by Sam Crescent
For all he knew, Risa had found some nice young man who’d treat her right. Nikolai gripped the beer bottle in his hand tight. The thought infuriated him. It would be easy, hunting that poor bastard down and put a bullet to his skull.
He phoned his driver and told him to bring the car in front of the building. Nikolai owned this building and several others in the city. He and Mikhail waited downstairs for his ride. Nikolai called Matthew, his long-time butler, who reported to him whatever went on in his house.
“Did you see if Risa left the house with anyone?” he asked. Next to him, Mikhail rolled his eyes.
“Yes, sir, a young man named John Stevenson, I believe he’s one of Miss Risa’s ex-schoolmates.”
“Is he? Do a background check on him.”
“Of course, sir. Are you on your way to Miss Risa’s exhibit?”
Nikolai let out a frustrated growl. “Why is everyone in my life so damn nosy?”
“Everyone merely wishes for your happiness, sir. Anyone with eyes could see Miss Risa would make you happy.”
He ended the call with his butler only to see Mikhail grinning at him. No surprise the bastard eavesdropped on his conversation. To his relief, Harry arrived in his car.
“I’d offer to drop you off somewhere, but I’m a hurry,” he told Mikhail.
“Oh, I understand. Happy hunting, boss.”
Before he could tell Mikhail off, Harry started the engine.
“To the Riverside Gallery, sir?” Harry asked him before he could open his mouth.
Nikolai grunted. His phone pinged. An email from Matthew. The majority of his staff were ex-military or police, and Matthew had been a particularly renowned spy before he started working as a butler for Nikolai’s father, then for him.
He scanned through the details on Risa’s date, not liking what he read. Stevenson had a long police record. He’d been arrested before for taking nude photographs of the women he dated without their consent. The guy hadn’t been charged with rape, but it looked to Nikolai that it was only because he’d paid his accuser off.
How did he not know of Stevenson before? If Nikolai had known this kind of scum was hanging around his woman, he’d have already put him in the dirt. Risa had a good heart, but sometimes, she didn’t know how to read people properly.
“Step on it, Harry,” he said. If he found that bastard with his hands on his Risa, he didn’t care who saw him at the exhibit. He’d murder Stevenson before he could draw another breath.
****
“Have another drink,” John told her.
“No thanks, I’m feeling a little tipsy,” she said. Risa’s head spun. She could barely focus on the people crowding the exhibit, or recognize the faces walking up to her and people shaking her hands. Impossible. She couldn’t be this drunk after two drinks—or did she have more than she thought?
“Nikolai’s going to kill me if he finds out,” she whispered, touching the closest wall to balance herself.
Her feet ached. Risa wished she’d worn shorter and less painful heels. Her stomach didn’t feel right either, like someone was constantly scraping the walls with a scalpel. Risa wanted to go back home and take a long nap. Then she’d wake up and have breakfast with Nikolai. He always made it a point to sit down and eat the first meal of the day with her.
“Who’s Nikolai?” John asked, nibbling at her ear. Then he kissed her neck.
Repulsed, she tried to push him away.
“John, what are you doing? We’re friends.”
“What if I want to be more? Tell me, who’s this Nikolai? Are you making me jealous?”
“What?” Her skull throbbed like tiny shrapnel had been digging into the bone.
John grabbed her arm and started leading her to the less crowded area of the gallery. They breezed past a throng of people, before reaching the end of her exhibit.
“Wait, where are you taking me?” she demanded. She tried to tug her hand back. Warning bells rang in her head. Her purse. She’d left it in the bathroom, and it contained her SIG Sauer P238 and her pepper spray. She was no sniper, but she could shoot decently, according to Nikolai.
One of the first things Nikolai had taught her was how to defend herself. One, two drinks in her, and she forgot her purse.
“He’s going to be pissed off.”
John stopped but hadn’t let go of her hand. She looked around, wondering how she let John bring her out to the back alleyway of the gallery. The night air bit into her exposed arms and shoulders. It smelled of piss and garbage everywhere. Maybe if she hadn’t altered this dress, she wouldn’t be so cold or in this position.
What was happening? Why did her entire body feel sluggish? Why couldn’t she think straight? Did John put something in her drink?
“I’m leaving,” she told John, but he dug his fingers into his wrist.
They both tugged. John gasped her arm again. The pearl bracelet Nikolai gave her for her seventeenth birthday broke, the black pearls scattering to the ground. A sob caught in her throat as John yanked her to him by sheer force.
“You’re not going anywhere, not until I say you can.” John’s brown eyes gleamed menacingly in the dark. The next thing she knew, he’d pushed her against the graffiti-sprayed wall. Her skull rang when it hit the harsh surface, disabling her senses temporarily.
“Why are you doing this? What’s wrong with you?” she cried out. Fabric ripped, and cool air touched her exposed breasts. Was she trapped in some kind of freakish nightmare? This couldn’t be happening to her.
“Me? Pervs pay me a good amount of cash for my photos.” A flash went off, nearly blinding her eyes. John tugged down her dress. She opened her mouth, about to scream for help. Before John’s hand reached her left breast, she glimpsed a large black shadow behind him.
Relief filled her as Nikolai ripped John away from her like he was nothing more than a pest, a fly.
Chapter Three
Nikolai pushed his way past the throng of people in the gallery. A woman began to open her mouth, but her male companion wisely shut her up.
“Do you have any idea who he is? He’s the Pakhan, the boss of the Petrovic Crime Family,” the male said.
Nikolai ignored the whispers and continued searching for Risa. A bad feeling started in his gut after reading the information Matthew sent him about Stevenson. Scum like that weren’t even men. They were nothing more than pests, incapable of change. Nikolai had seen the darker side of humanity. With Risa, he refused to take any chances, so he called out three of his trusted men to come with him.
One of them returned to him with a familiar sequined black purse. “Found this in the ladies’ bathroom, boss,” Mikhail said.
Nikolai took it from Mikhail and opened it. Gun and pepper spray inside. Good girl, except where was Risa?
“Spread out, ask if anyone saw her recently,” he ordered his men.
“Risa? I saw her and John leaving the gallery. They went out back I think,” said Cindy, one of Risa’s friends, when Nikolai questioned her.
He went in the direction she indicated, only to find himself at a back door. A muffled scream made him shove the door open. His worst nightmare had come to life. Nikolai had made sure no harm ever came to Risa over the years, but now?
Nikolai went to that eerie and quiet place where human conscience didn’t cripple him. He didn’t remember moving. Nikolai closed one hand over Stevenson’s scrawny neck and yanked the lowlife bastard away from his angel.
That was what Risa was to him. Light to his darkness.
Tonight, Nikolai had come to one bloody revelation. He couldn’t allow any other man to put their grimy hands on what rightfully belonged to him. Screw honor and doing what was right and decent. Nikolai had never had a good bone in his body. Bad blood ran in his veins, as with his father and grandfather. Dan wouldn’t want his daughter to end up with a bastard like Stevenson.
Risa needed a real man. A firm hand. Him.
Stevenson tried to fight him off, but Nikolai barely felt the blo
ws. They felt like swats made by an ant to a giant. He clobbered the fucker and didn’t even feel tired as his fist crashed into Stevenson’s face. A spray of blood from Stevenson’s broken nose hit Nikolai.
That only fueled his lust for violence.
“Nikolai, stop! Please. You’ll end up killing him.”
Risa’s voice woke him up, yanking him from the place where he went when he killed. Nikolai found himself back in the alleyway, one fist holding onto Stevenson’s shirt, while his other one remained raised to Steven’s face, bruised and covered in blood.
Dead silence. Nikolai saw his men had followed their boss here. Anatoly watched the back door, Egor the alley. No doubt Vadim was bringing the car over. The worst part of all this was seeing Risa’s shocked and pale face. She looked like she’d been drained of blood.
Shit. All those years he’d kept her away from what he did for a living was all for nothing. Tonight, she’d seen him at his worst. A monster in human skin. He released Stevenson.
“Is he dead?” Risa whispered.
She didn’t take a step back from him or the bloody mess he’d made on the ground. Good girl. Nikolai knew she had steel in her spine, possessing enough guts to shame some of his toughest men. He just didn’t want her to see him like this, damn it.
He flared his nostrils, finally looking at her up and down. Nikolai took off his jacket. No way in hell was he going to let anyone else see her half-naked. She didn’t argue or push him away when he placed his coat over her shoulders.
Sensing she needed space, he put some distance between them. God knew all Nikolai wanted to do was offer her comfort.
“Nikolai? Can you please answer my question? Is he—”
“No. He’s breathing. See?” Nikolai rose to his feet. Risa stared at his bloody hands, but couldn’t seem to meet his eyes. “Risa, look at me.”
She finally did. He couldn’t get a read on her, but she took a few hesitant steps towards him. Nikolai neared her, pulling her close into an embrace, shocked by the wetness on his face. Tears. Risa, his tough angel who didn’t take shit from anyone, was crying. The last time he’d seen her do that, was when they put Dan into the ground.
Nikolai really ought to finish this bastard off, but not in front of her. He needed to see her home, clean her up, and tuck her in bed. His business could wait. Nikolai planned to take a few days off and spend time with her.
Make her his so no one would else in this city would have the balls to do what this Stevenson tried.
“He’s dead,” he told Risa. “No way in hell I’m letting this fucker walk. This isn’t the first time he did this, you know. He’s been arrested before.”
She rubbed at her eyes. “Nikolai, you can’t. Leave him to the police.”
Nikolai considered his options. She’d never tell on him, never betray him. Nikolai knew that without a doubt. All the cops in this city were under his payroll. He could stage an accidental death in prison.
“Letting the cops handle this? Poor baby. You still believe there’s good left in this world?”
Risa gave him a little shove. She looked pissed off at him. There it was. The fire in her eyes he loved so much. “I’m not a baby. I’m a grown woman.”
“That’s not what I meant,” he said calmly. “We’ll need to have a very long talk.”
“What, so you can ground me?”
“Don’t test my patience, not now,” he warned.
One cop car arrived at the scene. Two officers got out. Nikolai recognized Chief Holcomb, who was accompanied by a rookie he didn’t know. The Petrovic Family had ties with the local coppers and he paid Chief Holcomb handsomely, but the rookie had the guts to take out his gun. Holcomb quickly shoved the fool aside.
Nikolai warned the Chief to stay put with his glare. Good police dog.
Risa wasn’t done. “Don’t tell me you’re going to put me over your lap and spank me. Wait a minute. I think I’ll enjoy that.”
The imagine of Risa, deliciously naked and positioned over his lap, her plump and rosy little ass tempting him, rose up in his head. He clenched his jaw.
“Boss, the car’s here,” Anatoly announced.
Nikolai spotted Matthew pulling into the alleyway, right behind the police car. He put his hands on Risa’s shoulders and steered her to the car. As he helped her in the backseat, he leaned in close to whisper, “Tonight changed everything, angel. You’re right. It’s about time I stopped treating you like a child.”
Certain Risa was safe inside, he walked up to Holcomb. Nikolai wasn’t in the mood to make pleasantries tonight, so he only jerked his head to Stevenson’s unconscious form on the ground.
“Arrest him. Wait for further instructions.” With that, Nikolai turned his back on the police and joined Risa in the car.
****
Risa kept stealing glances at Nikolai the entire ride home. Both of them might be seated in the backseat, but he put some space between them on purpose. She wished she could take back her words earlier.
John must’ve put something in her drink, which explained why her head felt so fuzzy, but now, the drug seemed to clear. Reason returned to her.
She’d acted like a brat, but then again, she tended to act all defensive when pushed to one corner. Sometimes, Risa wondered if he’d spoiled her too much because he never denied her anything. How did she repay all his kindness and generosity?
By acting ungrateful, bitchy.
Nikolai must’ve noticed her stare because he returned it. He looked like he wanted to say something, but he merely clenched his jaw. Risa hated this version of his anger the most. He never once raised a hand to her, but she’d witnessed how he’d dealt with his men. Nikolai possessed two kinds of anger. The hot and cold, and right now, she preferred if he shouted at her, lectured her rather than this chilly, silent treatment.
His steely gaze looked her up and again. Despite the air-conditioning, she felt warm all over. He reached over, only to begin buttoning the suit jacket he placed over her shoulders just now.
Risa mulled over his words earlier. What had Nikolai meant by them? She shouldn’t have goaded him.
“I’m sorry,” she blurted. “For just now. I wasn’t thinking straight. I think John put something in my drink. I didn’t notice. I was too busy focusing on greeting my guests.”
Nikolai made an almost animal growl in his throat. “I shouldn’t have snapped at you, angel. Especially after everything you’ve been through tonight. Forgive me.”
She touched his hand. “There’s nothing to forgive. It’s all my fault. I cut my dress—”
“You what?” he thundered.
“I didn’t think John was capable of that,” she faltered. “I thought you forgot about me, about my exhibit. I invited John out of last-minute desperation, but I didn’t think of him that way. All I wanted was—”
She halted.
“Finish your sentence.”
He wanted to hear the truth? Fine.
“You. Always you.”
He moved closer and cupped her cheek, forcing her to look at him. “Angel, I want you, too, but I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because your father trusted you to my care. I’ve stayed away, hoping you’d find someone your age, but every guy you’ve come across is not good enough for you. You deserve better.”
“None of the boys I’ve ever dated would ever measure up to you. Don’t you understand, Nikolai? Ever since I was sixteen, I’ve loved you. I kept hoping it would die, fade away, but it’s the exact opposite. I want you more than ever.”
Chapter Four
Risa breathed hard, unable to believe she’d finally said the words to the only man she’d ever wanted. Nikolai was about to lift his hand from her face, but she gripped it. She could see the stiffness in his body, how much he was holding back. Nikolai must be thinking she was still Dan’s little girl, but it was up to her to show him she was all grown up now.
She’d started on this path. Risa refused to turn back now. “Don’t
deny yourself any longer.”
“You’re a child. Any other woman with more sense would run after finding out what kind of man they’ve invited into their bed.”
“I’m twenty-one, an adult.”
Nikolai shook his head. “You don’t know what you want.”
“You said you’d stop treating me like a child.” Risa leaned forward and did it. She brushed her lips over his, aware her entire body trembled with need. A man like Nikolai needed to take control, to dominate. A sigh of relief escaped her lips when he cupped the back of her neck and leaned in close.
Nikolai claimed her mouth like a savage. He didn’t kiss. He simply took, plundering her lips like a starving man. Nikolai thrust his tongue down her throat, and the world ceased to exist. Risa forgot about her disastrous evening, about anxiously looking over her shoulder the entire night to catch a glimpse of Nikolai.
Finally, they’d come to this point. A step closer to her dream of becoming his. Risa wanted him to own her in every way possible, to possess her.
Her breasts felt so full, her nipples tight as she pressed up against his hard chest. He slipped a hand under the jacket, resting it on her thigh.
Nikolai’s touch burned like a brand. She slid closer, eliminating any space between them so he could slip his fingers higher to finger the hem of her lace panties. He pulled his mouth away from hers. He’d nicked her lower lip by accident, but the taste of copper only fueled her lust for him.
“If I touch further, will I find you wet for me?” he whispered in her ear.
She parted her legs for him to find out. Nikolai pushed his fingers past the black lace. He traced the shape of her pussy lips, before sliding one digit into her wetness. She groaned and rubbed herself against him as he pulled out, only to thumb her clit.
“Nikolai,” she said in a whisper.
He pulled away, much to her disappointment. A second passed. Then two. He didn’t apologize for his action, didn’t tell her that the moment was a mistake. Nikolai didn’t break her heart. Yet. Nikolai lifted his fingers, still coated with her need, to his lips and licked them slowly. The gesture reminded her of a large predatory cat.