by Ker Dukey
“No one knows yet. But the way you and Ven flirt, people will start to notice,” I explain, low and urgent. She looks perplexed for a moment, then begins to laugh. It’s light and airy. Real.
“Oh, God, Irina,” she says through her giggles. “Ven and I are just friends.”
I raise a neatly plucked brow. “He’s not your lover?”
“No, of course not,” she assures me, her smile falling. Her heavily painted lashes bat quickly against her cheeks as if she’s wondering how I even came to this conclusion. “He doesn’t see me that way.”
She’s crazy. Every man sees her that way.
“Then who?” I ask, dumbfounded. I was sure it was Veniamin.
“Diana, Irina, you’re both a vision.” Vas’s voice wraps itself around us, followed by his arms. He kisses both of us on the cheek, and I want to tell him to jump off a bridge, but the fact is, it’s not his fault who his father is. He’s our brother. We have a brother.
“Where’s Father?” Diana asks, looking around like there’s a bomb about to go off.
“He wasn’t feeling well, so I’m here in his place to represent our family in wishing the happy couple luck.”
“Ha. He’s going to need it,” I snort. Poor Ruslan. What a nightmare that has been dropped in his lap.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Vas croons, dragging his eyes up Vika’s body. Yuck.
“She’s Medusa, Vas,” Diana grumbles. “Look hard enough and you’ll turn to stone.”
He smirks at Diana’s warning. “Well, a part of me certainly has.”
I crinkle my nose in distaste. “Gross.” Diana cringes. Vas laughs heartily and loud, gaining attention from other party dwellers.
“I’m going to get a drink,” I tell them and leave them to find a server. I feel the eyes of many men on me, watching as I pass by them, and nerves form in my stomach. I venture toward the back of the room and slip out of the French doors to grab some air. I’ve never been good in these environments, and I’m not used to being so on display and noticed. Diana is usually the fantasy on people’s minds and the compliment on their tongue, but there’s been a shift inside me, and it’s visible on the outside to others.
I’m coming out of the shadows and people are noticing.
The door opens behind me, and I shiver from the cold. A sigh of relieved breath escapes me when I see Vlad joining me in the night air.
“I saw you slip out here. It’s freezing, Irina,” he rumbles as he stands directly behind me, his body heat enveloping me. “What are you doing?”
“They’re out here,” I argue and nod to some party attendees mingling out in the courtyard. They’re smokers respecting the Vasiliev’s home by not smoking inside.
“They’re not you.” He presses his body against my backside, and I relax against him. “You smell divine.” His hot breath in my ear causes me to shudder. “You’re cold.”
It’s a statement, not a question.
I answer him anyway. “Yes.”
“Then I should warm you up. You’ll catch pneumonia out here.”
With that, he shimmies my dress up my legs.
“Vlad,” I warn, but he doesn’t listen. He never does.
I brace my hands on the stone wall separating me from the twenty-foot drop where all the smokers are. His fingers glide beneath the fabric and pull my panties to the side. “Tilt your pelvis, my sun,” he urges. I hear his zipper pulling down and him fumbling to free himself. His heavy cock smacks against my ass and wet arousal floods between my legs. I push my hips back to give him access, and he groans, urging my legs apart with his thigh. His cock slides against me again, and then he’s inside me. The burn ignites the raging fire within me, and I’m burning, completely aflame. He thrusts forward, and I want to cry out, but bite down on my lips to hush myself. Strong hands grip my hips, using me as he pleases. I snake my hand down and under the fabric of my dress, finding my throbbing clit. I circle my fingers there just like Vlad taught me via many of our indiscretions this month.
“Pinch it, Irina,” he demands, and I obey. The stars dance in the sky above me as the music plays from inside the house. I moan out, unable to stop myself. Vlad shoves his fingers in my mouth, and I bite down hard, coming undone.
The orgasm powers into me, weakening my legs and sending tremors through my bones, curling my toes.
Vlad’s thrusts increase, and then I feel his seed flood inside me. Once his cock stops throbbing out his release, he pulls out of me and slips my panties back into place, dropping my dress and kissing my neck.
“The moon is beautiful tonight,” I say, feeling like I’m dreaming all of this.
“You’re the brightest moon, Irina. There’s nothing more beautiful than you.”
My breath catches and a tear beads at the corner of my eye. I wish our lives weren’t so complicated. That we could walk back in there, hand in hand, standing like fierce lions facing our families as a united front. Telling them that our coupling is one we choose and they can go to hell.
“We should get back inside,” he grumbles, his tone sounding much how I feel inside. “You’ll catch your death.”
“Okay,” I murmur. “I’ll go in first.” All the happiness from moments before drain from my body. I pull away from him and start for the doors.
“Irina,” he calls out, stopping me.
I turn to see him prowling toward me with fierce determination glinting in his amber eyes. He grasps my face with both palms and tugs me to his lips, crushing me beneath his claiming kiss. His hands slide down my throat and then down to my hips. He wraps me up in an embrace, holding me so tight I can barely catch my breath. He kisses me raw and unhurried.
This moment is ours.
His tongue duels with mine and right then, I know we’re going to be together…
I just don’t know how.
I creep inside and make my way to the nearest restroom. My panties are ruined. Vlad’s seed has seeped out of me and soaked them, so I slip them off and stuff them in the trash can.
I wash up and then make my way back to the guests before Diana sends out a search party. I’m just stepping out of the restroom when I hit the steel wall that is Stepan, startling me.
“Hey,” I choke out, surprised to see him loitering outside the bathroom. His eyes bore into me as if reading the guilt written all over my sex-heated skin. I try to move past him, but he blocks my way. “Stepan,” I say sharply, swallowing down the unease he creates now whenever he is near. “What are you doing?”
He stares at me, his gaze dragging along my features and stalling at my lips. “I dreamed about you.” His brows furrow and his eye twitches. I’m a little stunned and don’t know what the appropriate response is to that.
“You were sleeping so peacefully in the dream,” he murmurs. “So perfect.”
My stomach clenches with nerves. “I’m getting a little uncomfortable,” I utter, honesty bleeding from my words.
“No,” he rushes out, closing in around me. My heart begins to stampede in my chest. “I mean, you don’t need to be frightened of me.” His tone is urgent. He grips the wall on either side of me, his breath mingling with mine.
“I’m not afraid of you,” I lie, trying not to shudder.
“It wasn’t a dream though,” he says.
“What?”
“I found myself walking past your bedroom,” he explains. “You keep your door open at night.”
Thud.
“I thought it was a dream,” he murmurs and shakes his head trying to clear it. “My thoughts can get chaotic, so I wasn’t sure, but that guy was in your room.”
Thud.
“What guy?” I’m going to be sick. Is he talking about Vlad? Does he know?
“Your sister’s bodyguard. He was watching you sleep.”
What?
He’s talking about Anton?
“He’s harmless,” I say, perplexed. “He was probably just checking on me.”
He swallows, a look of pure evil passing in his eyes.
They’re desolate—like I’m looking into a portal to hell itself.
“He was touching himself.” He grips my arms and shakes me as if to drive home the point.
What?!
No. No. Anton’s like a father to us.
“You’re wrong,” I choke out, hot tears welling in my eyes as I wriggle in an attempt to leave his grasp.
It’s not true.
Stepan is clearly crazy and doesn’t know what he saw.
“I’ll kill him,” he hisses, spittle landing on my face. “For you, I’ll kill him.” He leans forward and inhales my hair.
I think he’s a little insane and confusing weird dreams he’s been having with reality.
“Thank you, but I’ll deal with this myself.”
He releases me, pulling back and pushing into the restroom. I’m left free and completely weirded out. There’s a flaw in his code, that’s for sure. I rush down the hallway, eager to get away from him. I need to process what he’s said to me and far away from him at that.
Vika is in a heated conversation with Ven when I approach a waiter standing close to them. My heart rushes when I see Vlad standing directly behind them. The look on his face turns my blood cold. Violent and furious. It’s the face of the killer lying dormant under his skin. Whatever they’re discussing, he doesn’t like it.
I want to rush over to him and beg him to hold me. Plead for him to tell me everything is fine. That what just happened moments ago was just silly ramblings from a madman. It can’t be the truth. My mind won’t allow it.
Ven grabs Vika’s arm and growls something at her, but Vlad steps back and then takes off. I hurry to follow him and track him to his office. When I reach the doorway, he’s already seated, glaring down at his computer monitor. Disgust is painted in an angry sneer on his handsome face.
“Vlad?” I choke out as I rush into his office. “What’s wrong?”
Her scent is all over me, and it sends my mind racing. I was just inside her, yet I still crave her. She’s like a drug I can’t cope without. I need a hit constantly.
I search the room for her, but she’s nowhere. I made quite a mess of her, so she’s more than likely cleaning up. I take a drink from a server and down the contents. Vas-the-new-Volkov approaches, and I haven’t had enough to drink to deal with him right now.
“Vlad, or shall I call you brother now?” he asks, a smirk on his face. “You are marrying my sister, after all.”
I snort. “You can call me sir or master, Vas.”
He narrows his blue eyes on me, and I can imagine the ways he’s thinking of carving me up. I’d have the same thoughts if spoken to like that. Running a hand down his cheap suit, he watches the room just like I taught him. “Is that what Diana calls you?” he teases, trying to get under my skin. Foolish boy.
“In fact, it is,” I torment. “Or Daddy when the mood strikes.”
He grinds his teeth, then makes his first mistake. “Father and I have decided Irina will return home where she belongs. I have plans for her.”
Ice cold fury shrouds me in its chilly grip. “She belongs here, and no one is taking her away,” I grit out in warning.
“You get Diana, Vlad,” he says. “Irina returns to the fold.”
My fist clenches and I’m dying to ram it through his stupid nose like I’ve done hundreds of times when he answered to me down in the basement. Instead, I glower at him.
“Don’t come into my home and make demands of me,” I snarl. “It’s a death warrant.”
“It’s not a demand of you,” he bites out, ignoring my threat. “It’s of her.” He places his glass down and saunters off into the crowd.
I’ll kill him and feed him to his stupid daddy if he even tries to remove Irina from me.
She’s fucking mine.
I spy a server and make my way over to him, stopping when I overhear Vika speaking to Veniamin.
“It’s true, Ven, precious Diana and that old man, Anton, are up to no good behind my good brother’s back.”
“Your lies will get innocent people killed, Vika,” Ven grits out. “Diana is nothing like you, so stop projecting.” He grabs her arm, sneering down at her.
She snatches her arm and bites back, “I saw them with my own eyes. They were kissing like high schoolers at prom and then disappeared into her hotel room when we went away to buy my dress.”
My head begins to throb with information overload. Diana is fucking Anton? He’s as old as my goddamn father. Have they been doing that under my roof? Right under my nose for over a fucking month? Is that why she wanted him to come here with her? How did I miss this?
I miss nothing.
Anger explodes within me.
It’s not often I get blindsided, and when it happens, I make motherfuckers pay.
I march down to my office, needing answers, and flick the computer on. I bring up the first week’s feed from when they arrived in Diana’s room and fast forward until my heart stops.
Anton enters her room.
Goddammit.
I knew she wasn’t a virgin.
I can’t watch that old man rutting on her. I fast forward to him leaving her room and change to the corridor cameras. They must be stupid and have a death wish to do this shit in my house. It’s not the fact that Diana is fucking someone else, it’s the who, and the deceit—the brazen disloyalty. She told me she was a virgin and insisted on bringing that man here. Leonid will lose his mind over this. If it gets out that I allowed this to happen under my roof with no retribution, I’ll be a laughing stock.
I stare numbly at the screen, my mind racing with building anger.
It’s been ten minutes that Anton has been back in his own room when his door opens again.
How many times can he go at his age?
But it’s not Diana’s room he creeps into this time. It’s Irina’s. My heart feels like it’s going to burst from the ribs containing it.
No.
Please fucking no.
If she’s sleeping with him too, I’m going to be sick.
My guts coil as I click on the screen to her room.
“Vlad? What’s wrong?” Irina’s voice calls from the doorway. She floats toward me, and I have to hold up my hand to stop her. If this shows any signs of Anton and her touching, I can’t trust myself not to kill her.
I drag my eyes from Irina and glare at the screen. She’s asleep in her bed, oblivious to the fact that he’s even in there. He stands at the foot of her bed and pulls his cock from his slacks.
Motherfucker.
“Oh, God,” Irina cries out. I hadn’t even noticed her approach this side of the room.
Her eyes tear up, and she clutches her stomach as if to hold in the sickness she’s clearly feeling.
“It was him,” she gasps, almost choking.
“What was him?” I demand, my blood igniting with rage.
“I thought it was a dream.”
“What, Irina?!” I roar, losing it. I know what she’s going to say. I can feel it in my bones. I don’t want to hear it, but I need to.
Her eyes are wide and filled with terror like a deer caught in headlights.
“Someone touched me when I was a young girl,” she whispers, the tears in her eyes spilling down her cheeks. “Just once, and Diana’s presence scared them away. I thought it was a dream, but it’s coming back to me. I blocked him out, but now he’s so clear. It was Anton.”
The rage that had been surging to the surface explodes. I rise to my feet, sending my chair hurtling away from me and grab my monitor. With a furious roar, I launch it across the room and it crashes against the wall. The sound is satisfying, but my fury has no hope of being snuffed out. The calm, collected man has evaporated. In his wake stands the beast—the monster ready to rain hell down on this earth.
Opening a cabinet in the back of the room, I grab my fish hook knife and a bundle of rope.
Someone is going to die.
“Vlad,” Irina calls after me. “Vlad!”
I can’t
listen. I can’t stop. I’m going insane. My head is swirling with that motherfucker touching my woman, my Irina.
Dirty old man.
My face will be the last thing he sees as I cut him into fucking pieces.
I collide with Diana and Ven as I come out of my office like a tornado. Diana crashes against Ven, and he has to grip onto her to keep her from falling to the floor.
“Vlad?” Diana asks, fear written on her features.
Good, cunt. Be scared. Be so goddamned afraid. This shit ends tonight.
“Where’s Anton?” I growl so deadly, she pales and begins to cry.
“Vlad,” she pleads, her eyes spilling with tears of betrayal. She knows. She fucking knows what she did, and that I know too.
“Diana,” I snap.
She jumps at my tone. “I-I asked him t-to stay in his room t-tonight,” she stutters, sobs causing her body to tremble.
I take the stairs three at a time. Irina and Diana give chase, my name on both their lips as they call for me, but I’m faster than them both.
I kick open Anton’s door, and he jumps up from the chair he’s sitting in.
“What’s going on?” he asks, fear flashing in his eyes. He knows. He knows his life ends tonight.
I hit him hard with a closed fist, relishing the crunch of his jaw. His head snaps to the side, and then he’s attacking. But I’ve trained my entire life and easily dodge his punches. With quick moves he can’t keep up with, I wrap the rope around his neck, force him into the corridor, and tie the other end of the rope to the railing.
“Vlad!” Diana and Irina cry out in unison.
But it’s too late. I’m in a haze of rage, and nothing is dragging me back from it. I flick my knife out, and with enough momentum, I stick it into his groin, digging the blade all the way to the hilt.
“No!” Diana screams as I drag the knife up his stomach, tearing the flesh, cutting an opening right up to his chest. I stand back, then kick him over the railing.
Cries echo around me, and screams resound from below. A loud snap of his neck as it breaks and the splat of his intestines hitting the stone floor cause another ripple of screams.