Chapter 2
Sitka
As soon as the light hits my eyes, I groan and pull the covers over my head. No way am I getting up this early. I stayed up way too late reading, and I need at least another hour before I can be expected to act human.
Snuggling in deeper to the dark cocoon I’ve made, I drift back to sleep, only waking when my cousin Yulia comes barging in and then has the audacity to yank my covers off and smack me on the ass.
“What the hell?” My voice is thick with sleep and I’m still groggy because those extra few minutes didn’t do anything to help make me feel rested.
“Come on,” she says, giving me a big smile. Her sweet dimple and big green eyes aren’t working on me this early in the day, though. She may look innocent, but she’s all evil this morning. To prove it, she sneaks in another quick smack to my butt and then laughs at the look I give her.
“We have to head back in a few hours. We need to get some more swimming in.” She picks up the book I’d stayed up way too late reading and raises a brow at me. “I hope it was worth it.”
“It was,” I say, not regretting a single second.
She flips it over and starts to read the back while I force myself out of bed. I grab my bikini and head for the bathroom, smiling when I hear the surprised gasp she gives.
“He’s stalking her?” she asks.
“He sure does,” I yell through the door. “And then he kidnaps her and keeps her locked in a room in his house.” Her stunned silence has my smile growing. “He’s very sweet to her, though.”
“This is a romance?”
Her shocked tone makes me laugh as I open the door to see her still looking appalled at the idea of being kidnapped by an obsessive stalker.
“It is. He just wants to keep her safe, Yulia,” I tell my cousin. “And to give her more pleasure than she thought possible. It’s actually really sweet the way he treats her.”
She still looks doubtful when she hands the book back to me.
“If you say so.” While I put my hair in a messy ponytail, she gives me a playful grin and says, “Everyone thinks you’re so smart because you’ve always got your head in a book, but really you’re just reading about deranged men who break every law imaginable because they’re in love. ”
“Hmm,” I say with a laugh, “I wonder what part of my DNA could’ve led me down this particular path.”
“Hey, I’m from the same family, and I’m not reading books like this.”
“You’d love them if you gave them a chance,” I tell her.
“You know I love my cozy fantasies,” she says. “Life is scary enough. I just want a happy escape.”
I wrap my arm around her and follow her out of the room. “I know you do. You read whatever the hell makes you happy,” I tell her.
“Instead of the smut you like?” Allie says as soon as we step out onto the deck.
The yacht we’re on belongs to my parents, and we’ve finally reached the point where they’ll let us take it out for overnight trips to one of the tiny islands near our home. If I ignore the five armed guards who are with us, I can almost pretend it’s a getaway weekend for the girls.
I smile at Allie and take the blueberry muffin she offers me.
My dad and uncles run the Medvedev Bratva, and Allie’s dad came over from Russia with them.
He lives on my Uncle Vasya’s property with his wife Svetlana, and Allie was raised with us, so she’s always been like another cousin to me.
Just like Kostya and Tyoma. Both their dads work for the Bratva too, and I’ve always thought of them as family.
“I can’t wait until Talia is done nursing so she can come out with us again,” Yulia says, grabbing a muffin and plopping down on one of the deck chairs.
“Yeah,” I agree. “We’ll have to make the most of it, because I think Max plans on getting her pregnant again real soon.”
Allie gives an exaggerated groan. “I don’t want to hear about anyone having sex that isn’t me.”
Yulia darts her eyes to the closest guard and then wiggles her eyebrows at us. Allie snorts out a laugh and shakes her head.
“I don’t know who my dad would shoot first, me or him. No way am I going there.”
I laugh and pop the last of the muffin in my mouth. “Your dad would never shoot you.”
“Not to kill,” she agrees, “but I’m guessing I’d end up with a flesh wound at the very least. He’d probably have Bran do it. I’d never see it coming.”
I can’t help but laugh at the idea of her dad having my sharpshooter of a cousin maim her as punishment for sleeping with a bodyguard.
“Yeah, you’re right,” Yulia says. “Let’s not go there. We’ll get you some action some other way.”
Allie sighs and spreads her arms wide. “Face it, girls, we’re locked down until some guy right out of Sitka’s books comes to rescue us.”
“Rescue?” Yulia asks, the doubt heavy in her voice. “I think you mean kidnap, and no thank you. We already had that happen with Talia, remember?”
“You know I don’t mean anything like that,” Allie says. “God, that was awful, even if it did end really well. I’m talking about a sweet stalker who just wants to set us free and satisfy us in every way imaginable.”
“Oh, one of those, a sweet stalker,” Yulia says in the most sarcastic voice I think I’ve ever heard her use. “Because I’m sure those are out in the real world in abundance.”
Allie looks at me and grins. “She doesn’t get it.”
“She would if he showed up with a cute dragon and a cup of tea,” I say.
Yulia laughs and points a finger at me. “Don’t you dare make fun of my books.”
I hold up my hands and say, “I would never make fun of a book.”
“All right,” Allie says, dropping the empty muffin wrappers she’s collected onto the plate. “Let’s go for a swim. I can’t bring myself to wear a thong, so I’m gonna just shove my bikini bottoms in my ass crack so these cheeks can get some sun. That should work, right?”
“Definitely,” I say, sharing a look with Yulia that makes us both burst out laughing.
“I don’t know why you’re laughing,” Allie says, already walking over to the ladder that’s hanging off the side. “You’re both doing it with me.”
“What?” Yulia asks, already looking horrified at the idea of baring her ass to the sun. She scrambles for an excuse and lands on a really good one. “The water is freezing!”
“Come on,” Allie says, giving us both a pleading look. “I can’t be the only one who does this.”
“Why are we doing this again?” Yulia asks.
“So our buns can get some sun,” I say.
Allie winks at me. “Exactly. And so we’ll be ready if a sweet, sexy stalker does decide to whisk us away. One day a guy is going to see my bare ass, and when he does, it’s not going to be so white it blinds him.”
I laugh and follow them down the ladder.
We’re moored next to a small island, so it’s easy to grab some boards and kick our way to where it’s shallow enough to touch the ground.
The water is beautiful, but Yulia was right about it being cold.
It never warms up, not even now that it’s summer.
The temp just never gets hot enough to make it warm.
We are having a rare sunshiny day, though, and Allie is clearly planning on taking full advantage of it.
“I may never forgive you for this,” Yulia mutters when Allie takes the lead and gives herself a massive wedgie. Bracing herself on the board, she bares her ass to the sun while I try not to laugh so hard I end up tipping over.
“We’re in this together,” I say, following suit and shoving my bottoms in my crack.
I can’t help but glance over at the yacht, but the guards are doing an impressive job of pretending they have no idea what the hell we’re up to.
It’s for the best. None of us want to go down that road.
It will only get them killed, and I don’t want their blood on my hands.
Our dads aren’t unreasonable men, but that all changes if it involves family.
Then all bets are off and it’s a bloodbath.
The path of ignorance they’re choosing is the wisest one for everyone involved.
The three of us tie our boards together and drift along the shore, laughing and talking.
The water is calmer here, and if I wasn’t shivering, I could almost pretend I was in Florida.
The warmth from the sun lulls me in and out of sleep, and it isn’t until I hear Allie groan and say, “My ass hurts,” that I realize I’ve made a giant mistake.
“Is my butt red?” Yulia asks while trying to look over her shoulder to see the damage.
When I see her beet-red ass, I start laughing, even though the full-body laugh leaves me groaning in pain. I slip into the cool water in an attempt to shield my burnt skin from the sun and give myself some relief while I glare at Allie. “Sunscreen,” is all I say.
She winces as she wiggles off her board. “Hey, you all forgot about it, too.”
“Because I’ve never sunned my butt before,” Yulia argues back. She gingerly reaches back and readjusts her bikini bottoms. “It hurts so bad.”
“I feel like my ass is on fire,” I say. “Please tell me you at least brought aloe.”
“I did,” Allie says while Yulia and I breathe a sigh of relief. “I even put it in the fridge so it’ll be nice and cool.”
The thought of cold aloe gel is enough to get me moving.
The icy water feels good, but the rest of me is freezing cold, and the tradeoff isn’t worth it.
It’s a slow trek back to the boat, each movement drawing attention to how burnt I am.
I had enough of a base tan going everywhere else to be okay, but my butt hasn’t seen the light of day ever, and it feels like I just took a layer off.
Climbing the ladder and hauling our boards up is a tedious process that involves a lot of colorful vocabulary, but as soon as we’re up, we wrap ourselves in thick towels and head straight inside and to the fridge.
“I think the guards are laughing,” Yulia says, staring out the line of windows that give a clear view of the closest one. The corner of his mouth twitches, but he gets it under control when he notices us staring at him.
“Of course they are,” I say. “They just watched three asses turn tomato red while we floated around like idiots. I can’t believe none of us noticed this.”