Reign (The Syndicate: Crime and Passion Book 2) (9 page)

“Oh God!” I yelled, tightening my fingers in his hair.

He breathed deep again, and a low groan burst from his chest, one that made it seem like he was experiencing the most amazing thing ever. He kissed me again in earnest, licking and drinking from me as if I were a rare treat.

I’d never felt more beautiful, more treasured. It didn’t matter that I was outside, where anyone could hear me, see me. I couldn’t hold back and instead I screamed out loud, not caring who heard me, as long as he did.

Sergei pulled back and looked up at me, his eyes bright. “Louder. Let me hear you,” he said, seeming to have read my thoughts.

He pushed his face against me again and wrapped both arms around my waist, his strong forearms flexing as he held me. And it was only him that kept me up. I would have melted were it not for Sergei’s arms around me, holding me up. Then he took me apart with each kiss, each lick, each harsh breath against me.

Sergei broke away again, pulling me down and then laying me back against the soft grass. I breathed out hard and looked up at the sky, but I didn’t really see anything. I could only feel, my heart pounding so hard I could hardly take a breath. And then I saw his face as he laid his body against me.

He kissed me, allowing me to taste myself on his lips. I kissed him back, near feverish with need now, trying to communicate that to him while I could barely form a coherent thought. He kissed me again and then trailed his lips against my neck, down farther. He closed his lips around my nipple, which was pebbled and stood at attention, needy as was the rest of me for his attention.

He sucked hard, taking my nipple into his mouth and then closing his teeth around the tip, biting down. Even through my dress and bra, the sensation was strong, almost overwhelming, and I thought I would explode from the pleasure he was giving me.

I gripped his shoulders, then let my hands roam over his back as he worked my dress up higher as he moved down my body. He stopped and discarded his clothes, then stared down at me.

I lay, breath heaving, my legs splayed open, not caring that my body was completely exposed.

“I want to hear you, Daniela, but don’t come,” he said.

I couldn’t make any promises, couldn’t say any words, but he kneeled down again, kissed my inner thigh. “Say it,” he said. “Tell me you won’t come.”

Then he waited, kissing my thigh, nudging against my sex, but not giving me the contact I wanted.

I was so close to climax, felt it shimmering on the edge of consciousness, just out of reach. And I wouldn’t get there unless he said so.

“Okay,” I said, my voice strained tight, a breath of a whisper more than anything else.

“Okay what?” he replied, his breath again tantalizing as it blew against me.

“I won’t come until you say so,” I finally said.

Before I’d even gotten the sentence out, he again pressed his face into me, licking me with the same eagerness and thoroughness he seemed to have with everything else.

“Oh God,” I cried, closing my hands around him, arching into him. “I can’t…”

He didn’t relent, teasing the hard bud of my clit, sending me to the edge, so close to sending me over. I was so close, so close that I didn’t think I would be able to hold out.

Then he was gone, and my face was pressed against the soft grass. Sergei entered me in one thrust, and I was so wet, I took him easily.

“Now. Come for me, Daniela,” he said as he rocked himself into me hard, his hands tight on my hips.

I did, the tension in me snapping. I cried out, my fingers buried in the grass and Sergei slammed into me over and over again, our bodies thudding together with a low smack. My eyes were shut tight, but I heard each of my hitched breaths, his low grunts, felt each hard stroke of his cock inside me, the way he got even harder.

Sergei stilled and with a final grunt, he came, spilling his cum inside me. He slumped over me, his hard chest against my back, his weight pushing me into the soft grass.

Nothing had ever felt more perfect.

S
ergei

T
he next days
passed in a pleasant blur. I kept an eye on the business, but I spent every moment I could with Daniela, touching her, making love to her.

Learning about her.

I’d left the club early today and come back as fast as I could to find Daniela in the living room. Pushing down the desire to go to her immediately, I instead stood, watching her as she polished a heavy silver picture frame until it shone.

Cutoffs that I would never allow her to wear outside the confines of this house barely covered her ass, and she wore a white tank top that hugged her waist. An enticing, distracting outfit, but I was momentarily taken by watching her movements.

They were practiced, precise, and I could see that she had done this often.

She’d heard me come in, but hadn’t turned. Instead she seemed completely enraptured in polishing the silver frames, and though I could only see the corner of her face, I suspected her expression was one that I seldom saw outside of the bedroom, one that was not at all guarded.

“Your mother?” I asked, stepping into the living room.

She paused for a moment and then began to polish more.

“Yes. Nora,” she said.

She dropped her hand, stood the frame on the dark wood table, and then, looking satisfied with the placement, she moved to the next picture.

It was the same woman as the previous picture, but this time she held a little girl who looked very much like Daniela.

“Your sister?” I asked, getting closer.

“Giovanna,” she said, her voice mournful.

“Why do you sound so sad? She’s not dead, right?”

She paused again, and then continued to scrub.

“Maybe, maybe not. She left years ago, never looked back. So I have no idea.”

“You could find her,” I said. Doing so wouldn’t take much effort, even if Giovanna didn’t want to be found.

Daniela stop then, turned to look at me.

“No. Giovanna made her choices. I’m going to respect them,” she said.

“So she just ditched you?” I asked.

“She did what she thought was right,” Daniela said.

“She ditched you. And you respect someone who did that?”

“I don’t get to make choices for her. I don’t get to make choices for anyone,” she said.

A loaded statement, and I couldn’t help but wonder if Daniela included herself in that equation.

“You shouldn’t waste your sadness on someone who doesn’t give a shit about you,” I said.

She huffed quietly, but didn’t seem offended at what I’d said. Instead, she looked at me and smiled.

“What?” I said.

“It’s almost romantic, the way you can simplify it like that,” she said.

“It is simple. You don’t turn your back on people,” I said.

“You’ve never turned your back on anyone?” she said.

“No one who didn’t deserve it,” I said.

“What makes you think I didn’t deserve it?”

She turned then, went back to polishing the frame, but I wouldn’t let her off so easily.

“Call it a hunch,” I said, pushing the topic.

“Which may or may not be right. Giovanna thought I deserved it,” she said.

“Did you have a fight?”

“No. Not exactly. We just had…different opinions,” she said.

“That’s bullshit, Daniela,” I said.

I wasn’t sure why this was bothering me so much, but though Daniela almost never spoke of her sister, never spoke of her family at all, I knew that she suffered. I didn’t like that.

“It’s not. And I can’t say that I blame her. If I were different, braver, I would have done the same,” she said.

“But you didn’t, and now you’re stuck with me,” I said, frowning.

“You’re not so bad,” she said, looking over at me.

I gave her a faint smile, but didn’t feel humor.

“Not so bad, but not your choice,” I said.

“Just like I wasn’t yours,” she said.

I didn’t say anything else, because what was there to say? She’d spoken the truth. Daniela hadn’t been my choice, but she was mine now, and I was happy about that. From the sound of her voice, though, she didn’t feel the same, and pointing out the truth of our original meeting didn’t distract me from that fact. I didn’t push it, though, and instead changed the subject.

“What happened to your mother?” I asked.

“She got sick right after Giovanna left. They were always closer. After that, she just kind of slipped away.”

She didn’t sound bitter about that, only a little wistful.

“You think she died of grief?” I said.

“If anybody had a reason to, it was her,” Daniela said.

“What do you mean?”

“She was married to Santo, but all she ever wanted was a family. And all she ended up with was me,” she said.

“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” I said, knowing that anyone lucky enough to have Daniela in their life should be grateful.

“No. But it wasn’t what she wanted. What he wanted,” she said. And she was living out the same life, stuck in a place she hadn’t chosen with a person she hadn’t chosen.

She finished the pictures and looked at me, and I stood, silent. I had a crazy impulse to tell her she should leave here, go find out what she wanted, but I couldn’t do that. Because more than anything, I wanted her to stay. I didn’t know how to process that.

“What about you?” she asked.

She had tucked her hands in her pockets, pushing her shorts down low on her hips.

“What about me?” I said when I mustered the focus to speak.

“Any brothers or sisters? Parents? Any family at all?”

“Brothers and sisters? Who knows? Parents? Not anymore. Family,” I said, pausing. “Sort of.”

“Interesting,” she said, studying.

“What’s interesting?” I said.

“This…business. It makes so many ties, bonds, but you don’t seem to,” she said.

I didn’t like talking about this with her, but I wouldn’t pretend she was an idiot.

“Most of this business is bullshit,” I said. “They talk about honor and loyalty and that shit, but they’ll turn their backs on anyone, betray anyone, to get ahead.”

“Even their own daughters?” she said.

“Even their own daughters,” I said.

“A shame,” she said.

Then she went back to polishing the frame.

S
ergei

“
S
enna’s not here
?” I asked the next day when Maxim pulled the door open.

“She’s out. Took the baby to the park,” he said.

I stepped inside the house and closed the door. “By herself?”

“What do you think?” Maxim said.

“Yes,” I replied, knowing that Maxim would never allow such a thing, and given how I felt about Daniela, I understood his reasoning.

I stood in the living room now, feeling awkward.

“What do you want, Sergei?” Maxim said.

I laughed at his directness, but quickly went quiet. I didn’t feel comfortable with this, but I didn’t have another outlet.

“I think I’m about to ask you for advice,” I said.

“Business-related?” Maxim asked, not looking entirely surprised but interested.

“Business. Personal too,” I said.

There was a flicker of understanding on his face.

“Daniela,” he said.

“Yes,” I replied on an exhaled sigh.

It was a testament to how fucked up I was that I was showing Maxim this side of myself, let alone discussing it. The wonder was that he didn’t run me out, or at the very least laugh in my face, not that I could really recall Maxim laughing.

“She misbehaved?”

I looked at him sharply. “She’s not a child, Maxim,” I said.

He shook his head. “Your feelings are involved.”

“You know how it goes,” I said.

“Much to my surprise, I do know how it goes.”

He unbuttoned his jacket and then sat on the couch. He looked at me, and I couldn’t help but pause to marvel at the surreal nature of this moment.

I was sitting across from Maxim, about to have a heart-to-heart. It was almost mind-blowing.

“So what would you do?” I asked.

“It clouds your judgment. You have to be aware of that,” he said.

“What clouds your judgment?”

“Caring for someone. It makes you do things you didn’t ever think you would,” he said.

“Like sparing Santo’s life?” I asked.

“His continued existence is an affront to everything I believed I was, but she asked it of me, and I was powerless to deny her anything,” he said.

Which only proved how fucked I was.

Because of all of us, I thought of Maxim as beyond the reach of humanity, and if he wasn’t, I had no shot. I said as much.

“I’m fucked,” I said. None of this was supposed to happen. Marrying Daniela was supposed to be a means to an end, but now I’d lost sight of that and somehow found myself caring for her, something that complicated what should have been a straightforward process.

“You are. But there are benefits,” he said.

“Like what?”

“Well,” he said, looking calm, deeply thoughtful. “It gives all the fighting, the bullshit meaning.”

“Yes,” I said.

I was experiencing the same thing myself.

My entire life had been consumed with ambition, moving forward, but the idea of simple moments, moments unburdened by the need to get something, or the imperative to raise my status, get more power, those moments made all the time before her feel almost meaningless.

“Is it worth it?” I asked, looking at Maxim.

“Yes,” he said instantly.

“I was afraid you were going to say that,” I said, hoping that maybe if Maxim had said it wasn’t, it might help me start to pull myself out of this, not that I was sure anything could.

“You’re cut out for it,” he said.

“Is that a good thing?” I asked.

“To be honest, I wasn’t sure. I always thought that compassion made you weak. Now I see another side to it,” he said.

“What side?” I asked.

“I have Senna to consider now. My son. If something were to happen to me, I know you’d take care of them. That’s worth more than anything,” he said.

This level of revelation was not common for Maxim, and I couldn’t help but wonder if there was something else driving this. “Is there something going on I should know about?”

“No, but should this life finally catch up with me, I know there’s someone here,” he said.

“I’ll take care of them if it comes to that,” I said.

“I know,” he replied. “And know that I’ll do the same for Daniela,” he said.