Page 88 of Frozen Heart

I was getting close and the words pushed me closer still. The feeling that he was right at the edge of control, and that it wasmethat was doing that to him...it made me buck my hips, grinding my pelvis up to meet him on every thrust. The waves of pleasure were slamming through me, now, filling me faster than I could control. I felt myself start to tremble?—

“Come for me,” he said. “Let me feel you go crazy around me.Wife.”

My legs came up and scissored around his ass, pulling him into me, and then I arched my back and began to spasm around him. He gave two more hard thrusts and then buried himself, kissing me deep as he came in long, shuddering streams inside me.

61

BRONWYN

We laynaked and entangled for a long time, even when we started to get cold, because neither of us wanted to move. But Gennadiy, despite all his money, didn’t seem to believe in heating his houseat alland we both started to shiver. Radimir stripped the bathrobe off my arms and pulled me naked under the covers and that was much better.

Outside, we heard the FBI and police finally leave. A freezing gray rain began, hammering the windows until the outside world was just a distant blur.

“Alexei,” I said. It was the first time either of us had spoken in a while.

Radimir reached down and stroked my hair. I was lying on my side with my head resting on his chest so I couldn’t see his face. “What about him?” he asked guardedly.

“Why won’t you get back in touch with him?”

A sigh from above me. “I already told you.”

“You explained who he was,” I said gently. “You told me why you broke apart. But you never explained why you can’t reconnect.”

“It’s been ten years. Why would I want to reconnect?”

I blinked, then craned my head back to look up at him. “Because he was yourfriend.Your only friend!”

He smoothed my hair again, but I could feel the tension in his hand. “I have my brothers. That’s enough. I told you in New York: people like me don’t get to have friends.”

I raised myself up on one arm so I could look at him properly. “Everybodyneeds friends.” I searched his face. Reran his words in my head. “You think you don’t deserve friends?” I said quietly. “Because of what you’ve done?”

He looked away.

“Radimir…” He glared stubbornly at the window. “Radimir, look at me.”

He reluctantly turned to me.

“You think you don’t deserve friends, like they’re a reward the universe drops in your lap? That’s not how itworks!Having friends isn’t easy, it’shard.Asking for help ishard.Admitting you’re wrong when you’ve argued ishard.Being there for someone ishard.And it’s okay that it’s hard, that’s what makes it worthwhile. Do you know what I think?”

He scowled. “I rarely know what you think.”

“I think you’re scared. You’ve lost so much. I think it would hurt if you reached out and he rejected you. And instead of facing that, you isolate yourself.”

Radimir crossed his arms. “You think I’m a screw-up. You think I’mpovrezhdennyy. Damaged.”

I looked him right in the eye. “No,” I said gently. “I think you’re a man.”

He glared at me, but I refused to drop my gaze. And eventually, those frozen sky eyes softened, and he rubbed at his face and cursed in Russian?—

There was a knock at the door. Radimir looked up but I leaned in front of him and gave him an imploring look.

He sighed. “I’ll think about it.” Then he turned to the door and raised his voice. “What?”

“It’s Valentin. We need you.”

We dressed and went downstairs. Gennadiy was leaning over the dining table looking at a huge map of Chicago with our areas of control marked in red. “Sorry, brother,” he said when he saw us. “You both deserve a rest. But Spartak’s men are attacking all over the city.” He shook his head grimly. “We’re not going to be able to hold onto everything. We have to save what we can.”

The rest of that day was brutal. Radimir and I spent most of it driving, racing from one emergency to another. A bar that had been smashed up. A crane destroyed at a construction project, setting it back months. A politician who’d suddenly switched allegiances to Spartak and now wouldn’t sign off on a new casino. And of course, the police noticed the upswell in violence and demanded to know what was going on, so we had to work with the cops we had on our payroll to calm things down.