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He looked as torn as I felt. “Are you really ready to know more?”
Was I? Or was I about to take a step too far? I still wasn’t in too deep. But right now, I was only picturing that scared old man and his son with the battered face and broken dreams, and the way Lev had treated them with kindness. I squared my shoulders.
“I’m ready.”
Chapter 21 - Lev
Jenna’s pie was long forgotten as she searched my face for answers. She looked terrified to know the inner workings of the Bratva, but she did ask for it. There was no way I would tell her everything I’d ever done, but I filled her in on what we were dealing with now. Or at least what we knew so far.
It was looking more and more like the people who roughed up the first bar weren’t the scattered crooks we took them to be. They had to work for someone more organized and determined to gain power in this area.
“No one is more determined than we are,” I said, watching her eyes. She was intent, hanging on every word, and I felt an inkling of fresh pride in my wife. She’d been shaken up by what she saw, but not so much that it was shriveling that inner strength I’d already seen in her so many times.
She nodded and asked how serious I was about holding on to what we already had. “Are those little bars really that profitable?”
With a laugh, I explained my father’s passion project. He loved hanging out with his friends in places like that, even to this day, at home in Moscow. He also liked being treated like a king and what better way to have the red carpet treatment than to own every place you frequented.
“Many of the people who work in those places have become like family to us,” I said.
“And no one messes with my family without paying a severe price.”
I went on to tell her how most of our main holdings were down in LA. Still, I’d been branching out up here for a whilenow. My legitimate businesses were proving lucrative, so might as well go the distance. “This is a bump in the road, nothing more,” I said, not wanting her to worry. “And I’ve been in charge up here long enough for anyone who might be causing trouble to know I’m not someone to be trifled with, even if I haven’t been using the full backing of the Fokin name. That’s why I’m taking these attacks extra personally.”
“Do you think you can find out who’s behind them?” she asked, gnawing on her lip.
“Not yet,” I said, cracking my knuckles. “But Max can usually get answers out of anyone eventually.
She went pale at that, and I shifted the subject since she’d clearly had enough for one night. I loved her optimism and faith in humanity and didn’t want that to change just because there were people out there in the world who weren’t as good and pure as she was. People like me.
Taking my hand, she smiled a bit weakly. “I’m glad you took me tonight. It was… eye-opening, but I’m glad to know.”
I was glad I decided to take her along and delighted at how well she handled it. With a sigh, she rolled her neck and winced, making me recall how stiff her shoulders had been before everything popped off, and we had to run out of there. She had been hunched over her books or peering at a computer screen almost nonstop for the last week, determined to pull her grades up and not lose her scholarship.
Even though she no longer had to worry about paying her tuition, her desire to prove herself—to herself and no one else—kept me from arguing with her about it. She was a lot like me in that regard, never wanting the easy way just because it was easy. I reached over to massage the back of her neck, and her head fell forward as a grateful groan slipped from her lips.
“Come on,” I said, standing up. “You can clearly use a hot shower. Or better yet, a good long soak.”
With a weary nod, she slowly rose, but I gathered her up in my arms, smiling down at her eyes widening with surprise. It was difficult to put her down once we reached the master bath, far too long since she’d been pressed so close to me. I got the jets going in the spa tub and poured in a generous blob of bath oil, filling the room with the scent of jasmine. Jenna breathed it in with a dreamy smile, and as the steaming water level rose, she scurried to get her clothes off, eager to sink into the relaxing suds.
She bumped up against me, her bare arm smooth against mine. “This bathroom is too small; we need to start house hunting,” I said, to distract myself from her lush curves, now on full display.
“This bathroom is bigger than my old bedroom in LA,” she told me with a laugh.
I eased her into the water and couldn’t stop myself from giving her a kiss. Her arm was around my neck for balance, but once she had slid into the tub, instead of loosening her grip, she slid her fingers into my hair. The kiss turned lingering, getting more heated than the water that enveloped her. My balance on the edge was precarious, but not as much as my self-control, which was dissolving faster than the bubbles that clung to her rosy skin.
Her grip grew fierce, along with her hands, tugging on my shirt. Soon, I was soaked, and with a low growl, I pulled my shirt off over my head, tossing it into a heap in the corner. Watching her eyes grow dark as she took in my bare chest made me lose the last bit of control I’d been clinging to for the last week.
Rising up to encircle my neck with both arms, Jenna pulled herself close to me, her mouth hungrily finding mine. Instead of dragging her out of the tub, I found myself in it with her. The sound of her laughter at my soaked pants was quickly replaced with a moan when I slid my hand between her slippery thighs.
Water splashed over the edge as her back arched. Her moan grew frantic as I found her swollen clit and teased her, never taking my eyes off the look of ecstasy on her face. That was a look I couldn’t live without. Jenna’s every expression was like oxygen to me. Even more vital than that, because I craved so much more.
“Lev,” she sighed, clawing at the button on my pants. “These are probably ruined.”
“Doesn’t matter.” I laughed at the silliness of caring about clothes when she alone was my very existence.
With more splashing, I got them off and tossed them. Pulling Jenna onto me, I gripped her wet hair and tugged her head back, kissing her until she was writhing against my stiff cock. The feel of her hot, slick pussy moving up and down along my shaft, the sound of her sweetly desperate noises, her hands clinging to my shoulders, all made me wild in a way I’d never experienced.
“Everything is new with you,” I marveled, roughly kissing her throat.
