by Bethany-Kris
Sure, that didn’t seem like much, but it was a hell of a lot in a short race when she couldn’t make it up later. Time the team couldn’t afford for her to be losing this season.
Ana knew she was close to the wall and put her hand out to hit the sensors that stopped the clock. She popped up to the surface of the water, inhaling hard as she turned to look at the time.
“Still off by at least three-tenths,” she heard her coach shout from the other end. “You were closer the last time.”
Ana yanked her cap, goggles, and nose plug off before tossing them to the side of the pool. “Fuck!”
“Don’t start that cussing nonsense. Just get your butt out of the water and do it again. We’ll figure it out.”
Ana pointed at the large time clock above the other end of the pool. “Are you sure that goddamn thing is even calibrated correctly for the sensors? I swear to God I’m beating that mark at home every time!”
“Yes, Ana. It’s checked weekly. There’s nothing wrong with the clock.”
Something was wrong with her, then. Something she didn’t know how to fucking fix.
“I need a break, coach.”
“We’ve only been at this for—”
“I need a break,” she repeated more forcefully.
“Fine. Thirty minutes and then you’re back on the start board. Got it?”
“Whatever.”
• • •
“Tall, not so dark, but very handsome coming our way. Ana, he’s looking at you.”
Ana perked up at Missy’s teasing. “What?”
Missy tilted her head to the side. “There.”
Sure enough, Cavan was making his way to Ana and her teammates where they sat on the benches outside of the pool complex.
She wasn’t entirely sure what to make of Cavan’s appearance. She met him at her brother’s birthday party a few weeks ago. While he was good to look at, there was a lot about him that felt like a warning for her to back off, too. Nevertheless, he kept showing up at the oddest times when Ana wasn’t expecting him to. Last week he waited after her third class of the day. The week before that he texted her cell phone, but she had no idea how he got the number.
Cavan’s interest in her was as clear as day. Ana had to admit she liked he was seeking her out, but the enigmatic vibe he carried around was off-putting. Some girls might love the mystery of a guy. As if it made him an unattainable being they wanted to tame or whatever, but not Ana. She wanted to know the whole deal upfront—who he was, what he was, and what the fuck he wanted. Especially when it came to her.
“Check out the bad boy,” Cam, another one of Ana’s teammates, said. “I bet he’s a whole package of some kind of crazy fun.”
A catcall followed from Missy.
Ana felt heat rise in her cheeks. “Shut up, you idiots.”
“Didn’t know you had it inside to catch a guy like him,” Missy said, winking.
“You do know who her father is, right?”
“So, what’s Anton Avdonin got to do with his daughter getting a piece of ass?” Missy asked.
Ana grinded her teeth. Her last name drew attention. She couldn’t hide her father’s Russian mob boss status. True, it gave her respect, but it could also put her in awkward positions. People assumed things about her. She didn’t like that.
Missy reached over and slapped Cam. “Oh, have you met Demyan? He’s … yeah, like whoa. So intense.”
“And taken,” Ana added pointedly.
Cam shrugged. “For some guys, that doesn’t matter.”
Ana could play those games, too. “He’s also got a baby on the way. Did I forget to mention it?”
“Oh,” Missy said.
“Yeah. Don’t go fucking around my brother. Gia wouldn’t hesitate to cut you for it. I’m not even kidding.”
Demyan might not be Ana’s favorite person in the world, but Gia was like her older sister. It would be a cold day in hell before one of Ana’s girlfriends had a chance with her brother. Better to cull that nonsense before it even began.
Ana didn’t give her teammates a chance to respond before she left the bench with her water bottle in hand. She met Cavan halfway down the entrance walk. “Hey.”
“Hey,” Cavan said, grinning. “You didn’t answer my texts this morning.”
“Training,” Ana explained, waving a hand at the building. “On Saturdays, this is where I am from seven until four. My phone gets left at home. No distractions.”
“Pretty serious business, huh?”
“For me it is.”
Cavan leaned forward, his fingers slipping under the towel wrapped around Ana. Moving the fluffy white cotton just an inch, he raised a brow at her standard one-piece, black racing swimsuit. “No bikini to show off those assets of yours? Damn, I was hoping for a show.”
Ana scoffed. “You’re a pig and I have five minutes to get back on the starting board.”
Cavan let the towel go. “Go out with me tonight.”
“What?” Ana wasn’t sure she heard him correctly.
“Me and you. Somewhere. Tonight. Sound good?”
Ana thought about it for a minute. When she first met him, Cavan was hanging around with Freddie, a guy Demyan had by his side a lot. Ana didn’t know why her brother and Freddie were friends, but she knew they went to the same college. There was definitely more to it though because her father always invited Freddie into his office to talk.
Talking meant business.
Ana had no desire to get involved with someone doing business on the Bratva side of things. For one, because she didn’t trust herself to have faith in a guy like that. And secondly, she didn’t want to go messing around in her brother’s business.
“How do you know my brother?” Ana asked.
Cavan waved his arms wide. “I don’t.”
“You were at his party.”
“Freddie wanted me to come along. We were supposed to hang out together after. It’s the first time I met Demyan.”
“Oh,” Ana said quietly.
“Yeah. So, tonight?”
“Maybe. You keep sending me messages and showing up at the oddest times, but I don’t even know your last name.”
“Dolan. Cavan Dolan.”
Something about his last name seemed familiar, but Ana brushed it off. “Why me?”
“I don’t know. Something about you, I guess.”
“Okay. Tonight. Pick me up at my apartment at eight. I have to make face and go to a dinner first.”
“You’re all mine after, right?”
Ana laughed lightly. “Something like that.”
• • •
“You’re late.” Viviana uncrossed her arms and shooed at her daughter impatiently. “Hurry, hurry.”
“Sorry, Ma,” Ana said, kicking off her shoes. “Daddy isn’t mad, right?”
“At you? Psht. Don’t even try to joke. You look fine enough to have dinner like this.”
“I smell like chlorine. It’ll only take me ten minutes to shower.”
“Like I said,” Viviana drawled, pushing on her daughter’s lower back as she directed her toward the dining room. “You’re late and our guests are already here. Be good and I’ll love you for another day. Indulge your father like I know you can. No cheap shots at your brother. Gia is just starting to show but please don’t point it out or say anything unless she does first. Ready, set …” Her mother pushed her into the room full of faces she didn’t recognize. “Smile, Ana.”
Scratch that. She recognized some. Ivan, her father’s best friend, and his wife Eva sat on one side of the table with Demyan and Gia, who didn’t look particularly pleased to be sitting where she was. Anton sat at the head of the table like he always did while her mother took a seat at the other end. The faces staring at her from the other side of the table were unknown but for one.
Sofia Vasin. She came from a mafia family similar to Ana’s. It gave her a good indication of just who the unfamiliar people sitting at the table were.
Oh. Sh
it. Well, then.
Ana suddenly understood why Gia seemed pissed.
Sofia was an old flame of her brother’s … or something of that nature. Ana wasn’t entirely sure what they had been together. Something, anyway.
A man sat beside Sofia who looked to be Ana’s father’s age. A woman sat to his side, and another young man beside her.
That man … he was gorgeous with a chiseled jaw sporting faint stubble, lips pulling into the hint of something sly and tousled blond hair framing his face. It stuck Ana in the chest as the guy regarded her with dark blue eyes. He couldn’t be much older than she was.
She briefly considered Cavan’s good looks with his reddish-blond curls and green eyes, but he didn’t have quite the same effect on her insides like this guy did.
“Sorry, I know I’m late,” Ana said, breaking eye contact with the young man.
“It’s fine, sweetheart,” her father said. “Koldan saved your chair.”
Koldan. Definitely a Russian.
Anton nodded at the guests. “Who have you met already, Ana?”
“Sofia,” Ana said as she sat down, trying to ignore the sharp blue gaze settling on her from the next seat. She offered Sofia a smile down the table. Sofia wasn’t a terrible person or anything. Ana didn’t hold any ill-will on her for whatever went down with Sofia and Demyan a few years ago. “Hey.”
Sofia winked. “You look good. You’re all grown up.”
“She’s getting there,” Anton agreed, chuckling. “Scaring the fuck out of me every step of the way.”
Ana clicked her tongue. “I don’t do anything to scare you, Papa.”
“Being a girl is enough,” Ivan put in from his side of the table. “Trust me.”
“Truth,” the unknown older gentleman stated with a smile.
Anton cleared his throat, quieting the laughter around the table. “Ana, this is the Vasin family from Jersey. I’m sure you know a little about them, considering Sofia …” Her father trailed off with a wince in Viviana’s direction. “Anyway, this is Adrik, an old friend of mine. Cora is his wife. Beside you is Koldan, their son.”
Ana said hello, refusing to meet the eyes of the man at her side again. She didn’t need to feel like she was off kilter at the dinner. Her father talked about it for the last month which led her to believe it was important, for whatever reason. Likely for one she didn’t want to know.
“Introductions are done. I’m starving. Can we eat, baby?” Anton asked his wife.
Viviana nodded. “Let’s eat.”
The food was served and quiet conversations flowed between the people at the table.
“How far along?” Cora asked Gia.
“Twenty weeks.”
Adrik made a face. “I don’t understand this week nonsense. Wasn’t it always counted in months?”
“Divide it by four, Papa. She’s five months,” Koldan said.
“Thank you, but I’m aware of how many months, smartass.”
“Did we finally find out the gender?” Viviana asked from the far end.
Ana couldn’t help but notice how every man at the table perked at that question.
Anton rested his fork on the table. “Yes, have we? Boy or girl?”
“No,” Demyan said, brushing his thumb along Gia’s cheek. “The baby wouldn’t cooperate yesterday. We have another one scheduled in a month.”
“Any names?” Sofia asked softly.
Ana was surprised Sofia had asked the question at all.
Gia tensed across the table, but still answered. “We have a family name for a boy.”
“Oh?” Anton shot a look down to his wife. “What’s that?”
“Roman Ivan,” Demyan said quietly.
Ana’s mother made a sound she couldn’t decipher. “But that’s … it’s not Russian.”
“Actually, it can be,” Koldan said. “The name Roman is derived from the Latin Romanus. It literally means roman. Lots of cultures use it, including Russians.”
“See,” Adrik said pointedly, looking at Anton. “Like I said earlier, too smart for his own good and doing fuck all with it.”
“Not nothing. I’m working for you,” Koldan replied, a cocky smirk twisting his lips.
Ana didn’t like how his smirk made her mouth go dry, or the fact Koldan passed her another heated glance before he went back to his food. Except she did like it. Entirely too much.
“I like that name,” Anton said, smiling. “Ivan?”
“Hell, my name is in there. Yes, I like it.”
“What about a name for a girl?” Ana asked, curious.
Gia sighed. “We can’t agree on that one.”
Ana noticed Sofia’s smile out of the corner of her eye. She hoped the girl wasn’t being nice just for show.
“My bet is on the baby being a girl,” Sofia said. “Congratulations.”
• • •
“Those things will kill you,” Ana said as she closed the front door.
Koldan looked over the cherry red tip of his cigarette. He exhaled a heavy cloud of smoke into the night sky. “Nothing fun comes from anything good for you.”
Ana laughed. “The problem with trouble is it always starts out as fun.”
“Yeah, well, I like a little trouble mixed in with my fun.”
Ana learned over dinner that Koldan was a few months younger than she was. The soul in his stare made him feel older. His striking features caught in the shadows of the night, making him appear dark and sexy.
Ana forced back her odd desire as Koldan said, “You’re headed out.”
“Yep. I’ll be going back to my apartment, so I probably won’t get to see you again. It was nice to meet you, though.”
Koldan flashed her a cunning smile, adding to his appeal. “Oh, I don’t know. I think I might see you around again, Ana.”
The cigarette was tossed to the pavement. Koldan passed by her to go back into the house. Ana was acutely aware of the heat of his tall, muscular frame. Before the front door closed, Koldan added, “Have a good night, krasivyy.”
Ana blinked, her heart thudding hard and fast. He called her beautiful.
Chapter Three
Demyan
“You went out for coffee with her?” Gia asked, her cheeks turning pink.
Demyan blew out a heavy breath of air, frustrated. “Sofia invited me. I didn’t want to be an asshole and our fathers are good friends, babe. I can’t shun a fellow family like that. It was just a coffee. Nothing more.”
“She’s an ex—”
“She’s a girl I fucked around with a couple of times when I was eighteen,” Demyan corrected harshly. “We weren’t anything important and we still aren’t. Christ, Gia. What’s with the jealousy? This isn’t like you at all.”
Gia’s hurt was obvious, but Demyan didn’t know how to fix it. He hadn’t done anything wrong. Not as far as he could see.
“Exactly, Demyan. You’ve been with her. She knows you, okay? We’re together. We’re having a child in a few months. You have no reason to be hanging around with a girl you messed with for any reason. None.”
Demyan bit the inside of his cheek to hold his words back. He didn’t want to say something he might regret or hurt his lover further. After the dinner two weeks earlier with the Vasin family, things had been tense to an extreme between him and Gia. Demyan realized she was feeling insecure over Sofia, for whatever reason, but he just couldn’t understand why.
He loved Gia and only her. She had every piece of him there was to give.
“I’m sorry, Gia. I really didn’t think of it in that way because it was innocent. She’s going to be in the city for a couple of more weeks while she visits some friends. I’ll let her know she needs to keep her distance while she’s here.”
Gia wrapped her arm around her middle and rubbed at her forehead with her other hand. “We weren’t together when you were messing around with her back then, so how can you say you two didn’t have something going on beyond the physical?”
“She didn�
�t want to be a couple, she still lived in Jersey and I just started college,” Demyan answered honestly. “And in case you have forgotten, you and I were fucking around on and off back then. I was still, just like I am today, head over heels in love with you, babe. What’s really going on here? Tell me what I’m missing, Gia, please.”
“She’s beautiful, Demyan.”
That did nothing to answer his question. “So?”
“So?”
“Because she’s pretty I must want to fuck her?” Demyan asked, irritated. “That’s ridiculous.”
“No!”
Demyan jerked back from the anger in Gia’s voice like she’d slapped him. “Whoa. Seriously, what am I missing here, Gia?”
“I’m sick most of the day. I’m tired even after I’ve slept twelve hours. I’m five and a half months pregnant and I look five and a half months pregnant. You go out for coffee with a beautiful girl, don’t bother to tell me until you get home, and you can’t figure out why that might make me feel bad, Demyan?”
Oh. Fucking hell. Didn’t she know how goddamn gorgeous she was to him?
“Gia—”
“Don’t bother,” she said, sounding defeated. “I’m over it. I want to go to bed.”
Ah, no. Demyan didn’t think so. They weren’t ending the day with frustration and pain between them like this.
Demyan crossed the small space separating them before Gia could react. He held her face in his palms, tilting her head up under his urging so he could crush his mouth down to hers. The softest squeak of surprise left her soft lips before she kissed him back. It was such a familiar dance for him—kissing her, loving her—that it ached deep in his chest. There was no one Demyan loved more than Gia. He released her face long enough to tangle his fingers into the blonde curls falling down her back.
“You are so beautiful,” he whispered fiercely. “It’s fucking insane what you do to me and what you do for me. Not for one second have I ever thought you weren’t beautiful, especially now. I wouldn’t ever, Gia. You’re mine, babe. I love you. There is no one on this earth more important to me than you.”