him. Be with me.”
My core coils with heat. My fingers curl into his shirt. I moan as my body wars with my mind. “My contract…”
“I’ll take care of it.”
My eyes snap open. Dimitri has never looked so serious. Oh my God. He’d pay the hundred thousand pounds to my husband for me? “You’d do that…for me?”
“Of course I would. Everything I’ve ever done—good, bad, ugly—has been for you. You have to know that.”
Something cracks inside me. The last five years of repressed anguish and loneliness releases in a flood along with the last five weeks of pain and torture.
“Alena,” he hushes, kissing up my tears as they roll down my cheeks. “Don’t cry.”
I need him. I need his mouth on mine. I just need.
This time I’m the one lunging for his lips. Hungry. Needy. His tongue finds mine in my open wanting mouth. I moan. His hands twist into my hair as he presses me farther into the wall. My head spins like we’re on a carousel as my hands roam his body, learning the shape and feel of him again. God, he feels so good. The hard planes of his strong muscles. The way my arms barely fit around his back. The way he presses his hard length against me.
He breaks away from me and I whimper.
“I am not fucking you for the first time against a goddamn wall,” he growls.
I nod. He’s right. We’ve waited this long. What’s a little longer? My mind turns to a large bed, soft sheets, low lighting and Dimitri making love to me all night.
He slides his hands behind me and grabs my ass, breaking through my thoughts. He lifts me so that my legs are wrapped around his waist and my sensitive core is pressed against his hardness. I groan at the sweet, sweet pressure, my world turning on a long-forgotten axis as he carries me into the bedroom and lowers me to the floor.
His hands make quick work of my clothes and his. I reach for him, wanting to touch his beautiful naked body. He grabs me before I can, spinning me. He lifts me onto the edge of the bed, pressing my back down so I’m on all fours. My entire being is alive, electric with anticipation. I gaze at the painting at the head of the bed, a landscape of the lonely windswept moors at the end of autumn, mottled purple like a fading bruise.
I gasp as his erection finds my entrance. His fingers tighten on my hips as he pushes inside me. He feels so full and…right.
My head spins. I’ve waited seven years for this. Seven long years. Is this truly happening? Is this real?
He begins to move, hard and violent, his pace relentless. I grip the sheets as pleasure and the need for more crash against each other. He is brutal and furious. He fucks me like he hates me. I push back. He fights back. Maybe he needs this, we need this. A violent ballet of limbs and groans. There’s plenty of time to make love later.
“Never leave me again,” he growls, as he slams into me like he wants to break me apart.
“Oh God,” I cry, as we race towards the edge.
“Say you’ll never leave me.” He grabs my hair and pulls so my head is forced back, making my scalp tingle. His breathing is heavy and hot in my ear as he covers my body, his chest against my back, his thrusts unrelenting. “Say it.”
“I’ll never leave.” I can’t hold it back anymore. My body shatters into a million beautiful pieces. And I scream, “Oh God, never, never, never.”
I feel him pulse inside me. He lets out a long vicious groan as he comes apart too.
We collapse in a heap, a ruin of hot breath and sweaty limbs.
52
____________
Alena
I trace my fingertip along the ridges of Dimitri’s stomach as I lie naked along his side. Inside, I feel a sense of peace I have not felt in years. My restless soul has settled, now that its other half is back. I feel whole.
I should feel guilty. I know I should. I have a husband. But he never loved me. And I never loved him. Our marriage is a sham. What exists between Dimitri and me lies beyond the realm of mortal laws.
When I look up, Dimitri is watching me, his eyes hooded, a half-smile on his face. I flush. “You came after me,” I say.
“I watched you leave and…” he swallows, “it was quite possibly