"Fuck, Jessica," I murmur between laps, sucking her clit into my mouth and flicking it with my tongue. "You taste like heaven."
She whimpers, her thighs trembling around my ears as I devour her. I slide one hand up to cup her breast, pinching her nipple through the lace until she moans louder, her body writhing under my assault. The other hand joins my mouth, two fingers slipping inside her easily, curling to hit that spot that makes her shatter. She's so responsive, clenching around me, her arousal coating my chin as I work her relentlessly.
"Rurik—oh God, please—" Her words dissolve into gasps, her back bowing as the tension builds. I can feel her climbing, her muscles tightening, and I double down. I suck harder, thrust my fingers deeper, until she breaks.
She comes with a shattered cry, her whole body convulsing, flooding my mouth with her release. I drink her down, lapping every drop, drawing out her pleasure until she's shuddering and spent, her hands falling limp from my hair.
Only then do I pull back, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand as I look up at her. Her eyes are half-lidded, her chest heaving, a soft, sated smile tugging at her lips. She looks utterly wrecked in the best way.
"Good girl," I whisper, pressing one last kiss to her inner thigh before gathering her clothes and scooping her up into my arms.She's light, pliant, curling against my chest without protest as I carry her through the suite to the bedroom.
The bed is massive, sheets crisp and cool as I lay her down gently. She murmurs something incoherent, already drifting as I pull the covers over her, tucking them around her body like a promise.
"Sleep," I say, brushing a strand of red hair from her forehead. "You're safe here."
She nods faintly, her eyes fluttering shut, and I watch her for a moment longer, the possessiveness swelling in my chest until it's almost painful. This woman has upended my world in a day, and I'll be damned if I let anything touch her now.
I leave her there, closing the bedroom door softly behind me, and head back to my desk in the living area. The governor's mess won't resolve itself, and with Lena back in the picture, the game just got more complicated. I pick up my phone, already dialing contacts, my mind sharpening back to the edges of control.
She'll sleep, and when she wakes, she'll know exactly where she belongs.
Jessica
I wake slowly, and for a few disoriented seconds, I don’t know where I am. The ceiling is unfamiliar, smooth and pale, the light filtered through curtains to be soft. The bed beneath me is enormous, the sheets cool and heavy, the kind of luxury that still feels borrowed rather than owned.
Then memory rolls in.
Rurik. His office. His suite. My mother’s face on the television screen. His hands. His voice. The way everything tilted off its axis in the space of a single afternoon.
My chest tightens.
I turn my head slowly, half-expecting to find him beside me, but the other side of the bed is empty. Neatly made. Undisturbed. Whatever rest I got, he didn’t share it.
I sit up, pressing my palms into the mattress, grounding myself. My body feels different. Not sore exactly, but aware. Awake in places that haven’t been before. As if something inside me has been switched on and refuses to switch off again.
I swing my legs over the side of the bed and stand, padding barefoot across the plush carpet. The bedroom opens into the rest of the suite, all dark wood and glass and quiet authority. Everything here feels intentional. Nothing wasted. Nothing accidental.
I catch my reflection in the mirror near the bathroom and pause.
I look… changed. Like the version of myself I’ve been carefully maintaining has cracked enough to let something truer show through. My eyes are clearer. Sharper. There’s a steadiness there that surprises me.
I think about the hotel refurb.
About the mood boards and layouts still sitting neatly in my portfolio in Rurik’s office. About Jasmine’s enthusiasm, the way she’d smiled and said this could be the start of something big. And it still could be. That part of my life hasn’t vanished overnight.
But it’s no longer the only thing that matters.
Rurik has shifted the ground beneath everything.
I thought this job was about momentum. About proving myself enough times that my name would finally outrun my past. Hotels. Then more hotels. Maybe travel. Maybe the kind of career that could define me in my own right. Separate from my mother and the long shadow she cast.
The irony settles heavy in my chest.
She ran all over the world for thrills and leverage. I stayed rooted for safety.
And now she’s back, wearing legitimacy like a costume, married into power as if that was always her endgame.
I don’t know how to feel about that yet.
