by Lia Lee
Dimitri lounged against the bar, making certain that he was directly in the line of sight of Boris’s much younger companion. He gave the woman long, sultry glance and winked. Her cheeks colored very becomingly. Tossing his hair from his eyes, he took the bottle the bartender handed him and poured himself a shot. He threw it back, keeping an eye on the woman. She had ceased to pay attention to Bori’s conversation. Her attention was riveted to Dimitri. Not that he considered that very flattering. Obviously the woman was simply looking for attention from someone who could afford to show her a good time. If her interest could swing that quickly, she wasn’t worth the trouble unless he was using her to get back at Boris Rustikov.
“Chloe?” Boris said, his tone tinged with confusion. “Did you hear me?”
“Hmm?”
Dimitri smiled at her, giving her another wink to let her know that he knew she was interested. He poured one more shot. Throwing that one back as well, he waited all of ten seconds before making his exit. Casting a look over his shoulder, he jerked his chin.
That was all it took to snag Chloe away from Boris. The woman followed him as though he were the pied piper. It meant he had a little hanger on he needed to take care of now, but it also mean Boris had just experienced obvious and very pointed failure.
* * *
The first thing that Toni had done upon waking was to see who was in the house. When she realized that Anatoli, Dimitri, and even Ivan the terrible seemed to have disappeared, she set about exploring. She noticed two things that were very significant. One, there was no suite of rooms that seemed to be assigned to Katya. Her presence was conspicuously absent from the house. And two, there was also no office. There was no study, no office, no planning desk, writing desk, or anywhere else that Dimitri might conduct business.
That last one wasn’t helpful at all. She couldn’t exactly go waltzing into the kitchen and ask Mrs. Urevich where Dimitri kept his private, business papers. The woman would certainly tell her employer and then Toni would have to answer a bunch of awkward questions.
However, she could ask about Katya. So after her morning exploration, Toni walked into the kitchen and sat on a barstool at the enormous island. Mrs. Urevich was rolling out dough of some kind.
“Can I help you with something, Miss?” The cook didn’t look away from her task.
“Actually, could you tell me why Katya doesn’t live here? Both Anatoli and Dimitri do. Wouldn’t it be safer for Katya to live here with them?”
Mrs. Urevich’s eyebrows lifted in surprise. “Miss Katya has a home of her own at the back of the property.”
“Pardon?” Toni was having difficulty wrapping her mind around that idea. “You mean she lives in another house just a few hundred yards away?”
“Yes. The boys thought she might like to have her privacy.”
“I bet,” Toni muttered. “Do you think she would be annoyed if I went to see her?”
“I’m not sure,” Mrs. Urevich hedged. She turned around and grabbed her oven mitts. Then she opened the oven door and pulled out a pan full of flaky tarts with golden crust.”
“How about if I take some of those tarts over to her?” Toni suggested eagerly. “Surely you were going to give her some?”
“Of course.” Mrs. Urevich still seemed uncertain. “I don’t know if Mr. Dimitri would appreciate that, Miss. He’s very particular about the people his sister consorts with.”
“I know that.” Toni tried to sound as if she knew a lot more besides. “I’d just like to meet her. That’s it. If she asks me to leave I’ll respect that.”
“I suppose it couldn’t hurt.”
The cook boxed up a good portion of tarts and placed them in a basket along with some other items. Toni started to feel like Little Red Riding Hood. She could only hope there was no wolf waiting in the woods to eat her.
She scooped up the basket and ran out the door in the direction that Mrs. Urevich indicated. It wasn’t far. In fact Toni was a little surprised that she hadn’t noticed this place when she had first arrived last night. It wasn’t hidden. There were several large leafy trees, but the little cape cod style house with the wide front porch was easily visible.
Toni crept up to the doorway, feeling awkward as hell. This woman had slept with her father while her mother was still alive. That should mean that Toni hated her. Right? Except she didn’t hate her. She felt compassion for this poor woman who’d been supposedly seduced and then dropped when she got pregnant. Any woman had to have compassion for a fellow sister dealing with crap like that.
Toni knocked on the door and waited. It felt like forever before she heard the locks click open. The door squeaked as it swung back to reveal a woman with a fall of pale blonde hair. She looked a little younger than Toni, if that were possible, and her expression was wary instead of welcoming.
“What are you doing here?” Katya Alkaev asked in a terse tone of voice.
“I’ve brought you some things from Mrs. Urevich.”
That didn’t appear to appease Miss. Alkaev. “Yes, but why are you on our property?”
“Your brother Dimitri invited me.”
“No.” She shook her head, blonde hair flying. “You’re lying. Dimitri wouldn’t do that. And Anatoli would never allow it.”
“Why not?” Toni was confused. Did they never have guests?
“Because you’re Antonina Rustikov and my brothers hate all Rustikovs.”
“How do you know who I am?” Toni asked in wonder. She set the basket at her feet, afraid she was going to drop it.
“I’ve seen pictures of you inside your father’s house.”
Toni fell back a step. “What? How…I mean when were you in our house?”
“When I was with your father,” Katya said softly. “He took me to his home a few times. We used to play cards with some of his men. It amused him I think, that I was a decent card player. But I had played many hours of cards with my brothers. I would beat his men, but never him. You never wanted to beat Boris.”
“No,” Toni agreed, swallowing the lump that had taken up residence in her throat. “He never liked to lose.
Chapter Six
“Your sister was in my home!” Toni shouted at Dimitri when he walked in the door. “You never told me! Why didn’t you tell me that?”
He roughly grabbed her arm. Dragging her down the hall, he entered a reading room at the back of the first floor. He slammed the door behind him and locked it. Then he turned to face her with an angry glower on his face.
“Now, what are you talking about?” His English was clipped, as if he would rather be speaking in Russian.
Toni decided to accommodate him. “You never told me that your sister was inside my home. My father took her to his house. She was there with him, multiple times!” Toni flung up her hands and paced an erratic set of circles inside the house. “Don’t you get it?”
“No, I’m afraid I neither understand why it matters where your father and my sister had their trysts.” This he ground out through gritted teeth. “And I don’t understand how you would know that anyway.”
“I met her,” Toni snarled. She got right in Dimitri’s face, practically having to stand on tiptoe to meet him eye to eye. “I went to her little cottage and I spoke to her because I wanted answers.”
“Why would you do that without permission?” Dimitri fumed. “Katya doesn’t like to speak of what happened.”
“Ha!” Toni tossed her hair and gave an inelegant snort. “She doesn’t want to talk about it because she knows things she doesn’t want you to know. It isn’t some emotional delicacy. She’s hiding things from you. And you’re too damn nice to push her about it.”
“That’s,” Dimitri began and then stopped. She knew that he had been about to say that what Toni was proposing was preposterous, but he wasn’t stupid and it really wasn’t all that farfetched. Then he pointed at Toni. “You are trouble!”
She poked him in the chest. “You have no idea! And where have you been?”
“Getting rid o
f a woman.”
“Excuse me?” Toni was now officially outraged. And she was also pissed off that she cared what he’d been doing that evening. He wasn’t her boyfriend. She didn’t even really like him. Or maybe she did. She poked him again, this time harder and right in the sternum. “So now you’re out manwhoring just like my father. Great.”
“That wasn’t what I was doing.” He sounded affronted. “We tracked your father to his favorite lounge.”
“Dyadya’s.” She waved her hand dismissively. “Yes, so what?”
“I waited until he attempted to make a move on his next conquest and then I stole her right out from underneath his nose.”
Toni covered her mouth with both hands and burst into laughter. How angry her father must have been! Of course it would not be much of a stretch for a young woman to ditch her father if Dimitri Alkaev seemed interested. Then it occurred to her that he’d probably had the attention of a very attractive young woman. The thought made her angry all over again without understanding why. The man could screw the entire city and it was none of her business. Except it made her unspeakably pissed off.
“Toni,” Dimitri said softly. “What’s wrong?”
“Did you screw her?” Toni asked stiffly, wondering why she was even having this conversation. “Did you enjoy her? Was it great? Did you just have to take her a few times before you came home tonight?”
DIMITRI DREW BACK in shock. The pent up anger and frustration in her tone suggested there was something else going on. He reached out, very gently touching her shoulder. “Toni, I didn’t have sex with that woman. It took me a short while to convince her that I’d saved her from a man who would have used and discarded her the same way he did my sister. Then I sent her home in a cab.”
Her huge blue eyes were glistening with unshed tears. “I’m sorry. I have no right to care what you do in your private time.”
“Yes. You do.”
Dimitri did what he had secretly been longing to do since the moment he’d seen Toni for the first time. He took her in his arms and kissed her until he could no longer think straight. Her lips were soft beneath his. She parted them on a sigh and he slipped his tongue into her mouth. The kiss turned carnal in a heartbeat. She wound her arms around his neck and twisted her fingers into his hair. The feel of her nails scoring his scalp was intoxicating.
She made tiny noises of approval as he deepened the kiss and cupped the globes of her ass in his hands. Dimitri backed her toward the sofa. He knew it was unwise, but he was going to take her right here and right now, consequences be damned. He wanted this woman He wanted to experience heaven between her legs and he wanted to give her the same in return.
“Toni,” he said roughly, pulling back only long enough to speak. “You are the one I want. I’m going to have you. Do you understand?”
“Yes.” She hurriedly pulled him back down for another kiss. “Don’t stop.”
Dimitri nudged her back onto the sofa. He placed his knee on the seat beside her. Finding the hem of her T-shirt, he pulled it up and over her head. Her bra came next. He popped the clasp and she struggled to get it down her arms and off. Her full breasts spilled into his hands and he groaned in pleasure.
Dipping his head, he took a nipple in his mouth. He licked and sucked until Toni was arching her back and stabbing her fingers into his hair to bring him closer. She spread her thighs and he settled between her legs. The hard ridge of his erection pressed intimately against her cleft and she rolled her hips to meet him.
If it felt this good to be next to her with the barrier of fabric still between them, he could hardly imagine the sheer intoxicating pleasure of actually sliding his shaft inside her wet heat. Dimitri struggled, fumbling with his zipper and shoving his pants down over his backside. He couldn’t wait much longer. He already felt as if he’d been waiting an eternity.
TONI HEARD DIMITRI’S zipper and felt a desperate urge to get her own clothes off. It was so odd how her anger had almost instantly morphed into lust. She’d never been so horny in her life. The deep ache between her legs made everything below her waist throb. Fumbling at her waist, she finally managed to get her pants undone. She planted her feet on the couch and lifted up just enough to slide them down over her hips and knees. Soon they were balled up around her ankles and she was attempting to kick them onto the floor. There were times where a nice slow striptease was perfect, and other times when all that mattered was getting naked enough to fuck.
Dimitri touched her belly. His fingers tangled in the short black hair covering her mound. He gently probed between her swollen nether lips and Toni thought she might die of need when the tip of his finger brushed her clit. The electricity was incredible. Her whole body jerked in response.
It felt good to be underneath him like this. His body was heavy, but not crushing. He began rocking his hips, sending the hard length of his erection pushing against her cleft. She moaned and thrashed a bit as she tried to gain just enough friction to come. She was so close to her climax. She dug her fingers into the thick muscle of his biceps and held tight as he pushed even harder against her.
“Dimitri,” she gasped. “I’m…I’m…Oh my God!”
She came hard, her inner muscles clenching tight on the emptiness inside her body and making her desperate for more. She needed everything and she needed it now. Moving against him, she reached between their bodies and palmed his cock in one hand.
Dimitri grunted, thrusting into her hand. He covered her mouth with his and kissed her deeply as she carefully fit the head of his cock to her slick, wet opening. Once he began to penetrate, there was no more holding him back. He pushed inside in one hard thrust. It felt amazing. She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him back with every single ounce of longing she felt. Wrapping her legs around his waist, she began moving against him.
The root of his cock rubbed against the spread hood of her clit. The sensation pushed her dangerously close to the edge of her endurance. It felt so good. He felt so good. Nothing had ever been like this for her before. He was thrusting in and out of her pussy. Every stroke sent just a little closer to ecstasy. She felt him tighten. His whole body was tense. She knew he was about to come.
“Please,” she whimpered. “Come inside me, Dimitri. Give me everything!”
He growled something in Russian. Then he snarled and cursed as he thrust hard and then held tight. She felt the warmth of his seed spilling into her body. The sensation pushed her over the edge. Her climax was unrelenting and felt incredible. She rocked against him to prolong it. Toni never wanted this to end. Never.
She kissed him one more time, tangling her tongue with his and giving him everything she had to offer.
DIMITRI SAVORED THE sensation of Toni’s climax. Her inner muscles seemed to massage his shaft as he felt the last of what he had to offer drain from his cock. He’d never felt this satisfied before in his life. Carefully rolling so that his back was pressed against the back seat cushions of the couch, he wrapped his arms around Toni and held her close.
It was utterly silent in the little book room. It was late, well after midnight. The rest of the house was asleep. He could have stayed like that forever, which made him wonder what it might be like to fall asleep with Toni in his arms every single night. He’d never particularly wanted that with a woman before.
He stroked his fingertips over her bare back, enjoying the softness of her skin. She felt as if she were made of silk. Yet he knew there was a steely determination beneath that softness that kept her standing with other people would have fallen down in defeat. She was certainly no ordinary woman.
Toni yawned. “We should probably go to bed now. Don’t you think?”
“In a minute,” he agreed.
It was several long minutes before she spoke again. “Was this a bad idea?”
“Probably,” he answered honestly. “But I don’t really care.”
“I don’t either.”
He thought about the item of business that had started the arg
ument. “Do you really think my sister is hiding things from us?”
“Absolutely.” She threaded her fingers lightly through the hair on his chest. “It’s hard to explain how I know. I can just feel it. And when she talked about going to our home with my father, it was—there was more going on, Dimitri. I know it.”
“Then I suppose it’s time for her to do a little talking. We’ve given her plenty of space to heal, just like she asked. But if she’s hiding things that would help us understand what happened with Boris, then she needs to spill it.”
“I think she’s actually ready to talk,” Toni said slowly. “It’s just that sometimes when you’ve been silent for such a long time, it’s easier not to say things that will make waves.”
“And that’s what you think she’s hiding.”
“It isn’t that she’s actively hiding things,” Toni said quickly. “She’s just learned that there are things that she knows that are probably going to make you and Anatoli really upset.”
“Then I wish she’d just hurry up and rip of the bandaid before we go nuts trying to figure it out.”
“Time,” Toni advised. “It’s just going to take time.”
Chapter Seven
Time? Toni thought it was just going to take some time for Katya to open up and be willing to talk to Dimitri and Anatoli about what had really happened between her and Boris Rustikov? Dimitri was already sick of waiting. In fact he was pretty certain he’d been waiting an eternity even though it had only been a week.
“Our sister is a brat,” Anatoli observed as they began the trek back to the main house from Katya’s cottage.
The two of them had just gotten done with a fruitless interview with Katya. They’d attempted—without luck—to get the real story of what had transpired between her and Boris Rustikov. Katya maintained that it was too painful to think about the father of her baby. Dimitri was beginning to see why Toni believed Katya was hiding something big.
“Are you on Boris patrol tonight, or am I?” Anatoli asked suddenly. “And how long is this going to go on?”