Page 75 of Deception

“Out there…”

“Outside that door, I’m your equal.”

“You’re my queen.”

“I want to be feared like you are.” The statement is punctuated by a deep inhale that hollows her cheeks. After a beat, she blows out the breath and adds, “I want them to hear me coming and to bow their heads.”

“They already fear you.”

“Because of you. I want them to fear me.”

“Red…”

“If I’m weak, then you are weak too. But if they fear me, then we are protected from all angles. We are stronger. We can be more…do more… We can be more than this. I know what it takes to make legacies…it’s in my blood.”

“Cunning,” I chuckle over her lips.

“Like my grandmother always taught me, you always pick what strengthens you…what gives you power.”

“Is that the real reason you chose to stay with me?”

“Not all of it. Mostly, it was this,” she murmurs into my mouth, nudging her bottom lip over mine as her hand presses mine harder to her chest. “Keep it beating and it will always choose you.”

With my lick into her mouth, her heart picks up its pace, hammering into my hand as I drink down her breathy groans. And there’s no way I can stop here because with every beat I want the next. Another and just one more… even if it’s never enough.

28

LUCY

Red light bathes the stairs in a bloody glow. The gold touches are a deep black, giving the place a sinister tinge that makes my pulse quicken. With my white dress trailing behind me, I take each step down slowly.

It’s his eyes that stop me first. We’re a few steps apart, but the light tinges his eyes into a relucent purple haze that makes my belly flip. And I have no choice but to pause and catch my breath while my heart jumps up into my throat at the sight of his grin. It could make the Cheshire cat jealous.

Good fucking God.

Even with all the people around us, all I can do is stare at him, my hand going straight to my sprouting belly. It’s only been a few weeks since we found out I’m pregnant, but I already feel impatient to see our child. I keep imagining a gorgeous little boy with all his father’s charisma and the same sullen smile that makes my chest squeeze at the sight.

When I don’t descend the rest of the way, Tomasz makes true on his promise and comes for me, his hands cupping my face in greeting.

“Malyshka,” he whispers over my lips. The word is almost as good as the kiss that precedes it.

“Husband,” I murmur back, my hands flattening over his chest as his round to the top of my arse.

“How are you feeling?”

“Good.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive,” I reply, trailing my hands so that they mould to the base of his throat.

Everything about him is so powerful and big that my fingers don’t touch at his nape while my thumbs stroke the black silk of his bow tie.

“Look at me,” he orders as I focus on the peek of his tattoos from beneath the collar of his shirt. When my eyes find his, he kisses me again with his hands pressing me to him. My body pushes flush to his, and I greedily breathe him in. “If it goes wrong, you get out of here. Anton will take you and Mama to the compound in the mountains. He’ll keep the three of you safe.”

Looking down between us, he narrows his stare on the wide cummerbund of my Grecian-style dress. To people around us, it’ll look like he’s admiring my cleavage, a husband fawning over his new wife as his hand trails to my hip and grips firmly, clearly in a bid to stop himself from touching my stomach. Something he’s been doing a lot, an action I never thought I would love so much.

“It won’t go bad.” Not while we’re together, and I have no intention of leaving him. There’s nothing left for me outside of our life together. “Don’t you dare go fucking soft on me now.”

---