Chapter 4
Chapter
Four
ANTON
I step into the bar.
I hate how fucking nice this place is with its red booths and low lighting and dark walls. It’s like something out of the fucking Godfather . And in a way it is because this is an Italian-owned business.
I’m looking for the person who stole my drugs.
I had a shipment of cocaine come into the city, ready for my men to cut and distribute it, but then I learned that some fucker stole it. I asked my men how that was possible, and they told me some Italians came in with guns, killed a couple of my guys, and took off with the drugs.
Now, I need to find who did it.
The bar is almost empty except for a nervous looking dude at the counter. He’s fidgeting all over. His runs his hands through his greasy hair. Honestly, he looks like he’s fucking high on something.
I slam my hand against the bar counter, making him jump. “You! You look like a little weasel, don’t you?”
He squeaks. “What do you want?”
“I know this is an Italian bar. I know the Mafia owns it. Do you happen to know who stole my drugs?”
He sniffs and wipes his finger under his nose. “No.”
“See, I don’t believe you because you seem like you’re high on something right now. Why don’t you tell me what it is?”
“I don’t have to tell you shit.” He tries to get up, but I stop him.
“Tell me anyway.”
Two men appear in the bar near the back entrance. They might look imposing and large and scary to some, but to me, they’re nothing. I’m not scared of anything.
That’s what makes me so dangerous.
“Come with us,” one of them says gruffly. They both look identical, so it’s hard to tell them apart.
“What are you, Tweedledee and Tweedledum?”
They both glare at me without responding, so I follow them out of the bar through the back exit and into their car. Some would call this stupid. Just getting into the enemy’s car without a care in the world. But I’m not stupid. Reckless? Sure. But I’m never stupid. I always have a plan.
The twins drive me to another bar—even nicer than the last one—and take me right up to a booth with a middle-aged man in it. He’s stereotypical Italian—rings on his fingers, chest hair poking through his white shirt, gold chain around his neck.
“Hello,” he says, eyeing me over. From the way he turns his nose up at me, it’s clear he’s not impressed.
“Hi.” I slide into the bar across from him. “You are?”
“Luca Moretti.”
Shit. He’s the head of the Italian Mafia. Everyone knows his name. I just never knew what he looked like because I never cared to know. We’ve never crossed paths before.
Until now.
“Anton Volkov.”
“I know who you are.” He lights a cigarette and blows a puff right into my face. Honestly? Pretty fucking rude.
“So, you’re the one who stole my cocaine.”
“I did.”
“Why?”
Luca eyes me with lazy disinterest. “Because I think you’re a fly in my water glass, and it’s annoying. I know you’ve just joined forces with Nikolai Petrov and Dimitri Ivanov, two of the most powerful Bratva men in the city. I don’t like that. So, I decided to target you. I’m going to keep stealing from you and ruining your business until those two men kill you for being an insufficient partner.”
My heart remains calm—as I said, nothing scares me.
“And why are you doing this?”
He dabs his cigarette into the ashtray. “Because I don’t like how much power you three will have together.”
“Why target me?”
“Because you’re”—he points at me— “the weak link. They don’t like you; that much is clear. So, you’re the one they’ll want to get rid of. If I just keep fucking you over, then everything will work out how I want it to.”
I nod at his goons. “So, why not just kill me now?”
“Because this is more fun.”
“I see.” Leaning back into the booth, I look Luca over. “Honestly, you’re not as intimidating as I thought you’d be.”
“I’ve heard you’re nothing but a madman. How intimidated do you normally get?”
“Touché.”
“I have a different proposition for you.”
“Oh?”
“Work for me.”
For the first time since taking this meeting, I feel the flicker of my heart skip a beat. “What? Why?”
“Because I think I could use you. Work for me, and I won’t ruin your partnership with your new friends.”
“I’m going to ask again—why?”
“Because if you don’t work for me, I might have to pay that new wife of yours a visit.”
Katya’s image flashes through my mind. I’ve just gotten her, and I don’t want to lose her.
“But if I work for you, and Dimitri and Nikolai find out, then they’ll kill me anyway.”
“That’s your problem. Which will it be?”
I know what the answer will be: the answer will be whatever works for me to get out of this predicament. I only need time to find a way to double cross Luca Moretti. Once I do that, I won’t have this issue any longer.
I hold out my hand. “Deal.”
KATYA
I need new clothes if I’m going to seduce Anton, but the issue is, all I have is my wedding dress.
After last night, Anton locked me back into my room “for fun,” he said. Then he left, and I’ve been alone all morning.
My stomach rumbles with how hungry I am.
I pound on the door. “I need to eat! I can’t starve in here. Please!” I keep pounding on the door until, a few minutes later, it opens, and a woman comes into the room with a plate full of food.
“Who are you?”
“I’m Connie, the housekeeper. Here’s breakfast.” She sets the plate on the nightstand table and leaves, locking the door behind her.
Well, at least I won’t go hungry.
I’m embarrassed to admit how quickly I scarf down the food—sausage and eggs and hashbrowns. It’s normally something I would never eat. Too greasy, too fatty. But I’m so freaking hungry right now that I don’t care.
Once I’m done, I feel guilty for what I just put into my body. Screw Anton for doing this to me. He can go rot in hell.
But I need him to survive this life. I need to make an effort with him.
I groan as I fall back onto the bed. This. Just. Sucks.
The door reopens. “It’s morning. You can’t still be tired.” Anton’s voice makes me sit up in a hurry.
“I’m not. I was just contemplating all the ways you could die.”
“Oh? How nice.” He saunters into the room, looking too handsome in his white t-shirt and jeans. It’s a simple, casual look, but he wears it so well.
“I need new clothes.”
He runs his eyes over my body, and I blush. “I can see that.”
“I need them today. I can’t stay in this dress forever. You know that. And you can’t keep me locked up. I won’t run, Anton. I know what I signed up for.”
He considers my words, then nods. “All right. If you say you won’t run … But you know, if you do try to run, then I’m locking you right back up.”
“Scout’s honor.”
“You were a Girl Scout?”
I scoff. “No. Do I look like I was a Girl Scout?”
“No. You most definitely don’t look like a Girl Scout.”
I stand up as he walks closer to me. He stops just a few inches away. This close, I can see the different shades of brown in his eyes. Why I notice that, I have no idea.
“What are you doing?” I ask, hating how breathless I sound.
“I’m admiring you.” He tucks a piece of my hair behind my ear. “You’re beautiful.”
“Are you suddenly a charmer?”
“I just say it like it is.” Dropping his hand, he steps back from me. “You know, if you want out of that dress, all you have to do is take it off.”
It’s another challenge, like the bathroom. Anton wants to see how far I’m willing to go.
But if he can have fun, I can have fun, too.
“Fine. I’ll take it off.”
He raises an eyebrow. So, I caught him by surprise. Good.
“But,” I say, “you have to take your clothes off, too.”
A slow smirk crosses his lips. “You have yourself a deal. You know, I’m impressed, Katya. I wasn’t expecting this from you.”
“There’s a lot you don’t know about me.”
“I guess so,” he murmurs.
We both stare at each other, neither one moving. Anton’s presence just screams dangerous and seductive. I hate him for it. Why couldn’t he have been an ugly troll monster? It would’ve been so much easier to justify hating him.
But the key isn’t to hate him. The key is to make him love me so I can actually have a husband I can tolerate. One who doesn’t frighten me.
“It was your idea,” he says. “So, you first.”
“No. I’m not going to get naked just so you can trick me. You get naked first.”
“You have to learn to trust me, Katya.”
“Too bad. I don’t. This is one way you can prove yourself to me. Take your clothes off.” Secretly, I want to know what he looks like naked. I’ve already seen him shirtless, and it was a glorious sight. What does the rest of him look like?
“Fine. I’ll take my clothes off first. But you can’t back out. I don’t want a wife who’s scared to try new things.”
I place my hands on my hips. “And what new things would those be?”
“ You know .” His voice drips with a sexual suggestion. My cheeks burn red, but I force myself to keep my eyes on him. I’m not normally a shy woman, but I’ve also never been around a man like Anton before. I’ve never been around that many men before. My father kept me sheltered when I was little, and Dimitri picked up the mantel after he died.
“No,” I say, breathless. He smirks. “Tell me.”
“I know you’ve never fucked a man.” He pauses, looking me over. My skin becomes alive in a way it never has been before. “Or have you? Have you been naughty, Katya? Snuck out of your room at night and met up with a man you weren’t supposed to?”
“Will it bother you if I’m not a virgin?”
Something flashes behind his eyes that I don’t fully understand. “I’ll admit, I want to be your first. I want to fuck the innocence right out of you.”
I gasp.
A deadly smile covers his face. “You’re a virgin. You can’t hide it.”
“My brother had rules. I wasn’t allowed to go anywhere he deemed unsafe.”
“And you never tried to break your brother’s rules?”
“A few times, but I was always caught.”
He laughs. The sound is surprisingly warm. given how cold a person he seems to be. I haven’t detected any love within him. No empathy in sight. “Bad girl.”
I shrug even though none of me is the picture of cool right now. “I try to be.”
“You want to be bad right now?”
“I already told you to take off your clothes, and you haven’t done it yet. You’re the bad one.”
The look he gives me sends shivers through my entire body—and they’re not unpleasant.
Slowly, he slips his shirt over his head, revealing his muscular chest. I resist the urge to touch him, but god, I want to know what he feels like. There’s something intoxicating about Anton that makes me want to get closer to him. I know he’s not good for me, but I don’t seem to care. If I’m stuck in this marriage with him, I might as well try to make the most out of it.
“Your pants next,” I say.
“No. Take your dress off first.”
“But that’s not fair. I’ll be in my underwear, and you won’t be.”
“Fine. I’ll take my pants off next, but then you have to take your dress off. No objections.”
I narrow my eyes, and he narrows his in return. “Deal.”
Anton sticks to his word and takes his pants off. His black underwear reveals a bulge that makes me blush. Soon, I’ll see all of him, and I’m not sure how I’m going to handle that.
“Your turn.”
I try not to shake as I reach behind me and start to undo the buttons of my dress. They’re not easy to get off on my own. I had Evie help me in this dress before we left. Before I knew what was waiting for me.
With a frustrated sigh, I drop my hands to my sides. “It’s not working.”
“Turn around.”
I feel completely on display, but I do as he says. I expect Anton’s hands to touch my back to undo the buttons, but his hands never come.
Instead, I hear a sound I can’t place and then the touch of cool steel on my skin.
I jump. “What is that?”
“My knife,” he responds way too nonchalantly.
“Your what?!”
“Careful. Don’t move. I don’t want to hurt you. I’m going to cut open the back of your dress.”
“But if you do that, I can’t wear it again.”
I can’t see him, but I can hear the smile in his voice as he says, “Exactly.”
“Anton, I have no other clothes to wear.”
“You can borrow something of my mother’s.”
I bark out a laugh. “You must be joking. She won’t let me wear anything of hers. And besides, I wouldn’t want to. If you cut this dress off me, you have to buy me new clothes. It’s only fair.”
He’s silent for a moment before he sighs deeply. “All right. Deal. I’ll buy you more clothes today. Now, I want to get this fucking dress off you.” He takes the knife and presses it against the buttons, and then in one smooth motion, he slices it downward, cutting the dress open.
I don’t get nicked once.
His hands touch my bare back. The only thing in his way is my bra strap. Knowing just a flimsy piece of material is protecting me from Anton sets my skin on fire. I hate this man for everything he’s done, so why is my body responding this way? I can’t make sense of it.
His fingers skim along my skin, causing goosebumps to rise. My entire body tingles from his touch.
His fingers move lower and lower until they reach my low back. Neither of us speaks. The tension in the room is almost deafening. I’m not sure how I’m going to survive this.
“You have a beautiful back,” he murmurs, tracing patterns into my skin.
“I work out. Yoga, Pilates, that kind of thing.”
“It shows.”
In this position, with him behind me and my eyes planted on the wall before me, I feel braver than I actually am. “Anton?”
“Mmm?”
“Why do you like to hurt people?”
His fingers go still on my back. “Because it’s fun.”
That’s not the answer I was hoping for. That answer terrifies me. “You weren’t, like, abused as a kid, and that made you want to do the things you do?”
“No. Unless you call my mother being controlling abusive. But I was never beaten as a kid or touched in places I shouldn’t have been, if that’s what you’re asking. I just like to hurt people who piss me off. I don’t hurt people I like.”
“No?” I whisper.
His reply comes right by my ear, startling me. “No.” I can feel him looking at me, but I don’t dare look back. It’s all too much. Anton has so much power in every fiber of his body that I feel weak to it. I want to be strong myself, but at this moment, I’m realizing just how scared and small I really am.
He steps away from me, and I let out a rough breath.
“Let go of your dress.”
I didn’t even realize my hands were holding it up. My body is on autopilot.
I force myself to face him and let my dress fall to the floor. My white bra and panties are on full display. I’ve always liked my body, so it’s not something I’m ashamed of, but having Anton look me over with a darkness in his eyes puts me on display in a way I’ve never been before. For the first time, I wonder if I’m beautiful enough, and I hate that I even think it.
Anton doesn’t say a word as he slips his underwear off.
My eyes zero in on his penis. How can I not look at it? It’s slightly erect, but the longer I stare at it, the more erect it becomes.
“Oh,” I say, stepping back.
He chuckles. “It’s not a monster. It won’t bite you.”
“I know that,” I snap.
“Just making sure.”
“I’ve just never …”
He arches an eyebrow. “Seen one before? Not even in porn?”
“Ugh. I don’t watch things like that. It’s tacky.”
“Mm-hmm. But have you ever read anything like it?”
“Are you asking if I’ve read smut?”
“Yes.”
I can’t believe I’m actually having this conversation with him. Never in my life would I think I’d be in this position. “Yes,” I admit. “But it’s different reading about it versus seeing it.”
I look back at his penis and notice his testicles and the trimmed hair around them.
“I manscape,” he says, “if you’re wondering.”
“Why would I be wondering that?”
He only gives me an obvious look, and I blush harder and step away from him.
“No. I’m not going to put my mouth on you.”
“I never asked.”
“Good because that’s not going to happen.”
“That’s fine. I’ll be too busy eating you out to care.”
I gasp. “You wouldn’t.”
“Hopefully, in the future, you’ll let me. Because fuck, Katya, I want to eat you out. I want to touch every part of your body. Now, let me see all of you.”
A sudden flare of arousal hits me between my legs.
I can’t back down now, so I unclasp my bra and let it fall down my arms. I let Anton get a good look in—and from his expression, he likes what he sees—before I bend over and slip my underwear off.
The moment I stand up and see the darkness in Anton’s eyes, I think he might pounce on me. The predator and the prey.
“Sit on the bed,” he says gruffly.
“Why?”
“Because I want you to spread your legs for me so I can see your pussy.”
Another hit of arousal. The dull throbbing inside of me is too much.
“I’m not going to do that.”
“Why not?” he asks.
“I don’t understand why you want me to do that.”
“Because you’ve seen all of me, but I’ve haven’t seen all of you yet. Not technically speaking.”
“Well, it’s just how my anatomy is. That’s not my problem.”
He takes a step toward me, so I take a step back. Closer to the bed, I notice. “It’s a problem because I want to see how pretty your pussy is.”
“Can you stop calling it that?”
“What do you call it?”
“Uh … I don’t really have a name.”
“Shame. I can call it something else if you want. How about cunt?”
I wrinkly my nose. “That’s worse.”
“How about … lady bits?”
“That’s even worse!”
He chuckles, taking one more step closer to me. “How about kitty?”
“Oh for god’s sake. Fine. Call it my … pussy ,” I whisper.
“Good. But, Katya, we’re going to have a problem if you can’t even say it yourself.”
“I just did.”
“I’ll just have to get you used to it. Starting with you sitting on the bed and opening your legs for me. It’s only fair.”
“Are you going to touch me?”
His eyes darken. “Do you want me to touch you?”
I shiver and imagine would that would look like. What it would feel like. It would probably feel spectacular. I’ve been denied sexual touch all my life. The curious part of me wants to know what it’s like, but the part of me that’s still afraid of Anton wins out.
“No,” I finally say.
“I won’t touch you. I just want to look.”
“Just look?”
“Just look.”
Well, I guess it’s fair since I can see all of him. But his penis can be used to hurt me. My body is more vulnerable. That thought doesn’t escape me as I sit on the bed. The soft mattress sinks beneath me, and I almost fall backward.
Keep it together . I need to be brave with Anton, not a scared little girl.
“Open your legs,” he says.
My hands are cold as they touch my thighs, and I pull my knees up to my chest and part them.
My entire vulva is on display for him. Anton takes a long look—so long I have to resist the urge to fidget.
“You’re not shaved,” he says.
“I do shave just not every day.”
“I said I want to see all of you.”
It dawns on me what he’s saying. He wants me to fully bare myself so he can see me. Honestly, it’s been a few weeks since I’ve shaved down here since I didn’t see the point. It wasn’t like anyone else was going to see me.
I close my knees. “Don’t embarrass me.”
For a moment, his eyes soften. “I wasn’t trying to embarrass you. I love your body. I just want to see very inch of you. I don’t want anything in the way.”
I look into his eyes to see if he’s speaking the truth. Since I don’t know Anton well enough, I don’t know his cues.
“Are you being honest?” I ask.
He places his hands on either side of me and leans in close. I can smell his faint cologne—it’s spicy and sweet. I want to lean in closer and take a large breath, but I hold back. I’m not going to embarrass myself even more.
“I’m being honest,” he says, his lips so close to mine, his eyes locked with mine.
“I don’t know what to tell you. Unless you expect me to shave right now.”
His grin tells me that’s exactly what he expects me to do.
“Oh, no,” I say, shaking my head. “I’m not going to shave down there just to make you happy.”
“That’s ok. I can shave you myself.” He leans back and turns away.
“What are you doing?”
He doesn’t give me a reply as he leaves the bedroom, fully naked. I want to point out that Katerina could see him, but that doesn’t seem to be a concern of his. He comes back within a minute, carrying a razor and shaving cream.
“You can’t be serious,” I say.
“I want to do it for you. Let’s head into the bathroom.”
“No.” I wrap my arms around myself. “I’m not going to let you shave me. You could hurt me.”
“I won’t hurt you, Katya.”
“How do I know you’re telling the truth?”
“You don’t. You just have to trust me.”
That’s the problem: I don’t trust him at all. But if I want any hope of a future with Anton, I need to learn.
So slowly, I stand up and follow him out of the room, across the hallway, and into a bathroom.