"But-"

He captured my mouth in a demanding kiss that left me shaking and breathless. Those insistent hands of his roamed my curves. I surrendered to his caresses and let him stoke the flames of my desire. Gripping his shoulders, I widened my thighs as his knee nudged them apart.

"Oh!" I gasped when his hand dipped inside my panties. Though his kisses were insistent and rough, his fingers were gentle as he explored me. Our tongues tangled as he parted my delicate folds and swirled his fingers around my throbbing clit. "Ah!"

"I want to hear you," he whispered against my lips. His skilled fingers coaxed a cry from my lips as he penetrated me with one finger and then two. Pressing his forehead to mine, he groaned, "You're so wet."

"It's you. It's all you." I moaned as he started to fuck me with his long, thick digits. Wanting to touch him, I jerked on his belt and yanked down his zipper. I slipped my hand under the waistband of his boxers and grasped his massive shaft. He growled as I clasped him even tighter and started to stroke him.

Frantic with desire, we worked one another into a frenzied state. He rubbed his thumb around my pulsing clitoris while plunging his fingers in and out of me. I cried out in shock when he used his other hand to torment my breasts. Pinching and rolling my nipples, he caused the most wonderful shocks to arc through my aching, needy body.

I scratched my nails across his forearm as that first shudder gripped my core. Head thrown back, I climaxed. "Yuri!"

"Yes," he urged, his fingers thrusting into me again and again.

"Yuri! Yuri!" I cried his name like a litany as he pushed me higher and higher. When I couldn't take anymore, when I was sure I'd collapse from the sheer bliss of it all, I grabbed his wrist and forced those magnificent fingers of his to go still. "No more. I can't take anymore."

Laughing, he noisily kissed my cheek and carefully removed his hand from my panties. He brought his glistening fingers to his mouth and licked my slick nectar from them. The sight made my knees weak.

Sliding down to the floor, I pulled open his pants and yanked down his boxers. Grasping his cock by the base, I painted his hot flesh with my tongue before sucking him into my mouth. Already he oozed pre-cum. The taste of it blossomed on my tongue and made me greedy for more.

He sifted his fingers through my hair and started to pump his hips. "I'm so close."

Licking my lips, I sat back and begged, "Come for me. Let me taste your cum."

A guttural growl escaped his throat. I welcomed that steely shaft as it started to thrust against my tongue. I tightened my lips around him, sucking him hard and letting him know just how badly I wanted him.

He groaned my name a split-second before his hot seed blasted my tongue. Moaning excitedly, I took him deeper into my mouth. Refusing to waste even one drop, I lapped at him until there was no more to be had.

Yuri exhaled loudly and slumped back against the island. He held his arms wide. "Come here, Kitten."

Smiling, I let him pull me into my embrace. It seemed the kitten nickname was going to stick. From anyone else, such a term of endearment probably would have grated on my nerves but from Yuri it felt so intimate and sweet.

He swiped my lower lip with his thumb before kissing me. "I don't know how I'm going to concentrate today. You're driving me crazy."

"Then I guess I better cross my afternoon plans to text you dirty pictures off my list," I teased.

The mischievous glint in his hazel eyes made me smile. "I suppose that means my plans to sext you are off the table too."

I giggled and kissed him. "Sadly, yes."

With his hand tangled in my hair, he said, "When you're done running your errands, take Jake to your apartment and get your things. You can have that side of the closet."

My eyes widened with surprise. I convinced myself he was thinking only of the short-term and didn't dare let myself think that he meant anything else. "Thank you. That will be much more convenient." I glanced at the wide open space he'd offered. "I'll only need a few things to tide me over until my dad is free and I'm off house arrest."

His piercing gaze seared me. "You may as well bring it all. If I have my way, you're never getting off house arrest."

Uncertain how to respond to such a bold statement, I reached for the tie that had been forgotten in our passionate tryst. Looping it around his neck, I whispered, "We'll see."

His mouth curved in a sinfully sexy grin. "Yes, we will."

Chapter Twelve.

"Have you read this one?" Erin flashed a high-octane thriller at me.

I shook my head and took the book from her. "Not yet, but it looks good."

"I'm just not into the thrillers and science fiction like Ivan." She added the book to her towering pile. "I like my urban fantasy and paranormal romances. Space travel and all that science bore me to death. Serial killers and terrorists and bomb plots?" She shivered. "Not my thing."

"I like the fast-paced reads." I made a mental note to pick up a digital copy of that thriller later. "They're exciting."

"I prefer a different kind of exciting." She sidled closer and bumped me with her hip. "Speaking of...how did it go last night?"

"You mean before my cousin broke in, tried to steal Yuri's painting and got mauled by a dog the size of a grizzly bear?"

Erin winced. "Yeah. That's pretty awful but I think I probably have you beat when it comes to home invasions. Ivan fought off two armed thugs with his bare hands while I hid in a closet. I'd take a huge dog and two bodyguards any day."

She had a point. "I guess Benny really wins, though. Dimitri fought off, like, five guys and got stabbed and shot in the process. They even burned down her bakery."

"She's pretty kickass though. She had a baseball bat and took out, like, three of those guys. Me? I curled into a ball and pretended I was invisible."

I shook my head. "Man, we have had some terrible luck this year. Maybe we should get smudged or something. We need to get rid of this bad juju that's following us around."

"Right?" Erin laughed and plucked another book off the shelf. She added it to the growing pile in her arms and nearly dropped all the books when the weight shifted.

"Why don't you just get him an ereader for his birthday?" I took half of her armload.

"He doesn't like them. His library collection is so incredibly valuable to him. When he was a child, reading was the way he escaped from the hell of his everyday life." She touched the tower of books in her arms. "These are comforting to him."

I trailed her to the long line snaking around the front of the book store. Even though Yuri had suggested a book for Ivan, I decided to choose something else. Erin had bought half the store anyway so he'd be set for books for a while. I thought about the trip Yuri was planning to gift them. A nifty idea started to sprout.

"So how was Benny this morning?"

"Puking," I said with a grimace. "It seems she's getting hit a little harder with morning sickness. Remind me never to get pregnant," I added with a shudder.

"Poor thing." Erin made a sad face. "We should put together a small gift basket for her. We'll tuck in some ginger ale and crackers plus some nice feel-good stuff so Dimitri can pamper her."

"That's a sweet idea. I'll see if Vivian wants to go in on it with us."

"Did I tell you that Ivan sat for her last week?"

"No. How did it go?"

"He was nervous about showing his tattoos to someone other than me. I think it was even harder for him because Vivian can read all of them and she knows so much of the symbolic history behind them. She made him very comfortable and it didn't take long. She only snapped a handful of photographs, all from the neck down, and then she was done with him."

"Yuri is supposed to drop by her studio this afternoon. His sitting won't take long." I touched my chest. "He only has one tattoo."

"Really? Just one?"

I nodded. "He seems downright conservative compared to Ivan and Nikolai."

"Vivian still hasn't told Nikolai about the series she's doing. She specifically asked Ivan not to mention it. I could tell it made him uneasy but he agreed." She eyed me carefully. "Do you know why she's being so secretive about it with Nikolai? I don't think she's ever kept anything from him."

"She tried talking to him about his tattoos when she first became interested in them but he shut her down like hardcore. It rattled her badly and she's never brought the subject up with him again." I let loose a sigh. "She knows that he's going to flip his lid when he finds out what she's been doing."

Erin looked worried. "Do you think he'll get angry with her?"

I shrugged. "Will he grouch at her? Probably. But Nikolai get angry with Vivian?" I laughed. "Please!"

"True. He's almost as bad as Ivan when it comes to me." Her gaze jumped to the entrance of the bookstore. Stepping toward me, she hurriedly whispered, "Detective Santos is headed this way."

"What?" I glanced over my shoulder just in time to see the dark-haired detective step through the crowd of teenage girls lusting over a mountain of werewolf romance paperbacks. "Shit."

Detective Eric Santos, a member of Houston's gang unit and Vivian's cousin, sauntered toward me. He smiled pleasantly. "Hello."

"Hi," we replied in unison.

"Lena, when you're done here, would you mind if we had a quick chat?"

"Not at all," I said with a smile.

"Great. I'll grab a coffee and wait for you."

I kept that smile plastered in place until he'd turned his back. Looking toward Erin, I let it slip. "Now what?"

"Just talk to him. He's a good guy."

"Yuri was really specific about not letting anyone know about my dad. I got the feeling the negotiations Nikolai had undertaken on his behalf were contingent on keeping the police out of it."

"We're just having coffee at a bookstore with our friend's cousin. It's no big deal."

I scanned the bookstore and found Jake hovering nearby. In the span of a few hours, I'd become shockingly accustomed to Yuri's bodyguard shadowing me. Our gazes met across the store. He glanced at Eric Santos and then back at me. I gave a little shrug to let him know I didn't have a choice.

The line started moving faster. Before I was ready to face him, I made my way to see the detective. He'd taken a corner table. Erin sat with me. I noticed Jake moving to the closest book display.

Santos didn't miss him. "I see you've got protection now."

"My boyfriend worries." It felt weird to call Yuri my boyfriend but I wasn't sure how else to describe our relationship.

"He should." Santos sipped his coffee. "I heard about your cousin."

My heart skipped a beat. Did he know everything? How much of my family's situation was already public knowledge on the streets? "Oh?"

He nodded. "I heard he fenced a stolen painting. A painting that belonged to a certain Mexican gentleman who isn't known for leniency or mercy."

"Well," I said cautiously, "Tommy isn't the smartest of criminals."

Santos snorted derisively. "That's for damn sure."

"So is that all you needed? To warn me that my cousin had blundered into another mess?"

He ran his finger around the lid of his cup. "I went by your dad's warehouse to check on him but he wasn't there."

I swallowed nervously. "He's on a business trip."

Santos studied me intently. "A business trip, huh?"

"Yes."

"Okay." He glanced at Jake again. "You keep that shadow of yours tight. These people? They will make the Hermanos and the Albanians look like choirboys." Coffee in hand, he rose from his chair. "You let Nikolai know that I'm keeping a close eye on Vivian until whatever this is gets cleared up. I can see that you've got the best protection money can buy so I'll focus on keeping my cousin safe."

"I'm sure Vivian will appreciate it." She wouldn't but Santos wouldn't care. Like Nikolai, he could be overbearing and paranoid when it came to protecting her.

With a nod, Santos left our table and disappeared into the crowd.

Erin touched my arm. "You okay?"

"I'm fine. I think he probably knows everything."

"So do I. You'll have to tell Yuri."

"I hope this doesn't cause problems for my dad."

"I don't see how it will. Eric Santos has no jurisdiction in Mexico and that's where your dad is now. He can't get involved in anything down there or mess up the negotiations and the deals that are in place. Even if he could, he wouldn't."

"How can you be sure?" I so wanted to believe her.

She glanced at the wall of windows overlooking the parking lot. "When my sister was in trouble, he gave Ivan a clear signal that he'd hang back and let him find a way to keep her safe in prison and me safe on the outside. I'm sure they would have executed a search warrant on our house that night but Santos let Ivan get there first so he could make a deal with the Hermanos and Albanians to save my life."

"Let's just hope he shows me the same consideration..."

Yuri fished his ringing phone out of his pocket. One glance at his phone's screen and he knew this wasn't going to be a call he enjoyed. Glad for the privacy of the backseat of his car, he answered. "Dimitri."

"What the hell do you think you're doing keeping something like this from me?"

"Why, yes, Dimitri, I am having a nice afternoon-and you?"

"I don't think this is funny."

Yuri pinched the bridge of his nose. "I assure you the situation isn't funny on my end either."