Desperate Victory, page 22
Eventually.
Chapter
Twenty-Five
LAINEY
Our second day in Prague dawned before the sun came up. Adam and Ezra were leaving—again—to continue dancing the dance with local crime families and other power brokers for the region.
“I can come with, if you want,” I said around a yawn as Adam dropped a kiss on my head.
His soft chuckle wrapped around me as he stroked a hand over my hair. “Keeping you in our back pocket like a secret weapon. I don’t want them to know how dangerous you are unless we have to.”
It was the indulgence in his eyes that had me reaching out to snag his hand. “Be safe?” I flicked a look to where Ezra stood by the door. “Please?”
“Well,” Ezra said, smirk firmly in place. “Since you said please, Kotyonok.”
Adam rolled his eyes, then glanced past me to where Milo had been sprawled. “You with Lainey today or is that Bodhi again?”
“Me,” Milo said. “You two check in, regularly.”
“I’d be happy to oblige,” Ezra quipped. “But you forgot to say please.”
I snorted, but that just made his smirk grow. “He’s incorrigible.” It came out far more of a groan than a scold.
“He is,” Adam said. “But we’ll check in. I expect to hear from you if anything comes up. Liam told me you had watchers yesterday.”
The Vandals were all in hyper aware mode. Not that I blamed them. Em was the one we were hanging out in front of us. She was both bait and a distraction. Neither were terms I wanted to apply to her.
“I know, but they kept their distance. Could be people working for Zhukovsky. He’s got a large investment in the show and maybe he wants to make sure it goes alright.”
Heavy emphasis on the maybe.
“Be careful.” Adam stroked a finger down the center of my face to the tip of my nose. The warmth in his eyes wrapped me up into a tight embrace. “Stay armed.”
“Promise.” I caught his hand and squeezed it. One last, light brush of his lips to mine and then he stood. Ezra pushed off from the doorframe to cross over to the bed. “Behave,” I murmured to him when he cupped my face and kissed me.
“But I like being bad,” he protested with a grin.
“You’re good at it,” I teased, then cupped his cheek. “While we’re here, just—be less bad. Please.”
With all the drama he was capable of, he clutched at his heart. “You had to say the magic word.”
Behind me, Milo chuckled. “You’re terrible.”
“The absolute worst,” Ezra agreed before he focused on me again. “And yes, I’ll be mostly not bad.”
“Hmm… why don’t I believe you?”
“Because you are brilliant as well as beautiful,” Ezra said. “And you know me too well.”
“I’ve got him,” Adam reminded me and the flash of delight in Ezra’s eyes gave him away. He grinned at me, then winked. Too soon, they were out the door and it was just me and Milo.
I twisted to glance at him before I scooted back to lay down. He wrapped his arms around me and rolled me over so I was pressed against his chest. Tucking my nose against his neck, I smiled.
He stroked his hand against my back, rubbing a slow circle. “Going back to sleep?”
Another yawn worked its way free. Tracing my fingers over the ivy inked into his skin, I considered my response. “Tired?”
“Some,” he admitted, cupping a hand over my shoulder. “You and Ivy didn’t stop all day yesterday, and you were both at the theater until late.”
“Wanted to go over everything.” It was fascinating. “I think it’s genuinely the first time I got to see everything she does or has to review before they set up, then after setup begins. She also wanted to test the load on the silks and we had to wait for Vaughn. The crew wouldn’t set up until he was there.”
Em’s irritation when the crew informed her that they weren’t allowed to set up until Vaughn got there had also been entertaining. Still, I couldn’t blame anyone for being overprotective where she was concerned.
There had been accidents in the past. Whether because of sabotage or carelessness, she’d nearly been hurt before. No one wanted to take any chances.
“How are you doing?” I tilted my head back so I could study him. From this angle, the bristles along his jaw and cheeks gave him a roguish look. It didn’t make him any less pretty though.
“I’m fine,” he murmured, the husky note in his voice a reflection of his own tiredness. “Worried about all of you.”
“All of us?” I pushed up a little so I could meet his gaze. The heat of his skin scorched next to mine. I would never be cold when Milo was there. “What about you, Pretty Boy?”
“Me?” A smile tipped his lips.
“Yes, you. Why aren’t you worried about you?” I could probably answer the question myself, but I wanted to know what was going on inside his head.
He ran his hand down my arm. “I have the most beautiful woman in the world so in love with me, she takes my name.”
Amusement sparked in his eyes and I raised my brows. “Em told you?”
“Bodhi.” He circled my wrist with his hand and then lifted me almost bodily until I draped him like his favorite blanket.
The smug response made me laugh. “I didn’t realize he’d heard.” I probably should have. Of course, he had. Very little escaped Bodhi’s notice.
“Hmm,” Milo hummed a little, as he ran his hand along my back to the hem of my t-shirt. He lifted it easily and then clasped his palm against my ass. “I think he didn’t want me to miss being claimed.”
Shifting, I straddled his waist and tilted my head. “We didn’t want me to be Lainey Benedict here. On the fly, I said ‘Elaine Hardigan’.” Scraping my teeth over my lower lip, I studied the smile softening his mouth. “You don’t mind, do you?”
“Why would I mind?” Pretty Boy settled his hands on my hips. “We can make you Lainey Hardigan anytime you want.”
It was my turn to straighten a little and to raise my brows. “Are you proposing?”
“No,” he said slowly. “Before you think I’m rejecting you… I’m respecting the fact that we’re not just a couple. If it were only you and me? I’d have put a ring on that finger the day you killed King.”
Possessiveness swarmed through his voice.
“You… have taken my breath away since the moment you strutted out of that car in the warehouse and told me to have a little more shut the fuck up while you spoke.”
I had to bite back my own smile. “Not the exact wording.”
“Eh,” he said with a shrug, running his fingers along the hem of my panties beneath the shirt. “The sentiment was the same, Mayhem. You walked in, in charge, and ready to go to battle.”
“I mean…”
He chuckled. “Don’t apologize. You were gorgeous. Filled my head with all kinds of inappropriate thoughts.” The fact his cock was growing steadily stiffer where I straddled him served to illustrate the point.
“Then you locked me in your room.”
“Well, you were being stubborn. I had to keep you safe.”
“Locking someone up isn’t necessarily considered keeping them safe, it’s generally called kidnapping.”
“Potayto,” he teased. “Potahto. As I recall, you got even by stripping off that towel and letting me see every inch of this gorgeous body.” His little groan at the end tickled me. Then he gave a little bump with his hips.
“One must always wage battle with the weapons at hand.” I dropped my hands to the hem of the shirt I was wearing… oh it was one of Adam’s. I didn’t even know when I grabbed it. For now, I tugged it up and off to toss behind me.
Pretty Boy’s smile grew and my nipples went taut as he adored me with his eyes. He dipped his fingers beneath the band of my panties and then there was a rip.
Pausing, I glanced down to see where he’d just torn the seam right out of the side.
“Really?” The dry tone was exactly the right one to take with him because his smile only grew more wicked.
“Yeah, if you’re going to remind me about how this body wasn’t for me. There were no panties in that particular interaction.”
A burst of laughter, so indelicate I snorted in the middle of it, escaped me. Pretty Boy’s chuckle rumbled out of him, but it didn’t slow him from tearing out the seam on the other side and then I lifted my ass a little so he could tug the now useless scraps off.
“You’re going to make me have to buy lingerie while we’re here.”
“I’ll happily go with you and let you try on everything in the dressing room. You know, so we can make sure it fits right.” He wagged his eyebrows playfully.
“Oh, see and here I thought you wanted to figure out how easily they ripped off.”
A real gleam came into his eyes. “Oh, there’s a thought. The easier to tear, the better. We might have to buy several pairs to figure out the best ones.”
Head tilting back, I laughed. “I’d offer to just not wear any, but some outfits do require them.”
“I don’t mind tearing them off you, Mayhem. Make me work for it. Besides… I love those sets you have where everything matches.”
He ran his thumb along the outside of my thigh. At this angle, he could see my cunt quite clearly, and there was something heady about him watching me while we just lounged like this.
I wanted to rock against his dick, but that might break the mood we’d woven. I was loath to interrupt this closeness.
“Pretty Boy?”
“Hmm?”
“When we first got together… you had no idea we were going to end up in a relationship like this.”
“Don’t worry, Mayhem. You’re not losing me.” Those four words offered a kind of comfort. A reminder that we were sticking this out.
“That’s not what worries me.” It wasn’t. “You’ve never broken your word to me. You listened, you supported, and even when you were disappointed… You didn’t abandon me.”
“One, the only disappointment I ever felt was in the idea that Ezra was being cruel to you.” Sobriety marked every word. Sitting up abruptly, Milo slipped an arm around me to keep me close and in his lap. “I’m serious, Mayhem. Did I plan on sharing you with three other guys? No. Not something that was on my radar. That said, they love you. They would die for you. Hard to say no to that kind of commitment.”
“But Ezra worried you.”
“Still does, but not for those reasons. He’s a bit too reckless. He needs to take better care of himself for you and for Adam. But right now, he’s also giving Adam something to do with the side of him that wants to control everything.”
Milo was not wrong. “I like them together,” I murmured. “They fit.”
“They fit you, too.” He brushed his nose against mine gently. “Just like Bodhi fits you.”
“Like you fit me,” I murmured before pressing a kiss to one corner of his mouth. “I love you, Pretty Boy. I couldn’t do this without you.”
“Yes you could.” He stroked his thumb in circles against my hip. “You could do anything. Loving us? Allowing us in your life? That’s a gift. I can’t say we don’t all complicate things for you… because we do. But I will always be grateful that you’re letting me love you too.”
A kiss to the other corner of his mouth, then he captured my lips. The kiss was a slow, devastating connection as he fisted my hair. Liquid heat poured through my system. Need that grew with every stroke of his tongue.
I ran my hands down his chest and then to the boxer briefs he wore. His cock damn near leapt when I stroked him through the fabric. I couldn’t rip the clothing off him, but I could free his dick up.
He groaned in between licks, then nipped my lower lip when I wrapped my hand around him. When I angled upward and then slid down on him. The stretch was a glorious burn.
I had some slickness, not quite enough and I didn’t care. I wanted to feel every inch of him. I craved the intimacy. His hiss as I took him to the hilt made me smile and then I kissed him again.
With one hand on my hip and the other on my nape, Pretty Boy urged me to move. I tilted my head back as he kissed a path down my throat to my breasts.
We rocked together, the slow grind of every deep thrust teased me. When he locked his lips around one of my nipples, it was like being struck by lightning. Then his fingers were between us and he massaged my clit.
My hips bucked of their own accord as pleasure shot through me. I continued to ride, but I added a twist to my hips. The pressure from both of us was enough to make me want to just come, but I fought my orgasm.
I wanted us to come together. Or at least, closer…
“Fuck,” I blew out a breath as he pinched my clit between his thumb and forefinger, thrust upward and sucked against my nipple. The combination of actions all at once, shredded my control and I came in a rush.
He slowed his motions, petting me through it as I spasmed around him and then I was flat on my back, staring up at him dazedly as he pressed my legs to his shoulders.
“That was one,” he told me and then began to thrust deeper as he teased my clit again.
“Oh… Pretty Boy…”
I stared up at him. Two of us could play that game.
He grinned and I thrust my hips up to meet his. He had so much control like this.
It was fantastic.
“You’re going to come again,” he murmured. “And again. I want you a mess on this bed and I want to feel you pulsing around my dick for the rest of the day.”
I fisted the covers as he increased the pace. Where the first part of the coupling had been slow and deliberate, this was fast, frenetic, and I couldn’t catch my breath as he shoved me over the edge.
I was still shaking when he pulled out, flipped me over and then thrust into me again. Lips next to my ear, he chuckled. The dark, delicious sound teased me as did the depth of his thrusts. At this angle, he could go much deeper.
A third orgasm caught me unawares and slammed me right into a fourth. I couldn’t catch my breath or my mind as heat and pleasure obliterated my thoughts. Eventually, the hot pulse of his release filled me and we collapsed together.
One kiss to the shell of my ear. Then another just behind it.
“I love you too, Mayhem.”
Chapter
Twenty-Six
MILO
Ichecked the address against the GPS on my phone. I couldn’t speak Czech and I didn’t try. The translation apps made navigating at least doable. Three days in Prague and our leads were thin.
Too thin.
In addition to not even getting a whiff of interest beyond the security Zhukovsky put on the theater and Ivy, Bodhi’s “friend” had failed to show up.
“He’ll be here,” Bodhi had said over breakfast a few hours earlier. The confidence wasn’t feigned. Until Hans showed up, we were still flying blind.
Then we got a call from—of all people—Margareta Waldemar. Well, Mayhem got a call from her. It had come in late the night before, not even five minutes after we arrived at the apartment we were renting. I didn’t want to focus on how closely the woman had to be watching us.
Half of me wanted to ignore the information, but the rest of me understood it wasn’t an option. Adam and Ezra had finally secured a meeting with the leader of a local Russian group.
At some point, we might have to pretend to be buyers to break into the rings. Cracking the cone of silence around the underground rings was proving even more difficult than I’d imagined.
“This is it,” Lainey said as she threaded her arm through mine and leaned against me. She’d chosen thicker pants to combat the wind and a silk blouse that hugged her curves. Not that I got to appreciate it as much as I’d like.
The jacket she wore offered her more protection, it also provided camouflage for her weapons. The shop across the street was, of all things, a print shop of some kind. At least, that was what it looked like.
Phone in one gloved hand, Lainey rubbed the edge against her chin as she studied the storefront. “Should we get coffee and drift back?”
I scanned the street. It wasn’t the busiest street we’d walked down and there were a number of other businesses. Sadly, there was nothing resembling a coffee or tea shop.
“No,” I finally answered her question. “There’s nothing out here to give us cover for why we’re lingering.” Speaking of which, we couldn’t keep standing here. It didn’t matter that I had my phone out as a partial cover for why we weren’t just continuing.
That wouldn’t provide enough of a distraction for long.
“Then Plan B,” Lainey said, tilting her head back to glance up at me.
“Which is?” I didn’t tighten my grip on her or make sure she stayed with me. Sunglasses hid her eyes from me, but I could read the rest of her body language. The waiting was taking its toll.
“Walking inside and talking to her.”
Yeah. I had a feeling that would be it. “We don’t know what’s waiting for us in there.”
“We don’t, but I’m willing to find out. Do we go? Or do you want to call the guys and wait for them to join us?” Not an unreasonable suggestion.
“You’re indulging me.”
“Whenever I can,” she said easily. “But Margareta would not have called with this woman’s name and her former profession of being a ‘chaperone’ without some cause. She knows why we’re here or at least she suspects.”
Yeah, that was the feeling I got too.
“Split the difference,” I decided. Phone in hand, I sent a message to the group chat with the guys. I gave them our location and plan.
Second message went to Jasper. He and Kellan were here. They might be closer. Either way, backup was backup.
“Messages sent.” I stuffed my phone into my pocket. I wanted nothing in my hands. “If I pull the plug, retreat. Understood?”
Her lips pursed, but she seemed to be struggling to suppress another smile. “Understood.”
Chuckling, I checked for where the gun was secured. Weapons in the Czech Republic were not as easily obtained as they were at home. The guys all knew a guy. Bodhi had made arrangements for all of us.
