The Life (13 page)

Oh, yes, she could feel that desire growing hard against her backside pressed tight to Anton’s groin under the sheets. His fingers curved into her hip grabbed tighter, pulling her closer into his heat and want.

Blinking away the sleep from her eyes, Viviana sighed into the warm body of her husband. Had daylight come already? She barely remembered the night before. It was only vague flashes of them leaving the house, toting a sleepy Rocco along for the ride. She hadn’t been in their SUV for more than five minutes before Viviana passed out. Apparently she had been more tired than she thought.

Actually, she couldn’t even recall where it was that they had ended up.

“Morning,” she mumbled sleepily.

Anton shook his head behind her. “It’s only like four in the morning. I just …”

As he trailed off, she realized he was right. The room they slept in was still dark, and the window she was staring out of still blinked stars brightly in the sky.

“You just what?”

Anton breathed heavily, his face burying into her neck as his palm rolled over her side to lay flat against the hard roundness of her stomach. “Needed you,” he said darkly. “Just need you, Vine. Right now. I haven’t been close to you all week, and I can’t fucking sleep because I haven’t touched you or tasted you on my mouth in way too long.
I need you
.”

The desperation echoing in his strong tenor had Viviana’s insides reacting instantly. It was like every inch of her soul was suddenly clawing to get out, to reach him. Already, her blood was singing as tendrils of lust and love swarm in expanding veins. Her lungs expanded as his hand roamed lower, spreading her legs gently as deftly talented fingers slipped and pressed between the folds of her sex with no hesitation.

“I love the feel of you like
this
. Warm and soft and wet.” Anton’s two fingers were slipping into her throbbing core. The groan he hid in the side of her throat reverberated to her heart. Nothing would ever dim the sound enough that she wouldn’t hear it. It was his approval doused with a heavy mixture of need. “So fucking hot for me, baby. Always soaking me with that sweet honey of yours. I want you twisting in these sheets, screaming my name. I just … fuck, I need to feel you.”

Viviana whimpered, turning her face into the heated flesh of his arm that she had been using as a pillow. Her hips rolled involuntarily into the hand fucking her as her toes curled into soft sheets. When his teeth nipped along the tender spot behind her ear, she shuddered and turned again to find his lips ghosting over her cheek.

“I’m sorry for this week,” she said, wanting him to know while she could still think to speak. Anton hummed a dark sound that had her lust spiking higher before he kissed the corner of her mouth. Maybe he didn’t want to hear it, she didn’t really know, but Viviana didn’t feel like she had a choice, either. “So sorry, Anton.”

“God, none of
that, please.” Anton dotted kisses along Viviana’s cheek, his fingers taking on a deeper, harder rhythm. The tone of his voice seemed to come from inside his chest, forcing its way out from the back of his throat. Her sex’s juices were smearing between her thighs, the sticky fluid coating her mound, slicking up her skin. “Not now, maybe tomorrow … I don’t
care
.”

Viviana shook her head, feeling wildly out of control. That burning coil in her middle was beginning to twist so deliciously, a pressure already building in the base of her spine. How her husband always managed to get her body reacting so quickly, rising to beautiful, blissful heights so easily, she would never understand.

“Screw all of that,” Anton said forcefully. “I only want to feel
this
.”

“Jesus. I’m s-so, so close.” Another shudder wracked her shoulders. His teeth bit into her jaw as a thick cry rolled over her trembling lips. “
Anton
…”

“There we go. That’s what I needed, baby.”

It was whispered over her skin like a prayer, soothed into her rushing ears as the orgasm threw her off the waiting precipice without abandon. Repeating his words throatily into her mouth as he turned her body in his embrace, Viviana immediately felt the loss of his fingers. Their kiss deepened as she drowned in the safety and warmth of Anton’s strong hold. Allowing him to dominate the kiss, to hold her tighter because she knew he needed to, she finally felt okay for the first time in a week.

“More.” Already, Viviana wanted to beg. “Please.”

Anton shook his head under her jaw, tilting his head up enough to kiss her chin. “Sleep, Vine. That’s what I wanted the most, to feel you, hear you. Sleep for me.”

“But—”

A soft click of his tongue stopped her argument up short. “You’re tired and I know it.”

The sudden flurry of activity from her midsection had Anton chuckling darkly in the room. The baby gave a sharp kick to the spot under her ribs and she whined low.
Demyan was a strong little thing for having such a tiny presence. Without a word, Anton pushed the sheets from her body, moving down to roll hot hands over the baby that didn’t seem to appreciate the surprise wake-up from his father. Near silently, he kissed and soothed with words Viviana couldn’t hear let alone understand, but the familiarity and love in his actions rang loud and clear. Eventually, the baby boy’s movements calmed enough for Viviana to be comfortable again.

“Sleep for me?”

“Love me so good in the morning?” Viviana asked.

Anton smiled lazily.
“Like crazy.”

Chapter Nine

Anton’s breaths came out shallow and ragged. The constant throb in his cock as it found heaven and home inside of Viviana’s pussy was a beat out of control. Tension had his muscles locking up tight like nothing else. Hot, overworked, and ready to blow, he reveled in the teasing bliss just beyond his grasp—he was nearly fucking there.

The faint sting of pain felt like heaven as his wife’s fingernails scored lines from the top of his chest to the clenching abs of his midsection. There were sure to be marks left as her hands curled into balled fists, her shaking legs resting to either side of his body tightening as her walls clamped down on his cock hard and hot and sweet.

The smell of their sex saturated the room, and Anton was pretty fucking sure that was his favorite aroma in the entire world right then. He’d had access to the most expensive wines and perfumes in the world, but not a damned one of them compared to this right here. Nothing could seep into his senses, take over his heart, and creep around the edges of his mind for the rest of the day like he and his wife.

Above all else, Viviana was still
life
to Anton.

Golden, beautiful, and true.

Ripe with pregnancy, flushed with love, and her body burning up to a fever, Anton couldn’t take his gaze off his wife if he tried. With her head tossed back and tendrils of wavy, raven colored locks fanned over her naked shoulders, she was so fucking sexy it hurt.

After all, every king needed his queen.

Her rolling cries had reached a gasping octave. Tiny beads of perspiration gathered between the valleys of her heavy breasts that he had cupped in each of his hands. She rode him slow and lazy, soaking up every inch of his body, taking in every inch of his length. Her pace was tantalizing and her concentration strong, determination and want for that ecstasy writing lines over her face.

Anton couldn’t help but remember an earlier time—one when they both were young, stupid, and new to
them
. She’d been so nervous taking him like this, then. Worried how her sweet sixteen looked to his older eighteen. Embarrassed because she didn’t know what to do, or how to move. Shocked and awed when it felt so good when she finally did find that rhythm.

It surely wasn’t the same, now, but it was still so much better.

Wetter than ever and working on her fourth orgasm of the morning, Viviana seemed to have found that previous lustful drive her pregnancy had hidden from her for a while. While the start of her condition had left his wife insatiable for sex, touch, and love in any physical capacity, he hated seeing it dim like it had in the last couple of months.

Anton sure as fuck wasn’t about to complain.

He needed his wife like lungs needed air.

She made his heart beat so fast it ached.

Slicked with arousal, fist-tight, and hot like a fire, Viviana’s sex was heaven as it took in his cock, letting it fill and stretch her. Anton had the very best view of his member sinking in with every rise and lower of her body on top of his.

He was soaked from tip to hilt with her.

Holy fucking hell, his whole nervous system felt covered in
her
.

Pinching her nipples between his thumb and finger, it earned Anton one of Viviana’s quiet gasps. Taking his cock in again, she rolled her hips roughly, her walls flexing with the movements in a way that had Anton’s air catching in his throat like a choke hold.

“Shit,” he hissed, feeling that familiar built up of pressure starting to release. “Holy hell, slow down for a second.”

Viviana’s pretty, pink lips curved with a slow, sly smile as she shook her head above him. When her hips came down, rolling a circle over his groin, taking his cock so fucking deep, Anton couldn’t ignore the tension building in his stomach at a rapidly surprising pace. She fit him like a glove. There was no chance of him beating the orgasm back.
None at all.

“Vine, Vine, Vine …” Anton felt suffocated by the singing release that was edging around his wits. Losing it, he was so fucking close to losing it all. “Baby … Viviana, you’ve
got
to stop … you need to or I’m gonna—”

“Come,” she said on a high sigh.

Yeah, that did it. Anton dug his fingers into the soft flesh of her ass, wanting to hold her still and tight as he groaned a low, throaty noise. Those hands of hers laid flat to his stomach, her thumbs sweeping from side to side as he came deep inside of her pussy, his seed filling her in thick, ropey streams.

This time it was Viviana above him with her voice quiet and shushing soothingly as her hands travelled upwards to his jaw. Anton didn’t realize how fiercely he’d clenched his teeth, how tight his jaw had turned, until her fingers were dancing over his face to calm and hold.

Slowly, he released his grip on her backside, rubbing over the spots to help aid any ache he may have caused. Viviana didn’t seem to mind as she hummed above him. Anton breathed a sigh through his nose, blinking up at his wife with a shake of his head. She grinned, her tongue peeking out between her teeth.

“Love you.”

“Like crazy,” he said, surprised at the hoarseness of his tone. “Jesus, you could have given me a moment to think, baby.”

She shrugged her dainty shoulders. “That was kind of nice.” Anton’s confusion must have shown on his face, because she added, “Seeing you lose all that control. I never get to see that. I loved it.”

Damn, his cock sure as hell loved it, too.

Leaning down over his form, Viviana snuggled tight to Anton’s chest. Holding her tight, he brushed the black hair off her shoulders, exposing skin so he could kiss away the damp sweat that had gathered. In his ear, her voice was muted and soft, her lips brushing over his chest as she spoke.

“About Velvet Ropes yesterday.”

Anton froze. “What about it?”

“I overreacted a little, huh?”

“A little,” Anton said. “I had to meet Boris there because he had things to do at the club on the work side of things. I was telling the truth.”

“And?”

“And nothing.
I know you don’t like it, but I’m not there for the show, baby.”

Anton really wished they weren’t having the conversation in bed, but Viviana seemed to be taking it well. While he was known for his jealousy when it came to his wife, he didn’t think she realized how strongly her emotions burned when she thought another woman was in the picture, either.

Viviana cleared her throat, pushing up out of his embrace. Something unknown flashed in her brown eyes, something worrisome. “I really don’t want to ask. I shouldn’t have to.” Viviana frowned, not meeting Anton’s gaze. “I
know
I shouldn’t. It’s not even a possibility, and I know it inside …”

“Ask what?”

“If you’re finding something elsewhere,” she said.

Anton’s first instinct was to deny that statement. To correct what he considered
to be totally ridiculous assumptions, but he heard what she had said, too. There was no doubt Viviana’s insecurities reared their ugly heads because of her pregnancy and the hormonal shifts were something her husband was only now starting to learn to roll with.

He lived a tricky life. Drugs, dangerous situations, and women made a daily appearance. And if he really thought about it, more than anything, Viviana believed what she had seen and what she was told because that’s what she knew. He also knew she was a different kind of woman because she would ask when others wouldn’t.

“I’m only
yours
,” he said strongly, reaching up to grab her face and force her to look at him.

“I know,” she said, blinking away tears. “I feel so crazy thinking about it because I know it’s not even a thought in your head. I worry, though. I hate some of the places you do business, Anton. If I own that business, I should sell it out from under you. That’d make me feel better. I’m just saying.”

He hid his amusement at her rant with kiss. “You’re terribly cute when you’re jealous, baby.”

“I’m not—”

Anton didn’t allow her to finish the sentence before he had her lifted from his body and her back falling to the bed. Viviana hit the mattress with wide eyes, flowing hair, and an oomph falling from her pretty mouth. Looming over her, he barricaded her body under his, feeling the gentle kicks of his son between their forms

“You are jealous, admit it.” Anton kept his tone teasing and light.

Viviana drew her plump bottom lip between her teeth. “Okay, I’m jealous as hell.”

“Kind of like when I want to throttle any man who glances your way for longer than a second, right?” When Viviana didn’t answer, Anton heaved a sigh. “Not that you need to worry. I don’t even need to tell you, really. I love waking up beside you in the morning, hearing you hum in the shower, watching you baby the shit out of our dog even when I tell you not to.

“Speaking of which,” he said, tilting his head towards he closed door. “I should get up and get him outside for a walk. You should get some chow, check your sugars, and take your insulin, yeah?”

Viviana nodded, but it didn’t look so sure. “Where are we, anyway?”

Anton coughed out a laugh. “I practically carried you in from the car last night.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

“Out of state.”

“Oh,” she said, dimly.

“Yeah, that’s about all I want to say. Just know that if I have to go for that meeting with Jersey in a few days, you’ll be safe. It might be a little earlier than what I would have brought you out here, but it worked just as well. Our stuff is handled for a few days and the bulls are sleeping downstairs,” Anton explained, assuming Rory and Joe were still snoring off the late night drive. “Just us, and they shouldn’t be too much of a bother, so let’s relax, baby.”

“Relax,” she repeated quietly.

Anton grinned. “Sounds like heaven, huh?”

Looking a little brighter than before, Viviana winked.
“Sounds fantastic.”

*

Viviana stared out the large bay window, absently rubbing her hand over her stomach. Her baby was being particularly restless, and whenever she sat down, he became even more troublesome to her insides. She couldn’t help but wonder if Demyan was trying to tell her he was getting bored with his comfortable, safe home.

It also didn’t escape her notice that she had the strangest ache in her back and Braxton Hicks contractions. Nearly eight months pregnant, Viviana should have been expecting the late pregnancy symptoms, but they still came as a surprise.

The beautiful, large lake the front of the lodge led to didn’t give her a single clue about where they were. With its sparkling water and quiet atmosphere, it was a peaceful sight. Sure enough, it didn’t seem to be a very populated place, wherever it was. Across the lake, there was a smaller cabin, but it didn’t appear to be inhabited.

“Hey, Vine.”

Viviana turned at Rory’s voice, offering her bull a smile as his bleary one met hers. The sounds of footsteps echoing in the back hallway of the lodge followed a door closing. That must have been Joe making his way to the bathroom.

“Morning, Rory.”

“Where’s Boss?”

With a wave at the window, she said, “With Rocco.”

When her stomach tightened, Viviana grimaced. Rory took note immediately. “You okay?”

Viviana didn’t want to worry anyone, but the fake contractions were annoying. Random and varying in their length and intensity, they mostly felt like moderate cramps. Huffing uncomfortably, she rolled the heel of her palm against her side, wishing it would just stop.

“Yeah, but could you go find Anton for me?” Anton would want to know if she was in pain, or if something was happening with the baby that worried her. “Tell him not to rush, or whatever.”

Rory sported a panicked frown. “Vine, is the baby—”

“Just fake contractions,” she interjected quickly. “Please let me tell him that, though. It’s important that I do it.”

Viviana didn’t want Anton to think she was hiding something from him again.

“Listen, if it’s important, like baby-wise, we’ll need to leave ASAP.”

Viviana furrowed her brow.
“What, why?”

“We’re a couple of hours away from a decent hospital.” Rory clamped his mouth shut instantly. “Oh, shit. Boss is going to have a conniption fit I told you that.”

“You didn’t tell me where exactly,” Viviana said, lifting her shoulder dismissively. “Besides, this isn’t the real deal. Trust me, Rory. Just go and find Anton and ask him to come back as soon as Rocco is ready.”

Rory literally tittered on the spot.
Like he was a fucking girl or something. What was it with men and the thought of labor, anyway? Suddenly they were turned into worried, nervous little boys who couldn’t handle a bit of pain.

“Go get my husband,” Viviana said, turning away to hide her smile.

Rory didn’t have to be told again. When the bull was gone and the front door shut, Viviana let out the breath she’d been holding in. The baby inside stretched, hell bent on repositioning himself. Placing both of her hands over her midsection, she closed her eyes and shook, the worried feeling settling in her middle.