I cry out as he fucks me as though he has a point to prove. His hands stay clamped tight on my wrists like living cuffs. His jaw is clenched tight, his eyes focused. And then suddenly, he grabs my chin and shoves my head to the side, breaking the eye contact. His lips come down on my neck, scraping and biting and claiming.
“Fucking hell, Alyssa…”
Hearing him utter my name like that as he fucks me isn’t something I’m expecting. Maybe that’s why it makes me feel like I’m the one in control all of a sudden.
I may be pinned to the bed. He may be the one calling the shots and making the rules.
But I’m the one making him unravel. I’m the one he’s been craving.
His lips brush over mine for a second, making my body erupt with tingles. My back arches as I come, moaning in his ear the entire time. I clench and spasm and bear down with every inch of me and the motion milks Uri’s orgasm free, too.
“Goddammit,” he growls as his hands tighten around my wrists and he keeps his hips pressed flush against mine while tremors rip through him. “You’re going to be the fucking death of me.”
The moment he’s emptied himself inside me, he rolls over, freeing me from the prison of his body. I’m gonna need a minute or ten to recover so I can remember how to do stuff like breathe and swallow and speak words.
Not him, though. Before I can even turn to him, he’s up and out of the bed. His name is on my tongue, but I bite it back. If he doesn’t break the silence, then neither will I.
It doesn’t stop me from hoping, though.
He gathers up his clothes, gets dressed without ceremony, and then, without so much as a glance in my direction, he strides out of the basement.
He leaves me with his cum running down my legs and the knowledge that, for the second time in a week, we’ve neglected to use protection.
I clean myself up before collapsing back onto the bed, my head swimming with emotions I’m not capable of processing yet.
The penultimate thought I have before I fall asleep that night is, Is he watching me?
The last thought is, I hope so.
22
URI
“Boo!”
I don’t react as Polly jumps out from behind the door frame of my office in a half-assed attempt to make me jump. “Don’t do that,” I drawl. “You’ll hurt yourself.”
She sighs and slumps her way in. “It’s so unsatisfying trying to scare you. Even when I catch you off-guard, I get literally zero reaction.”
“That’s because you didn’t actually scare me. I heard you shuffle over there three minutes ago.”
Her sparkling hazel eyes narrow into slits. She’s the only one of us that inherited our mother’s eyes. Sometimes, I love her more because of it. Other days, it’s hard to look directly at her.
She pouts and crosses her arms over her chest. “You’re an ass.”
“You’re not the first woman to say that to me.”
“Ew! I don’t wanna hear about your conquests.”
I scowl. “That’s not what I meant.”
Polly raises one eyebrow high on her forehead; that’s a move she inherited from Nikolai. “Didn’t you?” I roll my eyes and grab a hold of her. Giggling, she steps into my arms and hugs me tight. “It’s good to see you, Uri. Missed you.”
I kiss the top of her head. It feels like she gets taller every month. “Missed you, too.” I pull back a little so that I can take a good look at her. “Did you cut your hair again?”
“Sure did. I’m hoping to work up the courage to go fully buzzed soon.”
“Why?”
She shrugs. “Because I refuse to play into the patriarchy’s hands by growing out my hair and wearing short skirts and behaving like a ‘good girl.’ Fuck that.”
There’s an inverse relationship between the length of her hair and how often she says “fuck,” apparently. I’ve decided to ignore it. Snapping at her about her choice of language is Nikolai’s domain, not mine.
“Good,” I growl. “We’ll dress you in a parka instead. Keep the boys at school from staring too long.”
She laughs and pinches me in the ribs. “I didn’t mean that literally. I like my short skirts.”
Mussing her hair, I ask, “Have you seen Lev yet?”
“No.” Her eyebrows immediately flatten out and her mouth turns down at the edges. I only ever see that look on her when she’s worried about Lev. And she’s worried about him a lot these days. “I ran into Svetlana earlier and she said he was having a bad day.”