18. Danil
18
DANIL
“You have got to be fucking kidding me.”
Emily is intentionally making things difficult for me.
I get that she’s trying to punish me, but she’s putting her life at risk in order to do so is really pissing me off.
Dimitri told her himself that Igor is the one who sent Isaak after her, and she knows all too well what Igor Ivanov is capable of. But that doesn’t seem to be enough to get her to actually do as she’s told.
I used to think her stubbornness was cute, but as I stand in the empty lecture hall with Emily nowhere in sight, I’m starting to find it a hell of a lot less cute.
I scan the rows and rows of empty seats.
Emily went into this lecture half an hour ago for her economics lecture, and I made sure to stand outside the door when it finished so I would be able to find her easily among the sea of students.
Yet somehow, she managed to slip past me.
My eyes land on the emergency exit door to the right of the projector screen, and I know that’s where Emily went. She would have known that I would have been waiting for her, and she decided to make me sweat by ducking out without me knowing.
Thank fuck for the tracking app on her phone, otherwise I would be losing my mind right now.
Perhaps I need to get Alexei to have a word with Emily about this. My eldest brother can be pretty intimidating when he wants to be, and maybe that’s what Emily needs.
At this point, she can’t get any more pissed off with me, so if I have to pull out the big guns in order to get her to stay in line, so fucking be it.
If she’s angry at me, it means she’s still alive, and that’s all I care about right now.
As I load up the app on my phone, I groan when the little dot with Emily’s name flashes five blocks away at a café we used to frequent back when I was a student here.
How the hell did she get so far away so quickly?
I pocket my phone and sprint out of the lecture hall, hoping that Emily doesn’t decide to prolong this game of cat and mouse.
The sight of Emily sitting in the window of the café, chatting away animatedly to her friend Clara, has me breathing a sigh of relief. She notices me immediately, but then goes back to talking with her friend, as if I’m nothing more than a stranger passing by the window.
Will she ever look at me like she did before, where her green eyes would light up and a huge smile would spread across her face whenever she saw me?
She used to look at me as if I was her whole world, and now she’s doing everything she can to get as far away from me as possible.
I head inside the café and order myself a double espresso, which I drink at the counter, so I have a perfect view of Emily’s table.
The moment her little coffee date with her friend is over, I make my move and take her friend’s place at her table.
“What the hell was that about?”
Emily rolls her eyes as she packs away her notebooks. She looks especially stunning today, wearing a lavender sundress with her blonde hair loose around her shoulders.
“Emily, look at me. Do you not care that your fucking life is in danger?”
Emily’s head snaps up, and she glowers at me.
“Is that what you think? That I don’t care?”
“You’re joking, right? How else would you explain the fact that you’re doing everything you possibly can to avoid me?”
“I wasn’t alone. And it’s not my problem if you can’t keep up. If you want to follow me, then so be it. But it’s up to you to notice when I sneak out of the emergency exit.”
I run a hand over my face and do my best to put a lid on my anger.
“I don’t want to follow you,” I state as calmly as I can manage.
“Oh, really? It doesn’t seem like you fought very hard against Dimitri’s request. But then again, I know you value his opinion of you more than anything.”
She gets to her feet.
“Come on, Emily. You know that’s not true.”
“I didn’t ask for any of this, Danil.”
There’s such sadness in her eyes as she looks at me, and I don’t know what to say to make any of this better.
At this point, I’m convinced Emily is more pissed about how I acted after I kissed her rather than the fact that I lied about following her. If I had better control over myself, Emily wouldn’t be so angry with me that she is putting her life in danger in order to avoid me.
So, if anything happens to Emily, it’s on me.
I get to my feet, picking up her bag for her. “Come with me. Let me take you home.”
She snatches her bag out of my grip. “I don’t need you to take me home.”
Has she always been this stubborn?
“If you don’t come with me, I’ll call Zara.”
“Fine. Call her.”
Shit. I knew that wouldn’t be enough to make her listen.
“Or if you prefer, I can call your dad and tell him the truth.”
Emily’s green eyes narrow, but I don’t back down.
I don’t think I even have Andrew Mullens’ number in my phone, but Emily doesn’t need to know that.
“You wouldn’t.”
“Do you really want to try me? Or are you going to do what the fuck you’re told for once?”
Emily’s mouth snaps shut, and I know she’s not going to fight me.
At least, not until we get home.
Emily is silent the entire drive home. Even when we take the elevator up to the penthouse, we don’t share a single word between us.
She’s really making me sweat.
When the elevator doors open, she storms out and heads straight up to her room.
Zara catches my eye from where she’s sitting on the couch, but I press the button for the garage, so the doors slide shut before she has a chance to comment.
Fuck, I need a drink.
The minute I’m back in my car and the sound of the engine roaring fills my ears, I call Luca. “What are you doing right now?”
Luca chuckles. “You really want to know?”
“Let me rephrase. Can you come and drink with me right now?”
“Fuck, yes! Pick me up?”
“I’ll be there in twenty.”
Luca is already waiting for me outside his apartment block when I pull up, wearing the biggest shit-eating grin on his face. For someone who works back-to-back night shifts and spends most of his waking hours balls deep in various girls, he looks surprisingly well rested.
“Where are we heading?”
I put the car in drive. “Somewhere where there’s alcohol.”
“Sounds good to me.”
My automatic place to go to get drunk would be Anton’s bar, but I really don’t want to risk running into him, or any member of my family for that matter. So, I drive us in the opposite direction toward a small basement bar called Vinyl .
It’s one of those places that if you didn’t know it was there, you’d walk straight past it, but it sells great whiskey, and there’s usually live music there too, which makes for a great atmosphere.
It’s the perfect place to drown my sorrows and to forget about how fucked up my relationship with Emily is.
Luca and I manage to find a high table which is far enough away from the stage where an acoustic duo is currently playing so that we can actually have a conversation without shouting at each other.
My friend chuckles as I practically snatch my double whiskey off the poor waitress’s tray as she comes by to drop off our drinks.
He smirks after the waitress leaves. “Girl trouble? Or more specifically, Emily, trouble?”
I take the drink and down it in one gulp, which is enough of an answer for Luca.
“Oh shit, what did you do?”
“I fucked up. Big time.”
Luca scoffs. “Nothing is unfixable. If she’s worth fighting for, you’ll find a way.”
“It’s not that simple.” I reach across the table and snatch Luca’s drink out of his hand.
“Shit, it must be bad. What did you do?”
I down Luca’s drink and wipe my mouth on the back of my hand.
“I kissed Emily.”
Luca’s eyes widen, but he keeps his mouth shut, for once.
“And then she found out I was lying about something, and now she hates me.”
“Well, did the kiss mean anything?”
It meant everything .
But I don’t tell Luca that, so I just nod.
“Then, there’s your answer!”
“I don’t follow.”
Luca rolls his eyes, and I bite back a retort.
Since when do I come to Luca, of all people, for relationship advice?
I must be seriously desperate.
“You need to show her it meant something. She’s probably feeling vulnerable or some shit, wondering what’s real and what isn’t, and you need to clear that up for her. You know what girls are like… They always want to talk about feelings and shit, so that’s what you need to do.”
I’m honestly taken aback.
He shrugs. “Either that or she’s just waiting for you to fuck her brains out and is playing hard to get.”
And we’re back to normal.
Luca waves down a waitress to order us another round. “Anyway, enough about Emily. Let’s just enjoy the music and just chill.”
That’s easier said than done.
It seems no matter how much I drink, I can’t seem to get Emily Mullens out of my head.
I lose count of how many whiskeys I drink with Luca, but it’s so many that I have to call Reid to come and pick us up. I’m not usually that responsible about drinking and driving, but even I’ve reached my limit.
Thankfully, Reid is all too happy to come and get us with the promise of driving my Porsche.
He offers to help me inside my apartment, but I wave him off and tell him he can take my car for the night as a thank you.
At this point, I just want to be alone.
Drinking with Luca did little to take my mind off Emily. If anything, my mind seems to be spiraling even more now that my blood alcohol level is likely off the charts.
God, she’s so fucking mad at me.
How the hell am I supposed to fix this?
We were so close to kissing again the other night and for a second I thought she actually wanted me too.
I saw it in her eyes.
If I had leaned in, she wouldn’t have pushed me away. I know it.
Maybe Luca is right. Maybe Emily is pretending to be mad at me so that I’ll make a move…
The logic is off, but I need a reason to hope and right now, it’s all I have to go on.
I stagger inside my apartment and head straight for my room. I don’t bother switching on the lights or even taking a shower. All I want is to strip out of these fucking jeans and climb into bed to sleep off this nightmare.
But the moment my head hits the pillow and my eyes close, all I can picture is Emily’s lips. The way they parted as I asked her if she wanted me to kiss her…
It’s all it takes to get me hard.
“Fuck.”
It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve taken myself in my hand as I think of Emily, but it’s never enough to fully satisfy me.
I want her.
I need her.
Sharing one kiss with her was never going to be enough to take the edge off. I’ve never felt such soft lips, and I’m desperate to know what it would be like to have those plump lips wrapped around my cock.
“Christ,” I groan as I wrap my hand around my cock and squeeze.
She would look so fucking beautiful on her knees before me, sucking gently on the tip of my cock as she looked up at me under her lashes with those mesmerizing eyes.
I shudder as my cock’s head grows slick with pre cum.
It’s like I’m a teenager all over again. With just a few strokes of my cock, I can already feel myself about to climax.
“ Emily ,” I grunt as I stroke my aching length, picturing myself thrusting into her eager mouth.
She’d take me so fucking well, and I would reward her for it, too.
I roll my wrist so I can fist the sensitive head and swallow a groan as I think of Emily getting me off.
How I would sink my fingers into her soft hair to help guide her.
I would take it slow at first, letting her adjust to the size of me. But she would be impatient and eager to please me.
She would relax her throat in order to take in another inch until I hit the back of her throat.
“Oh, fuck.”
I start pumping my cock faster as my release builds, imagining myself fucking Emily’s perfect little mouth. How her soft, wet lips would suction around the tip as she worked the base with her hand, squeezing me hard just the way I like it?—
“Fuck!” I spill all over my hand and abdomen.
For a brief moment, I revel in the high of my climax, but it doesn’t last long.
I thought the release would help take the edge off, but it does the exact opposite.
I’ve seriously fallen bad for this girl, and I have no idea what to do about it.