"How is that possible?" he asks, and his voice is rough, raw.
I almost laugh. "I was busy working to pay the bills."
Something sharp flashes in his eyes, but when he brings his hand up to my face, thumb tracing my bottom lip, and the touch is so deliberate and soft that my breath stutters.
"I could have hurt you," he says quietly.
"You didn't."
"I could have."
"Alexei." I wrap my fingers around his wrist, holding his hand against my cheek. "You didn't. And I'm not asking you to stop. I just needed you to know."
His eyes drop to my mouth. A muscle in his jaw ticks.
"You have no idea," he says very quietly, "what being your first means to me." He exhales, sharp, like I've knocked the air out of him. Then he kisses me deeply. His tongue exploring every corner of my mouth, claiming me.
His hands move to my hips, thumbs pressing into the jut of bone there, holding me in place while goes on until my knees are genuinely unreliable. I moan into the kiss, an animalistic sound I’ve never before uttered.
He answers by lifting me onto the counter and stepping between my legs. Pressing his hard cock into my core.
When he finally pulls back, we're both breathing like we've been running.
"When you're ready," he says, voice low and serious. "Not because of the contract. Not because of your father's debt. Because you want me. You say the word and we begin."
I stare at him, lips swollen, heart hammering. "And until then?"
His mouth curves, slow and dangerous. "Until then," he says, "I'll make sure you have absolutely no doubts about what you want."
He presses one last kiss to the corner of my mouth, barely a brush, and steps back. Without looking back, he walks down the hallway to the guest bedroom.
The absence of him feels like cold water.
I grip the edge of the counter and try to remember how breathing works.
I wasn’t afraid of Alexei Kedrov before, but now I’m genuinely fearful.
I'm afraid of how much I want him.
6. FIRST CLAIMING
ALEXEI
Istand under the ice-cold spray of the shower, water pounding against my shoulders like fists from a rival crew. My cock is so hard it aches, thick and heavy in my fist, the vein along the underside pulsing with every stroke.
Fuck.
My wife, who just melted against me in the kitchen, her tongue tentative and sweet, her small hands fisting my shirt like she was afraid I’d disappear. She’s never been with another man.
When I claim her, I’ll be her first.
Her only. I’ll make sure of it.
I grip myself tighter, thumb swiping over the leaking head, spreading precum down my shaft. She’s mine. Legally, sure, but I didn’t expect this.
Didn’t expect her to be untouched. The thought of being the first man to sink inside that tight virgin pussy makes my balls draw up tight.
“Roza,” I growl under the water, voice rough as gravel. My hand flies faster, slick sounds echoing off the tile. I imagine her on her knees right here, those pretty lips stretched around my cock, learning how to take every inch because she belongs to me now.
