Russian Mafia Boss's Heir (19 page)

“Do you really think so?”

How raw was he that he was asking for her validation like this?

She felt the weight of responsibility rest heavily on her soul. Yet she welcomed it. It wasn’t a burden. It was a privilege. This man didn’t trust easily.

“Yes,” she assured him. “That’s exactly what I think. I wouldn’t say so if I didn’t.”

“Thank you.” He cocked his head, staring at her as though he were actually a bit surprised by what he was saying and feeling in this moment.

“I never expected to love you, Mikhail,” Tori whispered. “You seemed so cold and hard. You are a man with too much power at your fingertips. It scared me a little. My stepfather was so certain that you would be the one to finally keep me under control. I didn’t like that idea. But from the very beginning, you were honest and you were fair.” She gently touched the tip of his nose, feeling so unbelievably tender toward this man she had married only because she’d been ordered to. “Now?” she whispered. “Now I know that you are a man who knows exactly how to wield his power. He knows when to use it and when to hold back. You’re a good man, Mikhail. And I will be proud to be at your side for the rest of our lives.”

There. She had said everything that she hadn’t truly been willing to acknowledge over the last several weeks. Mikhail had needed to hear it.

He only gave her a smile in return, but it was enough. In fact, it was just perfect.

“Let’s go home,” he told her. Then he gestured to the cell phone he’d stashed in the cup holder. “Dr. Burns will meet us there.”

“See?” She chuckled to herself. “You can be very fair and reasonable when you put your mind to it.”

“You’re biased,” he told her with a warm smile. “But I like you that way.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

Tori lounged in her bed, feeling very spoiled and maybe just a little nervous. She hadn’t been to the doctor yet for her pregnancy. After everything that had happened, what if there had been some mistake? At first, she’d had some pretty lukewarm thoughts about having a baby. However, in the last day or so she’d started to not only come to terms with the idea, but to really like it. She couldn’t help but think that she and Mikhail would make pretty good parents. If nothing else, their kids would certainly not be timid or boring.

The thought brought a smile to her face.

Seconds later, Dr. Burns walked into the room. He was a tall, thin man in his early sixties. Burns had been taking care of
mafiya
healthcare ever since Tori was old enough to need a doctor to stitch her up after one too many tumbles out of the tree in her stepfather’s backyard. He was a little bit on the old school side of things, but what else could they expect when the poor man was constantly being asked to do minor surgeries without the aid of any hospital staff, facilities, or many of the other trappings of modern medicine. However, the good doctor was pretty savvy when it came to making do.

“You look radiant,” Dr. Burns told her with a smile. “And yes. You were correct. You
are
pregnant. If you’re sure about the date of your last period, I would speculate that you’re just about two months along. You seem healthy and none the worse for wear after your ordeal.” He started scribbling something on a prescription pad. “I want you to start taking these. And I want you to schedule an ultrasound with this obstetrician’s office. This doctor handles most of the other births in your—community—so his office is well versed in cash payments, strange schedules, and paranoid parents.”

Tori couldn’t help the giggle that slipped out. “You’re hilarious. Really.”

Burns sobered for a moment. “I was sorry to hear about Alexei and Stanislas.”

“You were my stepfather’s doctor forever,” Tori said slowly. “Did you never try to get him help for his paranoia?”

“Your father had always been a little on the hyper vigilant side, but to be honest—” The doctor scratched his neck, looking uncomfortable. “—almost all of the members of your community have those behavioral quirks to some degree. There is so much trauma going on all the time. The violence, the constant state of heightened awareness and threat of danger to self and family—it takes a toll, Tori. I personally never saw anything in your father’s behavior that warranted the drastic move of having him committed.”

“But he was crazy!” she argued. “He kept trying to have people killed just because he was afraid they were going to try and take him out to get his position of power.”

“Tori,” Dr. Burns chided. “Remember that is the world you live in. For most people, that’s not even the remotest possibility. Just because someone wants their job, they aren’t plotting to have them killed. People do other things to each other, slander, libel, and all of that. But rarely do they very casually take out a contract on someone’s life.”

“So you’re saying my stepfather’s insane behavior was
normal
?” Tori struggled to understand. How could this man believe such a thing? Maybe he wasn’t really getting it. Maybe Dr. Burns didn’t know just how delusional Stanislas had been.

“What I actually said was that your father’s behavior was normal considering the social norms of his world. I don’t think his behavior was normal at all, but it wasn’t out of the ordinary for this community. People take contracts out on each other’s lives all the time. They shoot at each other because of the smallest infractions. They are
brutal
, Tori.” Dr. Burns held out his hands, looking as helpless as Tori had ever seen him. “Your stepfather simply couldn’t take that sort of pressure. He snapped, or cracked—whatever you want to call it. And no. He wasn’t well toward the end. He was certainly experiencing increased anxiety. That probably made him seem insane simply because of how that anxiety caused him to react to the stimuli in his life.”

“So are you saying that Mikhail is going to wind up like that?” Tori was horrified by the mere notion.

“No.” Dr. Burns sat down, perching on the edge of her bed and looking very thoughtful. “To be honest, Tori, if you take into account the severe trauma he experienced in his youth, your husband should never have turned out the way he has.”

“Meaning what? He should have gone crazy by now?”

“There are many stops on the road between crazy and not crazy,” Dr. Burns admonished her. “It isn’t a switch that gets flipped. Think of it as everything is fine as long as somebody is functional. All right? When they are not functional—as your stepfather was not—then we classify it as a problem. So perhaps what I’m saying is that many men with Mikhail’s past would not be functional. He is. He’s a wonderful man, and he loves you very much.”

Tori was powerless to stop the huge grin from spreading across her face. Mikhail chose that moment to walk into the bedroom. He went straight to Tori, holding out his hand and lacing his fingers smoothly with hers.

“Everything all right?” Mikhail looked from Tori to Dr. Burns.

“Perfectly fine,” Tori reassured him. “We are most definitely having a baby. And Dr. Burns was just telling me to make an appointment for an ultrasound.”

“That’s wonderful news!” Mikhail agreed.

Dr. Burns shook Mikhail’s hand and then headed for the bedroom door. “I think I’ll just leave the two of you to chat. If you need anything else, you know my cell phone number.”

“Thank you.” Mikhail’s expression was earnest. “I really appreciate you coming right over here.”

“Yes, well.” The doctor’s expression sobered. “I’m off to write death certificates next. My job certainly has its ups and downs.”

“Don’t they all,” Mikhail murmured as he watched the doctor leave.

***

MIKHAIL MADE CERTAIN that the bedroom door was closed and locked. Then he turned and faced his wife. “I thought I had lost you, Tori.”

“But you didn’t.”

“That doesn’t change what’s going to happen right now.”

Two lines appeared between her eyebrows. Then he stripped off his shirt and yanked open the button and zipper of his slacks. It took him no time at all to get naked. Tori still had on a soft cotton lounge shirt. She seemed to favor those for comfort. And he appreciated the access. But today it was still too much clothing.

“Take it off or I’m going to rip it off,” he growled.

She pulled the shirt over her head and tossed it aside. “I’m not arguing, but could you at least tell me what the urgency comes from?”

“I want you.” Was this a surprise to her? “I thought I had lost you. I want to know in this most basic way that you are still mine.”

“Ah,” she mused. “I get it. So it’s like survivor sex?”

“Exactly.”

Mikhail was done talking. He crawled onto the bed and pushed her onto her back. His lips covered hers, and he kissed her until he could feel her squirming and trying to get closer. He loved the way it felt when she undulated against him and pushed her breasts into his chest. Her nipples were hard. The little nubs rubbed maddeningly across his pectorals and made his skin tingle with heat.

She scraped his scalp with her nails, moving her fingers toward his earlobes and giving them an insistent tug. Her touch was as demanding as his.  She met him stroke for stroke even while she pushed her tongue between his lips and explored the heat of his mouth. She tasted amazing. The feminine spice on his lips made his cock throb. He pushed against her, and she opened her legs to welcome him closer.

Mikhail grabbed the outside of her thigh and lifted her leg to gain better access to her crotch. She was so very warm. The heat between her legs burned him as he pressed the length of his shaft against her naked pussy. She dug her nails into his shoulders and pulled him closer. The tip of his cock prodded her entrance. She was slick and hot. Her juices coated his head and shaft, and he wanted so badly to sink inside her heat.

“Do you want me, Tori?” Mikhail growled. He wanted to hear her beg for his cock. He needed it.

“Yes!” she moaned. “I want you to fuck me, Mikhail. Take me. I’m yours, and I want you to make me come.”

Her erotic words pushed him over the edge. Mikhail pushed past the tight outer entrance of her body and slid deep into her channel. Her inner muscles were tight too. He felt the intense sensation of his cock being compressed as he pressed into her. When he was finally seated fully in the heat of her depths, she wrapped her legs around his waist and clamped on.

“I want it like this!” She rocked against him, rolling her pelvis until her pussy was grinding down on his cock and she was creating friction that drove him absolutely wild. It felt so incredibly good to have her fucking him. She was in control now. Or at least that’s what she obviously wanted to believe.

Mikhail didn’t let that last for long. He cupped both sides of her round bottom in his hand and lifted her off the mattress. The new position changed his angle of entry. He felt his shaft skate across the pad of muscle just inside her pussy. Her entire body locked down on his cock in response. She groaned, her head thrashing from side to side as she struggled to keep herself from giving in.

“Mikhail” she shouted. “It feels so good, Mikhail. Oh my God!”

He felt her come. Her pussy melted around his cock. The sensation was like magic. It felt so good he couldn’t hold his own climax back any longer. Thrusting hard, he held his cock deep inside her body and let go. His semen poured inside her. He gave her everything without holding back. He didn’t want to hold back. Not anymore. Not with Tori. She was his in every sense of the word, and he wanted to make sure that would be the way things were now. Always.

Mikhail collapsed to the bed, rolling to the side to avoid crushing Tori. She rolled with him. Wrapping her arms around him, she pressed her face to his chest and inhaled deeply.

“What are you doing?” he asked softly, stroking her hair with his fingertips.

She sniffed him one more time. “I’m committing this scent to memory.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s something that makes me feel incredibly secure. I’m safe with you, and I know that when our baby comes, we’ll both continue to be safe with you. You’re a wonderful man and a good provider and caregiver. I just want to make sure that you always know that I believe that with one hundred percent of my heart.”

“I do.” Mikhail wrapped his arms around her and rested his chin on top of her head. “As insane as it is to think that such a thing actually exists in our world, I do believe that our family is going to be just fine.”

“Of course, we still have to tackle the council,” she reminded him.

“Of course.”

“I think we should do it together.”

“Oh, you do?”

She was yawning now, but that didn’t stop her from telling him exactly what she thought.  “Yes. They need to see that we’re a completely unified couple. Don’t you think?”

“I think that you sometimes see things other people don’t,” he admitted. Then he thought for a moment. “Which means that I’m going to trust your judgment about what needs to be said. I suppose I’ll just be there to look intimidating.”

“Ah, a man that knows when to shut up,” she teased. “You’re like a unicorn, Mikhail!”

“Just never believe you’re going to dress me up in pink sparkles,” he said darkly. “My manhood couldn’t take it.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

After only five minutes of observation, Tori was pretty well convinced that the
mafiya
council in Boston was just a bunch of old men who liked to gossip and call it business. At the moment, they were all engaged in talking about Mikhail and her amongst themselves while simultaneously pretending that neither Tori nor Mikhail could possibly hear them and know exactly what was going on. It was ridiculous.

“Excuse me?” Tori said loudly.

Oh yes. They were male chauvinists to the core. All of them. The expressions on their faces ranged from shock to disgust. A woman had dared to address them.
Them
!

“That’s right,” Tori said with a hard nod. “I just addressed the council. In Russian, I might add. Since the six of you were yakking away back there in Russian, I was starting to believe that none of you spoke English.”

“We speak English just fine.” This stiff sentence came from Olaf Nikaelovich. The man actually looked like he’d just licked a lemon. “We simply don’t care to hear what a woman has to say.”