Chapter 26

Emma

Later that day, after I’d made a hell of a lot of phone calls and answered every email and text, Nick went down for his afternoon nap and Viktor came home to relax and have a drink with me on the couch before supper.

He looked exhausted. The moment he walked in, his cool demeanor came off with his coat and guns, and he came over and sat on the couch heavily beside me. I heard him mutter something in Russian that was probably a curse.

“Bad day?” I reached over and rubbed my hand up and down his back.

“Indeed.” He huffed in annoyance. “Still no sign of Igor, still no idea who has been leaking information to him. We have confirmation that he and your uncle were in contact, and probably still are. But Igor himself seems to have vanished like a fart in the wind. And…”

He trailed off, glancing up at me even as I started working on the knotted muscles in his shoulders. “A friend and informant of mine, a local legend in our organization. Dimitri. I do not think I’ve mentioned him before.”

“Not by name.” Now I was worried. His expression had shifted. Darkened.

“There was an attempt on his life. He hasn’t been answering my calls because he’s been convalescing in a secret location. He finally contacted me today.”

I blinked, trying to put the pieces of this story together. “You think that Igor did this?”

“I suspect so. Dimitri probably knows something very damaging about Igor, something he wanted to make sure that I never heard. So he tried to shoot him down. Nearly succeeded.” His eyes flashed with outrage and frustration. “That damned coward. Bombings, assassination attempts. He’s not man enough to face me directly, so he’s gone and done all of this instead.”

“This guy used to be a friend of yours?”

“He used to be a member of my organization. He betrayed my father when he was Pakhan and later myself. He had been embezzling and selling information for years. He has clearly left behind at least one friend who is still willing to pass him information. And I have been unable to root them out.”

I thought about this for a few moments, then sat forward up a little so I could face him more directly. “So he’s very sneaky and dishonorable, out for himself. And you’re honorable, and as direct as you can afford to be.”

“Yes. Apparently, it runs in the family. I also despise liars, and I hate having to do it.” He offered an ironic smile.

“Well, if you suddenly did something underhanded and sneaky, Igor wouldn’t expect it. And neither would whoever is giving him information.”

His eyebrows went up. “That is true. May I ask what you have in mind?”

My chest tightened a little. This was his business, not mine, but if there was one thing I was good at, it was knowing how people thought. “Okay. You said yesterday that your lieutenants have narrowed their suspects down to a dozen men.”

“Eleven now. Yes. Why?”

“We’re going to set a trap for your suspects. And depending on what happens, you’ll know who that person is even if you don’t catch him directly.”

He stared at me piercingly. “How?”

“When they are testing plumbing for leaks, they dye the water so that they can see traces of colored water where the leak is. You can do the same thing, but with false information. You’re monitoring Igor’s online activity?”

“We’ve not yet confirmed that the server the blackmail threats came through was his, but it certainly belongs to the man blackmailing your uncle. We have discovered other encrypted email conversations on that server, but not who they came from. Only that they discuss the leaked information. In addition to that, I have my men monitoring Igor’s online activity as well.” He tilted his head, a faint smile coming to his face. “Go on, tell me what your brilliant mind has come up with.”

“Provide eleven different pieces of false information, one each, to the suspects, tell them that you are telling them alone, in strict confidence. Then monitor communications. The specific piece of fake information that goes out to Igor will tell you who your man is.”

He stared at me and then, unexpectedly, he grinned. Before I knew what was happening, he took hold of me and lifted me onto his lap, stealing my breath with a fierce kiss.

“You’re a genius,” he chuckled, voice undercut by a low, sexy growl. “My woman is a fucking genius.”

I expected him to pull out his phone immediately, but instead, he scooped me up and started walking down the hall toward the master bedroom.

“What are you—” I mumbled, startled.

“Fucking your brains out.” He still had a smile on, but his eyes had a fire in them that melted me.

The responsible mom in me had one protest. “But—”

“Forget cooking, we can get takeout tonight.” He walked us in and pushed the door closed behind him with my feet.

He stripped me impatiently, I saw one of my buttons go flying and didn’t care. I kicked off my shoes. He kept my stockings on. He was careful with my skirt. He tore my panties off. I was barely naked before he was crouched between my thighs, burying his face in my pussy as I gasped in shock and pleasure.

He kissed and nuzzled my lips, then darted his tongue between them, my toes curled and I grabbed his shoulders, whimpering and rolling my head against the pillow. He spread me with his fingers, slid two inside of me, and caressed me from within while his tongue explored my folds.

I had never felt anything like this—and he was slow, maddeningly slow. Then his tongue touched my clit and I jerked, gasping for air. He bent closer, closed his lips around that aching nub of flesh, and started circling his tongue slowly, but firmly.

I couldn’t breathe right. I couldn’t stop moaning for more. My nerve endings burned with a pleasure so intense, that it started scaring me again. I was losing control, struggling with the urge to fight for it, digging my nails into his shoulders—and then exploding with bliss, over and over, while I screamed silently and shimmied my hips against his face.

I collapsed, spent, tingling, and saw him sit up and wipe his mouth, then start stripping even more impatiently. My eyes closed. I heard a condom wrapper crinkle.

He grabbed my hips and pulled me to the edge of the bed, and thrust into me roughly, making me gasp with fresh delight. I looked up at him as he stood at the edge of the bed, holding my hips as he pounded his latex-wrapped cock into me.

The look on his face was furiously hungry, like he hadn’t fucked me in ages. But thrust by thrust, as I felt my body reawaken and my pussy tighten around him, I saw delight mix with the fire in his eyes. The fury replaced by bliss. “Ah, yes,” he rumbled, his voice low and hoarse as he sped up.

I watched as he gave in to his lust fully, and his face and his groans of pleasure turned me on as much as his movements, until I was pushing back against him eagerly despite my loose, aching muscles.

I came again, and it was different, less desperate, almost luxurious, slow ripples of pure pleasure that went on and on as he thrust into me and our bellies slapped together fast.

“Oh, Viktor,” I moaned breathlessly, running my nails down over his back to his clenched ass and grinding against him. It set him off, he thrust in deep and buried his face in my shoulder, letting out hoarse animal sounds against my skin as his cock shuddered inside me.

“Oh God,” I gasped softly in his ear as bliss rolled through me again. “Oh, Viktor. I love you. I love you.”

It was only after we’d laid there tangled up and catching our breaths for a while that I realized what I’d said. And by then, it was too late. I could tell from his smile as he dozed on my shoulder that he’d heard it.

But I wouldn’t have taken it back anyway.