His (Ties That Bind 2)

“Time for bed, Josh,” Lev says from the doorway of the bathroom. It’s so big, I’m pretty sure the entire cabin Josh and I rented in Colorado could fit inside it.

When Josh doesn’t reply, Lev goes to him and crouches down beside him. He wraps one arm around Josh’s shoulders to point out something, and I think about how right this is. How right that he’s with us. Even with everything going on, I don’t have to do it alone, and I didn’t realize how much of a weight that’s been all these years.

Josh giggles as Lev makes a joke, then lifts him up in his arms and walks him toward me.

“Night, Mommy,” Josh says, rubbing his eyes.

Lev leans him down, and I plant a kiss on the top of his head.

“Night, baby,” I say and watch them walk out through our bedroom and to the connecting one. A few minutes later, I hear the familiar words of Good Night, Gorilla. I lean my head back against the cool ceramic of the tub and close my eyes.

My mom was somehow involved in this world. How? And who would know? Vasily, but he would just as soon kill me than tell me anything. My father?

My father.

My mom was in love with him, according to Maxim.

I sit up, disturbing the bubbles.

My mother was in love with a mobster. Not only that, but the boss of them all. And she ran information on him to Vasily? That doesn’t make sense. Why would she do that? Is Maxim right that he was blackmailing her? Or that Vasily “had something on her,” as he put it?

She was barely twenty when she gave birth to me. How much could there be to “have” on a person?

“He’s out cold,” Lev says not ten minutes later, leaning against the doorframe with arms folded across his chest.

“He must be exhausted with everything that’s happening.”

He nods. “You didn’t kill him, by the way.”

“What?”

“We didn’t get a chance to talk about it, but if you’re feeling guilty or upset about the guy at the service station, your bullet didn’t kill him. Mine did.”

Is there something wrong with me that I didn’t care about that man? Should I feel guilty?

“I don’t,” I tell Lev.

He studies me in that way of his that he’s always had. Like he can see right into my mind.

I stand and watch him sweep his gaze over me as soapy water glides off my body.

“I don’t feel guilty or upset or anything, Lev. Maybe you should know that about me.” I step onto the mat, and I feel his eyes on me when I walk across the room to the stand-up shower and reach in to switch it on.

I hear the click of the door closing and the lock engaging when I step beneath the flow of steaming water to rinse off.

A minute later, he’s naked and in the shower with me, hands around my waist, turning me to face him.

“What do you think I should know about you that I don’t already?” His gaze locks on mine as one hand slides between my legs.

“That’s two men I’ve killed,” I say.

“I just told you, you didn’t kill him.”

“I wanted to. And he would have bled out if you’d left him.”

“But he didn’t.”

I stare up at him, and I don’t know why I feel defensive and angry. No, I do. Because a part of me blames him even though I know Josh and I were never really safe out in Colorado. I knew this was always going to chase us.

“What is it?” he asks.

“Just let me go.” I push his hand off me. “I’m tired.”

“I’ll never let you go. Don’t you know that yet?”

He grips a handful of hair, hauls me up to my tiptoes and kisses me, his other hand cupping my ass, his cock like a steel bar between us.

“You’re mine, Katya. You belong to me. Forever. I will take care of you. There’s nothing you can say or do that will make me let you go.” He takes my earlobe between his teeth and bites, sending electricity to my core.

“I’m tired.” I push against him but trying to move him is like trying to move a brick wall.

“You need to come.”

“Let go.”

“No.” He tugs my head backward. “I should punish you, you know,” he says.

He presses my back to the wall, and his fingers dig painfully into the skin of my inner thigh as he lifts one leg. He bends his knees a little, eyes locked on mine. My arms wrap around his neck as he lifts me and thrusts into me hard.

I gasp, taking his full length, the stretch painfully good and the sensation of him inside me like this, filling me up like this, I want it.

No, it’s more than want. I need it.

“Does your silence tell me that yes, I should punish you?” He thrusts, and I let out a grunt.