Sir. God, she stirs something in me when she calls me that and I know she does it on purpose. I can’t fucking wait to take her beyond where she’s comfortable and push her to a place of deep, deep submission.
Christ, I’m hard again at the mere thought.
“Do you like sweets?” she asks.
“Far too much,” I admit. “I don’t keep many around, because they tempt me, but I do have a sweet tooth.”
“I’m surprised,” she says with a smile, while Eliott styles her hair. “That a man of your physique actually eats carbs.”
“Of course he does,” Eliott says in his thick French accent, waving his hand as if to dismiss me. “A man with fire like him burns calories by walking. He isn’t afraid of pizza or pastries.”
She giggles, and it’s so damn cute.
I step over to her and brush Eliott away for a moment, before I tuck her hair behind her ear. Leaning in, I whisper, “I like to eat more than carbs, sweetheart. I’ll eat you out morning and night. No panties without permission. This evening I’ll inspect to see if you’ve obeyed. And when I tell you, you’ll finger yourself to be ready for me. Understood?”
“Tomas!” she says in a heated whisper, flushing bright pink.
“Don’t you dare disobey me,” I warn, resting my hand on her collarbone and flexing my fingers. “Unless you want to be punished.” I grasp her ear lobe between my teeth and bite just enough to make her squirm. Reaching down, I palm her breast. I don’t care if anyone sees. Caroline is mine.
I leave her panting.
I’ll need her ready for me when I get back. The job I have before me now is not an easy one.
I step into the hall and my guards flank my sides. They’re ever-present, prepared to protect me at all costs. I nod to them to acknowledge them, but my head is elsewhere. I’m thinking all things Caroline, and how I need to approach the next meeting I’m about to have, so that I don’t even notice Nicolai is in the meeting room until he punches my shoulder.
“When’d you get in?” I ask.
“Last night. Jesus, man, you’re a mile away,” he says. “New wife keep you up all night?”
He shoots me a lascivious wink, then bellows with laughter when my silence confirms his suspicion.
“Well done,” he says, but I give him a warning look. My men are entering the room, and we have business to attend to.
“How’s married life?” he asks in my ear when he finally gets the point.
“Excellent. And how’s life with a pregnant wife?” I ask him pointedly.
He rolls his eyes in response.
I need to get to the point. “Nicolai, I have a proposal I’m going to make this morning, and I’ll need your help with what I’m about to do.”
He sobers. “Of course, brother. I owe you everything, Tomas. You say the word.”
I wonder if he’ll be so quick to promise his allegiance when he finds out I’m planning cold-blooded murder and moves that will start war between rival groups. That I am going to murder Aren and Andros and any other man that touched my wife.
The room hushes when I stand up, my hands on my hips, taking in quick attendance.
“Have all arrived?” I ask Lev.
“Yes.”
“Where is the guard that went missing last night?”
A young recruit holds up his hand, meeting my gaze but fidgeting nervously.
“Ilya,” I say, proclaiming his name for all to hear. He’s a new recruit, joining our ranks just last week.
“Explain yourself,” I tell him. “Where were you?”
He looks to the side and meets Yakov’s eyes. “Tell him,” Yakov orders, like a stern older brother.
Ilya looks back my way but stares at the floor. “I was with my girlfriend,” he says. “She’d just flown in from Florida, and I wanted to greet her.” He shrugs. “Yakov found me.”
Yakov grunts in disapproval, his arms on his chest. New recruits ought to know better than this, that you don’t fuck around with important nights like last night.
“Do you have any idea what possibilities went through my mind?” I ask him. I know I’m scolding him like an errant child, but he needs to feel the weight of this.
He hangs his head. “No, sir.”
“We have rival Bratva,” I tell him. “My men know things that others are not privy to. You being taken means that someone could have been seeking personal revenge, or they were planning to torture you to extract information.”
His head shoots up. “I would never reveal confidential information, sir. Never.”
“And yet you couldn’t even keep your fucking dick in your pants for one night, to attend the reception for your pakhan’s wedding? It was more important to you that you go see your girlfriend?”
He looks suitably shamed.
“How am I to believe you can be trusted?” I shake my head. “Where is she?”