From Russia With Claws (19 page)

Galina gave a strangled scream, thrusting her hips back against his to take him deeper as her walls spasmed around him. She shuddered out her release, jerking and gasping as Andrey pumped his hips against hers. His busy fingers kept teasing her clit, giving her no relief after her orgasm. She felt as if she’d been blown apart and put back together with the pieces in the wrong place.

“Jesus,” he whispered as he fell against her back, cock spearing her with his hard thrusts. “You feel fucking amazing.” He rolled his hips against hers, now holding her hips with both hands as he pistoned into her.

Galina turned her head so she could watch him, a wicked expression on her face as she watched him come undone. He buried himself in the heat of her, and she met his thrusts, their bodies moving in a primal rhythm.

She felt him swelling inside of her, his cock bulging against her walls as his flesh knotted. Galina’s eyes widened as she felt it happen. Andrey was knotting her. She shivered, feeling full like she never had before as his cock continued to grow inside of her.

He growled, a low rumble against her ear as he leaned forward, the mating drive taking hold of him. His fingers dug into the flesh at her hips as he yanked her even closer, until there was no space between them. One hand slid between her thighs, finding her clit and tweaking it, rubbing slow circles, then stroking it firmly with his thumb.

Galina bucked against his hand, against his cock, a low wail escaping from her lips as the tension once again built inside her. She was close to the edge, ready to spiral over it.

Andrey threw back his head and pounded into her one last time. Galina felt the heat of his come as it bathed her insides. He howled, hips still pulsing against her as another jet of come filled her. She felt it begin to run down her legs, and then Andrey ground his palm against her clit and she cried out as the force of another climax blew through her like a hurricane.

Her vision went gray and it took her a minute to come back to herself. She felt Andrey’s release still pulsing inside of her. He held her against him, one hand on her hip, the other braced against her stomach. Galina lolled her head back to rest against his shoulder, completely exhausted from the force of her orgasms and the events of the day. Andrey pressed kisses to the side of her neck, his body still shuddering through his climax. The sheets beneath them were soaked and would likely become more so before he was done.

He laughed softly, his hot breath brushing over her cheek. Their mingled juices ran down her thighs and still he pulsed inside her. Andrey nuzzled her neck. “You are the most perfect woman ever created,” he whispered. “
Сладкая
.”

She sighed. He’d called her his sweet again. She could get used to him saying that. “That’s a very nice thing to say, but it’s not entirely accurate.” She rubbed her cheek against his stubble, relishing the feel of him. “I’m a lousy housekeeper. And I may snore. You’ll have to tell me in the morning.”

Andrey chuckled, biting lightly at her shoulder. “So that means I get to spend the night?”

Galina wrapped her fingers around his hand, holding him tightly. “Well, since I’m tired and there’s no telling when we’ll unknot, I guess I can put up with you.”

“It’s a burden to bear, I’m sure,” he murmured, his mouth still on her neck.

She laughed. “I do make really good pancakes though.”

He squeezed her tightly and Galina sank into him, a part of her wishing they could stay like this, in this moment forever. Without her father, or Alexei, or Irina, or all of the family drama that came with being a Sudenko. Maybe with a little less come, but this was one of those times she wished would never end.

Andrey turned his head, eyes lighting on her clothes. “Nice pants, by the way,” he said, nodding to her Stewie pajamas.

“Oh shut up.”

Galina woke, groaning at the sunbeam that hit her face. “Ungh.” She burrowed into her pillow, only cracking an eye open when she heard a deep chuckle next to her. “What’s so funny?” she asked, her voice hoarse from the carnal activities of the previous evening.

Andrey pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Are you always so articulate in the morning?”

She yanked the covers up over her head. “I’m sleepy and I have sex hair. Don’t be mean.”

Andrey’s loud laugh boomed out over her head. She tried to elbow him, but being wrapped in the blankets made it difficult to cause him any lasting pain. “Why are you waking me up?”

He ducked his head under the blankets, nuzzling her cheek with his nose. His fingers traced a warm line down her spine. He stopped at the small of her back and pressed his hand to the hollow there. Galina made a pleased sigh, arching into a stretch. His hand urged her to roll onto her side, and she did so, curling around Andrey.

“I believe you mentioned pancakes?” He took her earlobe in his mouth and sucked it gently.

“You woke me up because you’re hungry?” She draped a thigh over his and felt his erection press against her belly.

“Among other reasons.” Andrey’s voice was husky, his eyes a smoky blue.

She grinned, still sleepy. “I can think of one good reason and it’s poking at my stomach.”

His big hands came up and cupped her breasts, pushing them up into his mouth. Galina dropped her head back, inhaling sharply at the heat of his mouth on her quivering flesh. A coil of heat wrapped around her pelvis, making her move restlessly against him.

“What are you doing?” she asked softly.

“Saying good morning.” He lowered his head to her nipples, sucking one and then the other into his mouth.

Galina’s breath stuttered out in sharp gasps. Andrey’s tongue rasped across her sensitive flesh. He pulled his mouth off and then blew over the erect peaks, smiling as the skin dimpled and pebbled. “I’m fairly certain you have the most perfect breasts.”

She watched him from half-closed lids. “And I’m fairly certain that most men think any breast is perfect.”

Andrey smiled before biting at her nipple. He worried it in his teeth, making her arch and gasp. She felt her pussy spasm, leaving a trail of wetness on his leg as she moved up and down on him. “I’ve engaged in an exhaustive study of the female breast.”

“Do you have pie charts?” Galina asked, gasping on the last word as he sucked on the underside of her breast.

He nodded, his head moving heavily against her. His silvery eyes met hers. “And line graphs. I believe in being thorough.”

“I can tell,” she managed, before she lost the power of speech when he pushed the head of his cock inside of her.

He moved slowly, filling her inch by inch. When Galina tried to quicken the pace, he held her still. She lay on her back, legs wrapped around his waist, gasping as he speared her. She shook her head on the pillow, straining against his hands. “Andrey, please.”

He bottomed out, then pulled out just as slowly. He mouthed her breasts, his lips and tongue driving her closer and closer to the edge as his cock teased her lower lips. “What do you want?” There was a dark joy in his voice as he watched her flushed face.

“You,” Galina choked out. “All of you.”

“Your wish is my command.” His hips snapped forward, sheathing himself deep inside her in one stroke.

Galina shouted, her hips rolling against his as she tightened her legs around his waist. He pinched her nipples before he captured her mouth, swallowing her cries as the burn inside of her turned into a white hot conflagration. He broke off the kiss and placed his fingers into her mouth, urging her to suck.

He removed them. Andrey’s hand swept around her hips, lifting her up to get a better angle. Her eyes popped open when he slid a finger inside the puckered ring of her ass. She felt herself tighten around him and he urged her to relax. Galina dropped her head back. Andrey licked up the line of her neck, his stubble rubbing her over-sensitized skin.

“Andrey,” she managed to get out in a garbled voice, every fiber of her being so stimulated she thought she might die.

“Hmm?” He sounded inordinately pleased with himself. She would have smacked him if she had any muscle control left in her body.

“I…” She stopped as he changed angles and his cock bumped against her g-spot. She lost the capacity for words, having to resort to gasps and inarticulate mumblings as her body clenched, bowing her back as her walls tightened unbearably.

“Fuck!” Andrey cried out as her pussy gripped him, squeezing his cock through her orgasm. He picked up speed, chasing his own climax as his hips snapped into hers. Galina stared up at him blindly, almost insensate from the mind bending sex of the last twelve hours. He crashed into her, shouting her name, as he finally came.

Slowly Galina came back to herself. She felt like she was floating. Aftershocks rolled through her body, making her twitch and jerk. Andrey was a heavy weight on top of her, but she didn’t mind. He could lie on top of her all day long if it meant she could have sex like that again.

It was like he knew every cell of her body, like he’d gotten a Masters in the study of giving her orgasms. She threaded her fingers through the damp hair at his temples, content to just feel his breath against her, his chest rising and falling in time with hers. She wasn’t worried about how they’d get around his engagement to Irina, she wasn’t worried about Alexei or Papa or any of the other million things that were going wrong within the family.

Andrey was here. He was hers. And that was all that mattered.

“You’re smiling.”

She opened her eyes to find him propped on one elbow, watching her.

He looked delectable. His eyes were sleepy, the blue gleaming beneath heavy lids. His black hair hung in his eyes, tousled and messy. The lower half of his face was covered in dark stubble. His mouth was red from kissing her.

“I’m happy,” she told him.

A shadow passed across his face, taking the joy from his eyes. “We’re going to need to talk about your father. I can’t marry Irina.”

She felt a little leap in her chest at his words. Galina hadn’t expected him to go through with the wedding, especially after last night, but it still thrilled her to hear him say it. That made it more real somehow. She ran a hand across the stubble on his jaw. “I haven’t figured out how to get you out of that yet.”

“I’ll just tell him I don’t want to marry her.” He kissed her palm. “Now that I have the Bullet back, there’s nothing to repay.”

Galina shook her head. “You’ve already accepted. If you back out now, you’d insult him and cause a rift between the families.” She sat up against the headboard, wrapping her arms around his waist when he followed her up.

“Well, I can’t just pretend I’m interested in your sister.” He rubbed at her neck with one hand. “And we can’t let this drag out indefinitely. Ilya is already asking for a wedding date.”

She ran her finger through his hair as she ordered her thoughts. “Something else is going on for Papa to push your engagement so fast. I think he’s worried about Rina. Let me make arrangements to get her out of town before you break it off.”

“That still leaves Alexei. He’s the one who ordered the theft of my product in the first place.” Andrey’s voice had darkened, the threat implicit. “I don’t want to kill your brother, but he needs to pay for his actions.”

“I know. I’m not suggesting you not get retribution.” She shook her head. “I know how these things work.” She paused, thinking. “Let me talk to Papa. Maybe we can figure out a way so all parties are happy and nobody looks like a fool.” She sighed, stretching. “I should probably call Rina and see how the rest of her night went. And I need to have a serious talk with Viktor.”

“Why’s that?” Andrey ran a hand through her hair, curling a lock of it around his fingers.

Galina sighed. “He’s endangering Rina—all of us really—but most especially her. You know we had an older sister, right?”

“I remember hearing something about it, but I was much younger.” He took her hand in his.

“It’s a long and sordid story, and Papa really doesn’t come out great in it. Let’s just say that she met and fell in love with the wrong man and Papa ended it for her.” Galina kept her voice light, but inside her stomach churned. She hadn’t known Elena very well, being a decade younger than her, but still she felt the loss of her.

“Where’s Elena now?” Andrey’s eyes narrowed. “I’ve never met her.”

“She’s dead.” When Andrey kissed her shoulder, she squeezed his hand tightly. “Now you see why I need to talk to Viktor.”

“I do.” He nuzzled her cheek with his nose. “And I am sorry.”

Galina blinked, feeling her sister’s loss more than she had in years. But there wasn’t time to wallow. “Thank you,” she murmured. Then, shaking off her mood, she pushed herself out of his arms. “We should get a move on.”

Andrey pulled the blankets off of them. “I suppose I have to let you out of bed at some point.” He offered her a hand up. “But you at least owe me pancakes.”

Let’s Dredge Up the Past, Shall We?

G
ALINA
P
ULLED
V
IKTOR
A
SIDE
as soon as she was able. “Let’s go for a walk,” she said, hand clamping down on his arm in a nonverbal cue that refusal was not an option. He looked at her, surprise registering on his elegant features before nodding.

They strolled around Irina’s large backyard. Galina hoped that their casual attitude would persuade Irina they were just having a business discussion, not the info-dump of family backstory she was going to drop on him for his own—and Irina’s—safety. Reaching the far end of the walled yard, she pulled Viktor down on a bench.

“There’s something you should know about Irina.” Galina shook her head. “Or really, about our sister Elena.”

“I know about Elena,” he told her, blue eyes betraying nothing of what he felt. He was staring at her like someone who worked for her father should: dangerous, deadly, with the eyes of someone who could, and had, killed a man.

“You’ve heard what everyone’s heard, not the real story.” She tucked her legs underneath her on the bench. “So shut up and listen because I’m not saying this again.”

She took a deep breath. “Our sister, Elena, was a few years older than Rina. She was beautiful, but very headstrong. Where Irina was Daddy’s good little girl, Elena was the rebel. She fought tooth and nail for more freedom. My father always asked why she couldn’t be more like Rina. But Elena always got what she wanted, even when she was being punished.”

Galina shrugged. “At least that’s what it seemed like to me. I was still pretty young when all of this went down. Anyway, when she turned eighteen, Papa started arrangements for Elena’s marriage. He chose a nice, established man from a good family back in Russia. A doctor, someone respectable. He thought it was a great match and that Elena should have been happy.”

Galina watched as Viktor shifted uncomfortably. “You can imagine how well that went over. Elena had been seeing a boy from her college classes, Brian McKenzie. She’d been keeping it on the down low, but when she found out about the arranged marriage, she went to Papa and told him that she was in love.

“You can imagine how he reacted.” She paused, remembering the fight between Papa and Elena. It was the loudest she’d ever heard her father get. “I’d like to think my mother, had she still been alive, could have intervened. But since she died giving birth to me we’ll never know.”

Galina slanted a look at Viktor. She had his full attention. “Anyway, Papa told her she was too young to know what love was and that she would get over Brian. I think he even said that she and this doctor would grow to love each other in time.

“But on the night of her engagement party, Papa found a note in her room telling him that she and Brian had eloped. You could hear my father screaming over the sound of two hundred guests.”

“Wow.” Viktor’s face paled, as if he finally realized just how close he and Irina had come to repeating a family disaster.

Galina nodded. “Yeah, Elena always did have a flair for the dramatic. Papa completely lost his mind. He had every available contact out looking for her; he called in every favor. It only took them three days to track Elena down.” Galina tilted her head, thinking about how careless her older sister had been. If it had been her, she would have had a plan in place, some way to truly disappear. “She wasn’t particularly smart about the way she ran. Maybe part of her wanted to be caught, like she thought that Papa would be so frightened by her running away that he’d forgive her. Maybe she hoped he’d realize she’d never be his good little girl and he’d let her marry her Irish boyfriend in a big church wedding.”

Viktor scowled. “Clearly, she didn’t know your father very well.”

Galina frowned. “When Papa and his men found them, they shot Brian in the face in front of Elena and left his body to rot in the desert. Papa wanted to teach her an important lesson. He wanted her to see the cost of her disobedience. And then he had his men drive her home.”

Galina looked down at her hands. “But Papa didn’t really know Elena either. She’d always been so stubborn, but she’d always kind of had a short attention span. You know, kind of flighty and shallow. He expected her to forget about Brian. He thought she’d stay in her room and cry for a few days, but that she’d get over it. Move on to the next shiny thing. He thought he’d scared her so badly that she would just fall in line with his plans for her. He didn’t even think to take the razors out of her bathroom.”

Galina grimaced, remembering the scene. “She looked like something James Waterhouse painted. Like his
Ophelia
or
Lady of Shallot
. She was laid out on her bed in a white dress, her hair spread out on the pillow. She’d sliced herself open from wrist to elbow. There was blood everywhere.” She swallowed, feeling the hurt well up inside her chest. She shrugged it off. “Dramatics.”

She stared at Viktor, willing him to understand. “Papa didn’t handle it well. Irina and I were put in lockdown. Irina was barely allowed to leave the house to attend her classes. I had a detail that followed me around. In elementary school. I don’t know how the hell Irina convinced Papa to let her go to college after what Elena did. It was easier for me, because Papa had mellowed some by that point, but it was still a fight to go out of state. My scholarship helped.”

Galina met Viktor’s eyes, seeing the horror there. Good. He needed to be aware of what the stakes were if he wanted to keep seeing Irina. She would not have her only remaining sister end up like Elena. Or worse.

“What about you and Andrey?” Viktor’s voice was low, as if he were afraid someone would overhear them.

“We’re careful.” When she saw him open his mouth to contradict her, she amended, “Mostly.” She smiled. She had no illusions about the risk she was running with Andrey. “But I’m not the one Papa is trying to marry off. I’m trying to figure a way out of this for Irina, but you’re going to have to give me a little time.”

“I don’t think time is something we have a lot of,” he said, firm mouth turning down in a frown.

“Agreed.” Galina stood. She wanted to get back inside. “Just remember what I told you, okay?” It was the closest she could come to pleading with him for the sake of her sister.

Viktor nodded. “Tell Rina I’ll be back inside in a bit.”

Galina nodded, squeezing his shoulder. Then she left him to his thoughts.