My pace hastened. The first curls of pleasure unfurled in my core. That blissful knot of shuddery vibrations grew and grew. My pussy clenched Yuri's cock tighter and tighter. He urged me on and thrust into me harder and faster until I hovered on the edge. Closing my eyes, I tried to draw out those wonderful flutters as long as possible but one more thrust broke my control.
"Yuri!" I clawed at his chest and gyrated wildly atop him, desperate to wring ever last ounce of pleasure from that orgasm. When I fell forward against him, Yuri gathered me close and flipped our positions. He grasped my legs and dragged them up higher until my knees rested against those broad shoulders of his.
"Unnnhhh." I let loose a guttural groan as his cock slid deeper. Clinging to his rippling arms, I gazed into his hazel eyes while he started to chase his own pleasure. I didn't think he'd ever looked sexier or more handsome to me than in that moment. My heart threatened to burst in my chest as I realized how much I loved this man.
As if having the same moment of clarity, Yuri dipped his head until our breaths mingled. He pounded into me now, his cock gliding in and out of me faster and harder. Every plunging thrust made me grip him tighter. I watched his face with fascination as he climbed closer and closer to his climax.
"I love you, Lena." He slammed into me with enough force that I slid up the bed. His cock swelled inside me as he shuddered in my arms and filled me with his blazing hot seed. "I fucking love you so much."
I caressed his face as he shuddered again. "I love you, Yuri. Always."
His mouth found mine in a demanding kiss that branded me with his passionate love. My legs fell from his shoulders, and he rolled onto his side, dragging me with him. With his spent cock still buried inside me, I relished the sensation of being so intimately joined to him.
After a few minutes of sensual kissing, Yuri pushed the damp hair away from my face. He ran his thumb down my cheek. The serious look in his eyes worried me. "I have to tell you something."
My tummy twisted with fear. "What?"
"I read the letter."
"Oh." My hand slipped under my pillow but the envelope was gone.
"I destroyed it early this morning. I couldn't risk anyone else reading it. Did you show it to anyone else?"
I couldn't lie to him. "I snapped a photo and sent it to Vivian." The horrified expression on his face scared me. Quickly, I explained, "She told me to delete the picture and to keep the letter hidden until I gave it to you. She wouldn't tell me what it said, just that I needed to be careful and not go anywhere without you."
He seemed to relax. "I trust Vivian to understand that what she read must never be spoken aloud to anyone."
"And me?" I tried not to sound hurt. "Don't you trust me?"
"I do. I truly do." He touched his forehead to mine. "I can't tell you everything. Some of the details in that note—" He swallowed and shook himself. "I can't. I will tell you this much. When I was a child…" He dropped his gaze as if ashamed to look at me. "When I was a child, I killed a man to save Nikolai."
For a long moment all I could do was stare at Yuri. The pain and shame radiating from him shook me from my stupor. I rubbed his arm and forced him to meet my gaze. "Tell me."
His eyes shimmered with unshed tears as he made his confession. "We were boys, so young, and I was jealous of Nikolai, of the treatment he received at the orphanage. I didn't understand then…" His voice trailed off and he shook his head again. "I followed him one night and…and he was being hurt. I reacted like any twelve-year-old boy would at discovering that terrible, terrible thing. I picked up a pipe and hit Pasha across the back of his head. I didn't know my own strength. He hit the floor and—and there was so much blood. So much blood." He gulped as if he might be sick. "Nikolai and I ran back to the orphanage, grabbed Ivan and Dimitri, and we left that night."
My eyes grew hot as I processed his confession. The few details he'd given were enough for me to piece together what young Nikolai had endured. I could only imagine how horrifying it would have been for a twelve-year-old boy to stumble upon his friend being hurt like that.
"So you see—I'm a murderer."
"You are not a murderer. You were a child trying to save your friend." I grasped his face in my hands and held his gaze. The pain reflected in his eyes left me breathless with sympathy. "What happened was an accident. It was manslaughter at the very worst. No jury in their right mind would have convicted a little boy for saving his friend from a…monster like that."
"Maybe," he said, blinking rapidly. He cleared his throat and tried to get a grip on his painful emotions. "But someone knows and someone wants to make me pay for what I did."
"By trying to kill me?" The pieces began to fit together.
"I'm starting to think this whole thing—from your cousin to your father to the pipeline—it's all a setup."
"Last night, I wondered the same thing. It's too convenient, you know? Too neat." I hesitated. "But this thing with my dad and my cousin started before we were officially together. How would someone know you were attracted to me? How could they know that hurting me would hurt you?"
"Lena, I was more than simply attracted to you. People close to me would have been able to see the difference in the way I reacted to you and the way I reacted to every other woman."
"So it is someone close to you," I whispered, suddenly uneasy.
"Yes."
"What are we going to do?"
"We stick together until we get your father home safely to Houston. After that, I'm honestly not sure where to begin. Nikolai is digging into Pasha's history. We think it might be a friend or relative of his that's playing this ugly game." Reluctantly, he added, "I think it's best that we stay away from our friends to avoid collateral damage."
"Yes. Absolutely." I thought of Vivian. "If someone is trying to hurt me because they want to cause you pain, what about Vivian? Nikolai may not be willing to come right out and say that he feels strongly for her but it's evident to anyone who sees them that he cares deeply about Vivian."
"She's still with Ivan and Erin and has Kostya shadowing her constantly. I assume that cousin of hers, the detective, is watching her like a hawk. She's probably safe, but at the first hint that she isn't, Nikolai will hide her away where none of us can find her."
"Should we think about doing that? Going into hiding, I mean?"
"I considered it last night but I feel safer in public. For now," he amended. "This is a highly dynamic situation and we'll have to adjust on the fly." Pulling me into his embrace, he kissed the top of my head. "Right now, let's focus on getting your father safely home."
Suddenly, saving my father from a cartel seemed like the very least of our worries…
Chapter Nineteen
"Relax," Yuri urged and put a comforting hand on Lena's back. She fidgeted non-stop next to him as the private jet made its final approach and descent toward the private airstrip.
They were arriving in Mexico after dark. He didn't like coming into what he considered enemy territory in the dark but the thought of leaving Lena's father in the cartel's hands another night wasn't one he could stomach. Too much could go wrong. He wanted the exchange done quickly.