Chapter 21

After lunch, it's time to return to the city and make arrangements. The pledge needs to be luxurious enough to make a statement about the Bratva but also provide security and everything else we need. Sitting in the back of the chauffeured car, I think about lunch, wondering if I was the only one who sensed the awkwardness. It was Ania, Mikhail, Mila, my Lia, and me, but maybe I imagined it. I could hardly focus on anyone except for Lia, anyway.

In the city, I do my job on autopilot, counting the seconds until I can get home and see my woman again. I'm short with the men, but that probably helps me anyway. Being in a bad mood can help with a leader's aura from time to time.

Before heading back home, I have to make one more stop. My body stirs when I think about later, think about my woman. It's been a stressful week, and it will probably get worse before it gets better, but this is a bright spot. I grab the package, my manhood aching, my thoughts pulsing.

The sun is setting when I finally pull up to the compound. I find my woman in the second house, lying on the couch, sleeping with a blanket tangled around her and a movie playing on the TV. My heart thuds when I stand over her, staring down at her body, curviness, and perfection.

She blinks her eyes open. "Dimitri?" she says, reminding me of when she asked if she was dreaming or if I was really there.

I kneel beside the couch, a crazy question entering my mind. What if I did it and asked her right here? Took out a ring? I lean down and press my lips against hers. She sits up with one of those ball-tingling urgent breaths.

"I've got a surprise for you," I tell her. "Something for the party…"

Her eyes flit with something uncertain, but then a smile touches her face. I know what the issue is. She's thinking about the fact I haven't told her everything. I want to, but I have to be strong. I have to put the plan first, even if it hurts like hell.

I gesture to the bag on the coffee table where I left it.

"That's… big," she says, studying the large package.

"There are five dresses in there," I tell her. "If you find one you like, we can have it adjusted to fit your perfect form perfectly."

She glances at me sharply; my words have shocked her.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

"I'm just not used to all this."

"Get used to it," I tell her. "Are you ready?"

She smooths her hands over the bag, raising her eyebrow at me. "Are you asking for a fashion show?"

"No, I'm demanding a fashion show."

I rush forward, claim her hips in my favorite way, and pull her right up against me. She must be able to feel me pressing against her, but I can't help that. It just happens whenever our bodies touch.

"Dimitri," she murmurs. "I don't think I can…"

"It's my fault," I tell her, taking a step back. "You make me so wild."

"So it's my fault, then," she says, so vivacious and sassy as she stares up at me.

"I should be able to keep the wild side…"

"Tamed?" she fills in when I trail off. Her laughter makes me feel like a new man. "Or is that corny?"

"You're the only one who can tame me," I tell her, "and I don't give a damn how corny that sounds. Now…"

I pick up the bag definitively and wrap my other arm around her. We walk up the stairs toward her bedroom. When I shut the door behind her, I remember earlier, almost ten hours ago now, when I walked in and found her standing at the window. Something in the way she stood told me she wanted to run.

Yet when I held her against me, I knew the opposite was true. She didn't want to go anywhere. She wanted—wants—me as badly as I want her, even if it scares her.

"Should I get changed in the en suite?" she asks. "Then you can see the dresses."

I laugh savagely as I drop the bag onto the silk sheets. "You don't think I'd see the dresses if you got undressed out here?"

She rolls her eyes with a smile. "No, I think you'd get wild again. Which one should I try on first?"

I unzip the bag and take out the silver piece. "Let's try this one."

"Your wish is my command. Hey!"

She giggles when, as she walks by me, I bring my hand down on her plump ass. She changed back into her sweatpants after I left, the fabric pulling tantalizingly over her juiciness. She shoots me a look as she walks into the en suite.

I pace up and down as I wait, my balls feeling flooded. Trying to keep her out of my mind has been challenging all day. Now that I'm with her, it's taking everything not to kick down the door and grab her as she strips her body naked. Suck on her thick nipples. Spank her big ass. Grind my hard dick, dripping with precome, into her soft, wet core.

The door opens, my breath catching. The dress falls like ice from her hips to just above her knees.

"Wow!" I say.

"You like it?" she murmurs, shifting from side to side, making the silver material rustle. "Hear that?" She shakes some more, causing her tits to dance for me. Shh-shh. "It's like I'm a cowboy riding into town."

I laugh, shaking my head. "Is that a bad thing? I think you look hot as hell."

"Yeah, but you always think I look hot."

Her cheeks turn red, almost like a part of her regrets saying that, but then she returns to the bag. I can't stop myself from walking up behind her and grinding my dick against her ass through the dress. She moans and leans forward, sinking her hands into the bed as she moves against me.

"Dimitri," she whispers.

Her tone tells me everything I need to know. Even she's unsure if she wants me to stop or to keep going.

"I'm going to try this one," she finally says, grabbing a dress. "If I'm allowed."

I smirk, then lean down and smooth my hand up her bare leg and under the dress. She stares up at me with wide, excited eyes. I stroke over her underwear, feeling her heat and her wetness. "Don't pretend this is one-sided," I groan. "Not when you're soaked for me."

"I am not soaked," she says, but then her breath gets heavy when I push aside her underwear and stroke my finger across her wet pussy, her swollen, excited petals.

"You were saying?" I ask.

She drops the dress and grips my wrist, gently pushing me away. I take a step back, holding my hands up. With a glare that isn't very convincing, she grabs the dress and enters the en suite.

My dick twitches as I watch her walk away, her hips swishing from side to side, her ass begging to be spanked again. I go back to pacing when she closes the door. A minute later, it opens again.

My breath catches, but not just with lust. This dress is longer, more subtle, and a soft shade of red. The cut is low, drawing attention to her gorgeous tits, but the tail is low and long, with a small slit up the side.

"Is it too much?" she asks.

"You look beautiful," I tell her. Here comes some more corniness. "Damn, Lia. You look like an angel."

"Am I an angel or a queen?" she says with one of those beautiful, cute smiles. She flutters her eyelashes and pulls into a melodramatic pose, bringing her hand out as though to protect herself. "You're looking at me like a real wild man now, sir. Don't you know I'm just an innocent virgin?"

I walk toward her slowly, my whole body roaring to claim her. "You shouldn't say things like that, even as a joke." My dick throbs, my balls pulse, my body burns and tingles like my woman has just drugged me.

"Does it make you wild, hmm?" She playfully nudges me. Then she takes on an old-timey voice, like an actress from the thirties. "But sir, why, I am just a virgin."

I smirk and wrap my arms around her, savoring the softness of her lips and the gorgeous noises she makes every time we kiss. She wraps her arms around me and then lays her cheek against my chest. "That kiss felt different."

"Different, how?" I ask.

"I don't know, more… affectionate."

My heart pounds almost violently. I know she was going to say the word "loving." That should make me want to run, but it does the opposite. Maybe she has a point. It's not like my desire has disappeared, but perhaps this kiss had something else, something less savage, that makes me think of the future.

"Should I try the others on?" she says.

"There's no need. You've found your dress."