NIKOLAI (Her Russian Protector #4) (33 page)

When he spoke so commandingly to me, there was
no refusing him. I clutched his sides but didn't break our intense
gaze. Surrendering to my husband, I lost myself in the strength of
his embrace and the love reflected in his eyes. His fingertips
swirled around my clitoris, massaging the bud with the lightest
pressure.

As he nibbled my lower lip and touched his
tongue to mine, Nikolai slid his fingers a bit lower. He gathered
some of the slick nectar seeping from my core and used his slicked
fingers to change up the sensation. I whimpered and gripped him
tighter. My core wobbled violently as bright white frissons
unfurled deep inside me. My thighs flexed as I chased the wicked
sensations he evoked just by rubbing my clitoris and kissing me
dizzy.

Our mouths were separated by mere millimeters.
We shared each other's breaths. His were relaxed and calm but mine
had grown shuddery and almost panicked. He gazed down at me with
such wonder and affection. It was if I was the most beautiful and
precious thing he'd ever seen.

His fingertips circled with more pressure and
at a faster speed. Even if I'd wanted to hold back, there was no
way to stop my impending climax. Blissful bursts rocked my core.
Head thrown back, I rode the rapturous waves. "Nikolai!"

"Vee." He bent down to lock his lips along the
curved and exposed edge of my throat. I cried out with surprise as
he bit down slightly, marking me as his. The sharp pinch
accentuated the delicious trembling emanating from deep within
me.

As my climax began to fade, Nikolai shifted
until he was on top of me. He drove me crazy with punishing kisses,
the kind that left my lips swollen and my toes curling with
delight. The fingers that had been massaging me into heaven slid
lower and penetrated me ever so carefully.

"Is this all right?" Nikolai gazed down at me
with such concern in his eyes. "Tell me if it's too
much."

"Don't stop," I begged, loving every second of
his two fingers spearing me. He worked them into me so gently, just
an inch or so before retreating. As he prepared me for his hard
cock, Nikolai savored my mouth. When his thumb started to rub my
clit, I nearly died. "Oh God!"

He chuckled. "Not quite."

I laughed but his hand felt so damn good that
it turned into a low moan. "Nikolai, please…"

"Tell me what you want, Vee."

"I…I don't know what I want."

"I know what I want." He suckled my nipple
while his fingers penetrated me again and again. Breathing heavily,
he admitted, "You're even wetter and tighter than I'd imagined.
I've dreamed about this, about burying my cock in your pussy. I
imagined the way it would feel to sink into you again and again, to
feel you gripping me like a fist and milking my cum."

My pussy fluttered around his
thrusting fingers as he described all the dirty things he wanted to
do to me. "
Ah
!"

He nipped at my breast. "Do you want me to take
you now?"

"Yes." I was ready. I wanted him inside me so
badly I could taste it. "Yes."

Nikolai planted a hand next to my
head before widening my thighs by moving between them. I shook now
that
the
moment
was upon me. In a few short moments, I'd know all the secrets of
womanhood. In a few short moments, I'd discover what it meant to
share something so incredibly intimate with the man I
loved.

The evidence of my excitement left his fingers
shiny as he removed them from me. Gripping the base of his
erection, Nikolai lined up our bodies. Without his digits deep
inside me, I felt so empty and ached for him to fill me again. I
wrapped my legs around his hips and caressed his chest. "I need
you."

Covering me with his bigger, leaner body,
Nikolai captured my mouth and thrust forward. There was nothing
easy or gentle about the thrust that impaled me. I cried out as he
pierced me and sank deep inside my virgin passage. My body
protested the sudden invasion of his long, thick shaft but Nikolai
pushed forward until he was fully sheathed inside me.

"Forgive me," he murmured, his voice pained.
Kissing me lovingly, Nikolai didn't move. He held perfectly still
so I could acclimate to the strange sensation of being stretched
around his thick cock. Sweetly and softly, he whispered to me in
Russian and told me how much he loved me.

When his tongue tangled with mine, I began to
relax. The throbbing down there started to lessen. I concentrated
on the way his rough palms felt gliding over my breasts and
stroking my arms.

As our kisses grew more heated and sensual,
Nikolai moved experimentally. I hissed the first time, the burning
stretch still too much for me to enjoy, but Nikolai tried again and
again. He trailed his fingertips down my face as he pulled back
until just the very tip of him remained buried inside me. When he
pushed forward again, I gasped and clawed at his back.

"Soon," he promised. "It will feel good
soon."

With each slow, gentle stroke, he gathered more
of my wetness on his cock and eased the sliding thrusts. I moaned
as the wicked sensation of his cock gliding in and out of me left
me trembling. "Yes."

Nikolai moved deliberately, his strokes long
and deep and unhurried. He slipped his fingers between our bodies
and found my clit. He touched the super-sensitive pearl, and I
gasped and twisted away from him. Gripping his wrist, I panted,
"No, it's too much."

"Sh," he hushed gently. "Let me."

I held tight to his wrist but didn't
stop him as he framed my swollen clitoris between his fingers and
began to gently rub it. The intense, nearly overwhelming feeling
began to fade. Suddenly, it felt really,
really
good. "Kolya!" I arched into
him thrusts. "Don't stop. Please.
Please
."

I wanted to come again so badly. I
wanted to experience a climax with him inside me, stroking all the
right places. My body began to rhythmically clench him, squeezing
his rock-hard shaft to wring every last ounce of pleasure from his
thrusting cock. "Oh.
Oh!
"

"
Da
." He swallowed my passionate cries
with ravenous kisses. "
Da
."

He seemed impossibly harder and longer now as
his thrusts grew faster and rougher. I scratched at his back and
chased the promise of ecstasy that was just beyond my reach.
Nikolai shifted the angle of penetration—and I shot off like a
rocket.

"Kolya!" His name echoed off the ceiling and
walls but neither one of us cared. We were lost in the wondrous
ecstasy of our first coupling. Rocking together and clutching, we
enjoyed the wickedly sinful sensations of a shared
climax.

A few seconds after I exploded with
pure bliss, Nikolai followed me over the edge. He slammed deep
inside me and jerked roughly as his blazing seed seared me. "Vee,"
he whispered with such awe. "
Vee
."

For a long time, neither of us dared to move.
We shuddered in each other's embrace, content to share the rippling
aftershocks. With a loud, satisfied groan, Nikolai fell off me and
rolled onto his back. He dragged me into his arms and cradled me
tightly to his chest. "God, Vee, that was good. So good." He
caressed my back. "Are you all right? Did I hurt you
badly?"

"You didn't hurt me—and it was amazing." I had
tears in my eyes as the wonder of it all consumed me. That was so
incredibly worth the wait.

"Thank you," he whispered.

"For what?"

"Sharing this with me." He sifted his fingers
through my hair but stopped abruptly. "You have paint in your
hair," Nikolai said with a laugh.

"Do I?" I reached up to touch the area he
played with and encountered the tacky wetness. "Great."

Nikolai kissed my forehead. "Purple streaks are
a good look on you."

"Uh-huh."

"Better you than me."

"You've probably got paint all over your back
by now."

He grunted. "As if you could tell with all the
ink covering me."

"That's a good point."

He slid down a little and rolled onto his side
so he could peer into my eyes. "I truly am sorry about last night.
Can we start over? Wipe the slate clean?"

I pushed up onto my elbow and traced one of the
prison tattoos on his neck. "Yes."

"I don't know that we can ever be partners in
the way Dimitri and Benny are but I can try to let you in more.
There are some things I can't—shouldn't—tell you."

"I understand that. Frankly, there are probably
things I don't want to know. Just don't shut me out like you did
today."

Nikolai ran his finger over my lower lip. "I
won't. I need you now." He kissed me lovingly. "More than
ever."

Chapter
Twenty-One

A few hours later, Nikolai made his final tour
of the house before heading upstairs to join Vivian in bed. He
deliberately took his time because he wanted to draw out the
anticipation of making love to her again. He hadn't been able to
wipe the smile off his face since they'd emerged from her studio.
Their first day as a married couple might have started off on the
wrong foot but it was ending on the right one.

He ducked into the library to survey the piles
of wedding gifts. They'd been arriving for days preceding the
wedding and this afternoon he'd had his men bring the remainder
over from Faze. He ran his hands over the colorfully wrapped boxes
and thick envelopes. He didn't much care for the custom of giving
such ostentatious gifts to men in his position but he understood it
was a matter of respect.

A bulky wrapped object in the far corner caught
his eye. Even from this distance, he could tell it was a painting.
He assumed it was a gift from Yuri because he shared Vivian's love
for art but one glance at the card attached to the gift disabused
him of that notion. His jaw clenched at the sight of boldly
scrawled message from Niels Mikkelsen.

Bright stars for the next bright
star ~ Niels

He didn't even want to know what obscenely
expensive painting the billionaire Dane had given Vivian as a
wedding gift. As he debated whether or not to tear the wrapping
paper for a peek, his cell phone began to ring. He fished it out of
his pocket and answered. "Yes?"

"I'm not interrupting the newlyweds?" Yuri's
amusement carried through loud and clear.

"Not yet," Nikolai replied. "Listen, you need
to tell that Danish bastard you hang around to watch his
step."

"Niels?" Yuri sighed loudly. "What has he done
now?"

"He sent Vivian a painting as a wedding
gift."

"Which painting?"

"I haven't opened it yet."

"He hasn’t stopped talking about Vivian's
talent since he met her. Knowing his collection, it's probably a
very rare piece." Yuri hesitated. "Don't do anything stupid with
it."

Nikolai glowered at his reflection in the
mirror. "I'm not that petty. I don't trust his motives but that
doesn't mean Vivian shouldn't keep and enjoy the
painting."

"You're going to need insurance on it. Once
Vivian takes a look, have her call me and I'll send her the name of
the agent I use. But, listen, I didn't call to talk business. I've
been thinking about those papers the deacon gave you
yesterday."

Nikolai's gut clenched. "What about
them?"

"Do you remember the night someone tried to
kill Lena by shooting at her in my backyard?"

It was a phone call he would never forget. "Of
course."

"We always assumed it was Jake. We figured that
somehow he'd managed to set up a remotely fired weapon. The shots
taken at Lena were too close for comfort but they weren't the types
of shots you'd expect from an expert marksman."

Nikolai remembered Dimitri's theories that
they'd all dismissed as something that belonged in the pages of
Ivan's favorite thriller novels. "Where would Jake have gotten a
gun like that?"

"I've been asking myself that same question.
There was so much more about that case that didn’t make sense.
There were too many holes in the story for me so I hired a private
investigator back in Moscow."

"And?"

"And he called me earlier to tell me was
dropping the case and to never contact him again. He sounded like
he was about to disappear one me."

"Why?"

"Well, I asked him to email me everything he'd
compiled on Katya and Jake so far. He agreed but only if I wired
him more money." Yuri sighed. "I'm looking at the file and there's
one name that keeps popping up again and again."

"Maksim?"

"Grisha."

Nikolai blinked. "Grisha?"

"Yes. He was meeting with her for years. They
had an apartment and everything. I don’t know if they were lovers
but they were definitely digging around in our pasts. There are
files here for Ivan and Dimitri and you. She even had dossiers on
Erin, Lena, Benny and Vivian in that apartment. They're extensive.
He was making huge payments to Jake but I don't think Jake was
pocketing the cash. It looks like he was withdrawing it and paying
it to someone else. There are notations about consulting
fees…"