2. Anastasia

TWO

Anastasia

E ver since I was fourteen I’ve had an obsession with death. It doesn’t have to be killing someone by my own hand or even be real, my obsession is watching the life drain away and my thoughts swirl wondering where it goes. A soul doesn’t have any tangible evidence but it’s something that the majority of the population agree exists, and my mind fixates on that question every time I witness the light leave someone’s eyes.

I’ll be sore tomorrow with Vitali having exerted more anger in his fight than usual and I take my time catching up on the information Vlad asked for. I can’t stomach the images of abuse and only focus on the logistics of finding the safe house the pedophiles use to traffic children. Vitali doesn’t know that his words inspired me to change everything about who I am and it’s because of him that I will never allow any part of myself to be on display for other people again. My image is my biggest protector, the dumb airhead who is either high or drunk and too stupid to know the difference.

I sit back and semi focus on the slasher movie playing as I wait for the scan run on the phone I swiped from Brodie to finish. It’s therapeutic witnessing carnage and my peace is disturbed by an annoying fucking presence when my phone rings flashing my stepsister’s name. I answer on the last ring, hoping it goes to voicemail or she gives up, but her voice is like nails on a chalkboard as she says, “Mama said I have to personally give you an invite, I’ll be at yours in fifteen minutes.”

She doesn’t get a chance to say anything else as I cut the call.

Her need to impress a mother who isn’t hers has made her insufferable and I contemplate throwing myself out of the window to avoid Marta. I don’t even want to attend her wedding and be scrutinized during the buildup or have to spend a single second around her sleazy father. The man keeps getting older but the type of girl he’s attracted to hasn’t aged with him.

At least she gave me a warning this time and I can hide everything that’s important in the office. Locking the door so the nosey bitch doesn’t go through my things, I tie the key to my necklace and fast forward my movie to the most gruesome part so she can leave once the flimsy envelope is in my hand.

It’s only been seven minutes when there’s a knock on the door and I apologize to my feet before forcing them back into my heels.I make sure to let my ankle appear limp as I clumsily walk to the door and pull it open with too much force. I hold it like I need the support, and my drunken act disappears at the sight of Vitali standing in front of me with a big, dumb grin on his face.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” I seethe and grab his arm as I look around him to make sure Marta hasn’t seen him.

We have a system and he’s fucking it up. I pull him inside before the stupid bitch can turn up and start gossiping. The asshole doesn’t answer my question and curls his hand around my nape. He moves closer faster than I can anticipate and then his lips are on mine.

Fuck he feels good. He always does and his muscles are tense from the adrenaline of the fight. Snaking his hand around my waist, he hauls me up and my legs wrap around his waist as I fist his T-shirt to get it off. We’re good at this part, playing with each other’s bodies, but he ruins it and opens his fucking mouth.

“How you been, sweetness?”

I grab his jaw to keep his mouth closed as I check the time and rush out, “You have five minutes to fuck me and leave, shut up.”

My tone is harsh, the guard I usually place in my throat where I’m unaffected by everything, monotonous, disappears around him.He smirks and looks around the room, his brows go up, seeing the movie playing as he massages the backs of my thighs and makes himself comfortable in my house. He walks over to the sofa and drops down with me still wrapped around him as he stares at the screen, effectively changing our physical-only arrangement that he started.

“I’ll fuck you after we’ve finished watching this.” Sitting back with his arms over the top of the cushions, he flicks his eyes to me and adds, “Or I’ll watch it while you suck my dick.”

I hate the fact I like that image and force myself to stand instead of kneeling how I want to. I raise one brow as I cross my arms over my chest and my mouth opens, ready to tell him to leave, when I get another knock on the door. No one visits me, yet I now have two unwanted guests. One will fuck me, the other will just fuck with me.

Forcing my limbs to act independently from my body, I put on the drunk act and make my eyelids droop as I open the door to Marta’s annoying-ass face.It’s like opening a music box but my mother’s voice comes out instead of a tinny tune.

She’s so beautiful, a real-life doll. Any mother would be proud to have a daughter like mine.

Her head tilts, trying to view the inside of my home when there’s nothing personal on display, other than the furniture, it’s the exact same as when I bought it under Dima’s name.The few things I have that are mine, that I’m protective over, are locked in my office, but I still sway to stop her tainting my furniture. She’s a jinx: a witch who can ruin the most mundane thing because she’s a bitter cunt who wasn’t happy until I was locked in a room with bare walls.

Slurring my words is easy, keeping the irritation out of it is the most difficult part of any conversation with my family.

“You wanted to give me an invitation?”

My hand falls out limply and I plant my feet as she tries to move forward. I’ve seen everything from outright hate to utter embarrassment on Marta’s face at having to be associated with me. Right now, it falls, and her steel eyes turn green before she forces a smile on her face, focusing over my shoulder and the fake airy voice makes me clench my teeth as she says, “You didn’t tell me you had company.”

Warmth wraps around my hip, and I instinctively suck in a breath as I look down at Vitali’s inked fingers touching me in front of someone else. Marta looks at it too and I wasn’t quick enough because her eyes light up at the very normal curve my stomach has. Fucking great, my mother will be sending me diet pills and juice cleanses now; that bitch would remove my bones to achieve her ideal image of what I should look like.

“Who are you?” Vitali asks. His tone is dismissive making me fight a smile. It breaks out at the disgust on Marta’s face as she’s forced to give a voice to our relation.

“I’m her sister.”

The Vartanovs are royalty to the Bratva, even before they were linked to the Pakhan. A part of me mourns the loss of Vitali’s body while it’s still next to me, knowing my mother is going to get her claws in and be excited about the gossip.He doesn’t deserve to have more rumors added to his family because of me, even if they’re all crazy, they’re people I respect, people I’d protect.

My gratitude for his asshole ways is new as he stands at my side, looking between Marta and me with the same dismissive tone.

“I know my girl is an only child, you must be Borya’s daughter.”

He looks her up and down as he snatches the envelope from her hand, while I smile widely and say, “Was there something else you needed, or…”

Her jaw is slack, and I can see the tops of my cheeks from how hard I’m smiling as I close the door in her face.

There’s a different type of torment living with the cunt who bullied you. I couldn’t escape her shit, and she’d sell my panties to the boys in school only to come home and tell her parents that I was whore.

Vitali pulls me away from the fourteen-year-old girl who couldn’t escape and my back hits the door with a thud. Throwing the envelope behind him, he grips my hips and grinds into me. His lips brush my neck as he moves up to whisper into my ear, “Turn around and watch her wish she was you.”

The instruction is useless when he controls my body and spins me so I can see through the peephole.My hands are flat on the wood as I watch Marta staring back at the door as though she can see through it. A gasp leaves my throat as he roughly pulls my hips back and kicks my ankles part. This is so fucked up and I’m a grown-ass adult that should not be getting off on the same thing she did to me with any boy I liked as a teenager. But it’s cathartic and Vitali’s tongue marks a line on the back of my thighs as he fits his fingers under the waistband of my panties.

Reaching behind me, I thread my fingers through his hair and his breathing shallows as he says louder than necessary, “That’s my fucking girl.”

When his tongue works through my slit, my back arches and I forget about the audience on the other side of the door. Pushing two fingers into me has my legs shaking and I curl my hands into fists as I clench, pushing my hips back. The man is a chatterbox and mumbles something filthy around my clit.

“Fuck, malyshka—” He cuts himself of on a moan and my forehead falls forward, knocking against the wood, as he bites into my thighs and straightens. The sound of metal clacking together is like a starting pistol for my release, and I keep rocking my hips as he takes out his dick. He’s handsome in a way that you ignore because it’s obvious; I still look over my shoulder and watch him watch me as he strokes himself from base to tip. That shouldn’t be attractive, neither should the fact his lips are glistening or how he sucks on his bottom lip, moaning and watching me like it’s physically impossible to look away.

His voice is husky and deep, the sound alone makes more of a mess between my thighs.

“Fuck, I need you more each time, sweetness.”

Scissoring his fingers with each syllable leaving him, he abruptly pulls them free and sucks them into his mouth.

Why is that so erotic? The thought of him dying for a taste of me that he has to suck it off his own skin is more of a turn on than when they were inside me.

I widen my legs and push my ass back, expecting his dick, but he drops to his knees as though he’s pledging his devotion to me. His groan isn’t faked, he does it every time and my temple hits the door as it vibrates through me.

“Always fucking perfect.”

He turns so his nose is pressed to my clit then pushes his tongue into me, and I can hear his hand speed up on his dick. The other goes to my ass, a crack landing on my skin that he soothes by massaging away. His eyes are still on me as he looks up the length of my body while massaging the sting away.

The door is fully forgotten. I thread my fingers through his hair with both hands and ride his face. Sounds leave me but I’m lost, chasing my release, uncaring about anything else. He’s a fucking acrobat and hugs my thighs so they’re resting over his shoulder before managing to stand to his full height. My moans turn into a squeal and my back hits the door with a thud as his forehead presses into my lower stomach.

He presses his palms into my inner thighs, pulling them apart and abruptly tilts back, making my body drop. Fuck, my heart is racing, anticipating the plummet but he catches me by pinning his hips to mine. His lips are by my ear and his hand loosely wraps around my throat.

“Should I open the door and let her in?”

I’m fucked in the head because my first thought is yes. Rather than answer I reach into his back pocket and take out a condom. The wrapper is between my teeth when we both groan at the feeling of his bare dick sliding between my thighs. His voice deepens as he bites into my neck and asks, “Fuck you raw and make that bitch suck my warm cum straight out of your tight cunt?”

My fingers shake as I wrap him up before we can do something reckless.Digging my nails into his neck, I slowly push down and feel the stretch, it’s perfect and knocks everything way. Except Vitali’s mouth, he can’t keep that shut in any circumstance.

“You want that, sweetness? Feel me fucking you with nothing between us?”

Squeezing the sides of my neck, he thrusts up and tilts my head to the side.

“I’d pump you so full of my fucking cum that she’d drown sucking it out.”

I grab his hair to pull him away and seal our lips together, so he shuts the fuck up.

“You talk too much,” I moan against his lips.

He nods, agreeing with me and fucking up into me harder.

My release is so close, but he’s been bearing weight on his injured knee too long, and I reluctantly unwrap my legs from his waist. Dropping to my feet, I pull my dress over my head and hold his nape to stop him talking again. He doesn’t stop me walking him backwards and kicks off his jeans as I tug on his T-shirt. Once he’s free, the stubborn bastard picks me up again and makes it the two steps to the sofa.He collapses, dragging me with him and moans as he bites into my shoulder.

“You make a lot of noise,” I say, breathless, half in awe.

It doesn’t matter how long we do this, or how many times I hear him moaning for me, it’s always a surprise.

Vitali nods, his stubble scraping against my skin as he kisses a path up my neck and his moans are louder as I lift up on my knees and slowly sink down on his dick.

“You love my noises,” he groans. “Fuck, you love knowing you’re in charge, that I’m addicted to your sweet cunt.”

He pushes his palms flat against the top of my thighs, forcing me down so I can’t move. It’s a threat as much as if he were to hold a knife to my throat, this is somehow more dangerous because he softly kisses my cheek and looks into my eyes while his dick is inside me. We don’t do intimacy, or slow fucking, we get what we need and that’s it.

Yet he continues staring at me, his eyes imploring while his lips remain closed. The silence is only broken up by the sounds of a crazed maniac chasing after their prey on the screen behind us and I watch Vitali back, attempting to unnerve him like he is me.

“Fuck me like this,” he whispers, “and hear the prayers you create.”

His lips are soft as he maps my face with equally gentle kisses until there’s no part of my skin left untouched. I can’t run from him because he’s invaded my space, the one place I have in the world to hide, so I curl my fingers around his nape and pull his head away from my jaw to seal my lips over his. The arrogant idiot smiles and I lightly nip the edge of his tongue with my teeth to get him to stop, but he fucking laughs.

“There’s my fucking girl.”

“Not yours,” I shake my head as I fight his hands on my thighs. “Fuck me, Vartanov.”

He leans back, lazily watching me despite the way his eyes heat as he slowly rakes his gaze down my naked body.

“Say you’re mine,” he says slowly. “I’m not a slut who’s giving my dick away to just anyone.”

“Shame, I am.”

I peel his hands off me and watch his eyes darken. The violence he hides behind laughter is slowly rising to the front and I stupidly want more of it to prove he’s just like everyone else while I hate the thought of the happy, puppy-like Vitali disappearing.

He doesn’t stop me or say anything as I slowly ride him, and I’m fueled by the wildness in his eyes. I speed up, dropping my hips down hard enough for the back of my thighs to sting while he clenches his teeth and his fingers flex on my thighs.