The Score (24 page)

“No,” Viviana said quietly. “It wasn’t.”

Anton said nothing in response, but the engine roared from his foot pressing down to the gas pedal again. Minutes of silence later, and he turned off the highway onto a dirt road that looked like nothing more than an access for ATVs outside the city limits. Surrounded by trees, it was secluded enough to keep the Bugatti out of sight once they were a little ways in the road.

Anton slammed the car into park and opened his door. Viviana stayed in her seat and watched her husband’s breakdown from the passenger seat. Roughly, he tugged the silver tie loose around his neck, tossing the article to the ground. The same thing happened to his suit jacket before he was loosening the top two buttons on his shirt. Raking his fingers through his hair, Anton squatted to the gravel, his chest rising and falling rapidly, and stared at the ground.

When he didn’t move, Viviana decided to get out of the car, also. She rested against the hood of the Bugatti, feeling the cool September air breezing right through her thin cardigan.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” Anton breathed deeply, still staring at nothing. “It’s over, yeah?”

“Yeah, you’re not going back.”

From her spot, Viviana could see Anton was holding back his emotions and fighting himself on the inside. No one was around to see him, though, and she was pretty sure she knew what he needed then.

“It’s okay to cry. Or scream. Whatever you need. It’s fine.”

Anton did just that. From the echoing sobs that shook his shoulders, to the tears he wiped away with his clenched fists. Vivian understood that more than anything, being free to live his life with his wife was what Anton wanted the most. He hadn’t believed he was going to be able to do that, no matter what they told him.

Viviana tried to move forward to comfort him, but Anton held up one hand to stop her from coming closer. His breathing was still verging on hyperventilation. Both of his hands had dug into the gravel. There was something heart-wrenchingly painful about his breakdown, but Viviana let him have it.

Then, Anton turned quiet. Standing, he swiped his hands over his suit pants to get rid of the dust. Thinking he was ready to leave, Viviana slid off the hood of the Bugatti.

“I’m sorry,” Anton said under his breath.

“For what?”

“Yelling at you. I shouldn’t … You didn’t deserve that. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

“It’s all right. It’s been a stressful day. I get it,” Viviana said with a shrug. “You ready to go?”

“No, not yet.”

Anton didn’t say another word before crossing the distance separating him and his wife. Viviana found her back pushed into the hood of the Bugatti once more. Anton’s hands gripped tightly to her waist as he plucked her up like she didn’t weight a thing and sat her down on the car. Over and over, he kissed her mouth with soft kisses.

“Sorry. So sorry, Vine.”

The guilt Viviana was trying to swallow clawed at her throat. “Stop, please, Anton …”

Instead of taking her request for him to quit apologizing, Anton seemed to think it was for him to stop touching her. Viviana felt the loss of his hold and kisses instantly. She grabbed at him and pulled him in close once more.

“Don’t stop that,” Viviana ordered, staring Anton straight in the eyes. “Never that.”

Anton sighed into her hair as she rested her face against his neck. She could smell the lingering soap on his skin. Even seeing him every day during the trial, Viviana only now realized his hair was an inch and a half longer than what it was before. Secured back in their embrace, both turned quiet. Ignoring the guilt she felt, Viviana played with the longer strands at his neck, scratching her fingernails up along the back of his scalp.

It wasn’t long before Anton’s hands were wandering on her sides again. Over her stomach he stopped momentarily, the tension in his shoulders relaxing. Anton pulled at her blouse until her small, swelled midsection was exposed. The cold air had her skin pebbling, but Anton’s warm kisses as he bent down and pressed his mouth to her stomach lit her body up with internal fireworks.

“You’re beautiful when you’re pregnant, you know?”

Viviana smiled, tugging gently on his hair. “So I’m not otherwise?”

Anton’s chuckles rocked between them. “You’re always beautiful, baby. But, it’s not the same. Seeing you grow and feeling the baby move. I’ve missed so much of this already.”

“We’ve still got a little while to go,” Viviana assured. “You didn’t miss everything. Not the important bits, anyway.”

Anton traced circles over her stomach with his index finger. “Beautiful,” he repeated.

The deeper, huskier tone his voice took on reminded Viviana how long it had been since she heard her husband lustful and wanton. A shiver crept up her spine when Anton kissed below her navel, his tongue striking out to taste the spot he kissed.

Viviana didn’t stop him when Anton spread her thighs to step in between and drove her skirt up higher around her waist. She didn’t stop him when he tugged her panties down around her ankles, either, letting the already soaked fabric drop to the ground. Between the kisses he landed to her lips, Anton whispered the sweetest, most loving things.

Things Viviana had waited too long to hear again.

She was self-seeking. Dirty in a way her husband couldn’t possibly understand because she wouldn’t stop him at all. Even knowing once she told him the truth about her actions and choices regarding stripping, the judge, and the blackmail, Anton wouldn’t want to touch her again. So she didn’t stop him, because it very well might have been the last time he did.

All of Anton’s touches were deliberate and tender. Nothing like the rough, focused want he usually poured over his wife during their most intimate moments. While he unbuckled his pants and shuffled them down with the boxer-briefs he wore underneath, his hot, wet mouth stayed on hers the entire time.

Viviana reveled in the feeling of his warmth saturating her body as he took her with gentle, slow thrusts. Anton didn’t need to give her time to adjust to his cock, she was already more than ready for him. Needing to center herself to something, to stop the sway-like feeling taking over her senses, Viviana held tight to Anton’s jaw with both hands.

Their gazes locked like missiles and she watched every emotion flit over his face; watched his lashes fan his cheeks with every blink. As his breath washed over her mouth, Viviana’s picked up. Every stroke took her higher and every time their hips met, the tip of his cock hit the perfect spot to make her gasp.

Anton was usually so vocal with his dirty mouth and desire when they fucked. This time, though, it was only heady groans falling from his chest while he hooked her legs tighter to his waist and her soft moans urged him on.

In no time at all, Viviana was so close to her orgasm she could feel the starting effects of it running through her blood like a cloying poison. She didn’t get the chance to fly, though. Where her flats pressed to Anton’s back, she felt him tense with his own release just before his cock spilled in thick streams deep into her sex. Anton’s eyes shut as he held her tight to his cock, keeping her filled with him while he shook.

“Jesus Christ,” Anton mumbled.

Never had her husband come before her.

Viviana felt the orgasm she’d nearly had start to slip away at the same time Anton pulled out of her body. She didn’t have time to react before he was on his knees, grabbing her hips and pulling her body to the very edge of the Bugatti’s hood. Then, his mouth was covering her sex.

Sharp flicks of his tongue diving into her tight channel drove Viviana insane. She held tight to the metal of the car, her fingernails scratching against the expensive paint. With every swipe, she knew he wasn’t only tasting her, but himself as well.

It was another first for them both. Anton had never tasted his wife after he’d come inside her, but he didn’t seem to mind. It only turned Viviana on more to know their mingling fluids were what was coating his tongue. It left streaks of wetness on his cheeks as he looked up between her thighs with a desire fueled gaze that sent her spinning out of control.

When his thumb grazed her clit, and his tongue drove up inside her pussy again, Viviana let the fast rushing orgasm take over. As good as it felt, it also made her ache. Keeping his hands on her body, Anton rose to kiss his wife once more. Viviana couldn’t hide how much she enjoyed the taste of her own sex on his tongue as it slipped into her mouth.

Anton said nothing as he fixed her skirt and his own pants. Grabbing the forgotten jacket off the ground, he cleaned them both as well. Viviana was still trying to come back down from the high her emotions were running on.

“We’re being selfish,” Anton murmured.

Viviana turned to look at him, confused. “Why’s that?”

“People are probably waiting for us.”

“They can wait a little bit longer. We’re not moving until you’re ready to.”

Anton swallowed thickly, kissing the top of Viviana’s head. “Yeah, but I can’t wait much longer to see my son. It’s been too fucking long as it is. I owe that kid so goddamn much.”

Viviana knew she couldn’t keep what she’d done from her husband any longer. “I need to tell you something, Anton.”

Chapter Twenty

Anton wouldn’t meet her gaze when he asked, “What’s that?”

“This morning before I left, I told Demyan his father was coming home.”

“You couldn’t have known.”

“No matter what, you were,” Viviana said firmly. “Today didn’t make a difference to the end result. If you went back to prison, we had it set up that the judge’s decision would be thrown out due to scandal and you would likely be released for a short time before they could bring charges again.”

“Vine …”

“You know I love you, right? Like crazy love you. Nobody else is worth to me what you are. Do anything for you. Drive myself insane, or hurt you to save you love you, Anton. I love
you
.”

Anton’s jaw clenched. “Whatever this is, I’m not going to like it, am I?”

Viviana shook her head, tears rising. “I’m sorry.”

“What kind of scandal?” Anton asked.

“One involving a woman.”

Anton’s eyebrows knitted together in his confusion. “That wouldn’t work, Vine. So it looks bad, big deal. He’s not the first man to be involved in that kind of thing.”

Viviana bit her lip and forced herself to speak. “It would if that woman was me.”

Instantly, Anton jerked away from his wife as if he’d been burned. It hurt like hell, but she let him do it. Pain and betrayal filled his blue eyes, darkening them with anger and disbelief.

“
No
, baby.”

In a rush of breath, Viviana told Anton everything. From the day Ivan approached her at the beach, to the plan itself, to how she followed it through at the strip club. Even as Anton stepped further back from her, far enough away that she couldn’t reach out to touch him, she kept talking. The words might as well have been vomit, for Christ’s sake. She couldn’t stop them.

By the time she was able to stop, Viviana wasn’t the only one crying.

“You did … Took your clothes … Allowed another man … Why …”

“I wasn’t with him. I didn’t do that, or anything like that, Anton. I just—”

“Stop talking.”

Anton struggled to find words, his gaze darting back and forth like a deer caught in the headlights. His fists had clenched into tight balls at his sides and from his shoes to his shoulders, he shook. Viviana knew that look, she knew what was happening. Anton was pissed. Finally, the anger burst out of him in a shout that made Viviana flinch.

“Get in the fucking car!”

Viviana slid off the hood without a word, stumbled on the gravel and all but fell into the passenger seat. She slammed the door closed without him telling her to. In two steps, those clenched fists of his snapped into the Bugatti’s hood with a force that rocked the vehicle. Viviana could see his knuckles had split open from the impact but that didn’t stop him from punching the car again.

Over and over he hit the metal, cursing at a level so loud and clear Viviana could still hear him even with the doors shut. Blood streaked over his hands and wrists, staining his dress shirt. Anton shouted out his rage until his voice turned hoarse and his breaths came out ragged.

Oddly, Viviana wasn’t afraid of him, though.

After all, he’d been the one who ordered her into the car. Now, she knew why.

Outside the vehicle, Anton’s anger had simmered enough that he stopped hitting the hood and yelling, but his gaze was locked on Viviana’s.

“You let a man touch you,” she watched him mouth.

“I’m sorry,” Viviana whispered.

Above everything else she did, Viviana understood that because she had given another man access to her in a private way, it was what hurt and angered her husband the most.

“You let him
see
you.”

“Anton, please try to understand …”

“My wife! You’re
my
wife! Is that what you wanted, for me to think of you like your mother? Like a whore? Is that what you are? I don’t need or want a whore for a wife, Viviana.”

Viviana choked on the accusation, slamming back into the seat like he’d struck her with his hand instead of words. Sobs caught at the lump forming in her throat.

“I’ve never—”

“You took your clothes off for another man!” he roared.

“For you, Anton!”

“Fuck you,” Anton spat. “Don’t you even … Just, fuck you, Vine.”

***

The sharp tasting smoke from the weed Anton was smoking curled into the air in a thick stream of grey. In the night sky, it made its own cloud against the black backdrop. Sitting up on the stone side of the bridge, Anton watched the water of the creek rush below him.

It’d been seven days since he last seen his wife.

The hardest fucking seven days of his life.

He hadn’t even gone home, just made her drop him off at his club and that was that. He didn’t speak a word, even when she begged him to, even when she cursed at him to look at her, to come home to their son. No, nothing. Anton couldn’t.

It killed him to know his son was practically in arm's reach, but Anton couldn’t bear to be in that house. He knew why, also. It wasn’t safe for him to be there. Even though it disgusted him to feel the way he did, Anton wanted to hurt Viviana. Make her feel on the outside like she’d made him feel on the inside.

Bloody, torn, and battered.

Used. Abused.

Betrayed.

Anton now understood how his wife must have felt when first confronted with the idea of his possible infidelity, even if that had proven to be untrue as he always believed it was. It certainly wasn’t the same thing, to be sure, but it still fucking hurt like hell.

Never had Anton put his hands on Viviana to hurt her. Never had he thought about using his strength against her to make her feel pain, or make her cry. But, for a moment, he’d wanted to. Some mafia men were open about the opinions they had regarding wives who stepped out of line. One thing fixed the situation: a bullet.

As if the woman was nothing more than a bitch of a dog that needed put down.

For that split second, while he had stared at his wife sitting on the car with the lingering taste of her come in his mouth, he understood why those men felt that way.

It scared the living fucking hell out of him.

For once, Anton understood how he saw his wife. He’d always called Viviana his. To anyone, everyone, she was his. It was just that simple. No explanations.
His
. Like property. The thought was awful. Even if he loved her, and he did with everything he was, he still felt like he owned her.

Brutal honesty was something Anton was known for, but this was the first time he was giving some of that rectitude to himself. He didn’t own his wife. If he couldn’t hold back the violence he felt over what she did, he needed to take himself out of the equation. So he did just that.

But he couldn’t bear to explain to anyone.

Who the fuck was going to understand?

Who wouldn’t look at Viviana after knowing and call her exactly the same thing he had, a whore?

Anton refused to see anyone at his club, also. His men came and went, but they didn’t make it beyond the downstairs. There was shit he needed to work through in his own head, and the last thing he wanted to even think about, let alone discuss, were those men and their issues regarding the Bratva.

Because the club was open for regular business, his new servers were there, too. Anton couldn’t help but watch the beautiful, young women and wonder. A darker part of himself thought it’d be so fucking easy. They’d be all too willing. And hell, maybe he hurt Viviana with the clusterfuck that was the Natalie situation, but actually choosing to sleep with another woman because he wanted to would downright kill her.

Like she’d chosen to take off her clothes, dance naked for a man, and allow his hands to touch her while she did so.

Anton couldn’t do it, though.

Couldn’t even think of another woman in a way that would make his dick twitch.

Fucking useless.

“Anton?”

Anton didn’t turn at the sound of Ivan’s voice, but he tilted his head to acknowledge his old friend. Earlier in the day, Anton finally made one call out from his club’s office to Ivan, asking the man to meet him there. Taking one last hit off the joint, Anton inhaled the burning smoke before tossing the roach into the water.

“Did you go home, yet?” Ivan asked, climbing up on the ledge to sit down.

“Nope.”

“Are you going to?”

Anton nodded, feeling the sweet effects of the weed starting to edge in around his mind. “I love that woman. So fucking much.”

“Yeah, I know,” Ivan murmured.

“No, you don’t. I love her so much I considered taking her life to keep her from doing anything like that to me again,” Anton confessed. “What kind of man does that make me, Ivan?”

Ivan stared out in front of them and cleared his throat. “That’s … I don’t know.”

“Awful. It makes me a fucking monster. She could call me any name, hit me, ruin me, and take my son from me, but that … that broke me. I think I went insane for days, man.”

“Did you get the media card I sent over?” Ivan asked quietly.

Anton felt the bile rise into his throat. “I saw the pictures.”

“And?”

“I destroyed the card.”

“That’s not what I asked, Anton.”

“I needed a couple of days to think,” Anton snapped. “Especially after seeing them. Fucking disgusted me. Everything disgusted me. She’s my wife! You could have used anyone but my wife, Ivan!”

“No, I couldn’t have,” Ivan argued firmly. “And you know it.” When Anton stayed silent, Ivan sighed. “Your mother cried when you didn’t come home that day.”

“Mmm.”

“And your wife nearly had a nervous breakdown.”

“Nearly? Shit, I did, Ivan. I fucking
did
.”

“Yeah, well, aside from your selfishness, you could have taken into consideration Vine is under immeasurable stress, pregnant, and caring for your toddler son alone. She could have run when you gave her the chance, but she didn’t. She fought for you—you don’t have to like the way she did it, but she did.”

“Fuck off.”

Ivan took a breath, resting his hands into his lap. “I convinced her to do it, man. Used guilt to talk her into it with Demyan, and given she was pregnant, she just added onto it herself. Another woman wouldn’t have worked, and I know you fucking hate me for it, but I needed the backup in case we didn’t find Natalie. Please try to understand why I did it this way.”

Anton figured that a long time ago. It was why his anger had simmered in regards to his wife to practically nothing at all and turned to Ivan, instead.

“For the record, I didn’t bring a gun with me.” Anton turned and moved off the stone ledge, standing straight on the empty, dark bridge. “Because if I did, I would have put a bullet between your eyes, Ivan, and I would have enjoyed it. I need to trust you to do what’s right for me, and what you did nearly fucking killed me.”

“I did what you asked me to,” Ivan muttered.

“I did not ask you to turn my wife into another man’s whore!”

Ivan was off the ledge and standing toe to toe with Anton in a flash. Both men huffed their anger, glaring through the darkness.

“Shut your fucking mouth,” Ivan hissed, his fist landing in the middle of Anton’s chest. He barely even felt it through his rage. “That woman is no man’s whore. She did what she did for you and you know it. Even though she felt disgusting, knowing how you’d feel and how you’d see her for it, she still did it to make goddamned sure you had your life. Even if it meant you wouldn’t share it with her, she still did it. Do not call her that, Anton. Don’t do that to that woman. She loves you.”

Anton felt tears slip from the corners of his eyes, but he didn’t make a move to wipe away the emotion.

“And yes, I did do what you asked me to,” Ivan continued. “You asked for a backup plan. For a way out if we couldn’t win. I did that. I’m sorry it wasn’t the way you wanted, and that I brought Vine into it, but it would have worked if you went back in. No one knows. No one will ever know what happened.”

“I know she’s not,” Anton muttered heavily. “A whore, I mean. That’s not Vine. It’s not my wife, and she loves me, I know, but you nearly made me see her like that. What you did, Ivan, it just … I had that woman on a pedestal and when she fell from it, it didn’t just break her. I’m so angry with you for what you did. You and me, we need to take some time away from business and friendship for a while, at least until I’m good with you again.”

“At least you know what you need,” Ivan replied calmly. “Whatever you want, Anton.”

“I don’t like you a whole lot right now,” Anton said quietly.

“Seeing as how you’re not behind bars, I’m okay with that,” Ivan admitted, frowning.

“I’ve been two seconds away from kicking your ass all week.”

“The first hit is free, Anton. Every single one after that, I’m going to hit back.”