out and adding the next set of cake pans.
I hadn’t seen Nina since this morning and wondered if she had the day off, so it was just the two of us, hanging out for hours. Isabella joined me in the kitchen after using the bathroom. “I have to ask you something.”
“Okay. Ask away.”
“What do you think of the housekeeper?”
“Well, she’s a snob for sure. And despite her age, she was looking at Maxim like a damn cougar.”
I was about to ask her what she meant by that when Alessandro entered the kitchen, sauntered over to Isabella, and grabbed her waist, spinning her around and crushing his lips to hers.
“Amore, come with me. I need to clean up. I missed you.” He tossed her over his shoulder and rushed out of the room without even sparing me a single glance.
“Bye,” she giggled, waving at me. I smiled. Alessandro loved her, and it was clear for anyone to see. Watching his love for her made me happy and sad all at once. For some foolish reason I expect Maxim to come in and do the same to me.
I went to my room and grabbed my cell to scroll, but my phone wasn’t there. Son of a bitch. It was with the clothes that Maxim took off of me. I wasn’t going back to his room without permission, so I went back into the kitchen.
“What the fuck are you wearing?”
I crossed my arms, pissed as hell. He left me here, and then the first thing he said after coming back was about my damn clothes. “Um, the clothes you told me to put on.”
“I expected you to change.”
“Well, we all have unmet expectations. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to clean up so I can get dinner started.”
He growled and came toward me. “Unless you’re going to pop on here and serve up your pussy as my meal, dinner can wait.”
“I’m not your fuck toy, Mr. Kazakov.” God, I lied even to myself. My hands pressed on his chest, feeling the rock hard muscles. Then I moved them lower to his perfect abs. God, they were amazingly taut. I wanted him despite everything including licking his sexy abs.
“You are, and so much more,” he bit out against my ear. “You’re mine. That means you don’t go showing off what belongs to me to anyone else.”
“What the hell are you talking about? Your shirt and boxers aren’t tight on me.”
“No, but I can see these.” His finger traced my nipple and then plucked on the hardened peak. “Who came in here so I can take out their fucking eyes?”
“No one but Alessandro when he came to get Isabella, but I don’t even think he noticed I was in the room.”
He nodded, accepting that to be true. “Good, because I’m fucking dead serious, Maria.”
He cupped my face with one hand, the other holding my lower back firmly up against him. “What do you want from me?” I stammered.
“Everything.” His whisper screamed straight to my pussy, but I needed more. I was physically his, but I wanted so much more. I wanted a love that was obvious for everyone to see, but I couldn’t tell him that. We’d known each other for a day. He’d think I was crazier than he was.
“What are you going to give me?” I challenged.
“Everything.”
“And when I run out of my usefulness?”
He kissed my lips and then pulled back. “That will never happen. You’re mine forever. Even after they put me in the ground, I’ll make sure no one fucks with my wife.”
“I’m not your wife.”
“You will be very shortly.”
“Oh yeah? Don’t I get a say in that?” I couldn’t believe that he wanted me to be his wife, and that I wanted it too. What was wrong with me?
“You did when you dragged me deep into your pussy. I told you the truth. Now you’re fucking stuck with me.”
“I couldn’t help it. You teased me with it, and I lost control. Then you left me.” I didn’t mean to sound so hurt. It came off pathetic and like Isabella said, he had to take care of business.
“Moya Krasota, I’m so sorry for that. I wished I took my time to love you and hold you. If I didn’t have to leave, I would have. I wasn’t trying to get inside you, but you were too damn tempting and greedy, beautiful.”
He caressed my cheek with his thick, strong hands, sending my pulse racing out of control. “So you know I wasn’t alone in rushing my sweet. You gladly took my cock and creamed all over it before I shot my seed deep in your womb. My baby is growing in there right now.”
“You don’t know that,” I argued, trying to challenge him. I loved the fire in his eyes and the possessive need to claim me as his.
He ground his hips into me. “Are you tempting me to keep trying to get you pregnant?”
“You’re the one coming in here with your hands all over me.”
“Just being in your presence is tempting.”
The timer went off behind us, reminding me that I had a cake in the oven.
“I need to get that out.” I pulled away from him and used the silicone mitts to take the pans out.
“Damn, our kids are going to be spoiled.”
“Kids?”
“Yes. A whole damn brood.”
“I don’t know what to say to all of this.”
“Say, ‘Yes, Maxim. I’ll do whatever you want because I’m crazy about you.’”
“How about you give me some time to think about all of this?”
“Well, it’s a foregone conclusion, but if you need to come to terms with our future, that’s fine. I know my world is too damn dark for such a special woman like you, but I love the light you bring to it. I’ll do whatever I have to do to keep you.”
“I have some questions for you.”
“You can ask all the questions you want, but first, let’s get you changed because the thought of someone seeing you half dressed will drive me fucking nuts.” He flipped me over his shoulder and carried me into my bedroom.
“You know I could have walked.”
“Yes, but I got to have your ass in my face.” He gave my butt a squeeze and then took a seat on the bed.
“I need a shower. I didn’t shower after…you know.” Embarrassment flooded my cheeks as I tried to say we fucked.
“After I put my baby in you.” He winked at me, and I flipped him off and went into the small bathroom to shower, giggling the entire time. I couldn’t believe how I could overlook what happened, but for him I didn’t care.
Suddenly, my life had been plunged into the underworld and I’d just become its queen. Was I ready for it? If I had Maxim at my side,
I knew I was more than ready.
Chapter Eight
Maxim
She exited the bathroom a little more hesitant than she’d been earlier. I didn’t know what she let stew in her mind, but I hoped to hell that I could ease her concerns. “What is it, moya lyubov?”
“The guy in the room…who was he? Did he deserve what you did?”
“Yes, many times over, but you might not see it that way. I’ll always protect what’s mine, Maria.” She looked confused, but I waited to see if she would get my meaning and know who I’d been talking about.
“So someone stole something or ruined something of yours?”
“No.” I dragged her onto my lap, but she pulled off.
“No. I can’t sit there. I can’t think when you’re that close to me. Who was it, Mr. Kazakov?”
“Please don’t attempt to distance yourself by tossing my last name out there. The only way I’ll let your pretty ass get away with calling me that is when you’re Mrs. Kazakova.”
“Fine. Maxim, who was it?”
“Diego Fiorucci.”
“What? Why?”
“I think you know part of the reason why?”
“The text messages? Are you serious? That’s not a reason to cap someone.”
“Amore, I’d rip the tongue out of anyone who disrespected you. It was much more than that.”
“Are you going to explain?”
“Yes, but I don’t want to talk about it again because you never know who is listening. He was the one to bust the pipes at Andretti’s, and then that night he set their house on fire after beating Mr. Andretti, nearly killing both him and his wife in the process.” I’d planned to hold out so she wouldn’t be frightened, but she just didn’t quit.
“There’s more. I can see it in your eyes. If you want to be with me, I want you to tell me the truth. Always, Maxim. I don’t want shit between us. I don’t care if you think it’s not wise to tell me. You want forever? I want a man I can trust with my whole heart.”