“Ivan?” I turn to find Christina only a few feet from me. Her hair is a riot of curls; she looks sleepy and sated still from sex. She is holding the ends of her torn dress together. “It’s getting late. I need to get home.”
How can she think of going home when she belongs with me? I glance at the clock, it’s almost five thirty. “The announcement of our engagement will go out in tomorrow’s paper. Why would you need to go home? And where the hell is your ring?”
A shrug. “I’ll wear it when we go to England.”
“No, you wear the ring from now until I tell you to take it off.”
She sighs as she hides from me. “The ring. The announcement in the paper. You were so sure of me.”
I pull her close to me with the ends of her dress. “It was more like I had every hope you would be as willing as I to do this.”
I give in to the need to kiss her. She sways into me, her arms around my neck hold me tight.
“I want you here in my bed.”
Shaking her head, she pulls back. “I can’t, Abuelo is crazy old-fashioned. He’ll understand about the whole pretending thing, he won’t be happy but he’ll understand. Me staying here, he will freak.”
“You cannot tell your grandfather this is not real. I told you, if anyone but us knows, there is every chance my sisters will find out and Mishka will find out. Then this will be for nothing.”
I do not like the way she frowns at my order.
“It is not up for debate, Christina. No one else knows, period. You are not a teenager. You are a grown woman. You are hardly a virgin.” Why the fuck does just thinking about her with—never mind. “I want you here with me.”
A hand comes up to my chest. “I don’t lie to him. I can’t lie to him. Please, Ivan. How could him knowing possibly get back—”
Outrage at her arguing with me fires me to grab her and shut her delectable mouth the best way I know how. Instantly we both go up in flames. Her arms wrap around me, I pick her up, she clings to me, her pussy lined up right up against me. Her lower lips slide down my cock, so fucking hot. I need to be inside her. “Are you protected?”
Dazed, she doesn’t answer.
“Christina, answer me. Are you on birth control?”
This time the question gets through. Her eyes go wide; even as she moans and shifts to slide up my cock she is shaking her head.
Damn it, as badly as I want to know how she feels without a condom, I do not dare take the chance. I make it back to my room, I grab a condom as she stays wrapped around me. Pressing her back against the wall, “Give me room, sweetheart, just a few inches.”
She moans as she leans her head back. Her neck is on display for me. I sheath the condom and thrust into her. My name is a moan as she grips my shoulders tight.
Tasting the skin of her neck, I mark her as I have longed to do, with my teeth, sucking her tender flesh. Mine, all mine and now with my ring on her finger and my mark on her neck, everyone who sees her will know it too.
I’m close, too damn close. I slide my thumb between us and stroke her clit, and she comes apart in my arms. When her pussy spasms around my cock I follow her into hea
ven.
I’m still trying to catch my breath when she sinks her teeth into my shoulder.
“Brat,” I mutter into her neck.
“You’re a savage. There is no way I can hide what you did to my throat. Fine. I won’t tell Abuelo the truth. But I do have to go home, Mr. You-Don’t-Sleep-With-Anyone-You-Just-Fuck. I need sleep.”
I yank her hair back, relieved and annoyed at the way she throws my words back at me. Her green eyes are glittering and daring me to argue with her.
“We do not have long together. I want every minute I can get.”
“We’ll have two weeks in England. I wouldn’t want you to get tired of me before the two weeks are over. It would really mess up our story.”
This witch, she is driving me crazy. “It is three weeks, from now until we come back. Three. Weeks.” I slip and wonder aloud, “What if the three weeks are not enough?”
She smiles as she traces the bite she gave me. “That’s up to you, Ivan. As you just said, I take off the ring when you tell me to.”