Men in Charge: A Contemporary Romance Box Set

by Natasha L. Black

  "Shit," he said, scrambling to get out his phone.

  Across the street, I could see the man eyeing us curiously. I pushed Sasha back inside the door. "Stay here."

  Luckily the big man didn't move, and I heard the squeal of tires. Seconds later, our taxi driver thankfully pulled up.

  Adrian began exclaiming angrily in Russian and then talking to me at the same time. "Block-head said he couldn't park on a busy street." He made an angry gesture with his arms all around. "Does this look busy to you?"

  "No time," I said, opening the door and gesturing for Sasha to come out. We all hurried and jumped into the taxi, but it only drove a few feet before it screeched to a halt.

  The reason why became immediately clear. Standing right in front of the car, staring at us with a glare that was nothing short of murderous, was the big beefy guy.

  "Idti!" Adrian yelled in Russian.

  It must've been ‘Go,’ because the taxi driver shrieked the car in reverse, managing to maneuver away from the beefy guy as he ran straight for us.

  As Adrian and the taxi driver yammered to each other angrily in Russian, I turned to Sasha.

  "You okay?"

  She was looking out the back window, at the guy who was getting out his phone. "I'm fine. We're so close."

  I just hope that guy doesn't have contacts at the airport.

  By the time we got there, we were all on edge.

  Once we made it through customs, Adrian said, "So, I have a pretty good idea what to do now."

  11

  Sasha

  I wasn't sure whether to smile yet. The only time I was going to calm down was once we were on the plane and in the air. Or, maybe not even then. Maybe only once we landed safely in the US.

  "We should get donuts," Adrian said. "Sasha. In the States, we have this great thing called Dunkin' Donuts."

  "I've heard of them, idiot."

  "So we’ll have them now!"

  With the look on my brother's face, there was clearly going to be no dissuading him, so I followed along as Adrian marched over to the donut counter. Pierce and I stood back as Adrian ordered a large box of them.

  "You're a good friend, to be doing this for him, you know," I said.

  I was careful not to look at him for too long. Even on opposite sides of the taxi on our way here, I had felt the air riddled with electric energy. Heck, as soon as Pierce's smoldering grey eyes had met mine, I knew. I wasn't the only one feeling an attraction. The pink dress had done what I'd set out for it to do.

  Now the only question was, was I prepared to deal with the consequences?

  "Adrian would've done the same for me," Pierce said, a dimple appearing in his cheek as he half smiled.

  Yep, he was hot and cute combined. He had the sharp cheekbone hollows of a model, but the freckles and brown-red hair that were uncommon in Russia. His eyes were narrow and sharp, but kind, and maybe it was something about all the drama or just the shape of his lips, but I really wanted to taste them.

  Hold up, tiger.

  Maybe I was just sexually repressed. The past few months I’d just been going through the motions with Aleksi, not feeling anything.

  Pierce was looking at me expectantly. Oh right, it was my turn to speak.

  "You're right," I said. "My brother is loyal. Always has been."

  Adrian turned to us, both hands full of powdery donut-filled baskets. "Aw, you two."

  "You mean, you two," Pierce said gesturing to the two massive baskets. "You planning to feed the whole airport?"

  "Nonsense," Adrian said, picking up two donuts at once and tossing them in his mouth. "These are for us to celebrate. I only worry I didn’t get enough."

  He ambled over to a table where we sat down, then gestured at the basket. "Ladies first."

  "I'm fine," I said.

  Right now, my stomach was twisted in a loop of fear, and I wasn't sure that throwing in several pounds of sugar would help.

  At the last minute, I changed my mind, and Pierce and I reached into the same bucket. Our fingers brushed.

  I froze, my eyes darting to his. Had he felt that electricity?

  "Sorry," he said withdrawing his hand.

  "It's fine," I said.

  I took out two donuts and handed him one. Our eyes met again.

  I ripped my gaze away and focused it on the scuffed leg of the airport table.

  Shit. Talk about cutting sexual tension with a knife.

  I glanced warily over at Adrian, but he was too deep in Sugar Heaven to have noticed anything.

  And yet, under my unease about the obvious attraction between Pierce and me, there was something else.

  I’d forgotten how good it felt to feel like this. Powerful. Wanted.

  I wanted more of it.

  So, lifting a frosted finger to my lips, my gaze locked on Pierce, I slipped it in my mouth. As he watched, entranced, I sucked.

  Pierce's gaze was enrapt with me. All of a sudden Adrian burst out, "Seriously? You guys?”

  "What?" Pierce said, tearing his gaze away.

  Adrian gestured at the two, still mostly full, barrels in front of him. "You guys gonna make me finish all of this myself?"

  "You are the one who bought that insane amount," I pointed out.

  "Yeah, yeah."

  We got onto our plane quickly enough, although by then I noticed the man who'd been sitting nearby at Dunkin' Donuts. The one who followed us all the way onto the plane.

  A few steps in and I gripped Pierce's arm.

  "What is it?" he asked, his gaze shooting around.

  I opened my mouth to speak, and the man got to me first.

  12

  Pierce

  As a swarthy man approached, I instinctively stepped in front of Sasha. So, the Mob had gotten a man on the inside of the plane.

  He’d have to get through me first if he wanted to get at Sasha.

  But the man only lifted something pink and held it out. "Miss? You dropped your headband."

  I could feel Sasha's chest press into my back as she exhaled with relief. "Thanks."

  I turned to her, and she was blushing. "Sorry. I thought…"

  She released my arm. It tingled after her touch. "It's fine."

  We sat ourselves down, with Adrian in the middle.

  He immediately got to drinking, while I tried closing my eyes. Even if I was horrible at sleeping on planes, maybe this time I could manage.

  But as I sat there, the only thing that kept replaying through my head was the irresistible sight of Sasha, her donut-sugared finger inserted between her lips. The way she looked at me, had she known that I couldn’t help but imagine my cock where her finger was? She must have.

  Fuck.

  I opened my eyes.

  "Can't sleep either?" she asked.

  "I've always been terrible at it, especially on planes,” I said.

  "Me too. Not like this one." She gestured her head to Adrian, whose head was slumped back, snoring already. "He's always been the good sleeper."

  "Tell me about it," I said. "He’s fallen asleep during an IMAX before. Then again, I probably should've guessed, after your parents showed us all those baby pictures. Adrian was sleeping in half of them."

  Sasha smiled a little. "My parents showed you those?"

  I nodded. "Just about killed Adrian too. He kept moaning and only took solace in stuffing his face."

  Sasha giggled. "That's one of my parent's favorite things to do, pull out the old photo album."

  "The pictures are pretty cute," I said. "Adrian looks the same."

  "He is the same," Sasha said, shaking her head. "He's always been loud, boisterous, a bit crazy. And me…" she trailed off.

  "You looked pretty different," I admitted.

  Sasha’s gaze was trained out the window, at the tiny city lights we were passing over. "I am different, I suppose. I used to be a lot more like Adrian."

  Her smile was sad.

  "You’ll get to see more of him now,” I said.

&nbs
p; Sasha wrinkled her nose. "Not sure that’s entirely a good thing."

  "What, you mean other than the whole fake marriage thing?"

  Sasha paused. So, I had said it. I’d been wondering who'd bring it up outright, and I hadn't really intended to mention it just then. It had just happened.

  "I wish there were another way," she said, not meeting my eye. "I tried thinking it over. But this seems like it's the easiest." She smiled a bit ruefully. "Guess I'll have to start thinking of myself as a divorcee now."

  "Whoa there," I said. "We haven't even gotten married, and you're thinking of divorce?"

  She giggled. "You're right. Maybe we’ll defy the odds of fake marriages."

  Now it was my turn to laugh.

  "To be fair," I said. "I've heard of some of those mail-order bride situations actually working."

  Sasha’s gaze shot to me and there was nothing jokey about it. "I'm not a mail order bride."

  We’d been unconsciously leaning forward, closer to each other, but at that, she sat back in her seat.

  "Of course," I said. "I didn't mean it that way."

  A long silence.

  "I know," she said. "I'm sorry. I’ve just been on edge for a while now. As you can probably guess, I didn't have the greatest time with my ex."

  "I'm sorry."

  "Don't be," she said softly. "I don't want your pity. And I don't deserve it. No one forced me into this. I was the one who stayed for far too long. Kept hoping things would change even when I knew better."

  Sasha shook her head decisively. "No. It doesn't matter now."

  "Yes, it does," I said before I could think better of it.

  Sasha caught my eye, and her brown eyes were fierce. "No. It doesn't. I can't let myself dwell on how Aleksi changed me. I can't let it make me any more bitter than I already am. He's already taken so much."

  There wasn't anything to say to that. Damn, I could've gone for one of the wines Adrian had ordered right about now.

  "I know what you're probably thinking," Sasha said suddenly. "How could I have been so stupid to let things get to this point?"

  "No," I replied. "Not at all. I know how they did. We lie to ourselves about the people we love, until we’re so deep in it, that even we hardly know what the truth is anymore. Least of all how to get out."

  Our eyes locked. At some point we’d started leaning toward each other again, and even, separated by Adrian, we were one more lean away from being lip to lip.

  It wasn't a matter of ‘wanting’ to kiss Sasha anymore. I had to.

  "There's something I forgot to mention," Adrian piped up.

  13

  Sasha

  I fell back into my seat fast, heart pounding. Luckily, Adrian was only half awake, rubbing his eyes sleepily.

  "I booked the wedding." He looked at his watch. "Tomorrow."

  He grinned and closed his eyes again.

  "That soon?" I said, catching Pierce's eye.

  He’d clearly been told this before and was okay with it. Did I have any real reason not to be?

  "What?" Adrian was saying now. "Rather do it the old-fashioned Russian way and wait a week?"

  I dropped it. Adrian was right. It was a fake marriage after all. If we were going to do it, we might as well do it fast.

  I gathered my hair into a ponytail and put it up. I hadn’t flown much, but the few times I had, something about the stale air got to me. The goosebumps on my arm told me I was cold, but the burning flesh on my chest and around my head said otherwise. I took a deep breath of air and then closed my eyes.

  As for what had just happened with Pierce; I guess I should have been grateful that Adrian didn't catch us. Who knows what crazy shit would've gone down then? But still.

  How many minutes had it been since we’d almost kissed, and my heartbeat was still sped up? Part of me wanted my brother to fall back asleep, to touch Pierce lightly on the cheek, and have his eyes meet mine with silent understanding. I wanted to finish what we started.

  But it was a bad idea. Pierce was bad news, Adrian had said so himself. And anyway, he was off-limits. I was getting fake married to the guy, not going out on a date. Although, if he did invite me on one…

  I shook my head. Forget it. Even if Pierce wasn’t what I'd expected, even if he was more handsome and kind and funny and charming in person, it didn't matter. My heart was bruised, and I didn't really know the first thing about him. And he only knew the shit parts about me.

  I snuck a gaze at him out of the corner of my eye and caught him doing the same. I peeled my gaze away.

  Why hadn't he ever had a serious relationship last, anyway?

  A guy like that, handsome and funny and caring and… Stop it.

  "You guys," Adrian moaned. "So noisy. I was trying to sleep, you know?"

  I knew my brother was teasing us, but I put my arm around him in a side hug anyway.

  I’d been so busy worrying and freaking out over my own situation, that I hadn't even considered all the effort he'd gone to, to come rescue me and make sure I stayed safe. Last-minute plane tickets weren't cheap, and it wasn't like Adrian didn't have a full-time job.

  "Thank you," I told him. "For coming to get me. For everything. For having my back."

  Adrian's eyes opened, and he put his arms around me too. "Of course. You're my little sister. It's in the job description to protect you."

  “But still," I said. "You didn't have to do all this. You might've just saved me."

  "Let's not go too far now," Adrian said. "I mean, don't mobster's wives get certain privileges. Can’t you like, own a town or something?"

  "Adrian," I warned.

  He knew better than to tease me about it. All I'd hinted at, was that Aleksi was involved with them and up to no good, I'd never out and said what it is he was doing or that he was even in the Mob itself. I intended to keep it that way. Hopefully, that would make Aleksi drop the matter of coming after me if I was lucky.

  "Okay, okay," he said. "Just promise to make me the best man when you get married." He winked, nudging Pierce and me at the same time.

  "Now that I mention it,” Adrian added, “There is one more thing…."

  14

  Pierce

  At that point, I could've punched the guy. How many times did he have to make me even tenser by mentioning something else he’d forgotten?

  "What is it now?" I asked through gritted teeth.

  Adrian waggled his brows in an expression of extreme offense. "Someone should have had wine too. Anyway, this is a good surprise, you'll see. I booked you two a suite at this fancy-ass hotel for when we land. Yes, it has two beds. But it's hell-a-fancy. Cost me like a week's worth of pay. It was the least I could do."

  I digested this information. Was it good news? Maybe if I wanted to bang Adrian's hot sister. But here was the thing, if sitting on the same plane and resisting how attracted to her I was hard enough, how easy would it be staying in the same hotel room as her?

  "Whoa," Adrian said. "Don't thank me all at once. You guys don't have to go. I mean, I have a friend or two I could invite."

  A smile drifted to his face as he clearly thought of whatever girls he’d been involved with recently.

  "No, it's fine," Sasha said, smiling shyly. "We’ll take it."

  "Sounds great," I said, not meeting her eye.

  Clearly, she'd been trying to avoid giving into the thing between us too, but was she resigned to it now? Maybe she had the right idea. Maybe it was just one of those things you needed to get out of your system. Get it done and get over with. Maybe all I needed to do was fuck Sasha and then finally, I’d be free of this tension in my body that made my head spin.

  Although part of me wondered how Adrian could be so dense as not to see what was going on between Sasha and I. Then again, the guy was partially drunk and hopped-up on stress.

  The plane landed shortly after, and before we all set out in a taxi, Sasha went to the bathroom.

  As soon as she was gone, Adrian asked, "Should I canc
el the room? Is it weird?"

  "Is that a rhetorical question?" I asked.

  Adrian chuckled reflectively. "Okay. So, I can be kind of impulsive sometimes. But I can cancel it. No problem."

  I held my tongue. It was ripping me in two – wanting to tell him to keep it when really, I knew that to be a good friend, I had to let him cancel it.

  When Sasha got back, Adrian said, "So Sash, I think I'll just cancel the suite thing. You probably want something more chill for your first night, right?"

  Sasha's face fell although she struggled to put a smile on top of it.

  "Sure. It's fine. Whatever is easiest."

  "No, you know what?" I said. "Let's do the suite, Adrian. You booked it. I want to see how nice it is."

  "You're sure?" Adrian squinted at me.

  "Sure."

  Adrian shrugged, then headed off. "All right, you two love birds. Let's get a taxi."

  On the way there, Sasha snuck me a smile although I hadn’t done it for her. Not really. I’d done it for myself. I wanted to be as close to her as I could.

  The taxi ride there was tense, no talking other than Adrian making comments about every other thing we passed like an overzealous tour guide. Finally, when he dropped us off at the Ritz-Carlton hotel, he waved. "Don't go getting married without me."

  And then we got out, and he was gone.

  Before I could say a word, Sasha turned to me and held up a hand. "Let's get one thing straight."

  15

  Sasha

  "I don't need protecting," I said.

  Pierce quirked his head at me. "Okay."

  "I might've been in way over my head with Aleksi in Russia, but I can fend for myself. I have my own business, my own life. I don't need a second big brother looking over my shoulder."

  I was surprised at the anger that vibrated in my voice. Was I trying to convince Pierce or myself?