14. Valerian
VALERIAN
“Valerian?” snaps a voice.
I roll my eyes. I didn’t want to be interrupted. I was busy picturing Joy naked on my lap. Me giving her a well-deserved spank.
My cock hasn’t been able to stop thinking about her for the past few days.
I turn back to my men in the business meeting. Half are legitimate. The other half not so much.
I sigh, raking a hand through my hair when I see the time on the wall. I’ve been stuck in this conference room for an hour now. I had some things to check off. Unfortunately, running commercial real estate comes with its fair share of meetings.
I enjoyed it at first when I first moved to the city from Russia. The money was good. It was the perfect front. It still is. But I can’t get my head in the game today.
All I want to do is sink my cock into Joy and exist inside of her for a while. Hear her sigh. Feels her walls clench around my length as she comes around my cock.
“How are things on your end?” asks one of my employees, sitting across from me. He doesn’t know shit about who I really am.
“Everything’s signed off on my end for the new build.” I shut the folder in front of me and stand up. “We’ll reconvene two weeks today and discuss any updates.”
The table breaks, men walking about. Everyone but Nikolai.
Sun streams in through the window, landing on his burned face. “You didn’t seem like yourself in that meeting, bratan.”
I lead Nikolai out of the conference room, calling an elevator. We slide in together. “I have a lot on my plate at the moment.”
“Right. Yes. With Igor’s betrayal and Joy being married to you.”
I flash him a look in the elevator. Why the fuck is he bringing up Joy?
“You don’t think the entire house can’t hear you?” Niko raises a brow. “You’re not exactly very quiet—”
“Enough.” I clench my jaw, focusing on the elevator doors as they slide open. They spit us out onto the ground floor.
Nikolai walks beside me as I cross the lobby, heading outside. I straighten my tie. Put on my sunglasses.
“Bratan, don’t take this the wrong way—I don’t want to intervene with your love life—”
“There is no love life. Joy is my wife because Igor needs to learn—”
“His lesson, yes. I understand,” says Niko.
He slides into the car waiting outside for me, even though he’s supposed to be in the office completing work I set for him.
“Don’t get too carried away with Joy. That’s all I’m saying,” he says, issuing me a sideways glance in the backseat of the car.
“You need to stay focused. Even more than usual.”
“What’s going on, Niko?”
“I think your son has outside help.”
I tense my jaw. I don’t believe a word he’s saying. Igor can’t even successfully steal my money. How the fuck is he getting another Bratva to help him?
Bratvas don’t mix and do each other favors.
“How would he have help?”
“I saw him yesterday,” says Niko. He glances out of the window as the car merges onto the highway.
The city rolls by in the distance. “He didn’t see me, but I saw him.
He was downtown snooping around some of the office blocks.
I was in the car watching him. Suddenly, he gets a call from someone.
He looks like he’s concentrating, listening to every word the person on the receiving end is telling him. ”
That doesn’t sound like my son at all.
Listening to every word?
“Suddenly, I see him end the call and dart off,” says Nikolai. He glances at me, frowning. “Who could he have been speaking to?”
“Igor doesn’t have friends.” I grit my teeth. “I don’t know who he was speaking to.”
“See how it looks?” Niko hitches his brow.
Yeah. I see how it looks.
And Niko is a trusted friend. He also served in the military for years. He’s incredibly resourceful that way, knows how to sniff out suspicious behavior.
My son has trouble written across his forehead. Something’s not right. It took him three days to realize I stole his apartment, which means he’s not been home.
Where the fuck has he been?
And who does he know?
“I know you’re enjoying your time with Joy,” says Nikolai. “And I’m not here to counsel you. But as your friend, I have a duty of care to advise.”
I narrow my eyes, waiting for him to spit it out.
“Don’t let Igor strike. We need to find out what he’s doing. Leave Joy to her own devices. Let the guards watch her—that’s why you hired them.” Niko pauses. “And remember why you married her in the first place.”
“Joy doesn’t mean anything.”
“Of course not. That’s not what I’m saying,” says Niko. He stares out the window as the car starts climbing up hills. “When you’re with Joy, you’re giving Igor more opportunity to act.”
“True. But there’s no need to be concerned.”
“No,” agrees Niko.
“My son won’t get very far without his bank account. And I took that away from him, along with everything else.”
“Maybe,” says Niko. “Unless he has access to other accounts we don’t know about. From men we don’t know about.”
I sit back in the seat. Igor is hardly a threat. I’ve faced many over the past few decades and I win every time.
But that’s usually because I kill them.
Something in my gut is telling me to be careful. To not underestimate my own son.
He shouldn’t be playing games anymore. After seeing everything I took away from him, he should be facing the consequences of his actions and learning a very valuable lesson.
“I’d love to know why Igor is doing all of this,” I say to Niko as the car pulls up on the driveway.
I pop the door. Hand a wad of cash to the driver.
“He says I was a bad father. He should open his eyes and appreciate the view instead of complaining.” I extend my arms, making a point of where he grew up as a child.
“Everyone wishes they could live in a place like this.”
“Hm,” says Niko, stones crunching underfoot as he heads to the door. “But at what cost?”
I catch up to him, stepping inside, brushing past the butler to continue this conversation in the lobby. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Like I said, bratan, as your friend and step-in right-hand-man, it’s my duty to give you my honest thoughts.”
I fold my arms over my chest, waiting.
“I can see why your son is trying to overthrow you, considering what you did to his mother.”
I flash Niko a glare. “I’ll meet you up in the office shortly.”
“Of course.” Nikolai bows his head, retreating to the courtyard. My office is on the other side.
I watch Niko go, digesting his words.
Igor shouldn’t be mad at me for what I did. I always act with the bigger picture in mind. Plus, he was barely old enough to remember what happened.
I cross the courtyard, catching something red between the blowing palm trees. Joy. My cock twitches at just the sight of her. I stall, taking her in. I prefer looking at her when she doesn’t think I’m watching. She’s more unguarded. Softer.
Her brown hair blows majestically in the wind. Last night, I had those beautiful tresses wrapped around my hand as I pulled her close, her ass slapping my stomach, red from the amount of times my hand connected with it.
She moaned each time. I still hear her moans now in memory as I watch her chest rise and fall softly.
Bylat. There are so many things I still want to do to her. I’ll chain her ankles as well as her hands, spread her wide. Take her slow and deep, the way I know she likes.
We’ve been married here for one week. I glance at the diamond ring on my finger that binds us.
I think back to when I was in Russia, watching my father’s hand wave goodbye in the corner of the window. Chained down for a crime he didn’t even commit.
The car drives past.
Standing on the other side of the street is Siguard, watching me.
He won over the lawyer. He sent my father to prison. To die.
I clench my hands into fists. There’s nothing I can do about it.
I want to cross the street, punch him straight across the face. Tear him limb by limb until he’s begging for mercy.
But I can’t touch him. They’ll lock me up too.
And then I won’t be able to fulfill the promise I made to Father.
The world will pay for this. And I won’t stop until every single fucking person knows their place.
When people mess with the Sokolovs, they get burned.
I clench my hands into fists at my sides, feeling my knuckles pop.
Something unfamiliar shifts in my chest as I watch Joy turn the page in her book, tilting her head, reading.
The afternoon sunlight catches her face just perfect.
I can never get enough of that skin. It looks like someone painted her gold.
It’s like she was put on this earth to test me.
Because every time I’m in her vicinity, I don’t think. I act on impulsively. She likes it rough. She begs me to go deep.
Two days ago, I took her on the kitchen worktop. I sat her on the edge, spread her wide and slotted right in.
She knows not to wear panties anymore. There’s not much point.
The only reason she’s wearing her red bikini now is because guards are watching her, waiting for her to strike.
My plan was to keep her waiting, on edge, for as long as possible. Really draw out her arousal.
I know Joy better than she knows herself. She wouldn’t have left until I fucked her.
But I couldn’t hold back. I had to fuck her.
And I have now, many times. Which means she might start putting together an escape plan.
Her trying to escape is the last thing I need right now, with Igor and other rivals to worry about.
Joy drops the book onto her lap and peers between the palm trees, tilting her head, trying to see me better. “I know you’re watching me.”
Of course she does. I expect her to be on guard a lot more now, after what happened a few days ago when I caught her touching herself in my pool.
I feel a smirk toy with the ends of my lips.
I stride over there, folding my arms over my chest as I get closer to her. She really is quite something in that red bikini. Even more of a fucking vision when she has it off.
“I’m free to watch you as much as I like, sweetheart,” I say, smiling down at her.
She looks up from the pool lounger, shielding her eyes from the sun. “Do you always have to wear a suit?”