“Out,” Damon replied.
“And Father?” Nik asked.
“Resting and still recovering,” Maxim replied. “Go ahead and rest. Settle in, and we’ll let you have your privacy and peace.”
He didn’t sayfor now, but I heard the implication anyway. Nik didn’t challenge him or question his brother, the interim boss, and I didn’t either. Talking back or speaking up with anopinion of my own wouldn’t be something I’d dare to do here for a while.
I was in an awkward position, coming here as the perceived enemy and expected to be welcomed in and trusted. It would be a long process, on top of handling this pregnancy, but I was too weary and tired to even think about it now.
“Privacy and peace,” Nik said quietly once we were in the elevator and going up toward the floor where he had his own apartment. “It sounds like an illusion.”
I smiled at him, glad that he would never lose that edge of sarcasm with me. “It does.”
When the doors slid open to his floor, I didn’t take in the details of his home. Of what would bemyhome now. Ours to share. Because I already felt like I was home, with him, in his presence.
He kissed me, backing me up toward the elevator doors. Without taking his lips off mine, he lowered to pick me up and carry me over the “threshold” into his apartment.
I smiled against his mouth, appreciating that he could switch it up from serious and demanding to playful and even sweet.
Instead of putting me down and leading me toward the bedroom, he carried me through the whole space. No one was here. Wewerealone. The privacy part was real.
As for the concept of peace, it seemed that he wasn’t on board with full relaxation just yet.
Setting me down in the bathroom, he let me feel the press of his erection against my stomach. He wasn’t in the mood for peace. And he didn’t seem to be in the mood to relax and settle in with me. With that hard bulge poking at me beneath his clothes and the desire burning in his smoldering stare, he was giving me the clear signal that he was interested in one very specific activity.
One that I would always want to participate in with him. That was how much he drew me to wanting him, no matter what.
I smiled, reaching down to undo his pants to free that massive cock. “Are you suggesting that we consummate this marriage?”
He chuckled, thrusting his hips toward me as he let me get his dick out. While I hurried, impatient, he began to take off my clothes.
“We already consummated this,” he teased right back. “But I am suggesting that we celebrate this marriage. Right now,Wife.”
I wanted to remember this moment forever. Even though we were getting ready to have sex, again, and it was more of the physical connection that monopolized our relationship, he was talking like this wasn’t only a marriage of convenience.
Kissing again, we made a clumsy attempt to get our garments off. In the end, though, we were both naked and eager for every touch and caress. It was clear that this would be a sweet and slow experience, but I enjoyed those as much as the quick and hard ones too.
We entered the shower together, where he turned on the water. Before we could both get fully wet, the steam rose and curled around us.
Unlike all the hideouts we’d stopped at in the last couple of weeks, this bathroom was more of a luxury I could get used to. I’d grown up with the finer things in life, but I’d never taken them for granted. I’d wanted for nothing. But no amount of riches or possessions could have ever mattered to me at all after I lost my father. His death changed me. In losing him, I learned that being materialistic was pointless. People mattered. Love mattered.
I love you, Nik.
He led me to the bench seat built into the enormous shower and sat. As I climbed onto his lap and straddled him, he heldme right where he wanted me, his fingers around my neck. The thrill of him squeezing my neck was something else, but he was too tender and gentle in his touch now to give me that sense of adventure. His fingertips were soft on me, showing me that he wanted to treasure me, not fuck me hard.
I couldn’t tell him my thoughts. Not yet.
This was enough. This was exactly what I needed after the tension and stress of facing two of his brothers. Grounding myself on Nik—literally, as I sank down on his dick and impaled myself until we both groaned in pleasure—I felt more normal.
There was so much to figure out about our marriage. We had a lot to decide with how I’d fit in here and which way we’d have the most success in convincing all of his family to let me in. We had yet to discuss the logistics of the miracle of our baby. And I really wanted to find the right time to talk with him about my uncle and how I could achieve the final point of closure and avenge my father’s death by killing my uncle.
Right now, all we could pay attention to and deal with was this. His cock dragging over the sensitive walls of my pussy. His hard hands on my hips, his fingers digging into my flesh as he gripped me and urged me to ride him as deeply as I could. His mouth on my breasts and teasing my nipples when he lifted me up so he could tend to them and make me that much closer to exploding.
While I yearned for his love amid all the danger and betrayal that surrounded us, I was grateful that we would always have this intimate connection. This magic that happened when we were both so close to coming. When I couldn’t care or tell where I ended and where he began. We were truly one like this, not only husband and wife, not only childhood friends who’d turned into lovers.
We were one. Soulmates matched in the truest sense of commitment.
And as I came, triggering him to hold me tight and shoot his cum deep inside me, I let my head fall back and know that I could always trust in this man to ground me again and again. He would always bring me out of my head and refocus me on the present—with him—so I could once more look forward to the future and whatever it may bring.
