My father and mother weren’t alive.
This hard, strong, and warm man was all I could focus on regardless of how I felt torn in two. This deep feeling of peace and bliss that he could give me would mend that rift right now.
I kissed him and hoped he couldn’t tell how conflicted I felt.
“You’remine, Carina,” he said when he nudged my nightgown up so there would be no barrier between us. “My wife, my strategist.”
I moaned at the drag of his dick under my pussy. He was framing his expression as ownership, and I refused to ever beowned. But like this, before I could crawl up a little more and sink down on him, I had to confess that I was. I was his—like this.
“Your idea confirmed that the Hernandez Cartel is linked to Gregori’s network.”
I froze, watching him as he confirmed that connection. How he could even think, let alone speak, when his dick was posed at my entrance was beyond me. “What?”
He kissed me deeply, twining his fingers in my hair as he rocked his hips up to encourage me to wrap around him.
“Elena looked into the Hernandez money trails. They are linked as intermediaries to Gregori’s network.”
I waited to take his cock.
“We reached out to your brother about that shipment, but he hasn’t replied yet,” he added.
Which neither confirmed nor denied whether he was working with Gregori by going with them as a buyer.
“But this is one step closer to knowing who to look out for.” He kissed me again and rocked his hips against mine with more force to remind me that I was stalling.
“The Hernandez Cartel are working with Gregori.” I tilted my hips and began to slide down on his dick.
He nodded, his face twisted with the agony of my going too slowly.
And my brother might be working with him as well.
“Thanks to your insight,” he said in a pained whisper of need as I took him all the way to the hilt.
I kissed him, receiving what I never thought I’d really have.
Validation.
Trust.
Respect for my input.
This doesn’t seem like it’sonlyan arrangement anymore.
As I continued to ride him, dragging my body over his as he thrust up into me in sync with how I gyrated on him, I relished that among all the emotional turmoil of having to leave all of my past and know my brother had erred with the direction of the Cartel I still cared about, I might be able to embrace the best of both worlds—finally feeling like a respected and trusted memberof operations and a lover who deserved this sweet bliss in his arms.
17
MAKSIM
Carina’s openness to viewing her brother as a new connection to Gregori was a breakthrough.
She hadn’t backtracked from this tip that Enrique had given her.
She hadn’t tried to twist anything into her favor, as a way of only favoring her Cartel and not our Bratva.
And the rest of us noticed that shift.
Adrik wasn’t as wary of trusting her and letting her into our inner circle. Even Alexei developed a cynical sense of believing her and staying openminded to what she pointed out.
