Now they sat and watched Elise making circuits of the rug, toppling over and gurgling, having the time of her life.
A careful pass of his hands up her thighs preceded a deep sigh. Pausing as the first swell of her hips came under his thumbs, he dragged callused palms back down. Quinn roused from the dreamy state of her thoughts, forcing her spine from its slouch as her splayed fingers smoothed over the back of his hand. A touch of thanks, a caress of gratitude.
“He marks you.”
That brought Quinn’s spine straight, snapping to attention as she jolted forward. She would have been free of Ilya’s grip had she not caught her heel in the hem of her too large shirt. Instead she found herself slammed back into his body, the air knocked from her lungs as his arms came around her. Squeezing, clenching, he held her immobile.
“You smell of sweet slick. Pleasure. Not as it was before. Why?”
“Ilya, please, don’t—”
“Why,” he snarled in her ear, lips close enough his bared teeth brushed against the delicate cartilage.
“I can’t… I can’t stop it.”
“You want him.”
“No!”
Her defiant shriek startled Elise, sending the baby toppling to her side in mid lurch. A tremulous wail began as she rolled to her back, legs and arms kicking. Fighting against Ilya’s grip, Quinn managed to work her way free, going to Elise and humming to her. Scooping up her struggling, angry daughter, Quinn patted and soothed the imagined hurt. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw him watching. There was nothing cold in his blue eyes now. They were hot, eager, and not for sex.
Turning back to Ilya, resting on her heels, she contemplated her next move for a single breath. Then shuffling forward on her knees, she shouldered her way back into his lap. Curling up against his chest with Elise tucked between them, she pulled his arm around them. Nuzzled his chest and gave a near silent purr until he resumed his deep, lengthy comfort. Elise settled into wet snuffles and quiet pouting before she, too, curled into Ilya. Clutching his shirt and her mother’s hand in a grip that refused to be broken, she mumbled a sleepy admonishment as her deep ocean eyes began to flutter shut.
“I don’t. No more now than I did when I came here,” Quinn said, speaking against his neck as she burrowed tighter. “I don’t know what I want, but not that.”
“You get wet for him. You enjoy it.”
“Fuck’s sake, Ilya. I came when those… in that awful place. I can’t help it!” Ending on a hiss, Quinn buried her face in his shoulder as fresh tears burned the back of her eyes. Shoving the nightmare vague memories away, she tipped her head back to stare at him, defiant and angry. “I’m an Omega without suppressants. What do you think happens when an Alpha gets it in his head he’s going to have me?”
His brows twitched down, meeting before he smoothed his expression back to something austere. She had seen it though, that momentary glimmer of distaste and hunger. He didn’t like that Lee had marked her shoulder. Wanted it to be his teeth leaving those imprints on her skin.
“He touches me, purrs and growls at me, he went down on me for hours for Gods’ sake! He’sneverdone that before,” Quinn pressed on in an angry whisper, putting all of her indignant rage into her eyes. “He fucking cuddles me after.”
“Enough,” Ilya said through an ominous growl, though he was quick to settle back into the purr when Elise grumbled.
“I didn’t like what you did to me, either. It wasn’t right, wasn’t fair. He could have killed me if he’d tasted you on me.”
“He wouldn’t have hurt you.”
“You don’t know that!”
“Da, I do.”
Tight lipped in her anger, she shoved at his shoulder. Daring him to retaliate when he met her narrow eyed gaze, she bared her teeth in a silent snarl.
“No, you do not. But I still liked that a hell of a lot more than what he’s doing to me now.”
Ilya’s mouth opened, the flare of anger dying just as fast as it sprung to life in his eyes. Mouth closing hard enough Quinn heard the snap of his teeth, he stared. His eyes narrowed, and they watched each other in quiet deliberation.
He was the first to move. Head ducking down, he swallowed the two smaller bodies in his lap. Lips a breath away from Quinn’s, he kept her gaze. “Do not challenge me,kroshka. I am not one to back down,da? Now tell me. What part did you like, mm?”
Quinn rolled her eyes, huffing out a sigh that scattered the taste of berries across their combined senses. Poking at his shoulder, she urged him back. Mouth slanting to the side, she gave another exasperated sigh when he refused to move.
“The taste of you possibly didn’t make me gag. Maybe.”
“Maybe?” The laughter that danced in his pale eyes was strange, intoxicating. It wasn’t cruel, wasn’t aimed to hurt. It was just him, being amused by her hemming response.
“You liked it. Tell me.”
