Kira
Maykl reaches for me the moment we step inside his apartment, pulling off my sweater, unhooking my bra. I unbutton his pants and drop to my knees.
His hands tangle in my hair. “Ah, here we are again. Full circle.”
“Uh-huh.” I free his erection.
“Tell me I’m the only man you’ve seduced that way.” Maykl’s touch turns possessive, his fingers tugging me forward as I take him into my mouth.
“Mmm hmm,” I say around his cock.
“Fuck. You look so hot like that. But I need to hear it. Tell me, clearly, Kira.” He pulls my hair to tug me off. “Am I the only one?”
“My first and only. But I think you somehow knew that?”
He relaxes and slides his dick back into my mouth. “Yes. You were nervous. An intoxicating mixture of bold and innocent.”
I answer him with a long slow suck from root to tip.
He groans, a small shudder of pleasure making his legs vibrate. “I knew you were trouble, but I couldn’t help myself,” he confesses, his touch alternating between caresses and aggressive tugs and pulls.
I swirl my tongue on the underside of his cock as I suck, my head bobbing, my hand squeezing at the base.
I work hard to please him. Make this my apology for everything I did.
“You’re so beautiful. Fuck.” He pulls me off. “I need to be inside you.” He grasps my forearms and lifts me to my feet, then backs me against the arm of his sofa. His fingers work frantically to open my jeans and shove them down with my panties.
I kick them off my legs, along with my shoes as he toes off his boots and kicks out of his. He lifts one of my knees to his hip and lines his cock up with my entrance. He’s not wearing a condom.
“Are you clean?” I ask.
He nods.
“Me, too.”
“Good, because I need to ride bareback,” he growls. “Tell me you’re not on birth control.” He’s shoving into me.
“I-I’m not,” I pant. It feels so glorious to be filled by him. So satisfying. Like this is exactly what I’ve been missing my entire life. “Why?”
“Because I want to put my babies into you.” He thrusts in and out, nailing me against the couch, getting deeper than I could have imagined possible.
“What?” I laugh, warm bubbles of pleasure fizzing and bursting their way up my middle to my chest.
“You heard me.” He pumps his hips against mine. “I’m claiming you fully, Valkiriya. I’m going to fill you with my cum until you’re swollen and ripe with my child, and even then I’m never going to give you a break.”
I don’t know if I’m orgasming or laughing. I guess both. My core tightens around his glorious cock as my belly shakes, and the most perfect sounds of happiness come from my throat.
“Do you want that, Kira?” he asks.
As always, he’s still attentive. Checking in to see how his vow landed. If I’m on board.
I think of Mika, so happy with his new parents. He and their sweet baby girl growing up in that circle of love.
I never had that kind of family or love. I know now that while I may have thought my dad was a decent father, I was wrong. He sold Anya. Tried to sell me. Maykl probably did the world a favor ending his life.
But Maykl? He’d be an amazing father. And I would do so much better than Anya. I would give my everything to a child.
Then, I’m laugh-crying. “Da,” I affirm. “Yes. Let’s make a family.”
Maykl turns fierce, a storm of lust unleashed. He wraps an arm behind my back and pounds into me, knocking the sofa backward with each brutal thrust.
I quiver. Shake. Cry out. I’m lost in his rhythm. In these waves of passion that carry us both away.
And then we come together. Bolts of lightning must strike simultaneously around the city. Surely the earth rumbled and cracked somewhere. The gods stopped their chatter in heaven to listen and then applaud.
I light up as if electrified, squeezing and convulsing against his bucking body.
And then I go limp. Boneless. A ragdoll.
Maykl pulls out and lifts me into his arms, dropping onto the sofa and arranging me over his body, his hands on my ass, his lips on my hair.
“Ya lyublyu tebya,” he murmurs.
“I love you, too.”
Epilogue
Maykl
We’re on a yacht on Lake Michigan. I’m in a tux, like all my brothers, waiting on the deck.
It’s a beautiful June morning, the breeze blowing across the water keeping us cool enough, so we don’t sweat in our monkey suits.
Benjamin, Ravil and Lucy’s toddler, runs back and forth along the railing, making Lucy nervous, but looking adorable in his own tiny tuxedo. He’s the ring-bearer.
Oleg looks the most uncomfortable in his, like at any moment he might pull an Incredible Hulk and bust his huge muscles through the fabric.
Flynn looks the most at ease in his tux. Dapper, even. His electric guitar is plugged into an amp, and he’s playing some beautiful Spanish guitar melody. He’s not Russian, nor technically a bratva brother, but he has an honorary place with us. He killed for Nadia, Adrian’s sister, so he was given the ink on his skin to mark the crime.
He’s not the only outsider on the yacht. A small crowd of guests has arrived and taken seats on the top deck where the ceremony is to take place.
The captain of the ship arrives on our deck and gives us a nod, and Flynn finds an ending to his song and sets the guitar down for later. He and his sister and their bandmates will be the entertainment after the wedding.
The bratva men file out in a line. Ravil and Maxim lead the way, then Oleg and Dima, Adrian and Pavel, Flynn and me. Nikolai takes up the rear.
We wait at the top of the stairs for the music to cue us, then Ravil offers an arm to escort Lucy down the aisle, followed by Maxim and Sasha, then Oleg and a pregnant Story, Dima and Natasha, Pavel and Kayla, Adrian and Kat, Flynn and Nadia.
My gaze goes soft the moment I see my beautiful Valkyrie and she takes my arm to walk down the aisle together. She’s starting to show at eighteen weeks.
It’s not our wedding.
I married her two weeks after I brought her back to my apartment, as soon as we could get the paperwork together to make it legal.
No, today is Chelle and Nikolai’s wedding.
Chelle’s brother, Zane, walks up the aisle behind us then Nikolai.
Chelle wanted a real weddingan American weddingso we are here, dressed to kill. Hopefully not literally today.
The men fan out behind the groom, our beautiful women arranged on the opposite side. I can’t take my gaze off Kira, who is perfection in the strapless teal gown, tailored to make room for her expanding belly.
“Mama?” Benjamin stands uncertainly at the back.
The crowd laughs softly and murmurs in adoration.
Lucy and Ravil beckon to the boy, and he takes three slow steps, then races the rest of the way down the aisle and into Ravil’s arms. Ravil picks him up and holds him as everyone stands for Chelle’s grand entrance.
Nikolai tugs at his bowtie when he takes in the sight of her, clearly overcome.
It’s a sweet and short ceremony with vows they wrote themselves, and then the party begins.
The band tunes up. Champagne is poured.
Chelle and Nikolai circulate in the crowd.
I take Kira’s hand, and we find a spot against the rail to look at the water together.
“I love living on this lake,” Kira murmurs.
“Do you?”
“Yes. It feels like Anya’s always with me. The real Anyathe one from my childhood who made me laugh and took care of me.”
“I’m glad.” I kiss her temple. “Do you wish you had a wedding like that?”
Kira scoffs. “Me? Absolutely not. I mean, it was lovely, but I don’t need any of that.”
“No.” I brush her hair back from her face. “You’re a warrior, not a princess, aren’t you?”
She smiles and shakes her head. “No more war. Just peace now.”
It’s true. While Kira has taken a position on my security team for the building, she spends her free time on more creative endeavors. Learning pottery from Kat. Baking. Taking kickboxing and yoga.
She’s blooming into more and more happiness every day, expanding my own capacity for joy. Love. And yes, peace.
She’s my best failure as gatekeeper, crashing past all my defenses, indelibly into my heart.
This is the last book in the series i hope you’ve enjoyed it. Do read my other books and thanks for supporting me