Together, we walk out of the bedroom with four big ass Russians staring at us, waiting for us to have some kind of reaction, my three Byki and her one. When they get nothing, they all go back to whatever they were doing before.
I spend the day getting to know Ashley. She’s sweet and kind, and I wonder how on earth she is married to the semi-scary Yakov. The way she talks about him, it’s as though he’s a big soft teddy bear, but not once has he ever given off that impression.
I wonder about Dominik, if he could be the same underneath all of his hardness? If he has a softness that he’d show to me?
I think that if I felt secure in us, if I knew that for certain he felt anyway other than possessive of me, then I could accept this arrangement between us a bit easier.
It’s the unknown that terrifies me. It always has. I need to have a plan that I can control. Right now, I’m at his mercy, and I hate it.
The unclaimed amount I’m staring at is startling. Manya has deposits into her personal account that do not match the income that the Bratva gives her. None of her figures match, and it’s not just a small discrepancy. It’s half of a million dollars. I pick up the phone to call Yakov. Normally, I wouldn’t bother him with the accounts, but this is no small thing. This is huge.
“Chekov,” he barks. I can tell he’s moving, his breaths uneven. Glancing at the time, I figure he is on his way home to check on Ashley, he’s been a mother hen with her pregnancy and has been home more often than at his office.
“I need you to come down here. We have a big problem,” I murmur quietly, knowing that Manya is probably straining to hear everything in this room.
“What’s this then?” he asks curiously.
“There is a discrepancy in the books, and not a small one.”
“On my way,” he grunts.
A few minutes later, Yakov walks into the office with a pissed off Manya behind him. My eyes narrow on the shrew, and I grin.
“She stays.” I lift my chin to the Byki who is behind her, and he nods once, closing the door behind us.
“What is this about?” she demands.
“Quiet,” Yakov orders. She wisely shuts her mouth.
I spend the next twenty minutes going over, in detail, exactly what Manya has been doing. The only thing I don’t know is how or where she came about this money. I’m completely aware that she’s not very bright, because she left a trail—and left it here in her office, no less. Obviously, she thought that nobody would ever catch her.
“What do you have to say for yourself?” Yakov asks, lifting his head from the paperwork he’s been studying to look at her. Sometime in the middle of my explanation, he came around the desk to look over my shoulder, to get a clear picture of everything that’s happened here.
Manya presses her lips together and stubbornly lifts her chin as she looks down her nose at us. Yakov doesn’t hide his hum of disapproval at her actions, and it makes her look guilty—extremely guilty.
“I am your boss. You answer me,” he rumbles as he stands to his full height.
“I have nothing to say,” she announces.
“Where has this money come from, Manya?” he demands. She lifts one of her shoulders in a shrug as her response. “Do you think that I’ll not extract information from a woman?” he asks. I let out a breath and stand as well.
She doesn’t blink, doesn’t even flinch, and that’s when I know that this hard-as-nails bitch has done something irreversible, and probably sickening all at the same time. The money is one thing. Stealing it is enough to get killed in this business, but I have a feeling this has more to do than just skimming some cash. She did something else.
“What did you do?” I ask on a whisper.
Her eyes snap to mine and she grins. Yakov walks to the door and murmurs to the Byki standing guard. Then, loud enough for her to hear, he instructs him to take her to the warehouse. I shake my head once, knowing what that means, understanding that once she’s taken to the warehouse, she will never see the light of day again.
“Stay here and get this place straightened out. We need someone in charge of these girls, their schedules and everything. I’m going to deal with this cunt,” Yakov barks as the Byki drags her away.
I nod and turn to the computer. Luckily, I know how to run this part of the business. Not by chance, either. When the stable was smaller, this is exactly what I did. I ran the girls. I didn’t have a Madam; it was me and me alone.
Until I can find somebody else to do my job, it seems that I’m going to be a pimp.
It takes me more than an hour to get the women situated, to get their schedules in order, and to email them with their client list for the evening.
Then, I have to look at new clients for the end of the week and make sure that Manya verified them all properly.
She didn’t.
I find that out when I open a new client file and see that it is empty. There’s been no fucking background check started, and this man is supposed to meet with a girl on Friday. This is bullshit, and I hope that cunt burns for what she’s done. I text Yakov the information, and figure he can do with it what he wishes, then I go back to work.
It’s eleven in the evening before I’m able to head home. I wonder how Inessa has handled the day, and if she’s angry with me? I assume she is, but perhaps she’s come to terms with the way we’re going to be. I will not relent to anything until she is pregnant and mine.
I close my eyes and bite out a curse. I fucking forgot about my meeting with Oleg today. Christ, he’s going to be one pissed off Boyevik. I let my forehead fall to the steering wheel with a thump before I dial Yakov.
“Boss, sorry to call so late,” I mutter before he can even say a word.
“Not to worry. I’m just finishing up with Manya,” he says nonchalantly.
“I lost track of time, forgot about meeting Oleg,” I grumble. He chuckles.
“He will be pissed; but perhaps if we show up together bright and early tomorrow, he’ll get over it?”
“With Larisa there?” I ask, wrinkling my nose as I drive toward home.
“Yes, with Larisa in attendance. Better to accept her tantrum now rather than later,” he mumbles.
“Seven?” I ask.
“Pick me up at six, yeah?”
“Yeah, boss,” I grunt before hanging up.
I head home to pack a bag. I need some things to keep at Inessa’s until I bring her to my place permanently. I am in no way leaving her alone to get stupid shit in her head, and to build bigger walls against me. I’m going to show her that it will be good between us, and that we can have a content life being together.
I STARE AT THE wall, curled in a ball in bed, my back facing the bedroom door. It’s after midnight. My three Byki are still in the living area, the hum of voices coming from the television and their chuckles as they sit playing cards tell me they’ve not moved since I came in here, over three hours ago.
I fed them dinner and I came to bed.
Dinner I had made for Dominik.
Talking with Ashley lifted my spirits a bit. While hanging out with her, I decided that if her man can love her so adoringly, if that strong and scary man can be faithful and loving, then so can Dominik. I decided that the extra effort on my part is needed, I decide to embrace the situation I’m in.
It’s not as though I have a choice and giving up control over my life is going to be the hardest thing I have ever done. But if I have to, I’m glad that it’s with a man that I love, I just need him to love me back—if he could love me the way that I do him, then this situation would go from being suffocating and terrifying, to being absolutely ideal and dare I think—perfect.
Honestly, it’s not much different than if a contract had been made between us, so I’m going to make lemonade out of my lemons. I’m also going to try and salvage my career in the process. However, I’m going to be vulnerable in the process, because I think that having all of Dominik, will be the greatest treasure of all. Losing potential commission from
today was enough for me to play nice for the time being.
I decided all of these things around four o’clock in the afternoon. Now, after midnight, almost one in the morning, I’m thinking that I was mistaken. Now I’m angry, but also, I’m hurt.
This situation, and making the best of what we have, trying to show him that he can love me, and what a wonderful life we could have together, it’s going to be so much harder than I anticipated. I don’t know if this is a fight that I can even win.
I hear the door to my apartment close, low male murmurings, the television being turned off, then the door opening and closing again. It takes about ten minutes for all of it to commence, and that’s when I know that Dominik is home.
My body stiffens as I wait for him to join me. I hear switches being flipped and then my bedroom door opens with a whoosh. I left the bathroom light on so he could see; but for whatever reason, that’s not good enough, and he turns the light on above me, bathing me in the brightness of the bedroom.
“I know you’re awake,” he murmurs from the doorway.
I pinch my eyes closed tightly before I turn over to face him, putting my hands under my cheek. Dominik’s eyes scan me and he nods, as if to himself. I’m sure he can see my puffy eyes from crying, but he doesn’t say anything. I watch as he strips his clothes, leaving them in a pile on the floor before crawling between the sheets and sliding up beside me.
“It’s late,” I whisper.
“I had a shit day, yagodka,” he murmurs as he shifts my hair off of my shoulder and places a kiss on my bare skin.
“What happened?” I ask as I hold my breath.
I hope that he’ll give me some insight on him, perhaps even talk to me a little. In return, we can get to know each other. Maybe we can even begin to trust each other sooner, rather than, later.
“Just a bunch of bullshit,” he grumbles as he slides off the spaghetti strap of my nightie.
I’m wearing an emerald green, silk gown. It is soft and sexy, cut short to just below my ass, and it has matching bikini panties. I love little nightie’s. I’m usually the only person who sees them, as my trips to Dominik’s were always at his place, and I never spent the night.
“This feels good, Nessa,” he murmurs as he slides his hand over the fabric at my waist and drags it up to my breast. I gasp when he curls his fingers around me and squeezes my soft flesh.
“It’s silk,” I whisper.
“Yeah, but now it needs to be pretty silk that’s on the floor.”
I open my mouth to talk when he slams his own lips against mine and thrusts his tongue inside of me. He then tugs my nightie down my arms and body, and panties with it, down my legs, until I’m completely naked. He rolls onto his back, taking me with him, using his hands to press my body against his front, all while not breaking our kiss. I gasp when I feel his hands around my thighs, and he wrenches my legs apart so that I’m straddling him.
“Ride my cock, Nessa,” he growls into my mouth.
I’m wet, and his kisses are not something he’s given me a lot of, unless he wants to stop me from talking to him, and he’s so good at it that I always do as he’s asked. I take his dick in my hand and I slowly sink down on him. I pull away from him on a moan when I’m fully seated, when he stretches and fills me like only he can.
I’m so foolish, I think to myself as I rise and fall on his beautiful dick. Jesus, this man is too much. I slip my fingers between us to stroke my clit.
“Look at me,” he demands. My eyes fly to his—eyes I was trying desperately to avoid.
“You are so goddamn sexy, Inessa,” he murmurs as his hands cup my breasts and his fingers tug on my hard nipples.
I’ve never felt as sexy as I do with him. I have always felt like the sexiest woman in the world while inside of Dominik’s bed, even if that feeling never quite followed me out of his apartment. One of his hands leaves my breast and cups my cheek. My lips tremble when his thumb slides across them and traces them, his eyes focused intently on the motion of his thumb.
“Nik,” I whisper.
“Come, Inessa,” he rasps.
My hips buck, my fingers applying just the right amount of pressure against my clit, and I do as he wishes—just like I always do, because for him, I’m weak. I’m so weak that when his blue eyes meet mine, I crumble every time. Even though I know for a fact that I won’t like myself later. I do it anyway.
Dominik flips me onto my back and then thrusts inside of me. Every jerk of his hips sends a rush of heat throughout my body, his pelvis slamming against my sensitive clit, causing my body to begin to climb again.
“You feel so good, yagodka,” he groans as he wraps his hand around the front of my neck.
I gasp as he gently constricts my throat, tightening, and cutting off the majority of flow through my airway. It’s bliss. I gasp and he releases me before he plants himself deep inside of me and comes on a groan. Then his fingers drift between us. As he strokes lazily in and out of my pussy, he brings me to my own climax quickly. I come with a whimper before he buries his face in my neck and shivers above me.
I want to ask him where he’s been and who he’s been with, but I’m afraid that he’ll become agitated. Right now, with him inside of me, his face against my neck, kissing me and licking my skin every so often—the last thing I want to do is piss him off.
“You have a good day?” he asks, finally lifting his head.
I narrow my eyes, and he grins down at me.
“I had to give four clients to other agents. That’s four possible commissions I lost; so no, I didn’t have a good day,” I say bitchily.
“Hmmm, losing money makes you testy. Good to know,” he chuckles as he slides out of me.
I watch his tight ass as he walks into the bathroom, and I growl.
“Losing money doesn’t make me testy, Dominik. Being controlled to the point where I’m a prisoner in my own home, my choices taken away, and then being forced to lose business, which affects my career, those things make me pissed off, as they would piss off any other person,” I announce as I pull on my green nightie and follow him into the bathroom. I walk in just as he’s washing his hands and he lifts his head, his eyes colliding with mine in the mirror.
“Do not. Not tonight, Inessa. I’m here, you’re mine, and soon, we’ll be married. You don’t have to worry about money, because I have plenty,” he warns, his voice low and rumbling.
“So I’ll continue to be a prisoner, then?”
“You may leave with your Byki at your side as soon as I allow it. I’m in control here. Like it or not, that’s the way it’s going to be. You either accept that and make it easier on yourself, or you fight me and I tighten your reigns to the point where you feel as though you’re choking,” he states calmly before he turns around and walks out of the bathroom.
I close the door and take care of my business. As I’m washing my hands, I take a good look at myself in the mirror. I look freshly fucked, my cheeks flushed, and my eyes wide with my hair obviously wild. But I also look tired, frightened, and weak.
I look just plain powerless, and I hate it.
I hate myself because I’m not fighting him, and I know why I’m not. I would lose. I feel completely defeated as I dash away the few tears that have fallen and make my way back to the bedroom. Every single time he’s so much as in the same room as I am, I surrender to him. I don’t just give my body to him, no, I surrender everything to him. I give him my body, my heart, and a piece of my soul every single time he’s anywhere near me. I can’t help it—I can’t help myself. I wait for something to change every time, and it doesn’t—I have a feeling that it never will, either.
Dominik has his back pressed against the headboard, a sheet pulled up to his waist, and his phone in his hand. I try not to stare at him, but I can’t help myself. He’s so damn handsome and sexy.
“Come to bed,” he murmurs, not looking at me, his focus still on his phone.
I make my way to the bed and slide between the sheets,
trying to stay on my side as much as possible. I hear him let out a loud exhale before his phone clatters against the nightstand, and then I gasp when his arms wrap around me and he pulls me into the center of the bed.
“This doesn’t have to be all bad, Inessa,” he murmurs against the back of my neck.
“It certainly doesn’t feel good right now,” I admit, staring at the wall.
Dominik’s hand moves from my waist to cup my breast and he squeezes gently. He places a kiss against my neck, then my shoulder before he decides to speak.
“You’ll settle into your new life, and you’ll enjoy yourself. Go to the spa, go shopping, prepare for the baby,” he mutters against my skin. His lips feel so good on me; I almost don’t hear the words he’s saying.
“That sounds awful, Nik, and boring as hell,” I say.
I feel his body shake behind, me and he pulls me a little closer into his front, my back nestled against his chest, my ass against his pelvis.
“Are you sure you’re a Russian Bratva printsessa?” he chuckles.
“I’m not any kind of princess. Uncle Pavlov did not hand me every little thing I desired in life. I’ve worked hard for where I am, and I’m not going to just roll over and become some boring woman who spends her days at the spa. No, thank you.”
“He gave you that car,” Dominik says as his hand squeezes my breast.
“He did. He’s always provided for me; but I’ve worked hard for the things I provide myself—like this apartment, my clothes, and everything else,” I say as my body stiffens.
“Calm yourself, yagodka. I’m not questioning your work ethic, I’m just saying you don’t have to anymore,” he says, his voice calm and low. I hate how much I love his gentility.
“Honestly, it doesn’t matter what I want. You make the decisions now, right?” I ask.
“Inessa, don’t,” he says, his voice firm and slightly raised.
“I’m tired, Dominik,” I whisper and close my eyes.
He lets out a frustrated breath but doesn’t say anything else. Eventually, I fall asleep. I do this wrapped in his warm arms, one hand at my breast, the other underneath my pillow, and one of his legs nestled between mine.
Tempting the Badman (Russian Bratva #5) Page 10