The Deception (12 page)

She moans and grabs her breasts, rubbing them. I can’t look away. I can’t stop fucking her.

“What about dessert?” she pants. “You said you wanted to paint me with—“

I rub her clit, making her eyes flutter close as she sucks in a breath. With a low growl, I pull out of her and bury my face between her thighs. “You taste so good.”

Her hips buck wildly as I slide two fingers inside of her. “Not fair.”

“You want my cock?”

She grabs my wrist and pulls it to her mouth, then proceeds to lick her juices off my fingers. Giving me a heavy-lidded look, she says, “You weren’t sharing.”

“Hot little piece,” I murmur before crawling up her body. I flip her to her stomach and pull her to me, sending her heart-shaped ass into the air. Grabbing the belt from her robe that’s lying on the end of the bed, I yank it off and tie her hands at the wrists, pulling them behind her.

Positioning myself at her entrance, I sink deep inside while simultaneously shortening the length of the belt.

She lets out a low wail. “Oh God. Please, Roman.”

“It’s Nikolai, and please what?”

“I don’t know.” Then a heartbeat later, “Please, Nikolai, help me.”

Nikolai.
My name on her lips is a powerful aphrodisiac. I slip my hand around her, to where she’s hot, wet, and swollen for me. “Shall I rub you here?”

“Yes.”

“Shall I make you come?”

“Yes!”

I continue to torture Everly with measured thrusts. “I’m going to allow you to come, but you have to be quiet.”

“I can’t,” she wails.

“You can. The neighbors are already complaining. I hear them through the walls.”

“But this is a suite. No one else can really hear us,” she pants.

“Perhaps I left the window open. Or the doors to the balcony.” She grows wetter, coating my cock, as I tease her. “Everly, you naughty girl.”

“Please don’t make me go out there.”

“Hush, love, and remember our game.”

“Whatever you say,
Nikolai
.” She pushes back against me, sending my cock deeper. I run a finger between the cheeks of her ass, playing with her there. Ever so gently, I slip the tip of my finger inside. “Oh,” she chokes out, her arms straining against the belt.

With my free hand, I find her clit and begin to massage it. She shatters around me, calling out my name.

“Nikolai, Nikolai,” she chants into the mattress.

With a curse, I thrust deep and hold myself still as wave after wave of my orgasm washes over me.

THE DECEPTION

E
verly wakes me up with sweet kisses to my face and neck. Her hair tickles my chest as she works her way down my stomach.

“Good morning,” I say, just as her hot mouth wraps around my cock.

She hums in response and I grab her hips, twisting her around while pulling her up and over me. I bury my face between her thighs and she starts. I slip from between her lips.

“Shall I stop?” I ask, teasing the tip of her clit with my tongue.

“No,” is all she says, before taking me deep.

In no time at all, our new positions have both of us coming.

“That was unexpected,” she says, climbing off of me and sitting down. She draws up her knees to her chest and wraps her arms around them. She looks satisfied and pleased, but there’s an undercurrent of... shyness.

Cocking my head to one side, I study her. This makes no sense to me... ah, yes, the ex... “Have you done that before?” I ask.

“No. You’re the first.” Her gaze skitters away. “I’ve never, uh...swallowed, or had that done to me at the same time.”

I grab the back of her neck and pull her down to capture her mouth. “Sexy little piece.”

Grinning, she says, “I’m going to take a shower.
Alone.
So I can actually get clean this time.”

Last night, I had made love to her in the shower. I don’t think I touched the soap, once she had washed me from head to toe.

“Have fun.”

My phone buzzes while she showers. It’s a text from Vladimir. I exhale in relief as I read it. My father wants to meet at 2 pm, at popular café that I am familiar with. Perhaps now, I can put an end to this madness.

I text him back to let him know I’ll join him.

There’s no further communication after that, not even an acknowledgement. Then again, my father has always been a supremely arrogant man. Always expecting others to do his bidding, no matter how inconvenient or distasteful.

I suspect that’s one of the reasons my grandfather has never put him in a position of power. Only, I know the truth. Vladimir wants this kind of power, with its undercurrent of secrecy and deals written in blood. Yet, he wants respectability, to flaunt his title and aristocratic friends to the world at the same time.  He craves their acceptance and approval.

Another weakness my grandfather disapproves of.

You can’t serve two masters,
he would remind me, every time Vladimir would come to visit.

Everly emerges from the bathroom as I set the phone down. She is wearing nothing, but a smile and a white towel around her lush curves. Instead of getting dressed, she sits down beside me on the bed and begins to trace the intricate patterns of the tattoos on my forearm.

“I’m not complaining about the time we’ve spent together, but when do you think we’ll go see your grandfather? I’m sure you must be worried. So, if you want to go first to see if he’s up to having visitors, then I’m sure I can find something to do while you’re gone.”

She’s just offered me the perfect excuse to meet with my father while I feel like
utter shite
for deceiving her.

“Are you worried about me?” I ask, avoiding her compassionate-filled gaze.

“Yes.” Her finger touches my knuckles. “It can’t be easy to have someone you care about in the hospital. Not knowing if they’ll live or not, and being powerless to help in any way.”

I jerk my gaze back to hers. Is she thinking of the time when I was in the hospital and she watched over me? “Because you have personal experience with this?” I ask roughly.

“What do you think?” she replies, and then starts to leave.

Grabbing her arm, I give it a tug, sending her tumbling into bed with me. The towel falls away, giving me an unimpeded view of her luscious body before she falls on top of me. Her weight is warm and welcoming.

She leans up on her elbows and stares down at me, her mahogany hair falling over her eyes. Slowly, I brush it back from her face and try not to imagine her lifeless. Try not to imagine her bruised and battered should I fail to protect her.

Perhaps it’s time to tell Everly the truth. Perhaps it’s time to show her how to defend herself and be prepared for what’s bound to come.

Leaning down, she kisses the tip of my nose. “My very serious Roman,” she breathes. “Of course, I’m talking about you.”

“Why?” I can’t help but ask.

She gives me a tender smile. “I don’t know exactly, but there’s just something about you that makes me feel
all the things
I haven’t felt in a really long time.”

“All the good things, I hope.”

“Yes. And some very wicked things, too,” she says with a laugh. “You make me feel safe and wild, at the same time.”

I cup the side of her face, rubbing my thumb along her jaw. I don’t deserve an angel like her. She sees me, not for who I really am, but who she thinks I am. Who I’ve been to her. It’s not the worst deception I’ve perpetrated, but it’s the only one I’ve ever regretted.

“Actually, I was thinking of going to see my grandfather today to find out if he’s up to visitors.” Not a total lie. I do need to contact him. I’m desperate for his help. There’s no way Vladimir will provide anything useful.

“Then, that’s what you should do,” Everly says, ending her sentence with another soft kiss, this time on my lips. “I can keep myself busy.”

I roll her on her back, settling myself between her thighs. “I can think of a few ways to keep you busy right now.”

She stretches, sending her breasts up and out, as her hands grab hold of the headboard. “Show me.”

Determined to exhaust her, I begin to kiss my way down her body.

***  ***  ***

E
verly is sprawled on the bed, sleeping the sleep of the shagged to the point of no return. There are stubble marks along her inner thighs, her breasts, and her throat. My marks. “I don’t think I’ll be able to walk,” was the last thing she said to me, before her beautiful eyes fluttered closed.

Normally, I’m not a man to have his ego inflated by such a compliment, but normally, I don’t have a woman like Everly in my bed. 

I stare at her a moment, memorizing every detail of her body. If this should be the last time I see her, I want to remember her like this—full of life while she slept in my bed. The hint of a satisfied smile on her lips. The rosy glow on her cheeks.

Careful not to disturb her, I slowly pull the bed sheet up and over her, tucking her in as if she were a small child.

“I’ll miss you,” I murmur.

“Miss you, too,” she replies in her slow, southern drawl.

With a grunt, I check my weapons and then head out the door. My cousin, Ben, meets me in the hallway.

He grins at me, his blue eyes always full of mischief. “I know. I know. Be serious, Benjamin. Keep her safe or you’ll fuck me up.”

“You’re one of the few I trust,” I say solemnly. “But I heard you’ve been following Viktor’s lead.”

The grin fades from Ben’s face. His eyes are no long mischievous but murderous. This is a good thing. “
Govoryat, shto kur doyat.”

Don’t believe the rumors.
I level him with a look. “If anything should happen to her, the rumors about your death by my hand will not be exaggerated.”

He inclines his head. “Duly noted.”

Always a smartass, this one. Then again, he’s only nineteen, and thinks himself to be indestructible. “I’ll be back no later than four.”

Ben spins a chair around, settling down in it and pulling out his mobile. “Plenty of time to play Minecraft.”

I frown. “Minecraft?”

Ben waves me off. “Leave the games to the young.”

At twenty-seven, I’m hardly old, but Ben has a way of making me feel ancient.

“Covert operations are for the old,
Paxon,
” he adds with a cheeky grin.

Like when he says things like that. Old man, indeed.

I smack him on the back of the head, and he grunts. “Remember what I said.”

Turning, I head down the ornate hallway, past another set of leather, club chairs to the private elevator. The hotel hums with vitality as I make my way outside. In any other circumstance, the Tower suite at
Hotel Pariz
is the perfect place to spend a honeymoon.

I inwardly grimace at my thoughts. Honeymoon? I
am
getting soft.

THE DECEPTION

T
he Astronomical clock strikes two as I round the corner of the Old Town Hall—or what’s left of the town hall. Greed, Vanity, Death, and the Turk act out a lesson in medieval morality below the clock while the Twelve Apostles appear above.

Vladimir waits for me at a nearby café, sunglasses shielding his eyes as he sips at his coffee. Two bodyguards stand at a discreet distance. They start forward as I get closer. My father raises a hand, and they drop back.

“Thank you for meeting me,” I say, taking the seat across from him.

A server comes by our table, and I order a drink.

Vladimir takes off his sunglasses, his pale eyes a mirror image of my own. I’ve inherited his height and lean build as well.

However, I take after my mother in all other things—a male version of her, if you will. Perhaps this is why he dares to meet with me in public. No one would ever think we were related, much less father and son.

“I was bored,” he answers. “You amuse me.”

If he thinks to hurt me, he’s sorely mistaken. I don’t give a damn. “I’ve been ordered to execute your son.”

His pale eyes widen fractionally. “That is neither amusing nor boring.”

“But it is true.”

The server comes by with my coffee. I add milk and sugar, and then wait, letting the silence speak for me.

“How much?”

I give him the number. He curses under his breath. “Christian or Sebastian?”

“Does it matter?” I ask.

He pauses for only a moment, but in that brief time, I realize the truth. It does matter to him. If I were to say Christian, then he would walk away and leave my younger half-brother to the wolves.

“Of course not.” His gaze shifts away. “I was merely curious.”

Such an obvious lie. “It’s Sebastian. He is to pay for your refusal to honor contracts.”

Vladimir eyes me, as if to try to discern if I’m telling the truth or not. I hold up my hands and tilt my head to one side, before picking up my coffee cup. “I have no reason to lie to you.”

“Why are you telling me this?” he asks lightly. His hands, however, tell a different story. One is fisted, and the other is gripping the handle of his mug so tightly that his knuckles are white.

“I thought you should know.” Setting down my cup, I eye him.

He says nothing to this, merely looks around the café. People are laughing, talking, and taking in the sights.

“Do you plan on seeing this through?” he finally asks.

I shrug, staring at the tourist. Everly would love it here. I should take her to see the Astronomical Clock. Perhaps this evening, before the final show plays at eight. “I plan on consulting Grandfather.”

“Is he the decider of life and death now?”

“He is the head of our family,” I remind him. Does Vladimir think I will execute Sebastian?

“I suppose you want what you have been offered.”

I shake my head. “No.”

“How much?” he demands.

I level him with a look. If he wishes to see me like this, then I will play the part. “You can’t afford to pay what I’m worth.”

His face goes white. “What about a trade?”

The fucking bastard. He wants to trade Christian for Sebastian. “What did you have in mind?”

“Me.”

I barely stop myself from asking why. I refuse to move a muscle or acknowledge his sacrifice. He will have to work for my mercy.