by Ava Bloom
“Russia is colder,” Nikolai said. “In some parts, anyway.”
“Oh, I’m sure,” I said. I cocked my head to the side. “So now you know that I’m an English teacher. What do you do here in the city?”
Nikolai shrugged. “As I mentioned last night, I practically own Ritmo,” he said. “It’s part of the family business. I don’t have to work.”
“What, you just have oodles of money laying around that you have access to?” I asked sarcastically, expecting that it must be some sort of joke. I could tell that he was well off, of course, but surely he had to do some kind of work for it. Business meetings or consultations or something?
But Nikolai just smiled at me. I shook my head and took a sip of my coffee, trying to hide how impressed I was.
Impressed? That’s stupid; it’s not like he’s had to do anything to get that money, I thought. But I couldn’t help it. Here was a sexy, rich dude who wanted to have coffee with me… It was like something out of a movie.
Of course, I thought sourly, as soon as I had sex with him, he’d never want to see me again. Still, as the conversation turned to his hobbies and what he did in Barcelona since he wasn’t working, I had to admit that I found him interesting. Maybe sleeping with him wouldn’t be the worst thing that I could do.
I pushed that thought out of my mind immediately, reminding myself that I needed to stay focused. In fact, now that I was feeling a little better, I should head home and work on that curriculum…
But despite knowing that I should do that, I couldn’t bring myself to leave.
Chapter Three – Nikolai
Friday morning, I woke up hard and aching, rutting against my mattress in an attempt to find some relief. I groaned and felt around for my phone, peering at it. It was the third morning that week that I’d woken up from a sexy dream about Emily.
It was stupid, really. Was she attractive? Sure. But was she the most attractive woman in Barcelona? Of course not. She had nice curves, that was all, and a pretty face. But what made her so attractive to my subconscious, I knew, was the fact that she refused to sleep with me.
I sighed and shook my head. It was finally Friday, at least. I had a couple deliveries to make for Uncle Evgeni that day, but then that night, I could head out to Ritmo, get plastered, and find someone else to take home. I was sure that I could fuck the dream-memories of Emily out of my system pretty quickly, especially with one of the spicy Spanish ladies.
For now, I wrapped my hand around my member, muffling a groan as I started to pump it slowly, thinking about Emily’s mouth. She had such perfect, round lips. What I wouldn’t give to have those lips stretched around me, as I thrust into the warm wetness of her mouth…
That night, I pulled on a nice pair of dark jeans and a plain, white, button-down shirt. Casual but nice looking, that was what I was going for.
Ritmo was already busy when I got there, and I nodded a little to myself. This was going to be too easy. I couldn’t remember the English idiom for it, but I knew Aunt Vitka would have said it was as easy as boiling a turnip…
As I made my way to the bar, I bumped into someone. She stumbled a little, and I caught her, already preparing to give her some sort of heroic speech and offer to buy her a drink. The words died on my lips, though, when I realized that it was Emily who I was still hanging onto.
I brushed the imaginary dust off her sleeve and smiled ruefully at her. “So we meet again,” I said.
Emily groaned. “I knew I should be avoiding this place. I just wanted to come out and have a fun night.”
I snorted. “And I should be avoiding you,” I told her.
To my surprise, Emily looked indignant at that. “You should be avoiding me?” she snapped. “I’m not the one who has no personality aside from being a skeeze who tries to sleep with random women at his club.”
I raised an eyebrow at her, amused in spite of myself. “Is that really what you think about me?” I asked. She looked mortified, like she hadn’t meant to say that out loud, and I wondered how much she had already had to drink.
“I didn’t mean to…” She trailed off, and even in the dim lighting, I could see her blush.
“Well, if I’m just some skeeze, why do you care if I’m avoiding you?” I asked teasingly.
Emily ducked her head. “Because I don’t want to be the kind of girl that guys need to avoid,” she muttered.
“You’re not,” I said automatically. When she looked questioningly up at me, I shrugged expansively. “I need to avoid you because I can’t seem to avoid you,” I told her honestly. “I can’t get you out of my head. And I need to get laid, and I know that you’re not interested.”
Emily looked like she was about to say something, but then she guiltily turned away. Interesting… I wondered whether maybe she had a boyfriend, or an almost boyfriend, from back home. But she’d been away for long enough now that surely that wasn’t the problem. I wondered what it could be, though.
But before I could ask, she shook her head. “I have to go,” she managed to stammer out. Then, she slipped through the crowd, heading towards the exit.
I wanted to stop her. It would have been easy enough: grab her wrist as she turned, pull her back towards me. Kiss her passionately into submission… But I remembered what she had threatened the last time I’d seen her there at Ritmo, about calling security. Obviously the bouncers weren’t about to throw me out, but I didn’t need to cause a scene there either.
I sighed and let her go.
“Brother, there you are,” Andrei said, suddenly appearing at my side. He clapped a hand on my back and then steered me towards one of the booths at the back. I grimaced, wondering what exactly he thought that he’d just seen.
“So, is that girl the reason that you haven’t fucked anyone the past few nights?” Andrei asked, waggling his eyebrows at me.
I rolled my eyes. “If you’re going to interrogate me, you could at least get me a drink first,” I complained.
Andrei pushed his glass of vodka across the table towards me, and I downed what amounted to a couple shots in one quick go. “So?” Andrei asked the moment I put the glass back down.
“Andrei, I’m your older brother,” I reminded him.
Andrei snorted. “And?”
“I don’t have to let myself be interrogated by you.”
Andrei shrugged. “If you were going to get up and leave—if you didn’t want to talk about her—then you wouldn’t still be here,” he said, leaning back in the booth and looking smugly at me. “Now, I assume you want to talk to her. Maybe because you’ve seen me with Sarah and know that I know what I’m doing in a relationship?”
“I’m not taking relationship advice from you,” I said, rolling my eyes again.
“So don’t,” Andrei said. “But seriously, who’s the girl?”
“I met her last week,” I admitted grudgingly. “Her name’s Emily.”
“And she won’t let you sleep with her?” Andrei guessed.
I shook my head. “I don’t get it. She gave every sign of wanting to sleep together last time I saw her here at Ritmo, but at the end of the night, she made some lame excuse and left. Then, I ran into her while I was out running, and she went to get coffee with me. We had a nice talk, but I didn’t even get her phone number. Now, I ran into her again, and…well, you saw her. She acted like I’m a leper!”
“Well, it’s obvious that she’s interested in you,” Andrei said, frowning thoughtfully. “But she probably thinks you’re just a player, and she’s not the kind of girl to have one-night stands. Maybe you need to take her on a proper date first.”
“Because coffee wasn’t a proper date?” I asked.
“Not really, not if you just happened to bump into her. It needs to be something that you arranged ahead of time.”
“How am I supposed to arrange something ahead of time if she won’t even give me her number?” I asked, rolling my eyes.
To be honest, I didn’t even know why I was considering the idea. Wh
atever Emily was looking for, it apparently wasn’t the same as what I was looking for. Even if I took her out on a proper date and went home with her afterwards, she would expect something more to come of that. She would expect me to call her a couple days later, to start a relationship with her.
I wasn’t the relationship kind of guy.
“Come on,” Andrei said exasperatedly. “Don’t try to tell me that you couldn’t get her number in five minutes if you really wanted it. Maybe she won’t give it to you outright, but the Volkov family has…connections. She’s probably bought her drinks using her credit card; start with getting her last name.”
“Sounds like a lot of work just to get laid,” I muttered, taking another healthy swallow of vodka.
Andrei plucked his glass out of my hands. “You know it wouldn’t just be about getting laid,” he said.
“Oh really?” I snapped, lashing out at him because I couldn’t exactly lash out at myself. “What exactly do you think it would lead to?”
Andrei just looked amused. “You don’t need me to tell you that,” he pointed out. Before I could snap out a reply, he stood up and left the booth.
I stewed there for a moment, staring out at the crowd and trying to pick a different target for the night, one who was decidedly not blonde. But I couldn’t seem to settle on one. Instead, I took a bottle of the nicest vodka from the back room and headed home alone to drink myself into a stupor.
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Dmitry Preview
Vitoria
I would do anything to get Mama home from the hospital in good health.
Even if it meant having to work for the Audaz gang. Besides, they just wanted me to seduce some Russian pig and steal information about his organization.
Of course, I never expected that ‘Russian pig’ to be someone like Dmitry.
Caring, sexy, muscular, tattooed and oh so charming…how could I possibly resist?
Well now the stakes have risen, and I’m going to have to make a decision between my family and my love.
It should be an easy choice though…right?
Dmitry
When your family is part of the Russian mafia, and you own the most exclusive club in Barcelona, no one messes with you, and everyone wants to be with you.
I’ve become accustomed to getting what I want around here, especially when it comes to the ladies.
Then she walked into my life. Vitoria, a smart, funny, gorgeous girl with the heart of a saint.
What can I say, I was really falling for this one.
But she’s wound up in some serious trouble with the rival gang that could end up being the death of us both.
At least that’s what they think. I’ll protect her no matter what.
They have no idea who they’re f***ing with!
Chapter One – Vitoria POV
I grabbed my bags off the luggage carousel and walked out to meet my driver. As we drove through Barcelona, I could feel my body relaxing. It had been too long now since I’d been back to the city of my childhood. For the past few years, I hadn’t even been back for vacations; instead, my parents had come to meet me in different places abroad, trying to keep me from the city in any way that they could.
I knew their intentions were good. With Papa involved with the Audaz gang, he wanted to make sure that I was safe. That I never had to show where my loyalties lay. But I hoped they would finally realize that I was a grown woman and that I could handle the consequences of my actions.
Of course, they wouldn’t be as concerned with me at the moment, I thought darkly. Mama had come down with some disease that I had never heard of before, and it had put her in the hospital for the past month, her condition gradually worsening. I hadn’t known about any of it until the previous weekend; as soon as Papa had admitted it to me, I had booked my flight home.
I went straight to the hospital, instructing the driver to bring my luggage home and then circle back to pick me up. I should probably talk to Papa before I visited Mama, but I couldn’t find it in me to be patient. My biggest flaw, Mama had always said.
I paused in the doorway at the hospital, staring down at Mama. She looked pale and weak, her hair tangled against the pillow. I slowly sat down at the bedside, reaching for her hand and grimacing at how dry and cold it felt. Mama’s eyes flickered open as I tugged the blanket higher around her chin.
“Ah, mi hija,” she murmured, sounding like a ghost of her former self.
“Mama,” I whispered, overcome by emotion. I wasn’t going to lose her. The doctors said there were treatments for this. Expensive ones, but the cost didn’t matter. I wasn’t going to lose her. “I’ll get a job,” I told her fiercely. “I’ll help out with the payments. Papa doesn’t need to shoulder all of this on his own.”
Mama smiled, her eyes fluttering shut for a moment. “My brave, proud daughter,” she said. She pushed herself up against the pillows. “It’s not as bad as it looks.”
I raised an eyebrow at her, but there was nothing I could say in response to that. She had to know exactly how bad it was.
“There are treatments, though,” I pointed out.
“Yes,” Mama said, but she looked away from me, her expression guilty. “Your papa has had some hard times with his business lately. He didn’t want to tell you. But I’m afraid that the treatments are…out of the question.”
“No!” I said, shaking my head vehemently, refusing to believe it. “Mama, there must be some way.”
“There is,” a deep, male voice said from behind me.
I spun around to see my father’s friend Roberto, giving me an appraising look. Slowly, I rose to my feet. Mama looked less than happy to see him there. “Roberto Diego Ruiz, tu diablo,” she hissed, but that seemed to be all that her strength would allow for the day. I watched her eyes drift closed and worriedly looked to make sure she was still breathing, that her chest was still rising and falling normally.
Then, I let out a long breath and turned to Roberto. “Maybe we should talk out in the hallway,” I suggested.
Roberto inclined his head towards me and led the way. “University has agreed with you,” he said as he scanned my body.
I grinned at him and shook my head. “Roberto, you old rascal. You’re still my father’s best friend, remember.”
Roberto snorted. “It’s good to see you back in Barcelona where you belong, though,” he said. He paused. “As for the matter of your mother’s medical bills…Audaz is fully prepared to step in and pay for these treatments that she requires.”
I stared at him, wondering just what Papa had done to warrant that. But in a flash of understanding, I realized that it wasn’t about what Papa had done. No, there was a reason that Roberto was here to meet me the second I arrived in the city.
I felt a sinking feeling in my gut. My parents had never wanted me to get involved in Audaz, and for good reason. They were one of the most powerful gangs in Spain. I would never be free from them once I got involved—they’d ask for one favor, and then another smaller favor, and sometime five years from now, they’d expect me to, I don’t know, rob a bank or kill a man.
Well, probably not. I didn’t really know what they were involved in, but I knew a lot of it was just petty crime, some weapons deals, maybe a drug deal or two. Stuff that the authorities could look the other way on. But I wasn’t about to ruin my life by joining up with them.
Still, when it came down to it… If this was the only way to save my mother, I didn’t really have a choice.
I glanced back towards the closed hospital doorway. Through the window, I could see Mama sleeping there, her body frail and her expression tired as her body fought this strange disease. She was wasting away, and soon, no treatment in the world would be able to save her.
I turned back towards Roberto. “What do you need me to do?”
Roberto grinned at me. “I always appreciate practicality in a wom
an,” he said. He glanced around the hallway and then pulled me along into an empty room. “This isn’t the sort of thing we should be discussing in public.”
I swallowed hard, even though I knew what I was getting myself into with Audaz. “Right,” I said.
“What do you know about the Volkov family?” Roberto asked.
I frowned, trying to place the name. But it didn’t ring any bells. I shook my head, and Roberto laughed.
“Your parents really did a good job keeping you away from Audaz business, didn’t they?” he asked. He shook his head. “The Volkov family is a rival gang. Russian mob. They’ve been doing their best to take over Barcelona. But of course, we can’t let that happen.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Russians are trying to take over Barcelona?” I asked in disbelief.
Roberto clucked his tongue. “You’re a smart girl; I’m sure you can figure out why,” he said. “What industry in this city could the Russians possibly be interested in?”
I thought for a moment. “Tourism,” I finally said slowly, thinking of everything that I knew about the Russian mob, most of which information came from watching Hollywood movies. “They must be involved in the club scene.”
“We’ll make a member out of you yet,” Roberto said proudly.
I shook my head but didn’t fight him on that for the moment. “But why Barcelona? Why not Ibiza or Mallorca or somewhere?”
Roberto shrugged. “All I know is that they’re trying to encroach on our territory. We have it on good authority that they’re preparing to launch an offensive against us. Unfortunately, our inside spy was caught and executed, leaving us with a dangerous dearth of information. That’s where you come in.”
I raised an eyebrow at him. “If you’re suggesting that I disguise myself as a Russian and infiltrate their gang, I’m afraid that could take a while,” I told him. “I don’t speak a word of Russian, and I’ve heard it’s a difficult language to learn…”