Where the Wind Whispers (Seasons of Betrayal Book 3) (6 page)

She wanted to trust him on that—she really did—but shit always seemed to happen. Nothing was infallible; there was always an opening
somewhere
.

Violet glanced at the watch on her wrist, noting the time. “Where did you go?”

“Business.”

She chose not to press him on that.

Frankly, because she didn’t want to know.

“It’s awfully empty in here, no?” Kaz asked.

Violet glanced over her shoulder at the white walls staring back at her. “I was going to have Vera come in and see what she could do with it.”

“It is her job.” Kaz managed a smile, though Violet could see a hint of darkness in his gaze all the same. “It’s a good spot for a nursery, yes?”

“I thought so.”

Kaz’s hand came out, his fingers wrapping snugly around Violet’s wrist before he tugged firmly, bringing her closer to him until his arms were wrapped around her and she was burying her face into his chest. She fisted his shirt, keeping him there for the moment.

Quiet.

Still.

Breathing.

Alive
.

“It’ll be fine,” he told her.

“Will it?”

“Eventually.”

Violet let out a heavy sigh, wishing his reassurance didn’t feel so goddamn foreboding to her. Kaz pressed a soft kiss to the top of Violet’s head, holding her tighter. She briefly considered telling him to be careful—his throat and all—but she decided to stay quiet. It’d been weeks of hell while he was in the hospital, and then when he was finally awake, he’d been almost like a shell of himself.

Too weak to do much. Tired. Distant.

This was … good.

Perfect, even.

And then he had to go and open his mouth again.

“But we do need to talk,
krasivaya
,” Kaz said.

“Tomorrow, okay?”

Kaz shook his head and took a step back as he released her. “Tonight—it can’t wait for tomorrow.”

“That doesn’t sound like it’s something I’m going to like.”

He didn’t even bother to sugarcoat his next words with so much as a smile. “You won’t—I sure as hell don’t.”

Great
.

Knowing she probably needed to be sitting down for whatever Kaz was going to say, Violet pushed past him in the doorway to make a beeline for the downstairs. She headed for the kitchen, grabbing a bottle of vitamin water from the fridge just as he strolled through the entrance behind her.

It was yet another sign to her that he was not one-hundred percent better, and that he was probably hiding a lot more about how he felt and his pain than he let on. Violet tried not to worry too much, but that was hard to do when Kaz was stubborn by nature and was liable not to tell her more than he had to simply to keep her from worrying even more.

“All right,” Violet said, perching up on a stool in front of the island as Kaz came to stand in front of her. She reached up to graze her fingertips across the edge of the bandage around his neck. She didn’t linger there for long when Kaz grabbed her hand only to press a light kiss to her fingertips. “Talk, then.”

“Stop fretting.”

“I’m not nagging,” she pointed out.

“I can see it in your eyes. What’s done is done.”

It was never that simple.

Even Kaz had to know that.

“Talk,” Violet repeated.

Kaz took a single step closer, his arm coming to wrap around Violet’s waist while his hand came to rest on her stomach below her navel. “I have one goal in this whole thing right now.”

Violet was pretty sure she knew what that goal was but asked anyway. “Which is?”

“To keep you safe while I finish
business
.”

Kaz quieted after he’d said those words, that darkness returning in his gaze as he looked her over. Violet leaned up on the stool to kiss the underside of his jaw, wanting to take whatever hell that was going on in his head away for the moment.

It must have worked, at least a little bit.

She felt his smile grow, and he relaxed a bit.

It was enough.

“You will,” she assured.

Kaz made an unhappy noise in the back of his throat before he said, “I need you to go back.”

Violet couldn’t have pulled away from him faster than she did, the stool rocking from the abrupt movement. Kaz didn’t let her go far, his firm grip keeping her from slamming into the island countertop.

“Go back where?” she asked, a sharp edge to her tone.

“Let me finish before—”

“
Go back where
?”

A muscle worked in Kaz’s throat, as if he was chewing over his next words but didn’t want to spit them out. But he did.

And they damn near killed her.

“To your father.”

No.

No way.

Nope
.

“Violet, let me explain,” Kaz said.

If the expression she must have been wearing didn’t clue him in on how she felt, then her repeated, vocal refusals had to be more than enough for him to get the point.

Violet pushed off the stool, her hand coming up to force Kaz away from her as her feet hit the floor. She shook her head, putting more space between her and Kaz as she took in what he was saying.

“You need to be
safe
,” he was explaining through her refusals. “The only way I can guarantee that and still have you relatively close—at least to keep you in the same fucking
city
—is to put you somewhere Vasily won’t bother you. If he thinks you’ve left me and gone back to your father, then you’ll be useless to him, Violet. Listen to me for—”

“The answer is
no
,” Violet said, angry and hurting. “I don’t want to go back to my father.”

“I didn’t ask if you
wanted
to; I said it was safe.”

“You’re insane if you thought I was going to agree to that, Kazimir.”

At the use of his full name, Kaz’s gaze narrowed. “Are you going to force my hand, then?”

Violet blinked. “What?”

“You’ll be angry at me for a little while. You might even hate me for it, Violet. But understand one thing more than anything else between us—I will always do what I have to so that you are safe and protected first and foremost.”

“To the detriment of my happiness?”

“You might not think so now, but I’m doing this so we can be happy.”

Violet wasn’t really hearing him.

She was too pissed.

Too hurt.

“Do you
know
what he’s going to expect from me?” Violet asked, panic already beating hard in her throat and making her sick. “Do you?”

Kaz said nothing.

Violet’s fury exploded at his silence. “To
beg
, Kaz. For his attention and his forgiveness. For whatever he fucking wants!”

Blank as paper, Kaz simply stared at her. “Then you’ll have to do that,
krasivaya
. Make him believe it. Make him think you’re sorry, that you made a horrible mistake, and that you want nothing more than to be his pleasing, sweet sunshine of a daughter.”

Kaz had been right.

A little bit.

Violet thought she might hate him for this.

Three days and she was still pissed at him.

It didn’t matter how often he said it was for the best—that it was only temporary until he got a bead on Vasily and put an end to that threat—she refused to speak to him. And even when she did, her words were stilted with anger lacing her voice.

Despite wanting to make it right with her, he knew where his focus needed to be. So he let her stew as he and Alfie worked. And now, finally, he had some answers.

But it was also today that Violet seemed to be at her worst. It could be because he was finally leaving her alone instead of trying to get her to talk to him for the first time, or it could have been because she was going back to Alberto’s the next day.

Either way, the second time their bedroom door slammed shut, Kaz had to squeeze his eyes shut and count backward from five. She was deliberately trying to rile him up, he knew, and he had elected to ignore it the first time.

But now, it was getting too hard to ignore.

And when another door slammed, Kaz got to his feet, leaving his office in a flurry of motion as he took the stairs nearly two at a time.

Though only home for a few days, he was already feeling better, and though the wound on his neck was nearly healed, he was still quite careful with it.

Twisting the handle of the door, Kaz shoved it open, just in time to see Violet tossing a suitcase out of the closet with a loud thud. Next came clothes, shoes, and even a few purses. While some landed on top of the suitcase, more landed on the floor around it.

Violet walked out the closet, hair tumbling wildly around her shoulders, dressed in that delicate lingerie she usually wore to bed with him. No, she wasn’t playing fair at all.

Noticing him, she came up short when she saw him, but that surprise quickly morphed to anger as she went on, pretending he wasn’t there.

“Want to tell me what you’re doing?” he asked.

“I’m packing,” she snapped, getting to her knees to shove clothes inside without any attempt at order. “What does it look like?”

Violet rarely got pissed at him, not like this, but he was starting to realize that this wasn’t like those times. There was a chance, if this didn’t pan out the way he’d hoped, that she wouldn’t forgive him.

As he stepped further into the room, however, his gaze drifting down to the way her lace shorts rode up. Giving him a tantalizing view of tan skin, he wasn’t concerned about her anger. Not anymore.

“Are you taking the door with you? You seem intent on taking it off its fucking hinges.”

One minute, he was staring at her ass, and the next minute, she was spinning around and getting to her feet, crossing the floor until she could get a hand on his chest and push.

“Fuck
off
, Kaz.”

He almost smiled. “Let’s not say things we don’t mean.”

Kaz caught her hand before she could push him again, holding tight as she tried to jerk free. “Trust me. I mean it.”

“It could only be a matter of days, Violet. There’s no need—”

“Or it could be weeks,” she said cutting him off. “
Months
. You don’t know.”

“But I do know in that time, I won’t have to worry about anything happening to you.”

Violet rolled her eyes, this time successfully pulling her hand free. “Maybe not physically.”

“Yes,” he said reaching for her, wanting her to understand. “But anything else I can fix. Because if Vasily gets his hands on you, Violet, he’s not going to let you live. And that, I can’t fix.”

“Anywhere. Anywhere
but
there.”

Tugging her forward, he pressed a quick kiss to her forehead before saying, “I’ll give you anything but that.”

There was sadness in her eyes as she turned back to what she was doing. Kaz hated that fucking look. He wanted to wipe it from her expression the moment he saw it, but how could he?

Despite her feelings on the matter, it was the best thing for the both of them, and he was sticking to that.

He was moving before he even thought it through, wrapping an arm around Violet’s waist and yanking her up off the floor. She gave a slight cry of surprise as he dropped her on the bed, fingers wrapping around her calves to drag her back down.

“It’s happening whether you like it or not, Violet,” he said softly, even as he tugged at the straps of the outfit she wore. “But I can help you forget—if only for this night.”

“Kaz, that won’t—”

He shut her up with a kiss, lightly stroking the seam of her lips with his tongue. All too quickly, she stopped resisting in his hold, her hands coming up to cradle his face. But he didn’t let her get comfortable, pulling away after a moment to finish dragging the material down her body then over his shoulder.

A quick tap on her leg had her spreading her thighs the way he liked, showing him exactly where he longed to be. Despite her willingness to open herself to him, she wasn’t giving in, not yet. He still saw the fight in her eyes.

Getting to his feet, Kaz yanked at the knot in his tie until he got the thing loose, letting it drop to the floor as he started on the buttons of his shirt. Her eyes dropped to his chest, and that aggression shifted to lust.

Now, that was a look he didn’t mind.

By the time his shirt was at his feet, his gaze had traveled the length of her body then back up again. When he started for his belt, she moved to get up, intent on helping him, but he gave a sharp shake of his head.

“If you want something to touch, touch your pussy for me.”

A shuddering exhale left her as she settled back on the bed, fingers diving between her legs to do as he asked. She wasn’t shy, never had been—and Kaz was glad for it. Once he got his pants off, he climbed up onto the bed opposite her where he had ample view of what she was doing.

Violet’s eyes widened as he drew closer, that plump bottom lip of hers disappearing between her teeth. But the moment he got his cock free of the restricting cotton of his boxer-briefs, her gaze dropped and stayed there.

He could see his hunger reflected in her expression, the way her fingers sped up a bit as they rubbed her clit. Grasping his length and dragging his fist up and down, that familiar adrenaline raced through him, but he didn’t give in to that need to just fuck her until nothing was left of either of them.

No, he wanted to drag this out because even he didn’t know when the next time would be—too long for his liking.

The fingers of his free hand sifted through blond hair before he held the strands tight in his fight and could turn her head the way he wanted. “No, no, I didn’t say stop,” he said softly when her fingers had stopped as she concentrated on what he was doing.

But his words were enough to stir her back into action, even as her lips parted. Angling his cock toward her mouth, he gave a single command. “Suck me.”

A desperate moan left her as she closed her lips around him, her eyes drifting closed as she did so. Heat shot down his spine as she took more of his cock into her mouth. Fist tight in her hair, he guided her motions, slow on the downslide, quick coming back up.

Every time she moaned, the sound made his balls tighten as he resisted the urge to fuck her mouth harder. When he reached for the hand busy between her thighs and pulled it away, he felt the shiver move through her as she began sucking harder, as if she was trying to drag him over the edge before he was ready.

Laying a hand on her stomach, he felt the muscles there jump a moment before he was sliding it down, his fingers slipping through her drenched folds. It was a test of his control not to grab her right then, but as he easily pushed two fingers into her pussy and felt her clamp down around his digits, he got himself under control.

This was what he wanted.

She grasped at him, nails digging into his flesh as she took his cock deeper in her throat. She was mindless, too focused on the sensations to worry about anything else.

“This was what you wanted, hmm?” Kaz pushed his fingers a little deeper. Rubbing his thumb over her clit, he loved the way her skin was flushed and trembling. “If you want me to fuck you, you only have to ask.”

She was going to come.

He felt it in the way her pussy tightened around his fingers and the moans reverberating through his cock. But he needed to hear it—needed to hear every last shuddering moan.

Pulling free from her mouth, he sped up the thrusts of his fingers, her keen whine echoing in the space around them, like music to his fucking ears. Her back arched, her hands fisting the cover.

But it just wasn’t enough—the need that was driving him was only spiking higher. Drawing forward, he had his fingers on her throat before she could take another breath.

“Tell me,
krasivaya
. Tell me how badly you want my cock.”

She knew how much he loved when she begged for it—how her soft pleas drove him crazier than anything else did.

“Please,
Kaz
.”

He could hear the desperation in her voice, could
feel
the need churning through her—an ache he couldn’t wait to soothe.

Pulling free from her, he dragged her into the position he wanted then grabbed the base of his cock. He rubbed the length of it up her dripping sex, gritting his teeth as her hips undulated beneath him.

But he didn’t push inside her, not yet—not until she was whispering his name like a prayer. Leaning down, he kissed her hard, even as he eased his cock inside the tight, wet heat of her pussy.

Swallowing the ragged moan that clawed its way from her throat, he buried himself inside her. It was fucking torture holding himself there, her clenching muscles practically screaming for him to let go and just fuck her.

But he wouldn’t, not yet.

Instead, he dragged his hips back with aching slowness—until just the head was pressed into her before he was shoving his hips forward, even as he dragged her down to meet him.

And when he felt the searing pain of her nails dragging down his back, the careful lock he had on his control snapped. Tearing his mouth away from her, he thrust hard, the sensation of her squeezing him so tightly making the fingers at her neck tighten just slightly.

Every time he sunk into her, his name fell from her lips until her words jumbled. Endless cries spilled free as he fucked her the way she wanted. His need for her was almost too much, the need to come already clawing at him.

Finally releasing the hold he had on her neck, he dipped his hand between her legs, rubbing fast circles over her clit. “Come on, give it here.”

Violet trembled violently beneath him, but it wasn’t until he was at her ear telling her how good she was at taking his cock, and how hard she was going to come for him. When her lips parted on a silent scream, the sudden clamping of tight muscles made him curse.

She was fucking beautiful when she came.

But it was the way she called his name, such lost abandon in her voice that made him finally give in, giving one last brutal thrust of his hips before he came hard.

There was peace in that moment.

Just the two of them.

And everything was good.

The Gallucci mansion stood tall and foreboding in front of Violet.