I know Rodion has weapons on him at all times—a knife in his pocket, and another strapped to his calf. Sometimes two guns in holsters beneath his jacket. And always, a Beretta tucked in the back waistband of his pants.

He doesn’t need any weapon to subdue me, besides his own strength and size.

He’s got me pinned against the wall with one meaty forearm, his glittering dark eyes staring down into mine. I can smell his cologne, which isn’t warm and pleasant like Sebastian’s—it’s sharp and acidic, like alcohol. Beneath that, the musky animal scent of his sweat.

“Let go of me,” I hiss, trying to hide my terror.

Instead, Rodion forces my feet apart with his boot. He reaches under my skirt with one hand, keeping me pinned to the wall with the other. Now I do shriek, but it doesn’t matter. He touches my pussy with his thick fingers, feeling the flesh that’s still swollen and sore.

When he pulls his hand away, I see the gleam of blood and my own wetness on his fingertips. Possibly Sebastian’s fluids, too.

My heart stops dead in my chest.

If he tells my father about this, Papa will know what I’ve done.

At that moment, my brother comes into the foyer. For a moment he looks shocked, and then his face darkens with fury.

“GET YOUR FUCKING HANDS OFF HER!” he shouts.

Rodion steps away from me, taking his heavy forearm off my chest. I can breathe again, but just barely, because my ribs are still tight with fear.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Adrian demands. “How DARE you touch her?”

Rodion looks between us with silent disdain. He respects my brother more than me, but ultimately he answers only to our father.

He doesn’t bother to make a sign to either of us. He just turns and walks away down the dark hallway.

As soon as he’s gone, I sink down against the wall, shaking with the difficulty of holding back my tears.

Adrian sits down beside me, alarmed and confused.

“What’s wrong, fasol?” he asks me. “Fasol’ ” is “bean.” It’s been his nickname for me since we were children, because we were two peas in a pod.

I want to tell my brother everything, but even here I can’t be sure that no one is listening.

So I just press my face into his shoulder so I can cry silently.

9

Sebastian

The next time I see Yelena, she insists that I meet her at a movie theater on Bristol Street.

She’s already inside the theater when I get there, sitting all the way in the back row of a throwback showing of The Grandmaster. Because it’s the middle of the day, only three or four other people are scattered through the seats, none close to us.

Her face looks paler than ever in the flickering light from the screen. She looks tense and frightened, her eyes large and dark in her drained face. I’m hit with a pang of guilt. The night I met Yelena, she looked as powerful as a Valkyrie. But the stress of our relationship has taken a toll on her.

I sit down next to her, putting my arm around her shoulders and kissing her.

“How are you?” I ask her.

Without any preamble, she says, ”I’m afraid my father is about to find out what we did.”

“What do you mean?”

“When I came home last night, Rodion was waiting. He . . . I think he noticed something.”

That doesn’t make any sense to me. What could Rodion have noticed, besides maybe some messy hair?

“Are you sure?” I say. “No offense, but that sounds a little paranoid.”

Yelena presses her pale lips together, looking down at her hands twisted in her lap.

“Trust me,” she says quietly. “He knows. And if he knows, it’s only a matter of time until he tells my father.”

She’s upset, and whether she’s right or not, I can’t bear to see her like that.

I squeeze her tighter and I say, “Yelena, you don’t have to worry about anything. You and I are going to be together, do you understand that? Whatever your father says, whatever my family says, I don’t give a fuck. I want you, and only you.”

Yelena looks up at me, her eyes wide and pleading.

“You promise me Sebastian? We’ll be together no matter what?”

“Yes, of course,” I say. “I promise.”

I see bright tears sparkling in the corners of her eyes, but as always, she’s too stubborn to let them fall.

Instead she just kisses me.

Then she drops her head to my lap and starts to unbutton my jeans. I’m about to stop her, because I don’t want her to feel like she has to do anything for me when she’s obviously upset. But she’s already pulled out my cock and closed those gorgeous full lips around the head. With that one motion, all conscious thought leaves my body.

As soft as Yelena’s mouth is when pressed against mine, it’s infinitely softer while licking and sucking the most sensitive part of my body. She runs her tongue around the head of my cock, right under that responsive ridge of flesh that separates the head and the shaft. She sucks on the head, and then she relaxes her jaw to let more and more of my cock slide into her mouth, all the way back to her throat.

The sound of her mouth moving is drowned out by the theater speakers, but it’s a lot harder for me to keep quiet. I lean my head against the back of the seat and close my eyes, trying hard to stop myself from groaning.

Yelena is using her hand and her mouth, moving them simultaneously up and down my shaft, so that her hand squeezes harder than her mouth can do, and her mouth provides that delicious, warm, slippery sensation second only to her pussy.

I stroke my fingers gently through her hair, feeling like I’m floating on waves of bliss. The part of the movie is playing where a woman and a man encounter each other in the snow next to a moving train. The flickering light, the drifting snow, and the ethereal music all combine with the sensation of Yelena’s mouth, until I feel like the movie screen is permeable, and I’ve fallen right through it. I’m transported.

The best part about a blowjob is that you don’t have to work toward a climax. You don’t have to hold back or try to time to anything. You just lay back and let it happen.

When I can feel myself getting close, I squeeze Yelena’s shoulder to let her know, so she can finish with her hand if she wants to.

Instead, she redoubles her pace, bobbing her head up and down on my cock, letting my cock hit all the way at the back of her throat so it feels like bottoming out.

This feels so fucking good that I have to grit my teeth together to keep from moaning. I’m squirming in the tiny theater seat, feeling like this constricted space can’t possibly contain the volume of pleasure I’m experiencing.

My balls are boiling. With one explosive contraction, I feel the cum rocketing up through my cock and spurting into Yelena’s mouth. She keeps sucking, a sensation that is exquisitely intense in the midst of climax. She’s sucking out the cum, she’s licking under the head of my cock, and I’m fucking dying of enjoyment, feeling a level of deep, endless satisfaction that washes away every other care.

When she’s finished, she sits up and wipes her mouth on the back of her hand. I don’t have to clean up, because she’s licked me completely clean.