Waiting for the elevator to our suite, Alexei leans down and kisses my neck. The lobby is quiet, just a few employees, a couple of wedding guests passing through, but with one touch, we’re the only people on the. Goosebumps scatter across my skin, and he presses another kiss to the sensitive spot beneath my ear.


    Inside the elevator, he backs me up to the wall and presses more soft, sweet, slow kisses along my skin. My stomach flutters every time we touch. It’s torture. The corner of his mouth twitches up like he knows what he’s doing to me.


    The elevator doors open but we don’t break apart, don’t stop kissing for one second, as we move to the door of our suite.


    I stumble—he catches me with an arm around my waist. Iugh—he gives me the handsome half smile that’s just for me. I nip his earlobe while he tries to use his keycard to open the door—he drops it, pushes me against the wall, and kisses me senseless.


    We’re perfect for each other, and I don’t know how I never saw it before. We wasted years fighting when we could have been doing this.


    Inside the suite, he undresses me, his lips moving over my skin. My dress flutters to the floor and I stand there in my bra, panties, and heels. His eyes darken before he exhales a heavy breath.


    “Are you okay?” Iugh.


    “Yes.” He rakes a hand over his hair, gaze snagging on my chest, my waist, the tinyce thong. “No. I don’t know. I see you and I can’t think. It’s always been like this. It’s . . .” He takes a deep breath. “Overwhelming.”


    In the bedroom, he wears that handsome, just-for-me half smile as he peels the prettyce off and I fumble with his clothes. My heart tugs at my husband carefully undoing the straps of my heels with a gentle hand around my ankle, treating me with reverence like I’m made of ss. So careful with me, and with the things I love.


    He sets the heels aside before his lips find a pinched peak, sucking and teasing. Pleasure races straight to between my legs. He’s already fully erect, heavy and hot in my hand.


    “Hands and knees,” he tells me in a low voice. At the re of uncertainty in my eyes, his eyes soften. “Do you trust me, Georgia?”


    “Yes.” My heart dips. I do.


    “Good girl.” He nips my bottom lip. “Now, do what you’re told so I can reward you.”


    Nerves trickle through me as I turn over and brace myself on my palms and knees. Being exposed and powerless like this is a new experience.


    It’s Alexei, though, and I trust him.


    His tongue meets my clit, and I gasp at the hot, wet sensation.


    “Good?” he murmurs against my pussy, and I make a stifled noise of affirmation. “Words,” he demands.


    “Yes,” I rush out, heat expanding through my body already. “It’s good.”


    He works my clit with his tongue, winding me higher. God, this angle. It’s perfection. Pleasure swirls between my legs, my blood thickens, and I’m lulled into a hazy dream.


    His tongue slicks over my back entrance. I let out a high moan, clenching with surprise and need.


    “What about this?” He draws a light circle over it and heat gathers low in my abdomen. My toes curl. “How does this feel, Georgia?”


    Lost in the sensation, so unfamiliar but shockingly good, I ignore his smug tone. Sparks gather around the base of my spine.


    “I don’t know. I’ve never done this before.”


    “Do you want to stop?”


    Another swirl of his tongue sends arousal rushing between my legs. I forget to answer, and he pulls away.


    “No.” My eyes fly wide. “Don’t stop.”


    “How does it feel, Georgia?” he asks again, patient but firm.


    I hate that I find this bossy side of him so hot. I hate how he makes me bend like this, and I hate how much I love it. “Incredible.”


    “Keep going?”


    “Yes,” I beg.


    He resumes those intoxicating, wet swirls. Even if I won’te from this, my brain is searing with pleasure. It’s never been like this, so hot yet intimate. His hands grip my thighs before he delivers a sharp p to my ass. Another jolt of heat races through me.


    My head drops, hair falling forward. “Oh my god.”


    “Hands behind your back.”


    I don’t even argue, I just lower my head to the bed and bring my hands to my lower back, heart beating harder at how exposed and vulnerable I am right now. His warm hand bands around my wrists, giving me a gentle squeeze.


    “So trusting and obedient. Such a good wife for me.”


    I shiver. I don’t have the brain space to fight him. I’m floating, waiting, desperate for more.


    “Are you close?”


    “Yes,” I manage through clenched teeth, arching my back.


    “Do you want toe?”


    “Yes.”


    “You going to let me buy you another ring?”


    My clit aches with need. “Fine. Yes.”


    “You know what I think whenever I see you wearing my ring, Georgia?” His breath tickles my pussy, and I shiver. I’m hot and cold all over, right on the edge. “I think, mine. I think, that’s my wife.”


    His fingers press inside me, finding that ridged spot. My lips part as he works it with his thick fingers, stretching me. My climax is on the horizon, gaining energy, but then Alexei pushes his tongue inside me and my thoughts detonate.


    Holy hell, Alexei Volkov has his tongue in my ass.


    Sharp pleasure erupts and my orgasm ms into me. I shudder through it, listening to the low, pleased noises he makes, his free hand grasping my hip, pulling me back against his face. My hands fist the duvet, my toes curl, and my heart pounds harder than ever as I spin and hurtle and shatter.


    As Ie down, his hands smooth over me in calming strokes. He applies soft, loving kisses to my thighs, my backside, my lower back, before he’s turning me over.


    “Georgia?” Hovering over me, his eyes are dark, his expansive chest rising and falling fast. “I want toe inside you.”


    My pulse stumbles.


    “I’m clean,” he adds, voice rough, eyes never leaving mine. “I’ve never gone without one.”


    “Me neither. I never trusted anyone enough. I want you, though.” I run my hands over his chest. “All of you. Nothing between us.”


    He closes his eyes. “Hearing that . . .” He shakes his head. “Fuck, Georgia. I love you.”


    “I love you, too.” I can’t help but smile. “And I have an IUD.”


    “Right.” He blinks like he didn’t even think of that.


    “I’m not sure if you know this, Volkov,” I’m still breathless but I give him a teasing smile, “but sex can lead to pregnancy.”


    “I’m aware.” He makes a frustrated noise. “I’m finding it really hard to care about that right now.”


    He can’t mean—? He does. His expression is intense and determined. Heat washes through me at the idea of him getting me pregnant.


    At my baffled expression, he smiles. “I want kids with you.”


    “Now?” I nche, and heughs into my neck. My career. His career. It’ll be hard. It’ll hurt. It’ll change our lives forever.


    Despite all of that, I want it, too. Just not yet.


    “No, sweetheart.” A kiss against my skin. “Not now. But eventually. When we’re ready.”


    I rx. I’m going to be thinking about this for a long time. The besotted, head-over-heels-in-love part of me reminds me how loving and protective Alexei is, and that having a baby with him might be one of the best things I ever do.


    “We’ll talk about thister,” he murmurs, bracing himself above me. “Right now, I need my wife.”


    My legs fall open, he positions himself at my entrance. I can barely speak, I’m so ovee with this fluttering, heart-pounding, all-consuming want for him.


    He nudges inside me, and my eyes roll back at the intense, perfect burn between my legs. I’m never going to get used to his size. At the first deep thrust, we both groan in disbelief. Already, another release stirs inside me, warming and aching as he fills me.


    “Okay?” he manages, like he can barely stand how good it is.


    “So good.” My nails dig into his shoulders. “Don’t stop.”


    “What’s the magic word,” he murmurs against my ear, and I smile.


    “Please.”


    “That’s my girl. That’s my pretty little wife.”


    Under his praises, I melt, dissolving, re-forming, rearranging.


    “Jesus, Georgia. You’re so fucking tight. So fucking good for me. So pretty and perfect.”


    Sparks blur my vision as he moves inside me. It’s not just sex. It’s so much more. It’s everything. It’s all-consuming.


    It’s love.


    He pulls my leg over his shoulder, hitting so much deeper. My thoughts dissolve as he nudges that spot only he can reach. It’s not just his size. He knows my body. He knows what I need.


    “Right there.” His eyes are dark like sin, intense and greedy. “Right fucking there, isn’t it, Georgia?”


    I’m nodding, eyes starting to close, breathing hard and about to lose it, tightening around his thick length. My muscles begin to flutter.


    We’ll call that the husband spot from now on.


    “Say your husband’s name when youe.” His voice is like gravel. “Please.”


    “Now who’s begging?” I gasp, and heughs, short and sharp against my neck.


    “I’ll beg for you, Hellfire, I don’t care anymore. You own me.”


    Ie undone. The pleasure spills over, washing through me, and I clutch him as I spiral, muscles mping down on him while he fucks me hard. “Alexei,” I whisper, the crash of need and pleasure so strong that tears prick my eyes.


    At his name, he loses it, strokes turning jerky and urgent, hips pounding against me while he wears that strained, agonized expression until his eyes close, his head tips back, and he lets out a low, tortured groan that sets off another wave of pleasure within me.


    “Georgia, fuck.” His release slips between us, wet and slick. “Nothingpares to being with you.” Our eyes meet, his hands framing my face as he shudders through thest of it. “You’re everything.”


    Later, as we lie in bed, heces his fingers through mine, our wedding rings glinting in the moonlight.


    “Happy new year, Hellfire,” my huge, handsome husband says.


    “Happy new year, Alexei.” Our eyes hold. “I love you,” I whisper, strangely shy.


    Happy, though.


    “I love you, too.”


    Reality slithers back in, cold and unwee. What does this mean for us? What about him getting hurt? Are we . . . married for real?


    “Hey.” He threads his hand into my hair, presses his lips to my temple, and my distress lessens in an instant. “I know you’re not fully in yet, but I’m going to convince you.”


    His mouth hooks, his eyes warming with an affection that smoothes my worries away.


    “Just you wait.”