The praise, the filth, the way he’s looking at me like I’m the most beautiful thing he’s ever had on his cock, all of it pushes me higher. I ride him harder, shameless now, and he grips my ass and meets every movement from below until the slick sounds between us turn obscene.
He sits up suddenly, wraps one arm around my back, and latches onto one nipple while I’m still moving.
I cry out and come again.
He follows a few strokes later, thrusting up hard into me, mouth still on my breast, hands crushing me close while he empties himself inside me with a groan that sounds torn out of him.
For a few moments neither of us moves.
Then he lays us down carefully, gathers me against him, and runs a hand over my hip, my waist, my belly, like he’s still not done memorizing me.
Present Day
I wake to the sound of Viktor’s voice.
Close enough to pull me up out of sleep before I fully understand why.
For a second I don’t move. I’m still half-under, warm and heavy, my body loose in that deep, boneless way that only comes after very good sex. My skin still feels used in the best possible sense. Satisfied. Quiet for once. During most of this pregnancy, wanting anything has felt like a kind of punishment, my body needy and restless and impossible to settle. With him, for the first time in months, it has finally gone still.
I open my eyes.
The room is dim now, lamplight soft against the walls. I must have drifted off at some point after we lay there tangled together. The blanket is pulled up over me, and Viktor is no longer in bed.
He’s standing near the door, shirt half-buttoned, one hand braced on the frame.
Yuri says, “You need to see something, pakhan.”
Viktor’s back is half-turned to me. “Now?”
“Yes.”
There’s a pause.
Then Viktor says, “Can it wait ten minutes?”
“No.”
Neither of them knows I’m awake. Yuri is focused on Viktor, and Viktor hasn’t looked toward the bed yet. I can see only part of Yuri’s face from here, but it’s enough to know he’s not bringing idle gossip or one more wedding problem. There’s tension in the way he’s standing. In the way Viktor has gone quiet.
I shift my hand under the blanket, not enough to make a sound, just enough to ground myself.
My body protests the movement in a soft, aching way that brings back too much at once. His mouth between my thighs. His hand on my stomach. The way he said he didn’t care whose baby it was, that he wanted to protect me anyway.
I don’t know what to do with that yet.
By the window, Viktor exhales through his nose. “Is it about this morning?”
Yuri doesn’t answer right away.
That tells me yes.
Viktor looks at me for a moment, then says, “Go back to sleep.”
It isn’t cold. It isn’t quite gentle either. More like a decision he’s already made for both of us.
I push myself up a little more against the pillows. “What happened?”
“Nothing you need to worry about tonight.”
