“No more hiding things from me.” I reward her honesty with another slap, this one targeted to hit her clit.
“Again.” Her entire body trembles. “Please…again.”
“Hold your legs open, and I’ll give you what you’re begging me for.”
Hands quivering, she grabs her thighs, spreading herself even wider than before. Her eyes glaze over, her lips part, and her breaths come out shallow.
“What was it you wanted?” I can’t help but tease her.
She licks her lips several times before attempting to speak. “Please, spank this pretty pussy that belongs to you.”
A bolt of white-hot lust steals my breath.
I honor her request, alternating between deep, driving thrusts and sharp slaps against her sensitive flesh. Each impact has her clenching around me. Each thrust drives her higher. She’s incoherent now, words ceding to raw moans of ecstasy.
“You belong to me.” My release builds at the base of my spine. “This body belongs to me. This pleasure belongs to me. No more secrets. No more hiding. Everything open to me.”
“Everything.” She gasps between moans. “Everything’s…yours.”
I increase my pace, pounding into her without holding back. Her body offers no resistance.
“Say it again.” I grit my teeth, fighting to stave off my own orgasm. “Tell me who you belong to.”
“You!” she sobs. “I belong to you, Alexei. Only you. Always you.”
After one last slap against her swollen flesh, she breaks. Her body convulses around me. The tight grip of her pussy, the sight of her face transformed with pleasure, the knowledge that I’ve marked her in ways no one else will ever see…tumbles me over the edge with her.
I curse as I empty myself inside her. Each pulse feels like it’s ripping out a vital organ, hollowing me out and remaking me.
Hers.
Just as she is mine.
Time seems to suspend as we shudder through the aftershocks. Carefully, I release her legs, allowing her body to unfold. She winces as her muscles stretch back to their normal position, but there’s no real pain in her expression. Only a dazed satisfaction that matches the languor spreading through my own limbs.
“You’re going to be my undoing,lyubimaya.” I lean down, pressing my forehead against hers. Our breath mingles as we continue to pant from exertion. “No more secrets.”
She meets my gaze,yesclear and certain despite the flush still staining her cheeks. “No more secrets. No more hiding. I promise.”
I believe her. Not because of what we just did, but because of what came before. Her fear for her sister and the vulnerability she exposed by sharing that fear with me. Her trust that I’ll help shoulder the burden.
This bond between us is genuine. Not just on paper, not just for protection or strategy.
Real. And mine to protect with everything I am.
Chapter 45
Alexei
The Verge Gallery is packed tonight. Bodies in expensive clothes drift between the displays, their murmurs creating a constant hum beneath the soft classical music. Waitstaff in crisp black uniforms weave through the crowd with trays of champagne and tiny bites of food, their rubber soles silent on the glossy hardwood floors.
I observe the gathering from my position near the red brick wall, calculating sight lines, escape routes, and potential threats.
Old habits.
In the center of the space, various widths of moveable panels have been erected, paintings and art of all mediums mounted on them. Artists mingle with potential buyers. Patrons swirl through the throng. Elbows bump and apologies are muttered as groups form and splinter apart. Lights hang from every angle, pointing to all the important creations while I lurk in the shadows.
Across the spacious room, Aurora laughs at a comment, her head tilting back to expose the elegant line of her throat. The emerald dress shimmers as she glides across the floor. We had to race to get ready again after our little scene on the couch. Ifthis show wasn’t so important to her, I’d have kept her at home and spent the entire night worshipping every inch of her body.
