Page 110 of Nemesis

“Vasiliy.” Her weight disappears from my cock, and she crawls up to sit on my ribs. Her head curves down, placing the sweetest kiss on the tip of my nose. “I need to know what happened.”

I stare up in exasperation.

“I will reward you,” she tacks on, sweetening the deal.

Goddamn it.

“They’ll let me stay under the guise of your dad looking into our kidnapping. Afterward, they think I’ll return to Solokov’s HQ in New York.”

I hate the breath that hitches in her throat. “You’re leaving?”

“No,” I whisper, hands roving over her hips. “Not you. Never you.”

“I don’t understand,” she says. “So we are running away?”

“Not if I can help it. You just found your family. I’ll figure it out, okay? This meeting was just about buying more time.”

She looks down, unconvinced by my words. “Then why did you seem so stressed when you came in?” She lowers her body to mine, hugging my torso tight between her limbs. Wrapped around her is the safest I’ve ever felt. It makes me feel like a fucking superhero, capable and willing to do anything necessary to bring that playful smile back to her lips.

I’m not the hero, of course.

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen myself through the eyes of men like them,” I admit. The bedroom is dark, save for the stream of moonlight pouring through the window. The perfect place for whispered secrets forgotten in the night.

“How do they see you?”

I hum thoughtfully. “As a pawn on their chessboards, traded back and forth. An item with a single intrinsic value.”

Her head pops up. “Stop that.”

“Stop what?”

“You are not a fucking pawn!” she says, fingers threading through my hair and yanking my head back. My eyes widen unbidden. “I don’t ever want to hear that again. You are the most valuable person I’ve ever met. The biggest piece on the board. You are worth a million of those assholes, and if they don’t see your value, we are not staying here! Did Dad make you feel like that?”

I think my jaw is stuck open, and my pupils have definitely squished into devoted little hearts as I stare up at a face frozen in fury.

“No, Sasha didn’t make me feel like that. It’s just the way it is in the Bratva. Once you find something you’re good at, it becomes your identity. I’m an interrogator. That’s all I’ll ever be to them. It’s the only thing that makes me a valuable member of their organizations.” I sigh, staring past her gorgeous face to the dark ceiling behind. “It was difficult to listen to, though, after so many weeks with you. You make me feel like I can do so much more.”

“You can, Vas, and you’re not going to work for anyone who doesn’t understand that. I don’t care if that means we buy new identities and kidnap your little sister, or simply fight the battle on the home front. I’m in charge, remember?”

I haven’t shed a single tear since I was a boy, and even then, I knew better than to cry in front of members of my family. Still, out of practice as I may be, I find my eyes clouding under Octavia’s fervent support.

“Yes, moya zlaya,” I whisper, pulling her lips to mine. “You’re in charge.”

It’s only when the bright rays warm my cheek that I realize neither of us remembered to shut the drapes before going to sleep. I squint through the light. Vasiliy woke me twice in the night with desperate kisses, burying himself so deep within me that I still feel the ache of his presence now.

The pillow crinkles as I glance over, finding his beautiful face relaxed in sleep.

I can’t believe he is mine.

Is he mine?

With one finger, I trace the slant of his nose and the bow of his full lips. When he doesn’t wake, I continue my exploration down to the abstract blue-black lines tattooed on his neck and chest. I’m already craving him again. It’s strange. Sex used to be such a horrifying thought for me; something that took and never gave.

The memory fills me with bravery as I slide beneath the blankets with a nefarious grin. I continue my perusal, following those inky lines all the way down his broad chest and the alluring V of his lower abs. I grin, realizing he’s already hard for me below the blanket, despite all of our midnight activities.

All it takes is one experimental lick for his cock to jump in my grip. Spurred on by the immediate response, I pull his length down to my lips and suck the flushed mushroom tip into my mouth. A low-pitched groan I’ve never heard him make ricochets through the air. I need him to make that sound again.

“Fuck,” he groans, pulling the blanket off my concealed head. “You feel like heaven.”