The Empress (The Tarot Club 1)

We were playing a waiting game, and while I was normally good at the long game, this was an entirely different story, considering it wasn’t by my choice. We had to wait for Corinne’s Magick to come into effect. She kept assuring us it was working but it would just take time for us to see the evidence.

“He’s not going to let you know he’s crumbling from the inside,” she huffed one morning in the kitchen, addressing both Arlo and myself.

I knew she was right. In fact, it had been the same thing she had said to me the day before. I never voiced my frustrations, but she seemed to sense what they were anyway. My gaze remained upon her, hard and unyielding, but in truth, I couldn’t tear my eyes from her if I tried. The more I had of her, the more I needed. Since the day I had taken her innocence from her, there hadn’t been a single night that my cock wasn’t buried deep inside her. The way she moaned my name was the music I didn’t know I had been missing, and I was only too keenly aware that my time with her was running out.

I enjoyed watching her come completely undone underneath me. The way her forehead creased just between her eyebrows right before she found her pleasure. The small moans that fell from her lips when my tongue was between her thighs. The rake of her nails through my hair as she panted my name, Dimi.

Corinne was not what I had expected when Arlo had insisted on bringing a Vedman on board. She was a Queen in her own right, operating on a level above everyone else, only she was too self-conscious to realise it.

Last night, I had handed over control to her entirely, allowing her to slide onto me and ride me for all she was worth. I could liken the experience to a religious one because Corinne was a goddess in her own fucking right. She was game to experience everythung I had to offer, and when she wrapped her pretty pink lips around my cock, it was fucking euphoric. The image of her tits bouncing as she rode me into oblivion would be something imprinted on my mind for a long fucking time.

Ravi was already enamoured with her, and he had been spreading the word through the ranks that we had our own Vedman on our side, sanctioning the work we were doing. I knew that the sense of us being blessed and our business sanctified would only solidify once word got out that Corinne and I were… together. Having a Witch be part of the inner circle - the woman next to me, would undoubtedly make us stronger. But I had never really considered long term family goals when it came to Bratva, and Corinne was an unpredictable creature - an element I couldn’t fully control.

She wasn’t like the women we took out - she didn’t know when to stay silent and when not to push me, and she certainly wasn’t like the girls from the burlesque club - the ones I found release with and moved the fuck on from. Corinne was a fucking enigma, and I needed to get my head out of my ass because I didn’t even know if she wanted to stay - if I even wanted her to stay.

Arlo’s smirks of approval around what Corinne and I were doing behind closed doors wasn’t entirely lost on me, and apparently it wasn’t lost on Corinne either, who seemed to scowl at him every opportunity she had.

Exactly the way she was scowling at me now, “Are you even listening to me?” she seethed.

She was angry, and fuck if it wasn’t a turn on. I smirked at her and shrugged my shoulders, watching her pupils dilate in fury. I wanted to grip her by her long, golden locks and fuck the fury out of her, as if that currently wasn’t my favourite past time.

“You were saying that the Magick is working and that Sergei wasn’t going to simply show us his hand.”

I sounded bored, resigned to the fact that she was telling Arlo the same fucking thing again. Because he kept asking. I was watching how her supple cleavage bounced ever so slightly with each step she took. She was wearing a navy Ralph Lauren polo dress that had a few buttons that hinted at her cleavage. Her breasts were fucking perfect, all supple and pert, and she was always ready for me - always wet and wanting. Her appetite almost matched mine. It blew my mind that she had remained a virgin this long, although after meeting some of the suits in her circle, I could understand why. She looked like a perfect little country club girl - but I knew what lay beneath - I knew that she had a beast that matched mine in it’s own right.

She was making me go against the grain of my own beliefs - my own promises. Because after that first exquisite taste of her, I had a difficult time wrapping my head around the idea of letting her leave. I wanted to claim her and make her my Queen. It didn’t matter that she didn’t come from this world because she didn’t fit in her own world either. But did I want to claim her? Therein lay the problem. I hadn’t been this unsure since I was a teenage boy on the cusp of manhood, and here I was playing the should-I-shouldn’t-I game when it came to Corinne. I wanted her. I wanted all of her. I wanted her to stay. I wanted her to wake up in my bed. I wanted to fuck her whenever I chose. But I didn’t know if I wanted a partner - someone to be a Queen to this organisation because it was never something I considered.

She was still glaring at me, her face the epitome of incredulity, and right now, more than all my other wants, I wanted to put myself down her throat and let her choke on all that I was. Feed myself to her inch by fucking inch. In time, all in good time. Tonight maybe. Her cheeks began to heat, telling me that she knew full-well where my thoughts truly were.

Her eyes flashed as if conveying a message.

Where is your head Dimi?

In between your legs, Princess.I smirked and watched her blush deepen. She knew the deal. Knew exactly what I wanted from her. How I wanted her.

My phone began to vibrate as Arlo’s eyes met mine, his lips curled at the edges as he dipped his chin. We had been waiting for this phone call for three fucking days. You’ve also been getting your dick wet for three days, that small voice in the back of my head whispered. Instinctually, I glanced up at her, wired to her movements. Our bodies were in rhythm, in sync really.

It was the message we’ve been waiting for from Rav. I scanned my phone, breathing in all the key information. It was a go - they had found another mole in the warehouse - some scrawny kid called Mikhail, and this time, I wanted to go down there to handle it personally.

“We’re heading out to the warehouse in ten minutes,” I tapped the counter twice, giving Arlo the choice about whether he was coming with or not.

Corinne strode forward and I put my arm out, halting her in her tracks - she could not come with - not to this.

“You’re not coming,” I spoke calmly, waiting for her acceptance - because really, what normal person wanted to run out with the Bratva, simply to see how we issued a man’s death?

She jutted her chin out in defiance, her grey eyes glaring at me and my cock twitched as I took in her anger. She glared at me for a moment longer before she said, “I’m coming, Dimitri.”

“I’ll see you two in the car,” Arlo muttered, excusing himself from the showdown. His little statement told me exactly how he thought this was going to play out.

I gritted my teeth, “It’s dangerous, Corrine.”

“That wouldn’t have stopped you from letting me come with before,” she looked up at me, her eyes hardening in understanding.

Fucksake, she was right. But right now, I wanted to keep her as far away from Sergei, the Voodoo Witch, and her influence as possible - which was a fucking problem because she was our resident Witch. This was a mess. She stared at me long and hard and I fought the urge to lock her in a room and leave. She and I were treading on new and dangerous territory. I hadn't taken anyone to my bed since Corinne had arrived - even Ravi was surprised that we weren’t hitting up the burlesque girls as usual.

“I’m coming, Dimi,” she repeated herself.

Her voice was quiet and soft for such an impactful statement. She hadn’t called me that outside of the bedroom, and yet here we were.