The Score (14 page)

Adrik chuckled lowly. “Maybe she heard something you didn’t.”

“Like what?”

“Would your son do for a woman what you’ve done, Anton?”

“Excuse me?” Anton asked, confusion muddling up his mind.

“They’re close in age. They seem to get along just fine. Over the years, with the understanding of what was expected of them, they could very well find affections have grown between them. You and your wife a perfect example of this.”

Anton’s mind finally caught up to speed. Fuck, he was usually a lot quicker at shit like this. “You’re suggesting an arranged marriage between Demyan and Sofia.”

“It’s an interesting idea, you have to admit. Not only would it guarantee my daughter a future, you will have cemented your son with part of his.”

“Adrik, I think you have some things confused. My wife and I had but two meetings growing up. I resented my family for the choices they took away from me. Actually, I gave them hell for it.”

“Yet, it’s obvious you love her, now,” Adrik pointed out quietly.

“Because I fell in love with her. In the end, I made the choice myself. Not because my family wanted me to. Viviana and I are a special case. Had she been a different woman, we wouldn’t be like we are. I’d likely have a mistress, or more. Maybe I’d have had a woman I loved on the side, and a family with her. I’m aware what I could have been like. I see it in men around me every day.”

Adrik looked off to the side, sighing. “I want to know my daughter will be more than just okay in the future. Especially where a husband is concerned.”

Anton nodded, understanding that more than anything. “Then let her. I don’t know how my son will grow, or who he’s going to be, but I know he’s going to do it on his own. By his own will and his own choices. Not because I made them for him. If he falls in love with a woman, it will be because he picked her, not because I did.

“And,” Anton continued with a conspiratorial grin, “… if this partnership of ours continues to be good, then our children will cross paths more than once, I imagine. Let them grow, Adrik. If they find affection, as you said, they find it. I don’t think you have to worry about cementing your daughter’s future. She has you for a father, after all. Look at all you’ve done for her so far.”

“Considering everything I’ve done so far has been for her, that,” Adrik said, staring down at Sofia, “… is what scares me the most.”

Chapter Eleven

“Mmm, fuck you taste good right here,” Anton murmured, his teeth scraping along Viviana’s pulse point in her neck. “And here …”

“Sure,” Viviana replied, her voice muffled by a pillow. “I probably taste awful right now. I need a shower.”

“No, no. More like sunlight and sex. I had to get up early anyway for a meeting at Seven Lights, so I figured you might want to get up with me before I go.”

Seven Lights was finally opened back up for regular business, but Anton made it clear to her the Bratva side of things were being taken care of elsewhere. Whatever business meeting he put together was probably for his employees.

“Are you going to drop Demyan off at daycare?” Viviana asked.

“I can if you want me to. You’re going in to open the bookstore, right?”

“Yeah, around noon, but I need to go into the clinic for my appointment.”

Anton didn’t question her on what the appointment was for, and Viviana was grateful. It was bad enough he’d began asking her when, or if, she wanted to think about trying for another child. She did, and she told him that, but she also wanted to wait until after the trial, for obvious reasons. Beyond that issue, Viviana’s cycle hadn’t returned since her miscarriage in February. It was now May. Why hadn’t her cycle returned? She couldn’t actually get pregnant if she didn’t have a period, for Christ’s sake, but she didn’t want to tell Anton there might be something wrong with her body and worry him. Hence, the appointment.

While Anton kept up his kisses and bites along Viviana’s neck, waking her body up to the morning light filtering into their bedroom, she turned to look at the clock on the nightstand. It was way too early for Anton to be waking her up like he was.

“I could use the extra thirty minutes of sleep I might have left, you know,” Viviana muttered, tilting her head away from another one of his tantalizing kisses. The heat between her thighs was starting to spread, never mind the juices she could already feel leaking from her pussy. Another gentle bite landed to her shoulder, Anton’s hand slid between her legs to cup her heated sex, and Viviana gasped. “Jesus, come on, Anton.”

“I’m going to use those thirty minutes to do something terribly naughty to my sexy wife. Like fucking her soft and slow from behind while she plays with that sweet pussy of hers. Wake up, Vine, and I promise you’ll be coming really fucking soon.”

That dirty mouth of his was something she found impossible to resist.

“You’re awful,” she told him, looking back over her shoulder. “Just terr—
oh fuck, yeah
.”

His fingers between her legs spread her fleshy folds. Using only two fingers, he circled the sensitive entrance of her pussy, gathering the slick arousal on his digits, before running his touch back up to her clit. Over and over he provoked her body like that, slow and gentle, making her jerk every time he came in contact with her swollen, needing bundle of nerves. Anton never penetrated her with his fingers, though, simply teased her entrance until she was backing into his hand, begging him for more.

“Mmhmm, that’s what I want to hear from you, baby.”

Reaching out, Viviana caught his free hand with her own, intertwining their fingers together. The weight of Anton’s body behind her, his cock hard, driving into the small of her back, pushed Viviana deeper into the bedding. God, she loved the weight of him—all of him. Tighter she squeezed his fingers as he circled her clit once more with a little more pressure than before. Enough to make her legs tremble and the muscles in her stomach clench. More wetness seeped from her sex.

“You smell so fucking good. Get those fingers of yours down here. Come on, Vine,” Anton breathed, dark and sinful into her ear. “Give me what I want, and I’ll give it back just how you like.”

“Fuck,
please
! Just … God,
Anton
, don’t stop, just don’t fucking stop.”

“Never, baby. Now …”

Anton drove their connected hands under Viviana’s body, stopping only when he’d come to the needing junction between her thighs. Spreading her fingers wide, Viviana could feel how wet he’d made her with his simple teasing and light touches. Slick from arousal and tender from being coaxed into near bliss, her clit was hot under her touch. Slowly, she began a gentle circling rhythm of her own, feeling her husband’s fingers finally slip into her tightening core.

Viviana moaned at the intrusion. “You don’t even know …”

“Know what?” Anton asked, surprising Viviana at how close to her face he was. “How high you are already? That you’re burning up just how I like? Oh, I know. I always fucking
know
.”

Then, his fingers were leaving her soaked sex, trailing up higher with an enticing leisureliness. It was only when he came to the entrance of her ass, spreading the wetness from her pussy that he finally stopped. With each circle he drew over the tight, puckered hole, Anton pressed with a little more pressure until his digits were sinking in past the clenching ring.

“Love your ass,” Anton told her, his tone thick like rolling molasses. “So tight, baby. Breathe and feel, Viviana.”

Viviana’s back arched at the delicious sting his fingers created when they thrust harder, and deeper. It wasn’t that she put anal on the table often, because she didn’t, but she loved when Anton played with his fingers, working her ass while he fucked her, or even when he was on his knees and his mouth was tasting her pussy.

Melting into the ravenous hunger building inside her body, twisting deep in her womb, Viviana barely recognized Anton’s hand leaving her own between her thighs. His arm wrapped around her waist, pulling her up to her knees so her ass was higher in the air. The cool air of the room whispered along her exposed sex and Viviana knew without a doubt, Anton had the best view of her pussy and ass on display for him.

She couldn’t even bring herself to care.

The keening cries in the back of her throat built in intensity, moving higher like the wave of pleasure washing over her skin and nerves. Every thrust of his fingers inside her ass took her closer to the cliff. Every swipe of hers along her clit threatened to break her further.

Viviana was so fucking close to coming it was ridiculous.

She couldn’t even speak to tell Anton.

She didn’t have to. In the next second, the arm he held snug around her waist released its grip only long enough for Viviana to feel the crest of his cock sliding up and down her slit, spreading more of her juices. All the while, his fingers in her ass kept up that punishing, deep rhythm while hers rolled faster over her pulsing clit.

Anton took her slow, working his cock through the clenching muscles of her pussy. Every inch he gave, he took it right back until Viviana was backing into his shaft on her own, needing to feel him fill her, fuck her, and own her like only he could. It was only when he’d filled her totally that Anton let go of the base of his cock.

For a moment, Viviana stayed still, reveling in the way he’d filled her sex, her ass, and how her body quivered from the attention she was giving to her clit, too. Wet and hot was a fucking understatement. From the wetness between her thighs to the perspiration beading on her skin, she felt soaked and burned.

“Oh, God,” she choked out.

“How’s that for what you wanted, baby?” Anton asked, breathless and chuckling at the same time.

Clenching her free hand into the pillow, and forcing the cries wanting out in the back of her throat to be swallowed, Viviana squeezed her eyes shut and just felt. Anton’s free hand rubbed from the base of her spine upwards, coming to rest at the junction between her neck and her shoulder. When his fingers gripped tight at that spot, she felt her pulse began to race.

Viviana knew what was coming and she still couldn’t have prepared for it.

The sensation of his entire body thrusting into hers, bottoming out and hitting every beautiful, unaware spot inside her pussy at the same time took her breath away. The next one had her whimpering. Before long, the thrusts didn’t have a pause between them, each one a little rougher than the one before. His fingers at her shoulder pressed harder, his nails digging in and making her eyes fly open wide.

The orgasm that ravaged her started from her womb and radiated outwards. Like a bucket of ice cold water was dropped over her spine, turning every nerve in her body numb. Viviana heard nothing but the quiet reassurance of her husband’s dark tenor behind her and the cattish cry that ripped from her throat.

“
Shhh
… Fuck, that was beautiful. Let’s do it again,” he said with a quiet laugh.

Anton’s fingers slowed in her ass while her hand at her sex moved away as if it’d been burned. She was far too sensitive to keep touching. In a blur of movement, Viviana was turned with Anton’s body until his back was resting against the bed and she was the one on top with her back facing him.

“What—”

Suddenly, the new position had his cock hitting a particular spot that made Viviana gasp.

“Jesus, yeah, okay,” she mumbled, still dizzy and overwhelmed from the force of her orgasm. “Let’s do it again.”

***

“Pregnant?” Viviana asked, her throat feeling tight.

The doctor sat on the edge of his desk, tapping the little square pregnancy test in his palm. The tests at the hospital didn’t look like the ones available at a store. Instead of a long, thin plastic device, the hospital grade urine tests were square with only two circle windows. If a line showed up in only the first window, the patient wasn’t pregnant. If a line showed up in both windows, the pregnancy hormone had been detected.

Viviana’s test showed bright blue, thick lines in both windows.

“I can’t be pregnant,” she said quietly, still staring at the test.

“I can assure you that you are,” the doctor replied just as softly. “I understand from your charts that you recently miscarried, right?”

“In February,” Viviana confirmed, swallowing her rising sickness. “I was only a few weeks along.”

The doctor nodded, his face expressionless. “I can see why this would be a shock, then.”

“A shock?” Viviana coughed out a laugh. “Jesus, I haven’t even had a period since I lost that pregnancy. That’s what I was here for, not …
this
.”

“Yes, well, a pregnancy test is a standard procedure when a woman says she has had no menses for more than forty days.”

Viviana clenched her teeth, staring away from the man. “Please don’t patronize me. I’m twenty-eight, not sixteen. I just lost a pregnancy and was told it could take up to three months for my cycles to return. That’s why I’m here. Not to be scolded like a child.”

“My apologies, Mrs. Avdon—” The doctor stopped abruptly, staring down at the chart on his desk. “
Avdonin
. Viviana Avdonin.”

Viviana still refused to look at the man. “Great, so you know my name. That’s good.”

“No, I recognized your name. That was all. You’re the wife of—”

“Anton Avdonin, yes,” she interrupted sharply.

The doctor’s shoulders relaxed, his posture softening. “It’s no wonder this is a shock. Given what I’ve seen in the press lately, you’ve been dealing with a lot. His trial is in two months, yes?”

Thanks to Ivan’s trickery, Anton’s trial date had been repeatedly pushed back due to delays and things Viviana didn’t understand. “Yes.”

“I’m sure you know your husband uses this clinic for … things,” the doctor said, shrugging. “I am sorry for seeming rude, it wasn’t how I meant to come off.”

Viviana took a breath, blowing out her frustration in a huff of air. “I haven’t had a cycle, so no, I wasn’t expecting to be pregnant.”

“That’s a common mistake women make. Fact of the matter is, you were probably actually having a cycle, and you would have had a period, but in the process, you needed to ovulate first, and obviously did. During that time, you conceived, so as would be expected, you didn’t have that period. I would normally ask about birth control and things of that nature, but if you would rather not …”

“They didn’t want me to take the shot again until after my cycles had resumed to a regular thing.”

“That’s not unusual,” he replied.

Viviana didn’t feel the need to point out that condoms weren’t exactly a favorite of hers, or her husband. That was, if they even managed to remember to get one. Like they always had been, Viviana and Anton were fast, dirty, and usually in the zone when it came to sex. They were stupid about it, really. But given their age and the fact they were married, no one had a right to judge them on their contraceptive choices, or lack thereof.

Even so, what an idiotic, ridiculous fucking mistake to make.

“Not really,” the doctor interjected gently.

Had Viviana said that out loud? Great.

“Listen,” the doctor said, moving off his desk. “Your miscarriage was an early termination. Your body was likely healed within a month after. How long did the bleeding last?”

“Two weeks or so.”

“Sounds about right. Chances are, you’re in the normal range for women who miscarry. About two months, or even three, before your periods resume. I don’t think you’re very far along in this pregnancy, but I’ll order a blood work up to be done before you leave. I’ll even put a rush in on it at the lab so you can have the results by supper time today. By the hormone levels in your blood, we’ll have a near exact approximation of how far along you are and your due date.”