Alexandr's Reluctant Submissive (24 page)

The head of his cock brushed her entrance as she got her hand in Catrin’s pussy up to her knuckles, the fit tight, but by the look on the pink-cheeked blonde’s face, the feeling must have been divine.

“Push,” Alex whispered as he did the same thing with his hips, filling her slowly with his perfect dick. “Give her what she needs.”

A sense of power filled Jessica as she slowly forced her hand in until the entrance to Catrin’s stretched sex clasped her wrist.

With a scream, the curvy woman came, her inner muscles milking Jessica’s hand while Nico began to slowly move in and out of his wife, his thick grunts feeling like a physical touch. Alex caught Nico’s rhythm and soon he was fucking her at the opposite pace, his plunging hips moving her hand in Catrin’s soaking wet heat in perfect counterpart to Nico’s thrusts. Once again her thoughts were consumed by the idea of taking two men at once like this, of their cocks plunging in and out of her.

Alex ran his thumb over her anus and she contracted around him. “So good.”

His growl of agreement blended with Catrin’s scream of relief as she came again, her pussy sucking on Jessica’s hand. Sex surrounded her, the air so thick with it she swore she could taste their pheromones. Rolling her hips, the lush blonde worked herself on Jessica and Nico, her expression one of dreamy bliss. It was so hot and Jessica strained to keep from climaxing, her pussy clamping down on Alex thrusting inside of her.

When Alex plunged his thumb into her bottom and said, “Come for me,” she gladly complied.

Stiffening, Catrin orgasmed at the same time and their cries filled the air.

The moment Jessica regained her senses enough to move, Alex growled, “Remove your hand.”

As soon as she was free he dragged her to the edge of the bed and turned her over onto her back.

At the sight of his disheveled hair, damp with sweat, and her tattoos on his body, she couldn’t stand him not being inside of her. “Please.”

He slid into her with one perfect thrust, his wide chest tempting her. She sat up enough to take his nipple between her lips and moaned against his skin when he did this move where his whole body seemed to rub against hers with each thrust. Their gazes met and she had to force hers to remain open, refusing to lose sight of her husband’s eyes filled with such love for her for even a second. They found their mutual orgasm like that, and when they collapsed into an exhausted heap, she wrapped her arms around his neck with Catrin and Nico cuddling against her back and fell asleep, surrounded by love.

Sheer panic raced through Alex and his skin prickled painfully as he stared at his wife. “What do you mean you are leaving?”

With a sigh, Jessica gathered up her pink purse from the table in the foyer and looked inside. She wore a cream suit that fit her slender figure perfectly and made him want to jerk her dress up and bury himself inside of her. At least it normally would if his daughter wasn’t there, watching her mother pull some lip gloss out of the purse.

“I mean I have to go have lunch with Rya and a few of the wives of your men. I want them to feel comfortable enough with me to come to me with their concerns.” She smoothed on a raspberry color over her lips, making them even more kissable than usual. “Gwen is over at her Russian tutor’s house, and I know your schedule is clear for at least the next six hours, so you’ll have to watch her for me.”

He swore his dry throat clicked as he swallowed, all too aware of Tatiana’s trembling lower lip and sad expression. “Jessica, this is not good idea.”

She arched one auburn brow at him. “And why would that be?”

Switching to Russian, he took a step closer and lowered his voice. “I do not know what to do with her.”

“Alex, you’ve been around each other for a few weeks now. Yes, you’re still new, but she sees you every day. You’re a part of her life and yes, it may take time for her to get used to you, but it won’t happen unless you spend some time alone with her.” The firm look on her face didn’t soften, but the compassion in her gaze soothed some of the ragged edges of his nerves. “If you need him, Krom will come help you, but I told him that Tatiana was your daughter and that I trust you completely with her.”

Before he could protest, she moved away from him and knelt before Tatiana. The little girl was dressed in bright-pink tights with a black dress and a sparkly pink headband that held back her long hair. His wife hugged their daughter, gently prying the little girl off of her. Pain ricocheted through his chest at the sight of Tatiana’s tears.

“Be good for your Papa.”

In a soft whimpering voice, Tatiana said, “I don’t want you to go.”

“I’ll be back before you know it. I love you.”

The door shut behind her before Alex could protest and he stared at Luka, his panic reflected in the other man’s eyes. Tatiana’s sniffles became louder, drawing his attention back to his daughter. His mind raced as he stared at the little girl wiping her face with the back of her hand, dejection making him sick. She didn’t like him; it was obvious by the way she’d begun to cry in earnest.

Even though he knew he was the source of her unhappiness, he was helpless to resist the need to make her feel better.

“Shhh, Tatiana, do not be sad, my darling girl.”

He knelt before her like her mother did and she gave him a wounded look. “I want my mommy.”

Fuck, he could run a billion-dollar mafia, but couldn’t figure out what words to say to a little girl to make her feel better. “She had to go out, but she will be back soon.”

“I want her now.”

She jerked away when he went to reach for her, intending to give her a hug, with a rebellious look twisting her sweet little face. He tried to ignore the lance of agony that slashed at his soul, to hold back his rage that he was a stranger to his daughter. The only thing that kept him from ending his dying father’s life was the fact that it would endanger his women even more than they already were.

Scrambling to find a way to pacify her, he said, “What would you like to do? We can do anything you want.”

She blinked at him, her sobs quieting enough that she could say, “Can we have ice cream?”

“Of course we can.”

Luka cleared his throat. “Jessica does not permit ice cream until after dinner.”

Looking up at him through her wet lashes, Tatiana said in a sweet voice, “Daddy, can we please have ice cream? I promise I’ll eat all my dinner and I won’t get any on my clothes.”

In the back of his mind, he knew Jessica would be irritated with him, but surely she would understand this was a special circumstance. “Then let us have ice cream.”

“Can we watch a superhero movie after?”

“Nap time,” Luka muttered but Alex ignored him again.

“Of course. Why don’t we have our ice cream in the theater room? Come, we will tell the chef what kind of ice cream we would like then you can pick out any movie you want.”

She beamed at him then threw her arms around his neck. “You’re the best Papa ever. Thank you!”

His eyes burned as he held the precious little girl in his arms, a sweet and warm joy filling the hollow parts of his soul. “And you are the best daughter.”

After wiggling out of his grip, she held her hand out to him. “Papa, can Mr. Luka have some ice cream too, please?”

He exchanged a bemused look with the bodyguard. “Of course.”

“Thank you, Papa!”

Taking her small hand, he carefully held her with a delicate grip and thanked God that he had lived to see this day.

For the first time in two and a half weeks, Alex hoped to make it home before dinner, and he couldn’t wait to get this meeting with Nico, Dimitri, and Petrov over with. When Nico had asked to meet with them as soon as possible, Alex’s internal alarms went off and he was once again delayed in leaving for home. It would be nice to see his family sometime other than at breakfast, occasionally dinner, and almost always bedtime for Tatiana. The way she smiled at him, the feeling of her little arms wrapping around his neck, the way she loved with her whole heart, all of those things and a thousand others had him completely enraptured with her. He knew he was spoiling her, but he deserved the chance to do something that was stolen from him, something he’d always dreamed of doing.

“Alex?” Dimitri said with a chuckle “Are you with us?”

Petrov looked up from the documents he’d been studying. “Just a little longer. We’d all like to get home to our wives, but we must discuss this ‘Silver Wood’. I need to know why it is so important that Jorg Novikov would agree to any terms Lady Death demanded in order to get it, and then why he asked Dimitri to guard it with his life. I have heard whispers of Silver Wood, but never what it is or why some very important people want it so badly. And when I mean important people, I mean the ones currently ruling the world. The Israelis are still looking for it, but they’re keeping tight-lipped on why. And I know for certain the Russian government is looking for it as well. Yes, we have a large supply, but without the knowledge of what it does it is useless to us. With this in mind, I have had Nico and his lab work on giving us some answers. If you will, Nico.”

Standing, Nico tapped on his laptop and Luka dimmed the lights. Yesterday he’d told Alex that he’d talked with Dimitri, and that Luka would be joining the Dubinski
Bratva
as Alex’s right-hand man. It felt good to have his old friend guarding his back, even if he did catch the handsome bastard flirting with his wife on a regular basis. It was cute the way he made her blush, and Luka’s interest in Alex’s wife was purely sexual, which allowed Alex to find the situation humorous instead of deadly.

No one upset the wife of Alexandr Dubinski, this lesson had already been taught in some brutal ways Jessica would never learn of. Like the torture of those who had tried to ambush them when they arrived back in Moscow. Or having his ex-lovers who’d gossiped in front of Jessica at the salon evicted from the building. They were lucky he hadn’t ruined them while he was at it.

The first image popped up, a bunch of chemical formulas that Alex didn’t understand or even bother trying to. He had his strengths, and scientific formulations and biochemical compounds were not among of them. Fortunately for him, Nico was able to unlock the secrets of the universe one element at a time, and Alex had faith in his friend’s brilliance.

“I am honestly baffled.”

That made Alex sit up and pay attention. “You could not identify the substance?”

“Yes…and no. You see, what you have—it should not exist. It is impossible, a paradox, yet there it sat before me, as real as could be. I am explaining this badly. What you have is five gallons of a liquid that almost looks like mercury, but isn’t. In fact, it isn’t a chemical at all. It’s a bacteria; a bacteria that has been extinct since before the Ice Age, swimming in a silver pulp made from trees that no longer exist.”

“What?” Dimitri leaned forward, his gaze studying the next slide showing what Alex assumed was an image of the bacteria. “Where the hell could it have come from?”

Nico clicked his laptop again and a drawing of a tree came up with some long Latin name beneath it. “We know from fossil records that the bacteria grew on this species of tree, and this tree only, which has also been extinct for thousands of years. In fact, great temperate forests of this tree used to grow in what is now far northern Siberia and Canada. So the fact that you have five gallons of this bacteria tells me that someone went to an enormous amount of energy to produce it, something that should be impossible. But why?”

“Is it different from any normal bacteria in any way? Modern bacteria, that is,” Petrov asked in a distracted voice while he stared at his computer screen.

“Not that we can find. We’re running more tests with the sample you gave us and hopefully we’ll get some more answers as we narrow it down. What I
can
tell you is that it is not harmful to humans and it is highly resistant to all modern antibiotics. It also appears to not harm animals, but we cannot tell if this is true with all species or simply the ones we have access too.”

“Continue testing,” Petrov said in a distracted voice. “I have very recently managed to attain some of this Silver Wood as well. I will send you some samples to see if perhaps it is a different strain.”

“Of course.”

The meeting didn’t last that much longer and by the time Alex made it home, Tatiana and Jessica, along with Rya and Gwen, were finishing up their dinner. His wife treated Gwen like a friend more than an employee, so he wasn’t surprised by the sight of his nanny eating dinner at his formal dining table. If Jessica considered the woman family, he would accept her into his home and do everything he could to make Gwen happy.

“Papa!” came the squeal from somewhere behind him and he turned just in time to catch Tatiana as she threw herself at him. He lifted her then spun her around, her silky hair tickling his nose. After giving her a firm kiss on the forehead, he turned to find Jessica glaring at him.

“What is wrong?”

“Your daughter was playing in an area of the apartment I restricted her from and she broke a lovely, and no doubt very expensive, set of vases while shooting the new foam bow and arrow you got her. When I punished her for this, she told me that she was going to tell her papa and he wouldn’t make her stay in her room, that he would let her out whenever she wanted.” Her nostrils flared as Tatiana cuddled into his neck. “I told her there would be no dessert tonight and she would be going to her room. Your daughter then proceeded to tell me that she would have dessert because
you
would give it to her. She also said that you give her cake, and pie, and cookies all the time before dinner, despite the fact that she’s only allowed one dessert a day—and that you say I’m silly for not letting her have whatever she wants.”

The other women quietly set their silverware down and left the room while his wife continued to glare at him.

He wanted his daughter to like him, and he was sure punishing her for minor things wasn’t necessary while they were still getting to know each other. And he had to admit that even though he knew he was going against Jessica’s wishes, he didn’t see the harm in Tatiana having sweets, and they made her so happy.