“I can’t,” I said softly, now exploring the muscles on the sides of his abdomen. I dragged my finger back up his abs to his chest, and then pushed him onto his back with the flat of my hand. As I rolled him onto his back, I said, “I can’t stay away from you. I can’t help myself.”
Still he grumbled, but I had to take a chance. It was either spend a sleepless night beside him or take him for myself. And show him that I too had power here, that I too could be in control.
I straddled him in the dark, continuing to explore his body. His pecs, his nipples, that hollow at the bottom of his muscular throat. The scars that lined his body, so many mysteries untold. I let my hair fall over my shoulder, tickling his skin with it as I explored him. Somehow, I could feel him softening, warming up to me. Relenting.
Finally, his tired eyes opened and met mine. They were dark with heat and greed.
He reached up to pull me down to him for a kiss, but I resisted. I liked it here, above him, over him. He was so much bigger than me and so much more powerful, I knew this control I felt was only temporary. He was a like a wounded lion, down for only a moment. I had to seize my chance. “Where were you?” I asked him. “Why did you leave me?”
Maksim nudged my hand with his cheek, placing a kiss to my palm. “I’m sorry I did that,” he said, with his lips still close to my flesh.
“Tell me,” I said. “If I’m your wife, I deserve to know. Who is the messenger you’re waiting for?”
As I said that word, that magic word wife, I felt his cock harden between my legs. We still had the sheets and my britches between us, and I took advantage of that too, grinding my pelvis against him, making him groan.
He gazed up at me as he rolled his hips into mine, in tandem with my movements. “I was making sure you have everything you deserve.” He moved to take hold of my hips, but I seized his thick wrists and pinned his hands against the bed. If he’d wanted to resist, he could have. But he didn’t. Not yet.
I slid my palms against his so that we could entwine our fingers. He let me grip his hands first, then followed my lead. It was then I understood that he wasn’t just letting me control him. He was showing me, without a word, how to be controlled.
“What life can we have?” I asked him, grinding my pubic bone into him. “Everything depends on them. On your father and my mother.”
Maksim shook his head. “Not everything. I’ve got plenty of my own money. And it’s got fuck all to do with our parents. I’ve spent years planning how to separate myself from those two fucking vipers. But I wasn’t going anywhere without you by my side. That’s the news I’m waiting for.”
My heart sank as I made the connection—if he had some secret stash of wealth, perhaps it was true after all. “So, the fleshmarket auctions…” The logistics of it all were too disgusting for me to even fathom, but I could only imagine. Some sort of depraved horse-trading. Some sort of secret black market of sins and secrets. “Is it true? Do you have something to do with them?”
Now he gripped my hands hard in return, looked me in the eye, and said, “It’s true, yeah.”
Horrified, I tried to pull away, but in one powerful movement, he flipped me onto my back and pinned me to the mattress beneath him. I struggled against him, but he was so much bigger than I was that I was powerless. It didn’t stop me trying though. But my writhing was testing his patience, and he narrowed his eyes.
“Hands on the headboard,” he said, placing them just where he wanted them. “And don’t you fucking move them.”
I didn’t do as he asked and I didn’t relent. “What do you do with them?” I asked.
When he realized I wasn’t moving my hands, he seized my wrists and slammed them against the headboard, making me wince with pain. With the other hand, he unbuttoned my britches and slid two fingers down between my legs. When his fingers touched my clit, I couldn’t help but moan. It felt so good for him to touch me again. Upset as I had been, I still wanted him. Desperately.
He growled as he found my wetness, then drew his finger up to his mouth and licked it clean. “Fuck, I missed your taste.”
He wasn’t going to get away from my questions that easily. I pinched my legs together hard, as hard as I could, until I felt a burn in my thighs and calves. “Tell me.”