Chapter 20

Chapter 20OliviaMichael was sleeping with his tummy full of dinner, and I was up on the couch, trying to read a cozy mystery but unable to remember anything on the page.I was still toying with the idea of whether I should tell Viktor about Luis knowing the man who had killed his friend. So much had happened over the past few days that I was getting antsy about everything. I really didn’t want to pile more trouble at Luis’s door, the killer was a childhood friend—someone he probably hadn’t seen in years—and he seemed to be having enough problems with his other friends. Just because Luis was Puerto Rican, didn’t mean that he knew people who was involved in any of this.I smiled, thinking about my friend’s older brother. He would lift Michael onto his shoulders for a ride every time he saw him. Once at school he punched a guy five years older than him when I was thirteen, to protect me from his sleazy advances. I grew up with Luis, he was one of the closest things to family I had. I hoped that he would sort out whatever was going on with his friends soon, he’d been so stressed out recently and I knew Anna was worried about him. That guy Paco was a total asshole, I could imagine someone like him hurting people.My thoughts drifted back to Viktor, and I wondered how good a judge of character I really was. Viktor didn’t strike me as the kind of man who would shoot down three people without even blinking? No. No, he didn’t. But he had, right in front of me.***At midnight, I was tossing and turning in my bed when my phone buzzed. It was Viktor. How are you doing?I didn’t know whether to be scared or relieved or horny.Can’t sleep, I texted finally, feeling my cheeks heat up with embarrassment and sudden desire.That’s common in these situations, I’m afraid. Is there anything I can do?I should have come out and told him everything. My fears, my worries, the way I couldn’t get that insane half hour of running from gunmen out of my head. But instead, I just wrote the one thing that came into my head, Come over.That’s a surprise. Earlier, you were too upset.I’m still upset. Something else happened today after I left. It’s too much to talk about over text.There was a long pause, long enough to make me worry a little. Then he replied, This isn’t going to be a breakup conversation, is it?I stifled a laugh. After all the crazy things that had happened today, his first concern seemed so ordinary that it was almost out of place. Yet I was flattered. Men had tried to kill him today, and his first concern was me. And not losing me.Tears leaked out of the corners of my eyes. For the hundredth time, I wished he was in some normal job, with a normal life, where compatibility and breakups and all of that were the worst things we had to worry about. But I knew that wasn’t true with us, and there was no choice but to deal with it unless I tried cutting him out of my life entirely. Which wouldn’t work particularly well being that he was Michael’s dad.No! I just don’t want to text about… you know. All the things that happened today.Understandable. I can be there in half an hour. Are you sure?I smiled. I wasn’t used to anyone outside of Anna and Luis, when he wasn’t working, prioritizing me like that. Yes, I’m sure. Michael’s sleeping, but maybe you can meet him, you know, in the morning.Another pause as he digested the implications. I’ll be there in twenty minutes.That made me laugh out loud. Okay. I’ll see you then.As soon as he went quiet, I jumped up, suddenly frantic. Should I dress? Dress up? Get a shower? Did I have time?I finally just brushed my hair out, realized I’d made my waves super frizzy by brushing them, then put my hair into a braid three times, before I was satisfied that it looked effortless like I’d just naturally had a perfect look by accident, and then threw a silk robe over my short nightgown. By the time I had that done and was deciding on whether or not to put a little concealer under my eyes to hide my tired circles, my phone signaled that someone was buzzing the intercom downstairs.Oh God, I hadn’t even figured out what to tell him!I checked the camera feed to make sure it was him, then sighed in relief and resignation and buzzed him in. Guess I was going to have to wing it.But as soon as he tapped on the door, my stomach dropped. I had decided I’d tell him about Luis’s link to his friend’s killer.  Part of me felt like I would be betraying Anna and Luis’s trust—but it might help Luis too, he was obviously troubled about it all.I opened the door. Viktor came in, as polished as ever, a canvas bag in one hand with a bottle of wine sticking out of it. He immediately stepped forward to pull me in for a kiss.I kissed back like I was starved for it. I didn’t know what to say, how much to say, or even how I was going to handle introducing him to Michael. But I knew I wanted him in my life, in my bed. That was the one thing I was sure about.He set the bag down and pulled the door shut behind him. We stood close enough to breathe each other’s air. He smiled down at me, a gleam in his eyes that made them look even more feral and sexy.I barely remembered to lock the door before I got so caught up in his kisses that everything else left my mind. His tongue darted into my mouth as he turned us and pressed me against the wall. I whimpered and wrapped one of my legs around his hips, all of my worries starting to drift out of my head.I’ll tell him later, I reassured myself.It wasn’t what I was supposed to do. But as I led him by the hand to my bedroom, all I felt besides desire was relief that I could set it aside for a while. That I had an excuse.My robe ended up a puddle of silk on the floor as he stepped out of his shoes and backed me up against the bed, kissing me hungrily the whole time. His hands slid up under my nightgown, caressing my thighs, pushing the fabric up as I lay back on the bed with him looming over me. His smile widened as his fingers found me bare, I never wore panties to bed.We undressed each other, my fingers busy with his shirt buttons until I had to stop to let him pull the gown over my head. By the time I could see again he was shouldering out of his jacket and holster, setting both aside carefully.The sight of that hand-cannon didn’t alarm me anymore. Weirdly, it made me feel safer. So much had changed in me and my life since Viktor had walked back into it. Or maybe I was just too horny to care.He flipped me over and ran his tongue down my spine, hands tracing my curves before gripping both of my ass cheeks and kneading them roughly. I groaned through my teeth, trying to keep quiet, but by the time he stepped back to grab a condom from his pocket and shed his pants, my breathing had already gone ragged.He left suck marks down my spine that made me have to smother whimpers with my pillow. He reached around to pleasure me, nimble fingers teasing my breasts, labia, and clit until I was rocking back against him in time with his movements. When he finally entered me, he had to muffle my blissful gasps with his hand.He crouched over me, moving together feverishly while doing everything we could to try to keep quiet. My door was locked against small, sleepy intruders, but I was far too aware of my apartment’s thin interior walls.My nails dug into the bedding as I felt my pussy tighten around him. He thrust hard and fast, grunting and panting in my ear with the strain of holding out, as that delicious tension started building in my body. I squirmed as I arched against him, pressing my ass against his hips eagerly with every thrust.Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore, I dropped my face into my pillow and pushed back against him in one long, slow, grinding arch as my muscles clenched and fluttered around his shaft. He hissed and gasped and pushed back hard, through the waves of ecstasy I felt his cock jumping and trembling inside me.We pushed against each other that way until the last spasms passed and our sated bodies loosened. I collapsed under him, he lay down over me, holding me and murmuring tenderly in my ear as we struggled to catch our breath.The orgasm had been so intense that it brought tears to my eyes. He kissed the back of my neck and I moaned, reaching back to caress his cheek.We drifted, his warm weight over me driving away every trace of trouble or fear. My eyes slid closed. When I opened them again, he was climbing off of me to get rid of the condom. I rolled over to watch him go, enjoying the sight of his tight, lean body walking nude across my bedroom.Then I remembered Michael, and Murphy’s Law, and hastily grabbed my nightgown to pull it back on, just in caseI hadn’t quite locked my bedroom door in my haste.Viktor came back, pulled on his silk boxers, and climbed into bed behind me, moving up close as I lay on my side. He kissed my shoulder as he settled in and draped one arm over me. “What are you thinking about?”“How I’m going to introduce you to Michael,” I half-lied. It was definitely one of the questions still milling around in my head. “Do you think you’ll want to stick around? Be in his life? In mine?”He chuckled, as if I should already know the answer. But when I didn’t say anything, he moved forward and murmured in my ear, “I’m starting to like the idea of waking up to your face every morning. And yes, I want to participate in the care of our son. But right this moment, it’s you that I’m thinking about most.”That only added to my ambivalence. I knew I would be worrying about it in the morning—how to negotiate the space between his world and mine, how to be co-parents and lovers when the whole world seemed determined to add new complications to that.“I think we should be honest with him,” he said confidently. “Obviously not about what I do, but that I am his father and that I aim to be around a lot from now on.”That surprised me. “But what about the street war?”He paused for a few seconds, then chuckled again, although the sound was completely devoid of humor. “I am pretty much forcing the opposition to come to the table at this point. It will be too costly for them not to, and I think I’ve done a good job teaching them that today. So this war is very likely to be over very, very soon. Don’t worry.”I let out a low sigh. “I’ll try. So I guess we’ll be introducing you to your son at breakfast, then.” I punctuated the sentence with a long, unexpected yawn.“Mmm. Yes. And then we’ll sort out something nice to do with the rest of our Sunday.” He kissed the lobe of my ear so delicately that it made my heart ache.I wasn’t sure if that was the best solution, or if my tired, overworked, overwhelmed, frightened brain was just looking for a way to stop me thinking and let me sleep.I’d think about it more in the morning, when I’d had more time to process everything. He made it sound as if we’d have the full day together tomorrow, so if I needed to, I’d make sure to tell him before the way was out.***Viktor’s phone buzzed repeatedly in the dark of the early morning. I heard him grunt and felt the bed shift as he rolled over, reaching for it. A moment later, I opened an eye to the glow of his screen as he checked his caller ID.Whoever it was couldn’t wait. He sighed through his nose and connected the call. “This had better be good.”I heard the voice on the other end, deep, male, too low for me to pick out words. I heard the tension in the caller’s tone, though, and felt the blissful relaxation drain from my body.Viktor listened silently to whatever the explanation was for almost a minute and a half before breaking in. “All right, Boris, fine,” he stifled a yawn. “I’ll be back in half an hour.”“What is it?” I tried not to sound too worried. It must be something urgent, as he had jumped out of the bed and was already trying to pull on his pants one-handed.He said a few curt words in Russian and hung up. “Mudak.”“There was something I wanted to tell you, I don’t know if it’s important or not but—” My voice was hesitant.“Duty calls,” Victor turned to me with an apologetic smile. “It can wait, I must also wait to meet my son, it seems. Or spend more time with you.” He leaned down and kissed me lingeringly. I whimpered, tingling and frustrated. “I will make it up to you both.”I got up to throw on a robe and let him back out of the apartment, mind racing. Was it something to do with the attack yesterday? Yes, it had to be. “Okay. Call me once you’re free? I need to see you again today.”He stole another kiss at the threshold. “Absolutely.”And then he was gone.