167

Kat
I tried to get free of the zip tie while Adrian was gone. Tried to reach his laptop where he apparently was able to text my father, to no avail.
He returns with two bowls of some kind of meat stew or chili and cuts me free. We sit in our window seat to eat.
The food is nasty, but we both finish. Adrian stacks my bowl on top of his and sets it beside him.
“Please tell me they have chocolate Haagan Dazs here.”
A hint of a smile appears around Adrian’s lips. “I wish,” he says. “I doubt it. But I’ll tell you what they do have.”
“What?”
“Vodka. Lots of it. They were already half in the tank when I got our food.”
“Tell me again why we’re on a ship? And you now know we’re going the wrong direction if you want to get to my father, right?”
Adrian’s expression turns grumpy, and I think he’s not going to answer, but after a moment, he says, “I thought it was a mistake at first, too, but now I think fate led me to this ship.”
“Why?”
He shakes his head. “Your father will come to me when I give him a meeting location.”
“You want him on your own turf.”
He studies me. “You’re more worried for me than you are for your father, aren’t you?”
I nod. “Yes. Not that you don’t seem totally competent at killing someone.” My gaze travels to the four green X’s on his knuckles. “Were those kills?”
He doesn’t answer, which I know means they are. “You think your father is invincible. That’s normal for a daughter to believe.”
“No, it’s logical considering you’re one guy with a very kind soul despite your villainous behavior, and my father has armies of assholes who have no souls whatsoever.”
Adrian’s expression turns sour, his upper lip curling. Now it’s his turn to look out the porthole instead of at me.
“I’m sorry about your sister. About Nadia.”
He shifts his gaze back to me, and I see a world of pain in his eyes. “I’m sorry about this. About using you this way. It was wrong.”
“But you’re still going ahead with it.” I say it as a statement, rather than a question.
Adrian nods. “I can’t turn back now.”
“You can,” I plead. “I won’t tell. I won’t tell my father who you are. I’ll make up another story. I’ll tell him I sent the pictures to shock him. You have the ones with me smiling, right?”
Adrian tunnels his fingers through his hair. “I’m sorry, dietka. I have to finish this.”
I reach for his hand and interlace my fingers over the tops of his. He stares at them, like he’s confused by the gesture. “I don’t want you to die.”
He shakes his head. “I don’t plan on it, Kat. But I’m willing. And that’s probably what makes me bulletproof.”
My eyes fill with tears. “Don’t believe that.”
He reaches for me and pulls me to his side of the window seat, settling me between his legs, leaning back against his wide chest. His arms wrap around me.
I breathe in his pine and leather scent. “Adrian?” I ask after a stretch of silence.
“Da?”
“If you did succeed…”
He goes still, listening. His breath feathers across my right ear.
“You offered to take care of me out of a sense of responsibility.”
His lips find the shell of my ear, and he toys with it but doesn’t answer. “Of course, I am responsible,” he says after a stretch, and I want to crawl in a hole and die.
Of course, Adrian Turgenev doesn’t want to keep me. It’s absurd I would even hope such a thing.
“But…”
I hold my breath.
He kills me by not going on.
“But what?”
“But…if we’d just met…. if we were both just strangers at that rave, and I took you home?”
My heart hammers in my chest so fast I think I’m going to pass out. “Yes?” I choke.
“I would never let you go.”
My breath comes in on a sharp sob.
“Never,” he repeats.
And then I’m crying. Real tears. I have no explanation for why they’re falling, but Adrian doesn’t get upset about them.
He bends his knees up around me, so I’m cradled not just by his arms, but by his whole body, and he kisses the top of my head, gently rocking me like a baby.
“I would keep you, too,” I tell him, dashing at the tears on my face.
“Only because I spanked you.” There’s laughter in his voice. Teasing.
It makes me laugh-weep even harder. “Yeah,” I say. “That was fun.”
“I’m going to do it again, printsessa.”
“You are?” I pull his arms even tighter around me, like a security blanket I never want to let go of.
“Mmm hmm. You have a very spankable ass.”
I tug his hand down between my legs, needing to feel something different than this ache in my chest.
He cups my mons possessively and bites my neck. “Does this hot little body need some attention from me?”
I squirm against his hand trying to get more friction. “Yes,” I whimper.
He nudges me off the window ledge and drops down beside me. “Bend over the bed, little girl.”
I do as I’m told, folding at the waist and putting my hands down on the small cot. Presenting my ass to him.
He gives it a gentle slap, and I wiggle for more. He slaps a few more times then flips my short skirt up and pulls my panties down to mid thigh. I’m instantly soaking wet.
“Is this what you need,” Adrian asks. “You need this cute little ass spanked?”
I love how he always asks for consent, even as he’s being masterful. It makes me feel safe.
“Yes,” I affirm. I don’t know why I need it. Delaney would try to heal me of this sordid craving, but I don’t want to be fixed. I absolutely love it. And Adrian does it just right. He is my hero even though he’s dressed in villain’s clothing. I want him to keep me. I want to be his little punished slave girl. Or whatever he wants me to be so long as he’s doing his dominant thing.
He rubs my ass then grips it with both hands and plants a kiss on one cheek. “You’re not too sore from earlier?”
I am a little sore, but I love feeling well-used by him. I love remembering how completely owned he made me feel. Not degradedalthough I’m into that, toojust fully claimed.
“No,” I say. “I want it.”
“You want me to pound you with my big, hard cock?”
Ooh, he does dirty talk so well.
“Yes,” I whimper, giving my ass another waggle.
He spanks me some more, warming my ass up with firm, stingy slaps. By the time I hear the crackle of the condom wrapper, I’m desperate for him.
I shimmy out of my panties and widen my stance.
“Beautiful girl,” he murmurs, stroking a hand down my hip.
I register the soft-firm touch of his cock against my entrance, and I push back to take him.
“You going to take my cock like a good girl?” Despite the dommy words, he eases into me.
“Yes, sir.”
He starts up a rhythm, slowly gaining in tempo. “On your knees,” he orders in a guttural tone when it’s time for a change. I climb onto the bed on my hands and knees, and he continues in that position, gathering my braids and tugging them back. “You like have your hair pulled?”
I don’t like the actual feeling in my scalp, but I like him controlling me. Like feeling a little forced, even though I know I’m safe with him.
“Yes,” I pant.
He tugs a little harder, bringing my head back and forcing me to arch my back. “That’s so pretty, malyshka,” he says, and butterflies take flight in my belly. Pleasing him pleases me. “You’re so wet, my Kit-Kat.”
He remembered my nickname! I’d told it to him on the first night.
Also, he called me his.
Warmth wraps around me like a blanket. And then I’m too hot. Too needy.
“On your back,” Adrian commands, in tune with my need for a change in position.
I roll to my back, even though missionary isn’t my favorite position. Not to worry, he quickly makes it work for me by wrapping a large hand around my throat. He doesn’t squeeze at all, just holds my throat, showing me he could choke me if he wanted.
His lids are heavy, lips are parted. He shoves into me with punctuated, hard thrusts that make sounds rocket from my throat. If he weren’t holding onto my throat, he’d drive my body up, and my head would bump into the wall. I’m his captive. Literally and sexually.
Funny how I’ve never felt so free.
So unbuttoned. So met. Accepted. Bridged.
This man is my match.
If only I could keep him from getting himself killed.
I surrender completely to the sensationsthe pleasure of Adrian moving inside me. The intensity of our position, the sight of his muscles straining in his chest and arms, the way his teeth clench around his ragged breath.
“Adrian,” I moan, and his gaze snaps to my face, almost in alarm. Like me calling his name during sex was the same as telling him I was falling for him.
But then he returns the intimacy. “Kat…. Kat.”
It’s too much for me. A cry of pleasure echoes around our tiny room, and my internal muscles seize.
“Oh, fuck,” Adrian mutters, going still for me, then pumping faster than ever until he reaches his own shouted climax. His fingers close around my throatI don’t think he even realizes, and I go with it, letting him squeeze out my breath. It brings on another equally strong orgasm, and I come and come beneath him, all over his cock.
“Oh shit, Kat.” He releases my throat like it’s a hot iron. “Baby. Malyshka. Kit-Kat.” He strokes my neck. “Are you all right? I’m sorry.”
My eyelids flutter open, and I give him a dreamy smile. “I’m good. I loved it.”
“Gospodi.” He pulls out and drops beside me. “I thought I hurt you.”
My smile widens. “You did.”
His gaze turns fond, a smile playing on his lips. He kisses the bridge of my nose. “Beautiful, wild, funny girl. What will I do with you?” He backs off the bed, removing his condom and disposing of it.
“Keep me,” I suggest.