Holding her tight, Vic turned them so that Livy was underneath him. He braced his arms on either side of her, his big, long body looming over her. “Bring your legs up,” he ordered. “High on my waist.”

When she did, he growled and powered into her, his cock buried deep inside her pussy. Livy’s back arched. Nothing she could remember had ever felt this good.

He fucked her hard, and Livy loved it. She wasn’t intimidated by his true strength. Instead, the harder he fucked her, the more she begged him not to stop. And Livy had never begged anyone for anything. Until now. Until this moment when she came so hard, she screamed against his chest and buried her claws into his hips.

Vic roared, his body rigid beneath her claws. Then he dropped on top of her, his energy completely gone.

It took him a bit, but Vic seemed to suddenly remember she was there.

“Livy? Oh my God! Livy!” He rolled away from her. “Are you okay?”

“I’m perfect,” she said on a sigh. “You’re perfect. We’re both perfect.”

“But could you breathe?”

“Badger,” she softly reminded him.

“Does that explain everything about you?”

“Pretty much.”

After removing the condom and tossing it in the garbage can by the couch, Vic stretched out and pulled Livy onto his chest. He stroked her hair and kissed her forehead.

“Vic?”

“Mhmmm?”

“I’m starving.”

“Oh, thank God. I’m so hungry.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“It seemed tacky to come, roll off you, and go get something to eat. I hate tacky.”

“I actually appreciate that. But right now I’m hungry.”

“I’ve got a couple pounds of pasta and some jars of marinara sauce.”

“Perfect!” Livy rolled off Vic and sprang to her feet. “Now get up. I need to feed. I’ll get the—”

Livy stopped and turned to the man now standing next to her. “Did your tail just slap my ass again?”

“I think it likes when you get a little pushy.”

“It likes when I get pushy?”

“Or we like. You know, whatever.”

Livy shook her head, but took Vic’s hand. “Just remember my rule.”

“God, Livy, how can I ever forget it?”

CHAPTER 24

Ira stopped by her brother’s house around seven-thirty in the morning. She was surprised to find his SUV parked in the driveway. He’d purchased the house located a few blocks from her home several years ago, but he was rarely in it. Like their parents, Vic traveled a lot. Mostly to Eastern European countries where he had lots of connections and knew the languages and dialects so well.

Iraused to worry so much about her brother. When he’d graduated from high school, he’d left Chicago to attend Stony-brook University and be near Ira. It made sense since their parents were always on the move, and they’d grown up watching out for each other. Vic did well in school, but Ira could tell he wasn’t really happy. Then, in the middle of his junior year, he joined the marines, which was scary enough. But several years in, he was suddenly recruited by the CIA, doing most of his work in the Eastern European countries he knew so well. It turned out to be the right job for him, but Ira had not liked the idea of her brother being some kind of spy. Vic didn’t blend, and he wasn’t a natural deceiver. But he was smart and an excellent judge of character. In the end, the job had worked out pretty well for him, but she was glad when he’d gotten out. Even though freelance tracking work was a dangerous game, as well, she worried less about her brother since the only orders he really took were his own.

All he needed now was to get himself a business partner. Someone to watch his back, and she didn’t understand why her brother didn’t see Shen Li as that person. But that was okay. Vic could be stubborn, like their dad, but Ira took after their mother and would just keep hammering at her brother until he did what she thought was in his best interest.

It perhaps wasn’t the best way for a family to function, but it had worked for the Barinovs for many years now.

Since Vic didn’t spend much time at home, and wasn’t much of a collector of anything but large quantities of honey, Ira kept many of her home business supplies in his garage and just paid her brother a monthly rent for the storage. Of course, typical Vic, he didn’t bother to put any of her checks into the bank, so she eventually started transferring money over automatically every month. She loved her brother for saying that paying him wasn’t necessary, but Ira never wanted him to feel taken for granted. It was better to keep her “home decorating for the discerning bear” business separate from family.

But before going into the garage, Ira decided to check the house since Vic hadn’t been around.

She opened his gate and was just walking through when she heard, “Yoo-hoo! Irina!”

Ira turned and saw that She-tiger walking toward her. She had a tray of honey buns this time and looked so effortlessly perfect that Ira just wanted to bash her damn nose in.

“Hello!”

“Hi, Brittany.”

The She-tiger lifted the tray a bit. “I brought honey buns as a little olive branch. I hated how we ended things last time I was here.”

“You mean your judgmental overreaction to my brother’s alternative lifestyle?”

“When I thought about it, I realized he was just teasing me.”