A kiss.
A simple kiss on the lips, the first time my husband’s mouth had touched any part of me in fifteen years. Every piece of anger and disgruntlement I’d ever felt for him melted away as I chased his lips and silently begged for more.
“Get your chef in here and let me watch, that would be a far better gift.”
Bastard.
One up for Yannick Ischmov - a rare occasion - and in the grand scheme of things, not likely to be his last. The mood had changed. Yannick’s storm was coming, and I would be the eye.
Yannick Ischmov
Master manipulator. Game player. Hustler. Take your pick, or any other variant, my soon to be ex wife fit the bill. She’d mastered those styles with such perfection, it was hard to tell anymore who she really was at any given moment. The personas she chose to adopt when she saw fit were frighteningly realistic unless you knew who the woman was.
The comment I’d made about her latest toy was simply a means to rile her up. I wasn’t gay, nor was I bisexual, had never thought of another man in any kind of sexual or naked way. Irina didn’t need to know those details, she wasn’t getting the upper hand like she so often wished she did. The first person I fucked in fifteen long years would not be the poisonous bitch who was my wife in name only, no matter how much she grovelled. I’d rather stick pins in my cock and bear the pain.
“I want you, just once.” Whining, though pathetic, really didn’t suit her at all.
“No can do, Irina.” Couldn’t, wouldn’t.
Removing myself from the space where I stood, I walked the length of the room to retrieve the dress Irina had so theatrically discarded on the floor. Handing it over on my return, I stayed a foot away from her reach while she slipped it over her head, recognising she wouldn’t win tonight. Not once, in fifteen years, had she so blatantly intimated she wanted to have sex with me, her last-ditch attempt to coerce me into staying was a trap, we both knew it.
Irina was beautiful - alabaster skin, silky blonde hair, pert tits on her chest - a woman who was extremely attractive and often turned many a head. But she was a noxious creature, and Yosef’s. Or had been in another life, it didn’t matter he no longer walked among us. I’d already betrayed my brother enough, and to sleep with Irina would be another mistake to add to my list of indiscretions.
“Okay. I want the whore, Yan,” she said, changing the line of conversation.
“You’ll have her when I find her, she’s of no use to me.”
“Good enough.”
“Then we conclude our business. Your hold on me has all but ended, I’ll grant you a few days grace, you’d be wise to be careful how you use it.”
My warning was met with raised eyebrows and a subtle quirk of her mouth. “I shall miss you.”
“The sentiment is not returned.”
A part of me knew the lie for what it was. Irina had become an integral part of my life, as much as I disliked the woman, she’d crawled under my skin and taken up residence there. Her sense of depravity often called to my own, her ruthless ministrations rivalling mine. When Irina let go and threw her wrath around, you could guarantee I’d be out the next night looking for a warm mouth to choke with my dick. As much as I’d never touched my wife, her cruelty had once turned me the hell on.
I was not permitted to have penetrative sex, as per the sadistic contract I’d added my signature to. Suffice to say, it didn’t mean I wasn’t sexually active. Irina spared me grief as long as I didn’t break the rules, so I learned to take what I needed in other ways. I didn’t give a fuck what she did, and I hadn’t even entertained the thought of insisting my wife abide by the same rules at the time. Our families, Irina and mine, were the ones holding the blade against my neck, all I’d had to do was make sure the Ischmov name carried forth and I didn’t rock the boat, did as I was told. I’d done that, the organisation more formidable than ever, and in return, I’d kept my life and not ended up at the end of a gun in the same fashion as my brother.
Irina may have rubbed my nose in her exploits over the years, but her tame get on, get off show did nothing for me. She’d never quite pushed my buttons the way she would have liked, and I’d grown tired with her lame seductions to piss me off. Enduring her cruelty, watching her come more times than I cared to remember, had given me nothing but pity for the woman. Staying and watching was a deserved punishment once upon a time, I’d done this to her, so it was only right she took some revenge. Often, I basked in her moments of vulnerability because they were fleeting, but I never forgot how both our fathers had ruined my life as much as I’d ruined hers.
At forty, it wasn’t too late for life to begin. My life, not hers. With an empire beneath my fingertips, even if I didn’t want it, I hoped I could finally dictate terms. The imposed jail sentence was ending, I’d bided my time and kept my nose clean, it was the least they owed me.
First things were first, I had a problem to fix - a whore to collect and my money returned.
I didn’t ask where Kayleigh was, I trusted Irina would depart her impeccable wisdom when she saw fit. When it came to business, Irina had
