30. Kristof

You're a fucking idiot, Kristof.

There's no excuse.

I've been tense, stressed about the search of my home and the collapse of one of our highest-earning clubs. Seamus had taken my information and gone all out. There was absolutely nothing left to salvage in a way that's almost admirable, but it provided the distraction I needed for a few days.

That didn't save me from taking the brunt of Aleksander's fury.

Alena is right. I heard what I wanted to hear and didn't listen to her.

She stares at me with shining eyes, her hands like claws tearing into the armrests, and silence lingers between us as I wait for her response.

"Maybe," she murmurs after a moment.

"Don't give in too easily," Nastja remarks, appearing around the seat with a glass of vodka in one hand. "Make him work for it."

I shoot her a glare, and she smirks at me, continuing toward the front of the plane. Turning back to Alena, I see her cheeks are pink and she bites slightly on her lower lip.

"Maybe you should work for it," she says.

Bold.

"Alright." I unclasp her from the seat and take her hand, slowly helping her to her feet.

I resist the urge to tell her there's nothing to be afraid of in terms of the jet. Only her safe journey can assure her of that. Instead, I tangle our fingers together and lead her through the jet, past where Ivan is buried in his laptop with a beer in hand and through to the living quarters where several rooms are hidden behind sliding doors. I take Alena to the main bedroom and close the door behind us.

"I'm sorry, Alena. I'm so… so used to people working against me that I think it's just a reflex to assume you'd been lying all this time."

Alena scowls and opens her mouth, but I hold up a hand.

"It's not an excuse. I shouldn't have, but I did and I am sorry."

She huffs softly, removing her hand from mine.

"You need to trust me," she says. "I've followed all the rules. I've proved I can be obedient, and I'm falling so hard for you. But if you don't trust me, then this is just…" She shrugs one shoulder, wandering around the small room and taking everything in.

A circle bed in the center is draped in red sheets and surrounded by a glittering crimson curtain. There's a bar and TV at one end, and a single circular window rests right above the bed.

She's falling for me?

My mind catches on to that quiet comment and I can't move past it. She has feelings, real feelings for me? Would it be crazy to admit that I hadn't given much consideration to that? The extent of my love extends to my siblings, and my obsession with Alena sits deeper than love in my heart.

An unfamiliar sensation squeezes in my chest, a sensation I've felt before around Alena. Once she's finished wandering the room, I take her in my arms and cup her cheek.

"I trust you," I say softly. "As much as I can." But not as much as she deserves.

Alena's eyes dart above my face and she bites slightly on her lower lip. "Prove it. Prove you trust me. Prove you're sorry."

She's on the bed in an instant, flat on her back. Her jeans leave her hips in one strong pull, and she removes her T-shirt as I shrug off my shirt. I crawl on top of her and kiss her deeply, cupping the side of her neck and sliding my tongue alongside hers when she parts her lips. It's a deep, consuming kiss, and yet somewhat gentler than we're used to.

Breaking the kiss, I wrestle with my belt and slacks as I kiss down her body, tracing a path across the swell of her breasts and down the concave slope of her abdomen. Each kiss lights the embers inside me, and my cock is heavy and swollen by the time I reach Alena's pussy. Her fingers wind into my hair as I kiss the insides of her thighs. I part her pussy lips with two fingers and lick at her inner folds. Her sweetness bursts across my tongue, and her heat is addictive.

Within moments, my mouth is pressed hard against her pussy, and I lavish attention on her swollen clit.

Alena's thighs close around my head, muffling her loud moans to my ears, so I focus on pleasing her the best I can. My tongue weaves over her clit, focusing on the left where she's most sensitive. I write the alphabet across her, and then, as she quivers and rocks against my mouth, I slide two fingers into her core and pump them lightly in time to the strokes of my tongue. Alena's thighs tighten around my head, and her hips rock up into my mouth. I wind one arm around her waist, pinning her lightly to the bed and keeping her against me as her moans pitch in fever. Two fingers become three, and when I suckle her clit hard, Alena comes apart.

She comes hard with a scream, and a rush of slick washes over my tongue. I drink her down greedily, lapping at her slit until she's a whimpering mess, and only then do I pull back with a grin.

Alena's entire body is flushed pink, her nipples hard and perky, and her lower lip is swollen from her teeth.

I press a final kiss to her pussy, then crawl up her body, leaving a trail of soft kisses as I go. My cock, rock-hard, brushes against her heated pussy lips the same moment I claim her lips in a kiss. She moans, draping her arms lazily around my shoulders. With one hand on her hip and the other on her ribs, I tilt my hips, and Alena's thighs spread wide for me without a word.

Sinking into the velvety soft heat of her pussy is heaven, and our kiss loses sync for a moment while I press deep inside her. Alena's head falls back against the bed, and she moans loudly. I kiss her bared throat, licking over her fluttering pulse point and groaning as her core grips my cock with a familiar pull. When I'm inside her, I never want to leave her.

Her legs wrap around my waist, and her fingernails rake lines of fire down my shoulders when I start to fuck her.

Usually, I'm consumed with the need to fuck her hard, breed her until neither of us can move, but there's something different in my heart this time. My thrusts are hard but deeper and slower than the norm. Each one punches a moan out of Alena, and she scrabbles against my shoulders, her lips parted and her eyes closed.

"Fuck," I grunt, thrusting deeply into her. Each stroke of her walls catches just right on my cock, and my gut aches, muscles clenching, and still, I hold myself back. I can't take my eyes off her. The way her body twists and rises with each thrust, the way her lips part and her eyes roll, the way her eyelashes flutter and her breath hitches with whimpers each time I bottom out.

I'm addicted, and yet still, I'm caught in this motion of fucking her slowly. There's power flowing through us, and Alena's hips rock into each thrust as eagerly as I fuck into her, but it's slower, tender, almost, and the unfamiliar sensation in my chest continues to grow.

I was wrong. And I will do everything I can to show her that I am sorry. I should have listened to her. Throwing her in with everyone else was unfair.

"I can… can see the stars," Alena gasps, her eyes fixed on the open window above us. A look of awe washes over her face, then she cups my face and drags me down for a messy kiss. This is the most intimate we have ever been. There are no toys, no orders or commands, just the two of us locked together, chasing a pleasure we can only attain at the hands of each other.

I like it.

Alena starts to writhe against me, tossing her head back and forth, and her moans increase in pitch. My balls tighten, drawing up almost painfully, and my careful rhythm starts to stutter as I teeter on the edge, ready to come, but not until she does.

Three thrusts later, Alena cries out her orgasm and tightens all her limbs around me. Her pussy locks around my cock, rippling in time to her moans, and within seconds, I'm coming too. Pumping deep into her, I thrust to pack my seed deep and kiss her softly as she trembles and whimpers in my arms.

I only pull out when her body goes lax, and she sighs wistfully as I drape the silk sheets over her.

"Am I forgiven?" I ask softly, peppering gentle kisses over her face.

"Maybe," she murmurs. "Might need to do that a few more times to be sure."

"Don't go anywhere." I kiss her nose, and she murmurs in agreement, looking utterly blissed out against the pillows.

I slide away from her, dressing quickly in my boxers, and then head out to the bar to grab a couple of drinks. Just as I reach the bar, Ivan slides up to me and silently passes me my phone.

Aleksander is calling.

All the warmth from Alena drains from me immediately, and my jaw tightens as I answer.

"Hello?"

Kristof, what the fuck?he barks down the line. You're on your way to Russia.

"Aleksander, we discussed this." Balancing the phone between my shoulder and ear, I crack open a fresh bottle of Vodka and pour two glasses filled with spheres of ice.

We discussed it before the fucking Irish wrecked the Saint, Aleksander snaps. We need you here. I need you here, fighting for our territory and looking for my daughter!

Mara's voice buzzes indistinctly in the background, and I grit my teeth.

"I am fighting for our territory, Aleksander. Firstly, I'm still looking for Alena. Every waking hour since she was taken, I've been searching for her, and I still have men scouring while I'm out of the country." I pour the Vodka as I talk.

"Second, we lost the Saint. Trust me, I'm as pissed as you. Did you forget that the Saint was my baby? I built that shit from the ground up. No one could have seen that attack coming, but such a blow has the Nikolaevs antsy. Aleksander, they want to pull out, and we both know how much of a blow that would be. We need their money, we need their men if we stand any chance, so yes, I'm flying out to appease them in any way I can."

Ahh, the Saint. It was my first club and the leading figurehead in the Russian drug scene. Giving that to Seamus had been painful, but keeping Alena undiscovered with me was worth it.

"Without them," I continue, adding cranberry juice, "We won't survive the pressure from the Irish."

Aleksander sighs audibly. Alena should be your number one priority, he says tightly. With her back, all our other problems wrap themselves up, and the Irish wouldn't stand a chance.

"Are you sure about that?" I remark, adding two cherries to each drink. "The Kuznetsovs were threatening to branch out, the last I heard. You think they'll still commit to a marriage?"

And then some, Aleksander grumbles. You should be here, protecting the Family.

"With all due respect, there won't be a Family to return to if I don't soothe the Nikolaevs and their investment. I'm doing this for you, Aleksander. And I'm in close contact with everyone looking for Alena. There's not a stone in that city that will be left unturned."

Mara's voice drones again in the background, and I roll my eyes.

Fine, Aleksander remarks. Keep me updated.

He hangs up before I can reply, and I let out a breath that had caught in my chest. With Alena safe in Russia, everything else should fall into place.

Just as I set my phone down, ready to take the drinks to Alena, my screen lights up, and my chest tightens around my heart at the message on the screen.

Seamus: We need to talk. I have bad news.

Fuck.