13. Alek

13

ALEK

S he lowered her gaze, pressing her lips in a firm line.

Ah. Not so chatty now, are you?

I tipped her chin up and kept my two fingers right there. They waited so close to her neck, and I battled the urge to stroke my hand down it and hold on. Touching her was becoming an addiction, and I wasn't above using this contact to get my way with her.

"You agree that your father wants to take over my family."

She exhaled a shaky breath and glared at me. "I won't repeat myself. You heard me the first time."

I chewed on my lip, fighting a smile. She was so fucking bold, never afraid to talk back. It fueled my desire like nothing else.

"Starting with your marriage to my cousin."

She shrugged, and I narrowed my eyes at her reaction.

"Is that false?"

"I don't know. I…" She hesitated, breathing evenly before lifting her blue gaze to me again. "I don't know anything about my marriage. Why it was decided the way it was."

"Cut the bullshit."

"I don't! I only learned that I was to be Andrey's bride three days before the wedding. My father—No. He wasn't the one to even break the news. I found out from another woman within the bratva. She overheard the men talking about it, and it wasn't until that evening that he bothered to inform me that I was being married off."

I lowered to the bed, sitting next to her as she struggled to sit up. Her bound hands prevented her from accomplishing any upright position, though, and I wasn't inclined to help her. She could try to bolt again.

"I've always known I would be arranged in a marriage someday."

I peered at her, intrigued about her tone and her choice of words. "Why do you say it like that?"

She licked her lips, seeming bothered to speak up about it. "I… My father has always criticized me. He's told me many times that he would struggle to find a man who would want me for a bride. He implied that offering me to a man would be an insult."

Ah. Her comments from yesterday were starting to make sense. Sergei Kastava had filled his daughter's head with lies and garbage, but she wasn't fooling me. Mila knew her worth. She appreciated her body and had taken care to work what she had. I saw it in that office, when she wore such sex kitten clothes tailored just to suit her delectable curves.

"Why does this marriage matter so much?"

She furrowed her brows, staring at me like I was the one who'd know the answer to that. Pavel preached that Andrey and Mila's marriage would unify our bratvas. That with them joined as a couple, the families could no longer be enemies. I was convinced something else had to be at play.

"I… I don't know what you mean." She shrugged again, and I was distracted with a loose, wavy strand of her hair tumbling over her bare shoulder.

"What do the Kastavas stand to gain with your marrying Andrey?"

She smirked, letting a slow, naughty smile curve her lips. "Well, I didn't marry him, did I?"

I deadpanned, not in the mood to join in her sarcasm.

Shaking her head slightly, she tried to get more comfortable with her bound hands. "I'm not sure what you're asking. And I'm not sure how to answer that. I assumed marrying Andrey would just be a way to align our families and unite us all. But…" She sighed, frowning once more.

"But what?"

She worked her mouth open and closed, struggling to know what to say as she seemed to search for words. "But my father has never been one to…"

What are you hiding? Out with it.

"Be a team player. He's not even that dedicated to keeping our family united. He cuts his losses easily, and I truly can't understand why he would want to align with another bratva. Especially a larger one that's been around far longer than ours."

I watched her, studying her closely for a tell. That strange feeling was back. My gut was warning me that she wasn't being completely honest, and I loathed how uneasy it made me feel. It would be stupid to think that I wanted to trust her. I couldn't. I never would, and it was a sign of my own weakness that I wanted her confidence.

"What else?"

She shrugged. "Nothing. That's all I can think of."

"What are you hiding?"

She rolled her eyes. "Nothing."

Despite her insistence, I couldn't shake that nagging suspicion, just like what I felt when I saw her at that shipping office. She was no fool.

"I'm certain it's no different in the Valkov Bratva." She huffed, looking away for a moment. "Bratva women are to please their men. We aren't included in things that matter, like making decisions or contributing to plans. I know nothing."

"Even though you are his daughter?"

Her hair fell out of the last of that braided knot with her nod. "He didn't trust me."

Neither will I.

"He trusted you to run that office where I met you."

"Barely. It's just a front, a company to make it look legit."

"And you still want to claim that you're ignorant of why you were expected to marry Andrey?"

She nodded.

"And you want to insist that you know nothing about that big shipment coming up? The trade that is supposed to mark the beginning of the Valkovs and the Kastavas as allies?"

This time, she wasn't so quick to nod.

I watched her swallow and glance away for the barest moment. "No. I know nothing, Alek. I was never trusted."

I don't believe you. I refused to think she was coming completely clean, but I wouldn't hold it against her. I already knew she was feisty and strong. All that meant was that I'd need to try another way to get the truth out of her.

"Never trusted, huh?" I twisted, reaching her wrists where they were still bound. "I guess I'm no different."

She glowered at me as I dragged my fingers down her arm, teasing her skin with a delicate touch.

"No. All you men are exactly the same."

I kept my hand on her, lowering it over her shoulder and moving toward her breast. Her breathing increased in tempo, and her eyes lost some of that sass. Something like desire lit them now.

"You want to compare me to your groom?" I taunted.

She parted her lips to reply, but she never spoke. A sweet gasp left her mouth instead as I tugged her dress down and revealed her breasts. The generous swell of her tit spilled out, and I latched my gaze on her nipple. "Fuck." She was exquisite. So smooth, so curvy. All ripe, and mine for the taking.

"Alek." She uttered it on a breathy exhale as I cupped her globe, taunting her with a hard squeeze.

I leaned down to kiss her at the same time I yanked on her gown again. As her other breast was exposed, I closed my mouth over hers and stole a deep, rough kiss.

"Marrying a man like Andrey isn't what you would have wanted," I warned against her kiss-swollen lips.

She blinked at me, panting and alert with lust. "You…" She shook her head slightly. "You can't begin to know what I want."

"No?" I kissed her again, thrilled when she growled into my mouth and sucked on my tongue. But I didn't linger. Keeping one hand on her tit, I left her mouth and trailed kisses along her neck, intent on proving her wrong.

"You need a strong man." I sucked on her neck as I rolled her nipple between my finger and thumb.

She huffed a single laugh. "You mean one who won't hide behind me in gunfire?"

I continued down, kissing along her collarbone, leading toward her breasts. At the first touch of my lips on her sweet globes, she cried out and arched toward me. I laved and licked, then sucked and nipped. Between her breasts, I paid equal attention with my hand, mouth, and tongue. Only when she was panting and writhing, pushing her chest up to me, did I stop.

"You need a man who can handle you and appreciate your fire."

She blinked, looking lost in a mix of surprise and desire. Perhaps she wasn't used to compliments, and she should take that as one. As I sat up, she pouted until she caught herself. "I…" She glanced at her bare breasts, then my mouth. "I?—"

"You want a man who can give you what you need." I knew she wouldn't last. She was too impatient. I had her right where I wanted her, horny and on edge for more.

"I…" She growled as I stared at the wet peaks of her nipples. "I sure don't want you."

"I bet I can prove you wrong." I returned to her breasts, sucking and biting harder. Once more, she mewled and cried out, so loud and eager to contradict herself. As she pushed her tits at my mouth, I yanked her dress up.

"What are you hiding?" I demanded again.

"Wha—" She tried to sit up as I crawled further from her breasts. "What?"

"I know you're hiding something."

"I… no."

I tugged harder at her dress, annoyed with the billowing layers that prevented me from seeing her face as I lowered mine toward her sweet pussy. Liar. She could tell me that she didn't want me, but her body betrayed her. I saw the truth in her glistening folds. She was dripping, soaked with her cream for me. Without bringing my lips to her succulent flesh, I stayed close so she could feel the whips of air from my exhales. Slowly and steadily, I pumped my fingers into her hot slickness.

So tight. So wet. She was perfection, and with a carnal glee, I knew that I would be the first to ever sample her.

"What are you hiding?"

She dropped her head back, groaning. "Nothing!"

"Really?" I added another finger and pumped faster.

"Yes!"

I paused, earning her grunt of protest. "You want me to keep going?"

"I…" She lifted her head to glower at me.

I grinned, knowing she wouldn't say it. She hated me too much, and I knew she loathed how I was proving her wrong. She didn't just want me. She needed me.

"You tell me what you're hiding." I pulled my fingers out so I could hold her folds wide open. A quick push on her thigh made her legs part open wider, and I pressed my tongue to her cream-coated skin.

"Oh, fuck. Oh, my—Oh, fuck."

She dropped her other leg to the opposite side, and I dragged my tongue over her sensitive flesh. From her entrance all the way up to her clit, I stroked and tasted her sweet tanginess.

"You tell me what you're hiding and I'll keep going," I explained before I went faster. I left no spot untouched. I swiped my tongue along her folds, speared it into her entrance, and circled her hard little clit. Once she seemed close, thrusting her hips to my face and making the sexiest moans, I stopped.

She cried out, cringing at me as I lifted my head and looked at her. Air cooled the cream that clung to my chin, but I let her see it, proving how aroused she was. If I wasn't mistaken, this was likely her first time with this, and I could drag it out all fucking night.

"No!"

"Tell me what you're hiding."

"I'm not hiding anything! No one ever trusted me with any information!"

I returned my fingers to her pussy, slipping two in to piston hard and fast. Within another moment, she was on the verge of coming again. "I don't believe you."

"I—Oh! I don't know anything."

Again, I stopped. This constant halting was gnawing on me. Every time she gave me those sexy sounds and each time I felt her legs quivering with her pending orgasm, my dick got harder and harder. I was torturing her as I withheld orgasms, but it was driving me hotter too.

"Alek!"

"You wanna come?"

"I—Yes!" She gripped her bindings and pushed her pussy toward me.

"Then tell me the truth."

"I did. I will."

I narrowed my eyes. That sounded like a fucking contradiction. She could swear that she had told me the truth in the same breath that she would agree to yet?

"Whatever you ask me," she got out around harsh breaths, "I'll tell you the truth. Please."

Her sobs turned me on to the point of no return, and I felt like we'd come to enough of an understanding. Besides, I couldn't last long myself. With her sweet scent heavy in the air, her cream on my tongue, I needed to fuck her before I shot my cum into my pants.

"No going back on that, Mila. You hear me?"

I unzipped my pants, needing to stroke my dick to relieve the pressure as I dropped my mouth back to her pussy.

"Yes. I hear you—Oh!" She bucked at my suction on her clit. When I switched, rubbing her hard bud and eating at her pussy, she cried out an incoherent chant. I bet it killed her to beg for it, but I didn't care. As soon as I got her to come after that back and forth of preventing her from getting there, I was filling this tight cunt with my dick. I stroked my cock as I ate at her, and the second she came, squirting on my tongue slightly, I groaned right along with her.

"Alek!" she screamed. She fucking screamed my name, just like I knew she would, and I didn't stop. I chased her high, licking harder and faster and slurping at her cream as her orgasm left her shaking.

"I need, please, I want…" She was a mess of blubbering phrases, unable to string a sentence together as I leaned up and pumped my hand over my cock. "I want—" She locked her gaze on my dick, and I knelt closer, about to pop her cherry.

"You want this?" I held my dick up, triumphant that I'd proved her wrong. Fuck that nonsense about her not wanting me. She was feral for me.

Before I could line up my cock to her sweet pussy, a loud crash sounded in the room.

She screamed as the window burst in, and I dove to cover her.