“It’s still a few weeks away, so maybe by then you’ll want to come as Daisy’s plus-one?” Lijah taunted.
Not so funny, considering the apparent closeness of the relationship she was supposed to have with Nikolai over the next week or so.
There was also that little fact she was attracted to Nikolai.
None of the three men in the room with her now were particularly comfortable to be around. But she knew, without a doubt, Nikolai was far and away the most dangerous of the three.
For all that Gregori was so broodingly attractive, he was also coldly remote in his perfectly tailored suit, white silk shirt, and perfectly knotted pale gray tie. Except when he talked about his wife. Then those dark eyes seemed to be lit from within by an emotion Daisy knew was a deep, unshakeable love.
Lijah was handsome in a more rugged way, dark hair always seeming to be in need of a cut, his appearance casual to say the least. But beneath that surface casualness was an edge of underlying and unmistakable danger. One that said he wouldn’t hesitate to kill if he had to, and that he had been called upon many times to do just that. Not even his love for Callie could change that about him. If anything, it had deepened it. Daisy had no doubt he would fight to the death to protect his future wife.
Which left Nikolai.
Nikolai didn’t just have an edge of danger, it totally consumed him. Was there in that steely gaze. The sharp angles of his face. Every inch of his hard and muscled body. As a warning that no one, absolutely no one, messed with Nikolai Volkov. Or anyone he cared about. And the person he cared about most in the world, was totally loyal to, was obviously Gregori Markovic. Understandably so when the two men had been as close as brothers for the past twenty years.
The edge to Markovic’s voice whenever he spoke of Sergei Orlov’s death now made Daisy wonder if Nikolai had killed the other man while protecting his friend and employer. Or possibly Markovic’s wife? Except Gaia hadn’t been his wife then.
Whatever the answer was to that particular puzzle, Daisy knew she had never been as aware of any man as she was of Nikolai. Just remembering her reaction last night when he pressed her up against that wall, his body so hard and unyielding, his breath warm against her cheek, the totally male smell of him so overwhelmingly intense, was enough to now cause another quiver of awareness to course through her body.
She hoped to God none of these three men studied her too closely right now, because her nipples were hard again and pressing achingly against the lace of her bra. She felt hot between her thighs again too, her panties feeling uncomfortably damp.
Just from being in the same room with the disturbingly attractive Nikolai.
How the hell was she supposed to pretend to be his lover for the next week, when her traitorous body actually wanted to be Nikolai’s lover, for however long he wanted her?
Way to go, Daze, she mocked herself. If you want to lose your virginity at this late stage in your life, might as well think about doing it with the scariest man on the planet.
Maybe she should excuse herself from this assignment. Nikolai obviously didn’t want her here, and she couldn’t protect him properly if she was also lusting after him—
“Are you sure you know what you’re doing by agreeing to this ridiculous plan?” Nikolai frowned across at her.
Daisy bristled, her doubts of a few seconds ago evaporating under the hard challenge in this man’s voice. “Of course.”
“For the relationship to seem convincing, you would have to spend every evening and night in my company. Sleep at my apartment with me—”
“No one said anything about her sleeping with you,” Lijah clipped with a scowl. “I’m guessing your apartment has more than one bedroom?”
Nikolai’s penthouse apartment had half a dozen bedrooms, all with en suite bathrooms. There was also a gym, as well as the usual amenities like a kitchen, dining room, sitting room, and study, along with a hot tub and sauna enclosed in glass on the roof of the building.
Having been poor for all his early life, Nikolai now liked to surround himself with luxury and space, and his connection to the Markovic family for the past twenty years, along with several business ventures of his own, had ensured he had more than enough money to provide those things for himself.
He had never shared any of that space with another person, not even overnight. Women came to his apartment, the two of them would fuck, and then the woman left again. None of them stayed the night.
Now he was expected to do the reverse where Daisy Redmond was concerned. She would come to his apartment, they wouldn’t fuck, and she would stay the night.
There was a certain irony in that.
Nikolai had grown hard just being close to this woman earlier this morning, and he had grown hard again every time he thought about her since. Which had been surprisingly often. The time Nikolai had spent in the shower earlier, taking care of the problem, had become a complete waste of time the moment Daisy walked into Gregori’s office a few minutes ago. Because he had grown hard again just looking at her. He was still hard.
Daisy was as slender as she’d seemed earlier today, but he could see now it was a lean and toned slenderness, her movements unknowingly graceful. Her breasts were small and pert, waist, hips, and thighs slender. It was all too easy for Nikolai to imagine all that completely bare litheness pressed against his own naked body as the two of them fucked themselves into oblivion.
He turned to give Lijah a mocking smile rather than continue looking at her. “I believe you can leave it to Daisy and me to sort out our…sleeping arrangements.”
The other man narrowed his eyes at him. “A single hair on her head,” he reminded softly.
“I believe Mr. Volkov is just winding you up, Lijah,” Daisy scoffed.
“Am I?” Nikolai raised mocking brows.
“You had better be.” Lijah straightened in warning. “Otherwise I might just offer to load Petrov’s gun for him!”
Smith’s protectiveness of Daisy was starting to irritate Nikolai. More than irritate him, as he questioned whether it was the protectiveness of a “big brother,” as her superior, or something else. Had the two of them once been involved? Lovers?
Nikolai couldn’t exactly see Daisy and the cynical and secretive Lijah together.
Any more than he could see himself and Daisy together?
If he couldn’t see the two of them together, then how the hell could they expect anyone else to believe it either?
He straightened. “This isn’t going to work. No one is going to believe the two of us are involved,” he added harshly as the other men turned to him curiously. “Daisy isn’t my type at all—”
“And what is your type, Mr. Volkov?” Those moss-green eyes snapped with displeasure, her pointed chin raised. “I haven’t seen you in the company of a woman for the past three nights, so I really have no idea,” she challenged.
“Touché,” Lijah murmured mockingly.
Nikolai ignored the other man. “I meant you no insult, Miss Redmond.”
“I’m not insulted, just curious.”
Nikolai gave the watching and listening Gregori and Lijah an impatient glare for having placed him in this situation in the first place. Without so much as doing him the courtesy of telling him about it. Damn it, he could protect himself from a hundred Boris Petrovs if he needed to.
“Older, for one thing,” he answered Daisy. “Sophisticated. Sexier. The sort of woman every man in the room turns and stares at. I’m sure you’re someone’s type.” His gaze swept over her, from her short hair and black trouser suit to her flat-heeled boots. “But you certainly aren’t mine.”
Daisy felt stung by this man’s dismissal of her. Especially the “sexier” part. “I’m sure I can transform myself into a semblance of one of your slut buddies, if that’s what you require, Mr. Volkov.” She almost recoiled from the dangerous glitter that had now appeared in those pale eyes. Almost. Daisy was sensible enough to know that if she showed the wolf just a glimmer of her fear
, then it would be game over.
A nerve pulsed in Nikolai’s tightly clenched jaw. “I said sophisticated and sexy, not a slut.”
“My mistake.” She gave him a saccharin-sweet smile. “Why don’t we just try it for one evening? You tell security to let me into Utopia tonight, after which you can decide for yourself whether or not other people will believe I’m your type.”
Nikolai felt as if he had been very neatly maneuvered into a corner. And not one he could get out of without insulting this woman even more than he already had. Gregori and Lijah were no help either, both men now watching the exchange with amused smiles curving their lips.
“Fine,” he snapped his impatience. “Bring about this amazing transformation, and come to Utopia tonight. But don’t be surprised when I still say no.”
“What are you up to, Daze?” Lijah frowned down at her as the two of them prepared to part outside Gregori Markovic’s house. Lijah was going back to Grayson Security, Daisy intended to wait outside for Nikolai to leave so that she could continue protecting him.
“Up to?” she returned innocently.
He grimaced. “Nikolai isn’t the sort of man you want to play power games with. You may have gotten the better of him earlier this morning through the element of surprise, but I can assure you he won’t allow that to happen again.”
She knew that. But there was more than one way to surprise a wolf. “Don’t worry so much, Lijah.” She gave him a conciliatory pat on the arm. “I’m sure Mr. Volkov and I will be able to reach some sort of…compromise.”
Her boss didn’t appear in the least reassured. “He’s a street fighter, Daze, which means he doesn’t play by the same rules we do.”
She knew that too. “I can play just as dirty if I have to.”
“Not like he can.” Lijah sighed. “Maybe I shouldn’t have gone along with Dair’s choice for lead in this assignment.”
Daisy chuckled softly. “I’m the only experienced female operative you have free at the moment, and I’m pretty sure Seth and Jonas really aren’t his type.” The two men were her backup on this assignment.
“No.” Lijah gave a wry smile.
“Let’s just wait and see what happens tonight, hmm?”
Daisy had every intention of teaching Nikolai Volkov a lesson he wouldn’t forget.
The “don’t judge a book by its cover” lesson…
Chapter 3
“Whoa, haven’t seen her in here before.” Rick, the bar manager at Utopia, gave a soft whistle of appreciation as he gazed at something—someone—over Nikolai’s shoulder. “I would certainly have remembered her if I had.”
Nikolai was in a bad mood tonight, still intensely irritated over the meeting at Gregori’s house earlier today. Especially as, once Smith and Daisy Redmond had left, Gregori had absolutely refused to back down over the arrangements he had set in place for Nikolai’s protection.
He gave a cursory glance over his shoulder now. Rick had worked at Utopia since it opened five years ago, and not much impressed him anymore. This woman must be something for the other man to have noticed her.
Nikolai did a double take before slowly turning round completely to stare at the beautiful woman walking—strutting?—across the room toward the bar. A strut that was being openly ogled by every other man in the room, most of them with their tongues hanging out and drool down their chin.
Not that he could blame them. The woman had a killer body, tight, compact, graceful. She was also wearing the highest, sexiest pair of fuck-me red shoes he had ever seen.
Short blonde hair was styled in enticing up-turned wisps that framed the woman’s heart-shaped face. A beautiful face comprised of sparkling green eyes surrounded by thick black lashes, a pert nose, and full, sensuous red-painted lips.
And the feast for the male senses didn’t stop there.
She wore—wore? painted on might better describe the dress she was wearing—a strapless tube of black that barely covered the firm swell of her breasts and clung to every other sexy curve of her body, before ending abruptly midthigh, and revealing long and shapely legs above those fuck-me red shoes.
She turned to neither left nor right as she approached the bar to stand just feet away from Nikolai. “A glass of your best pink champagne, please—no, make that a bottle.” She gave Rick a warm smile to match that huskily sexy voice before turning to gaze at Nikolai from beneath those sooty black lashes. “Mr. Volkov is paying.”
Mr. Volkov was most definitely paying, and not just for the expensive champagne.
Nikolai kept his gaze on the woman as he gave a nod to Rick when the other man glanced at him for confirmation of the order. “What the hell are you—”
“Perfect.” She ignored Nikolai to thank Rick as he held up the bottle of champagne for her to approve. “Perhaps you would care to join me, Mr. Volkov?” she invited as the other man poured the champagne into a fluted glass.
He gritted his teeth. “I don’t drink when I’m working.”
“What a shame.” She picked up the glass and drank some of the bubbly pink wine. “Mm, delicious.” She gave Rick another one of those sexy smiles as she placed the glass back down on the bar and turned to gaze out into the room, deliberately making challenging eye contact with several of the men still ogling her.
“Where the hell could you possibly conceal a gun beneath that scrap of material?”
“I don’t have a gun with me tonight.” Daisy Redmond continued to cast her gaze curiously about the room as she answered him. “I have a knife strapped to the top of my thigh,” she added dismissively.
Jesus.
How wrong was it for him to actually be turned on by that revelation?
Very, came the self-disgusted answer.
“Tell me which man is the richest in the room?”
Nikolai frowned at her question. “Why?”
“I want to see if I’m his type.”
His mouth tightened. “Then that would be me.”
Daisy flicked him a dismissive glance. “Make that the second-richest man in the room.”
He felt the dark scowl crease his brow. “Why bother when you already have the attention of the richest?”
“Why, Mr. Volkov”—she turned to eye him mockingly with those moss-green, long-lashed eyes—“can you possibly be saying I’m your type after all?”
His eyes swept over Daisy’s deliberately provocative appearance. “Looking like that, you’re any man with a pulse’s type.”
“Really?” She gave him a deceptively innocent glance as she took another sip of champagne before slowly, deliberately, running her tongue over her red-painted lips.
Jesus Christ, this woman was a cock tease.
More to the point, it was his cock Daisy was teasing.
And it was responding too, thickening, hardening, throbbing with the need to be balls-deep inside her. Nikolai wanted to be balls-deep inside her. Pounding. Possessing. Claiming.
He breathed out noisily. “Okay, you’ve proven your point—”
“I’ve only just begun to prove my point.” She gave him another mocking glance. “Watch and weep, Mr. Volkov.” Her voice was so low, only he could hear what she said. “Watch and weep.”
“Would you like to come through to the other room and dance?”
Nikolai had been so caught up in this transformed Daisy that he hadn’t noticed the other man approaching her. But he noticed him now. Brock fucking Hamilton. Twenty-eight. Single. Handsome as hell with that golden hair and sky-blue eyes. CEO of Hamilton Electronics.
And the second-richest man in the room.
Daisy gave the other man that sultry glossy-red-lipped smile. “I’d love to dance, thank you. Take care of my bag for me, would you, Nikolai?” She didn’t even glance at him as she placed her clutch bag down on the bar and walked away with the other man, her hand tucked into the crook of Hamilton’s arm, and giving Nikolai a perfect view of her shapely ass, her walk once again that deliberate strut in those ridiculous—sexy-as-hell—red an
d very high-heeled shoes.
“Friend of yours?”
Nikolai gave Rick an impatient glance. “Not quite,” he muttered.
The other man chuckled appreciatively. “But she’s going to be, hmm?”
Nikolai wasn’t yet sure what he was going to do about this transformed Daisy Redmond. But he sure as hell wasn’t going to just stand here guarding her clutch bag as if he was her trained lapdog.
“Keep this behind the bar, please, Rick.” He handed the bag over to the other man. “If anyone wants me, I’ll be in the other room watching the dancing.”
“Sure thing.” Rick nodded with a knowing wink.
Daisy was having a wonderful time. Not only was Utopia the best nightclub she had ever been in, but she had obviously succeeded in totally demolishing Nikolai Volkov and his claim she wasn’t his type. There had been no hiding his initial reaction to her appearance this evening, and certainly no concealing that telling bulge that had appeared at the front of his trousers.
Just as she hadn’t been immune to how attractive he was in another one of those perfectly tailored black evening suits, a snowy white shirt and black bow tie. His usual work attire on the nights he worked at Utopia.
Unlike Nikolai, who had appeared poleaxed by her changed appearance, she’d had time to school her features not to reveal her reaction to him as she strolled across the room to stand beside him at the bar.
Although she couldn’t say she was sorry when Brock Hamilton asked her to dance. If nothing else, it gave her a brief respite from Nikolai’s totally disturbing company.
Brock proved to be not only handsome but charming too, and he also knew how to dance to the loud and heavy beat of the music being played in the dimly lit room. It was all too easy for Daisy to give herself up to that wild beat with such an accomplished partner.
Warrior Alpha (Alpha 6) Page 3