Protecting Sasha

by Natasha L. Black

  At the last minute, I changed my mind, and Pierce and I reached into the same bucket. Our fingers brushed.

  I froze, my eyes darting to his. Had he felt that electricity?

  "Sorry," he said withdrawing his hand.

  "It's fine," I said.

  I took out two donuts and handed him one. Our eyes met again.

  I ripped my gaze away and focused it on the scuffed leg of the airport table.

  Shit. Talk about cutting sexual tension with a knife.

  I glanced warily over at Adrian, but he was too deep in Sugar Heaven to have noticed anything.

  And yet, under my unease about the obvious attraction between Pierce and me, there was something else.

  I’d forgotten how good it felt to feel like this. Powerful. Wanted.

  I wanted more of it.

  So, lifting a frosted finger to my lips, my gaze locked on Pierce, I slipped it in my mouth. As he watched, entranced, I sucked.

  Pierce's gaze was enrapt with me. All of a sudden Adrian burst out, "Seriously? You guys?”

  "What?" Pierce said, tearing his gaze away.

  Adrian gestured at the two, still mostly full, barrels in front of him. "You guys gonna make me finish all of this myself?"

  "You are the one who bought that insane amount," I pointed out.

  "Yeah, yeah."

  We got onto our plane quickly enough, although by then I noticed the man who'd been sitting nearby at Dunkin' Donuts. The one who followed us all the way onto the plane.

  A few steps in and I gripped Pierce's arm.

  "What is it?" he asked, his gaze shooting around.

  I opened my mouth to speak, and the man got to me first.

  12

  Pierce

  As a swarthy man approached, I instinctively stepped in front of Sasha. So, the Mob had gotten a man on the inside of the plane.

  He’d have to get through me first if he wanted to get at Sasha.

  But the man only lifted something pink and held it out. "Miss? You dropped your headband."

  I could feel Sasha's chest press into my back as she exhaled with relief. "Thanks."

  I turned to her, and she was blushing. "Sorry. I thought…"

  She released my arm. It tingled after her touch. "It's fine."

  We sat ourselves down, with Adrian in the middle.

  He immediately got to drinking, while I tried closing my eyes. Even if I was horrible at sleeping on planes, maybe this time I could manage.

  But as I sat there, the only thing that kept replaying through my head was the irresistible sight of Sasha, her donut-sugared finger inserted between her lips. The way she looked at me, had she known that I couldn’t help but imagine my cock where her finger was? She must have.

  Fuck.

  I opened my eyes.

  "Can't sleep either?" she asked.

  "I've always been terrible at it, especially on planes,” I said.

  "Me too. Not like this one." She gestured her head to Adrian, whose head was slumped back, snoring already. "He's always been the good sleeper."

  "Tell me about it," I said. "He’s fallen asleep during an IMAX before. Then again, I probably should've guessed, after your parents showed us all those baby pictures. Adrian was sleeping in half of them."

  Sasha smiled a little. "My parents showed you those?"

  I nodded. "Just about killed Adrian too. He kept moaning and only took solace in stuffing his face."

  Sasha giggled. "That's one of my parent's favorite things to do, pull out the old photo album."

  "The pictures are pretty cute," I said. "Adrian looks the same."

  "He is the same," Sasha said, shaking her head. "He's always been loud, boisterous, a bit crazy. And me…" she trailed off.

  "You looked pretty different," I admitted.

  Sasha’s gaze was trained out the window, at the tiny city lights we were passing over. "I am different, I suppose. I used to be a lot more like Adrian."

  Her smile was sad.

  "You’ll get to see more of him now,” I said.

  Sasha wrinkled her nose. "Not sure that’s entirely a good thing."

  "What, you mean other than the whole fake marriage thing?"

  Sasha paused. So, I had said it. I’d been wondering who'd bring it up outright, and I hadn't really intended to mention it just then. It had just happened.

  "I wish there were another way," she said, not meeting my eye. "I tried thinking it over. But this seems like it's the easiest." She smiled a bit ruefully. "Guess I'll have to start thinking of myself as a divorcee now."

  "Whoa there," I said. "We haven't even gotten married, and you're thinking of divorce?"

  She giggled. "You're right. Maybe we’ll defy the odds of fake marriages."

  Now it was my turn to laugh.

  "To be fair," I said. "I've heard of some of those mail-order bride situations actually working."

  Sasha’s gaze shot to me and there was nothing jokey about it. "I'm not a mail order bride."

  We’d been unconsciously leaning forward, closer to each other, but at that, she sat back in her seat.

  "Of course," I said. "I didn't mean it that way."

  A long silence.

  "I know," she said. "I'm sorry. I’ve just been on edge for a while now. As you can probably guess, I didn't have the greatest time with my ex."

  "I'm sorry."

  "Don't be," she said softly. "I don't want your pity. And I don't deserve it. No one forced me into this. I was the one who stayed for far too long. Kept hoping things would change even when I knew better."

  Sasha shook her head decisively. "No. It doesn't matter now."

  "Yes, it does," I said before I could think better of it.

  Sasha caught my eye, and her brown eyes were fierce. "No. It doesn't. I can't let myself dwell on how Aleksi changed me. I can't let it make me any more bitter than I already am. He's already taken so much."

  There wasn't anything to say to that. Damn, I could've gone for one of the wines Adrian had ordered right about now.

  "I know what you're probably thinking," Sasha said suddenly. "How could I have been so stupid to let things get to this point?"

  "No," I replied. "Not at all. I know how they did. We lie to ourselves about the people we love, until we’re so deep in it, that even we hardly know what the truth is anymore. Least of all how to get out."

  Our eyes locked. At some point we’d started leaning toward each other again, and even, separated by Adrian, we were one more lean away from being lip to lip.

  It wasn't a matter of ‘wanting’ to kiss Sasha anymore. I had to.

  "There's something I forgot to mention," Adrian piped up.

  13

  Sasha

  I fell back into my seat fast, heart pounding. Luckily, Adrian was only half awake, rubbing his eyes sleepily.

  "I booked the wedding." He looked at his watch. "Tomorrow."

  He grinned and closed his eyes again.

  "That soon?" I said, catching Pierce's eye.

  He’d clearly been told this before and was okay with it. Did I have any real reason not to be?

  "What?" Adrian was saying now. "Rather do it the old-fashioned Russian way and wait a week?"

  I dropped it. Adrian was right. It was a fake marriage after all. If we were going to do it, we might as well do it fast.

  I gathered my hair into a ponytail and put it up. I hadn’t flown much, but the few times I had, something about the stale air got to me. The goosebumps on my arm told me I was cold, but the burning flesh on my chest and around my head said otherwise. I took a deep breath of air and then closed my eyes.

  As for what had just happened with Pierce; I guess I should have been grateful that Adrian didn't catch us. Who knows what crazy shit would've gone down then? But still.

  How many minutes had it been since we’d almost kissed, and my heartbeat was still sped up? Part of me wanted my brother to fall back asleep, to touch Pierce lightly on the cheek, and have his eyes meet mine with silen
t understanding. I wanted to finish what we started.

  But it was a bad idea. Pierce was bad news, Adrian had said so himself. And anyway, he was off-limits. I was getting fake married to the guy, not going out on a date. Although, if he did invite me on one…

  I shook my head. Forget it. Even if Pierce wasn’t what I'd expected, even if he was more handsome and kind and funny and charming in person, it didn't matter. My heart was bruised, and I didn't really know the first thing about him. And he only knew the shit parts about me.

  I snuck a gaze at him out of the corner of my eye and caught him doing the same. I peeled my gaze away.

  Why hadn't he ever had a serious relationship last, anyway?

  A guy like that, handsome and funny and caring and… Stop it.

  "You guys," Adrian moaned. "So noisy. I was trying to sleep, you know?"

  I knew my brother was teasing us, but I put my arm around him in a side hug anyway.

  I’d been so busy worrying and freaking out over my own situation, that I hadn't even considered all the effort he'd gone to, to come rescue me and make sure I stayed safe. Last-minute plane tickets weren't cheap, and it wasn't like Adrian didn't have a full-time job.

  "Thank you," I told him. "For coming to get me. For everything. For having my back."

  Adrian's eyes opened, and he put his arms around me too. "Of course. You're my little sister. It's in the job description to protect you."

  “But still," I said. "You didn't have to do all this. You might've just saved me."

  "Let's not go too far now," Adrian said. "I mean, don't mobster's wives get certain privileges. Can’t you like, own a town or something?"

  "Adrian," I warned.

  He knew better than to tease me about it. All I'd hinted at, was that Aleksi was involved with them and up to no good, I'd never out and said what it is he was doing or that he was even in the Mob itself. I intended to keep it that way. Hopefully, that would make Aleksi drop the matter of coming after me if I was lucky.

  "Okay, okay," he said. "Just promise to make me the best man when you get married." He winked, nudging Pierce and me at the same time.

  "Now that I mention it,” Adrian added, “There is one more thing…."

  14

  Pierce

  At that point, I could've punched the guy. How many times did he have to make me even tenser by mentioning something else he’d forgotten?

  "What is it now?" I asked through gritted teeth.

  Adrian waggled his brows in an expression of extreme offense. "Someone should have had wine too. Anyway, this is a good surprise, you'll see. I booked you two a suite at this fancy-ass hotel for when we land. Yes, it has two beds. But it's hell-a-fancy. Cost me like a week's worth of pay. It was the least I could do."

  I digested this information. Was it good news? Maybe if I wanted to bang Adrian's hot sister. But here was the thing, if sitting on the same plane and resisting how attracted to her I was hard enough, how easy would it be staying in the same hotel room as her?

  "Whoa," Adrian said. "Don't thank me all at once. You guys don't have to go. I mean, I have a friend or two I could invite."

  A smile drifted to his face as he clearly thought of whatever girls he’d been involved with recently.

  "No, it's fine," Sasha said, smiling shyly. "We’ll take it."

  "Sounds great," I said, not meeting her eye.

  Clearly, she'd been trying to avoid giving into the thing between us too, but was she resigned to it now? Maybe she had the right idea. Maybe it was just one of those things you needed to get out of your system. Get it done and get over with. Maybe all I needed to do was fuck Sasha and then finally, I’d be free of this tension in my body that made my head spin.

  Although part of me wondered how Adrian could be so dense as not to see what was going on between Sasha and I. Then again, the guy was partially drunk and hopped-up on stress.

  The plane landed shortly after, and before we all set out in a taxi, Sasha went to the bathroom.

  As soon as she was gone, Adrian asked, "Should I cancel the room? Is it weird?"

  "Is that a rhetorical question?" I asked.

  Adrian chuckled reflectively. "Okay. So, I can be kind of impulsive sometimes. But I can cancel it. No problem."

  I held my tongue. It was ripping me in two – wanting to tell him to keep it when really, I knew that to be a good friend, I had to let him cancel it.

  When Sasha got back, Adrian said, "So Sash, I think I'll just cancel the suite thing. You probably want something more chill for your first night, right?"

  Sasha's face fell although she struggled to put a smile on top of it.

  "Sure. It's fine. Whatever is easiest."

  "No, you know what?" I said. "Let's do the suite, Adrian. You booked it. I want to see how nice it is."

  "You're sure?" Adrian squinted at me.

  "Sure."

  Adrian shrugged, then headed off. "All right, you two love birds. Let's get a taxi."

  On the way there, Sasha snuck me a smile although I hadn’t done it for her. Not really. I’d done it for myself. I wanted to be as close to her as I could.

  The taxi ride there was tense, no talking other than Adrian making comments about every other thing we passed like an overzealous tour guide. Finally, when he dropped us off at the Ritz-Carlton hotel, he waved. "Don't go getting married without me."

  And then we got out, and he was gone.

  Before I could say a word, Sasha turned to me and held up a hand. "Let's get one thing straight."

  15

  Sasha

  "I don't need protecting," I said.

  Pierce quirked his head at me. "Okay."

  "I might've been in way over my head with Aleksi in Russia, but I can fend for myself. I have my own business, my own life. I don't need a second big brother looking over my shoulder."

  I was surprised at the anger that vibrated in my voice. Was I trying to convince Pierce or myself?

  "Understood," Pierce said coolly.

  "So, you don't have to stick around now just to do your duty by my brother," I continued.

  "Understood," he said again. "I'll think about it."

  And then we walked in the glass doors that the doorman held open for us. My gaze slid around, uncertain where to stop. Aleksi had liked taking me to nice places. But it never felt real, it never sunk in. The hotel, with its wood-paneled desks and diamond-patterned marble floor, felt real. It felt really damn good.

  I let myself sneak another look at Pierce beside me. The broad V of his shoulders and waist and the way he moved with sure purpose made me hotter than I cared to admit to.

  We waited at the front desk while the concierge argued over the phone with Adrian, who was insisting he had booked the best room – the penthouse – while the concierge was equally sure that he had not when Pierce turned to me.

  "What do you want to do?"

  "What?" I asked. "You want to leave?"

  My face fell, and I regretted being such a bitch to him outside. Pierce was just trying to help. He wasn't being overbearing at all.

  "I'm sorry about before," I said. "I’ve just been on edge lately, and I have forgotten what it's like to relax."

  Pierce nodded, although did he didn't smile yet. "I'll forgive you on one condition."

  I arched a brow. "Being?"

  His eyes bore into mine. "You let me take you to dinner."

  I bit my lip as a smile tore at me. "Okay. Agreed."

  "We’ll be back," Pierce told the concierge, who was still arguing with Adrian, whose yelling we could hear even from several feet away.

  As we walked for the doors, I asked, "Do I get to know where we're going?"

  "No. It's a surprise."

  "And what if I want to change?"

  Pierce paused, then gestured to the bathroom we were passing before exiting. "Go ahead."

  Inside the bathroom, I stopped and paused. It was as if Pierce had read my mind. He had actually asked me out on a date. Even if he was just
doing so out of obligation to my brother, or just to be a nice guy, it was a date nonetheless.

  The only question was, how was I supposed to figure out what to wear to a place I wasn’t sure of?

  Then again, it was somewhere to eat, and the places around the hotel were nice. It would probably be somewhere rather fancy. At that point, I didn't really care anyway. I wanted to wear something that would look even better than the hot pink, sex-on-legs dress. Good thing I knew just the one.

  When I came out of the stall, clad in a red painted-on bodycon, I grinned at my reflection.

  She looked back at me; the grin painted on, the eyes terrified. Like a little girl playing dress-up.

  Was I really free of Aleksi? After so many years, had it really been that easy to walk away?

  What was I thinking, wearing that dress, playing that something could actually happen between Pierce and me when we already knew that it was headed nowhere permanent.

  I swallowed and closed my luggage; then I walked outside.

  One look at me and Pierce's gaze sharpened. He took me by the arm, and in my ear, his hot breath murmured, "Just what are you trying to do to me?"

  16

  Pierce

  Her look was pure ‘fuck me now.’ My cock twitched.

  "Who me? I’m just trying to get a free dinner," she purred in response.

  I laughed at her witty playfulness.

  "Well, you're on the right track," I said, resisting the urge to kiss her right there.

  We got a taxi, and we got to the restaurant in minutes.

  "Cool," Sasha said as she looked up at the revolving establishment.

  "You guys have anything like this in Moscow?"

  She shook her head. "We don't have a lot of things."

  "Excellent," I said.

  I can show you just what else you didn’t have in Moscow tonight, I thought.

  Inside the restaurant, the host was an old buddy of mine, so he took us to one of the choicest tables at once.

  Only once we were in the muted lights and sat across from each other, did I realize the mistake I’d made. With the deep V of her dress, every time Sasha shifted, it showed me more mouthwatering cleavage.