Tempting the Badman (Russian Bratva #5)

by Hayley Faiman

  I fist her skirt in my hand, lifting it as I do, walking her toward an empty wall until her back hits it. Then I pick her up and press her against it, my lips traveling down her neck to the top of her chest.

  “Dominik, not here. We can’t,” she protests on a moan as I slide her panties to the side as her hands unbuckle my belt. I grin against her skin as she unzips my pants and takes my cock out.

  “Guide me in, Nessa,” I whisper before I nip her skin.

  She does, pressing the head of my cock against her opening. Her head falls back against the wall as I sink inside of her.

  I press against her body with my hips as I fuck her, slowly. Inessa’s fingers dig into my shoulders, and her head comes up, her eyes on me. “Harder, Nik—fuck me harder,” she begs. I lose all control.

  I surge inside of her, fucking her with all of my strength, wrapping my hand around her thigh and opening one of her legs, taking her. My eyes focus on our connection, on the sight of my glistening cock sliding in and out of her tight cunt. Christ, it’s so beautiful; most beautiful sight I’ve ever seen. Then her hand is there, stroking and touching herself, bringing herself toward her climax.

  “Christ, fuck, Inessa. Get there, yagodka,” I hiss.

  I continue to pound my cock into her body, loving the way her breath hitches. I need the way her pussy flutters and then grows wetter with each stroke of my dick. I know when she comes it’ll feel like heaven on earth.

  “Yes, oh, god, Nik,” she cries out as her cunt clamps down so tight around my cock, I swear to Christ, I see stars.

  I thrust inside of her, hard, four more strokes, until I fill her with my own climax. I roar as my head falls back, and then I still, my cock rooted deep inside of her.

  “We shouldn’t have done that here,” she murmurs.

  “We’re going to do that, and more, in every fucking room when we close escrow,” I grunt as I slide out of her and arrange her panties back in place.

  “I should clean up,” she whispers as I tuck myself back in my pants and rearrange.

  “Nyet,” I grunt.

  “Why?” she asks, scrunching her nose up.

  “Because I’m going to finger fuck you all the way home, and I want to know my cum is filling you over and over again,” I grunt.

  “Dominik,” she whispers as her face pinks.

  “Write up the offer once we get home,” I mutter, wrapping my hand around her back as I guide her out of the bedroom and toward the front door.

  “Okay,” she whispers.

  I make good on my promise. I finger fuck Inessa until she’s come two more times. Then she writes up the offer before we eat dinner. After we’ve eaten, we shower, and I consume dessert before I demand that she rides me.

  It’s one of the absolute best days of my fucking life, and I’m glad that I spent it with her.

  It’s only fitting, considering today is my birthday.

  I’M AT THE TITLE company’s office, waiting. It’s been three weeks since our offer was accepted, and today we’re supposed to sign all of the paperwork to close escrow on our house in Scarsdale.

  I press my hand to my stomach. I’m now four months pregnant and barreling into my fifth month. I feel huge, even though I’m not—not really. I finally did have to break down and buy maternity clothes, though. There just wasn’t enough stretch in my regular clothes to facilitate my growing belly, and unfortunately, my equally growing ass.

  Dominik is late, something he’s made a habit of lately. He’s been coming home less and less often, and when he does, it’s later and later in the evenings. I’ve been busy taking classes for my broker’s license, so I’ve been trying not to let it bother me.

  It seems as though his patterns from before we were married have returned, but I’m trying as hard as I can not to think about it. When I do, it depresses me.

  Ignorance is bliss has become my new motto.

  The day we found this house, I thought it was a page turner. We seemed so good. Then it was back to work as usual, except work kept turning from eight hour days, to ten, to twelve, to sixteen. Now I’m lucky if he comes home at all. When he does, it’s usually to fuck and sleep, and then he’s out of bed before dawn.

  The push and pull is too fucking much.

  I don’t know how much more I can take from this man.

  I’m starting to lose hope that we’ll be anything but this married couple that occasionally sees each other. I’m starting to lose hope that he’ll ever feel anything but a physical attraction toward me. I thought that I saw a glimpse behind his thick wall once, but maybe I just wanted to see it. Maybe I was just being too hopeful.

  “I’m so sorry, let me try calling him again,” I murmur to the escrow agent, a woman I’ve worked with a hundred times, a woman that frankly frightens me a little bit. She is zero nonsense, and I can tell this situation is pissing her off.

  I walk out of the conference room to see Stas leaning against the wall.

  “Has he called you?” I ask him.

  He shakes his head. Taking my phone out of my dress pocket, I call Dominik again. It goes straight to voicemail.

  “Nik, where are you? These papers have to be signed today. You promised you’d be here,” I whisper on the verge of an emotional breakdown.

  I have a doctor’s appointment in forty-five minutes, and he was supposed to go with me to that as well.

  “Is there a way we can try and rework the paperwork so that I’m the only purchaser?” I ask, walking back into the room.

  Jeannie, the agent, narrows her eyes on me and shakes her head once.

  “Look, I know you, so I’ll be generous. If you two can come down here before end of day and get this done, I’ll squeeze you in. I’m only doing this as a favor,” she says, arching a brow. She wants me to use her consistently, more business for her. I nod in agreement.

  “Okay, yeah, thank you so much,” I murmur. She stands as she holds her hand out. I shake hands with her, our silent agreement, and I walk out.

  “Where to?” Stas asks, walking after me.

  “Take me to his whorehouse,” I demand. Stas makes a gurgling sound in the back of his throat.

  I could give a shit. I’m going to talk to him, and he’s going to make some fucking decisions. I love him, but this is not okay with me. Not anymore.

  “Maybe he’s in a meeting,” Stas offers as we drive toward his office.

  I ignore him, choosing to stare out the window instead. A few minutes later, Stas wisely decides to stay silent and drive.

  “Inessa,” he murmurs as we pull up to the house.

  Dominik’s Audi is parked right in the drive, so I know he’s there. I ignore Stas and get out of the car, stomping to the front door and walking inside without so much as a knock. I’m a woman on a mission, and that mission is to tear my husband a new asshole.

  I’ve had enough.

  All of this is because it’s what he wants. The marriage, the baby, the house, and he can’t be bothered to come to sign the fucking closing documents.

  Hell no.

  Hell fucking no.

  The living room is full of people, all men. All Bratva men. I blink slowly as I look around, realizing that they’ve all stopped whatever they’re doing, and they’re staring right at me. I search for Dominik, and when I spot him, I see he’s standing next to Yakov, and he looks irate.

  “Excuse me, one moment, please,” I hear his low growl before he starts walking toward me.

  His hand wraps around my bicep, and he practically drags me into his office before slamming the door behind us.

  “What in the fuck do you think you’re doing?” he asks, his voice a low rumble.

  “I’ve been calling you. Stas has been calling you. We had a meeting an hour ago,” I announce, crossing my arms over my chest.

  “If I don’t answer my phone, it’s for a fucking good reason. I don’t give a fuck what we were supposed to do today,” he barks.

  “We were supposed to sign our closing documents on o
ur house,” I say, my voice nothing but a hushed whisper. Dominik closes his eyes in one long blink and then pins me with his gaze.

  “I’m working.”

  “I see that, but I didn’t know, and I wouldn’t know, because you’re never home,” I point out. He nods.

  “Did it ever occur to you that I’m here working for a good fucking reason? That I’m not home because something is going on?”

  “No. I wouldn’t know about anything you do, because you don’t talk to me,” I whisper as my bottom lip starts to tremble. I refuse to cry, no matter how badly I want to.

  “Go home,” he murmurs.

  “We don’t sign those papers today, we don’t close escrow. Plus, I have a doctor’s appointment and a class, so no, I won’t be going home.”

  “I could give a fuck right now, Inessa,” he announces. I take a step back, feeling as though he’s psychically pushed me.

  “Dominik,” I whisper.

  “You want to know where the fuck I’ve been for the past three weeks? You want to know why I haven’t been sleeping, haven’t been eating, and haven’t been in our bed?” he practically yells. I nod, my eyes wide.

  He’s scaring me like he’s never scared me before. Right now, he’s every bit the dangerous man I know lies beneath him. Right now, he is a Bratva man, a badman. I can see how he’s gone from a kid in prison to a powerful Brigadier.

  “Oleg and Larisa put a fucking hit out on you,” he growls.

  “Okay,” I whisper.

  “Maybe they thought they wouldn’t get you alone, fuck if I know, but they did it,” he says. I nod, unsure of what to think about it.

  Oleg and Larisa were crazy, so it doesn’t surprise me, but I don’t understand what the problem is. They’re dead, and I’m not. It’s been weeks, and nothing’s happened.

  “A hit, Inessa, do you know what that is?” he asks, placing his fists on his hips. I lick my lips with a nod and look up at him.

  “They’re crazy; but Nik, nothing’s happened to me. I don’t understand the problem,” I shrug.

  “The problem is that they didn’t just put any fucking hit out on you. They used a professional. They used someone in the goddamn Cartel,” he growls. “This means that we can’t just cancel it. It wasn’t one of our men in the Bratva, and you’re a Brigadier’s wife, which means they’d be fucking with me, and I have power. It would be an honor of sorts for them to do it.”

  “So someone is out there looking for an opportunity to kill me?” I whisper.

  “Yeah.”

  “And you’re staying around here, working at all hours of the day and night?” I ask.

  “I’ve been trying to figure out who has the order, and who exactly is supposed to go through with the hit, so that I can stop him before he gets to you,” Dominik murmurs as his head drops slightly and he lets out an exhale.

  “I don’t know what to say,” I admit, looking at him.

  “Go home, Nessa. Stay there,” he suggests.

  “Stop my life, again, and be a sitting duck in the apartment?” I ask before shaking my head. “No, thanks, Dominik.”

  “Fuck,” he hisses. “For fucking once, Inessa, do what I tell you to.”

  “The world does not stop spinning because of this, Dominik. We’ll lose the house if we don’t sign those documents by five. I’m going to the doctor today to see my baby and find out the sex. If you don’t want the house, that’s fine, there’ll be other houses. However, you come or don’t come with me right now to the doctor’s, I’m still going.”

  I turn around and grab the handle of the door, and then he’s behind me. The front of his chest presses against my back and his mouth touches my neck, breathing heavily before he speaks.

  “I can’t lose you, Inessa,” he whispers against my skin.

  “You’re pushing me away, Dominik. You could have told me all of this weeks ago, but you didn’t. You’re avoiding me, staying away from home, and you’re evading what you said you wanted, which is a real home. I’m going to the doctor right now, then I have class. I guess I’ll see you—later.”

  I walk out of his office. He doesn’t stop me, he doesn’t say a fucking word to me, he just lets me walk. So I do.

  I ignore the men in the living room, especially Yakov and Pasha, who are looking at me like they want to say something. Konstantin is leaning against a wall talking to Stas.

  “Ready?” I ask Stas as I walk up to them.

  “Inessa, you okay?” Konstantin asks, placing his hand on my shoulder and giving me a slight squeeze.

  “I’ll be fine,” I murmur before I continue to make my way outside.

  Stas follows behind me silently. Thankfully, he stays that way until we pull up to my uncle’s office.

  I don’t bother telling Stas to stay inside of the car. He wouldn’t listen to me anyway. He follows behind me as I walk into Uncle Pavlov’s office and give the receptionist my name. Then he sits down next to me while I wait to be called back.

  It’s not that he’s extremely busy, most of his clients are Bratva members, their spouses, and their children; but he has a legitimate practice and an office, so every so often he has some patients that wander in from elsewhere.

  “Dominik is worried, but he can’t let it show,” Stas murmurs next to me.

  “It doesn’t matter,” I whisper.

  “Yes, it does.”

  I don’t bother arguing. There’s no point to it. Less than a minute later, the nurse calls me back. Thankfully, Stas doesn’t follow me.

  I do the routine, pee in a cup, weight, and then make my way into the little room and wait. Usually I would spend the few moments alone to browse my phone, check emails, and maybe even text Ashley to see what she’s up to. That doesn’t happen today. I’m lost in my own world. The weight of reality resting heavily on my shoulders.

  Somebody is out there in the world looking to kill me. I’ve always known the world was a kill or be killed kind of place, but I didn’t realize it was going to be literal in my life.

  I hear the door open, but I don’t bother lifting my eyes. I know that it’s my uncle. That is, until I feel a warm hand wrap around mine.

  My body stiffens as I look up and into the eyes I’ve come to love with all of my heart—Dominik.

  When Oleg’s wife delivered the file from her husband’s office, the file on my Inessa, I was livid.

  First of all, somebody from the Bratva was supposed to go through his office and documents, not her. Secondly, that piece of shit was an even bigger piece of shit than I had originally thought.

  A hit.

  He hired the Cartel to kill my wife. I thanked Mrs. Ivanova and sent several men to her home to gather everything else.

  I called Oliver, out in California, immediately. I told him to dig, dig as hard and as fast as he could. He’s come up with absolutely nothing. Not one fucking thing. It’s been weeks, and there’s somebody after my wife, lying in wait to kill her—her and my baby.

  “You hadn’t told her?” Yakov announces after Inessa storms out of the house.

  “Nyet,” I admit on a shrug.

  “Dominik,” Yakov sighs.

  “What new information do we have?” I ask, ignoring his obvious disagreement with the way that I’m handling my personal life. I could give a fuck what he thinks at this point.

  “I have a meeting with the El Jefe in Sunset Park,” Pasha explains. “It’s private, and I’m only allowed to bring one person.”

  ‘I’m going,” I announce. He shakes his head.

  “Yakov will join me. You’re too emotional and too close. This is your wife,” Pasha murmurs. I feel my spine straighten.

  “I’m what?” I ask.

  “You’re too close, Dominik. Stand down,” Yakov answers.

  “I fight my own fucking battles,” I grind out.

  “Nobody is fighting anything for you, Dominik. This is business—this is Bratva. We, as a group, handle our own, and you know that,” Yakov explains. I shake my head.

 
“This is because I wouldn’t marry that blyad and she got pissed. This is personal, a woman scorned, and it’s not Bratva business at all.”

  “Wrong. Oleg was Bratva, so this, what he did, it’s fucking business,” Pasha grinds out. “You don’t go. That’s my final say. Let your Pakhan handle it.”

  I turn and walk away from them, slamming the door behind me as I walk over to my car.

  “Go to Pavlov’s office with your wife,” Matvey calls out. I turn to him. “Finding out the sex of your baby, seeing it developed on that machine, it’s fucking indescribable. Go,” he urges.

  I don’t respond before sitting down in my car, starting the engine, and speeding off. It seems like, only seconds later, I’m sitting in the parking lot of Pavlov’s office. I blink, not remembering even one minute of the drive here as I stare at the front door.

  Walking into the office, I see Stas sitting in the waiting room. He lifts his chin toward me. I do the same and continue striding toward the door that leads me to the rooms. Pavlov is walking out of one room when he sees me. His mouth quirks before he tells me which room Inessa is in.

  Without knocking, I walk inside of where Pavlov said she’d be. My breath hitches at the sight of her. She’s still wearing her beautiful dress from just moments ago, but now her head is down and she looks so fucking sad, her brown hair falling around her face.

  Slowly, I walk up to her and I wrap my hand around hers. Only then does she look up, her eyes widening when she realizes it’s me standing next to her.

  “Dominik,” she whispers.

  My cock presses against my zipper, just like it does every single time she says my name, I thought I liked it when she called me Nik, but fuck even Dominik sounds like heaven from her lips.

  “Let’s see a baby today,” Pavlov announces as he walks into the room with a big smile on his face.

  He takes us to the ultrasound room. Inside, there’s a bigger machine than the last time, with a woman sitting in a chair right behind it. There are several chairs lined up along the wall, and Pavlov sits down in one, as do I. Inessa is given a blanket to drape over her legs, to hide her panties as she lifts her dress up and above her belly.