Page 46 of Born into Chaos

When he flips us over with an ease that proves he could’ve gotten out of my hold whenever he wanted, I’m more than ready to get naked and take this to the next level. He kisses me hard while he cups the back of my head and presses his chest to mine. I’m completely surrounded by him. The heat of his body, the comforting scent of him, and the feel of his mouth on mine are all working together to drive me crazy.

I wrap my legs around his waist and slip my hands under his shirt, dragging my fingers along his muscled back while I arch my hips up to him. He groans into my mouth while rocking his hips, grinding the hard length of him against my aching center. My heart races as warmth ignites in my core, making me ravenous for more of him.

One of his hands slides under me, cupping my ass and holding me even tighter against him. I can feel the orgasm building, and I cling to him as tightly as I can, knowing I’m just a few rubs away from what I want and need. Right before my body explodes, Samantha lets out an ear-piercing scream that has Vitya breaking our kiss and jumping off the bed to check on her. I’m so dazed it takes me a little more time to get my bearings and climb out of bed. I’m breathless and dizzy and there’s an annoying, unsatisfied ache between my legs.

By the time I get to the crib, Vitya’s already holding her, patting her back while he gently bounces and rocks from side to side. He refuses to meet my eyes when I step closer. There’s no use trying to talk over Samantha’s angry screams, so instead I dig around until I find her pacifier and try to put it in her mouth. She scrunches up her face and refuses to take it. I look up at Vitya for help, but he looks just as clueless as I feel.

“Has she done this before?” I ask over her screams.

“No. She never screams like this.”

I feel her forehead, but it’s hard to tell if she’s warm from a fever or just hot because she’s pissed off and screaming. Thinking she might just still be hungry, I run off to get her another bottle, but when I come back with it, she refuses to drink. She’s worn herself out. Tears spill down her cheeks, and her breaths are shaky. She wiggles against Vitya’s hold, and the worried look on his face has me reaching out to squeeze his arm, wanting to comfort him.

“She’ll be okay,” I tell him, hoping like hell I’m right, because we both know from firsthand experience how far away the nearest hospital is. “Let me try for a minute.”

He hands her over to me, and as soon as her tiny, shaking body is in my arms, my heart fucking breaks, because all I want to do is make her feel better, but I don’t have the faintest idea how to do that. I kiss her head and lightly bounce her while I sway on my feet. She doesn’t seem to be screaming quite as loudly, but she’s not calming down like I want.

“Google it,” I tell him, because the internet has gotten us this far.

He grabs his phone and starts typing. His brows furrow as he scrolls and reads. “I don’t know,” he mutters. “It could be a million different things.”

“Do you see any suggestions about what to do?”

He scrubs an irritated hand through his hair and looks over at me. “Yeah, there’s a huge fucking list of things.”

Instead of reminding him to not cuss, because now is definitely not the time, I hold a screaming Samantha and say, “Okay, let’s start from the beginning. One of them has to work.”

Chapter 7

Vitya

Istare at Sveta’s determined face, never feeling so out of sorts in my life. I went from being seconds away from ripping her tiny sleep shorts off and burying myself inside her, a thing I swore would never happen, to being scared to death that something is wrong with Samantha. Her angry cries fill the room, breaking my heart with each little wail, and I’ll do anything to stop them and make her feel better.

“What’s the first thing?” Sveta asks, reminding me of the insane mission we’re on. From what I read, it could literally be just about anything that set Samantha off, and it feels like we’re about to try and find a needle in a haystack.

“Her diaper might be wet and annoying her.”

“Well, that’s an easy fix.” Sveta grabs the bag of diaper supplies and gets to work. After thirty minutes of dead ends, I’m in awe of the woman before me. Sveta has no reason to be here helping me. This isn’t her baby, and we’re not in a relationship. She could’ve bailed on me, and most people would have, yet here she is, looking at Samantha with nothing but concern and love in her eyes, trying like hell to help me figure out what’s wrong and she hasn’t lost her temper once.

Shelooks exhausted, but she’s still the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, and watching her comfort Samantha makes it very difficult to remember why I’m supposed to be keeping her at arm’s length. God, when she’d crawled on top of me earlier and pressed her sweet lips to mine, I’d nearly lost all control. She’s my weakness, and I’m not sure what to do about that.

“Okay, she’s not hungry, her diaper is clean, she’s not in the mood for her vibrating seat or her swing, she doesn’t want her pacifier, and she doesn’t give a shit about hearing white noise,” Sveta says, going through our list of failed attempts.

Scrolling through the articles on my phone, she finally drops it on the bed and looks over at me. “Take off your shirt.”

“What?”

“Your shirt,” she says, repeating herself and looking like she’s about to fall asleep where she’s standing. “Take it off. One of the articles said that skin-to-skin contact can comfort babies.”

When I hesitate, she sighs. “Vitya, I can’t do it. What am I supposed to do if she tries to nurse? I don’t think any of us want to see that awkward moment.”

She’s not wrong. I very much want to see her topless, but not like that. I’m all for breastfeeding, but this is not that, and it would just be incredibly unsettling. Reaching a hand behind my head, I grip my shirt and tug it off, letting it drop to the floor as Sveta undresses Samantha until she’s just in her diaper. Her screams make it clear she’s not loving this new plan, but Sveta isn’t giving up just yet. She stacks the pillows up against the headboard so I can rest against them and then puts Samantha in my arms.

Stepping back, she runs her eyes over me and lets out a whispered, “Goddamn.”

I raise a brow at her, because she’s clearly breaking her own no-cussing rule.

“This is the first time I’ve ever seen you without a shirt on, Vitya, and you’re holding a baby. I think my ovaries just exploded.”

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