Chapter 4
Chapter Four
Viktor
Hiding the state-of-the-art cameras in Leah’s tiny apartment had been easy. She wouldn’t notice them until it was too late, and by then she would already be mine.
But that didn’t mean I didn’t want eyes on her now. It had been that way since I had first seen her photograph, and the obsession, because that’s the only word for it, had only grown since the moment I had seen her crying softly at Alek’s funeral.
I’d wondered then what a girl like her had been doing with a lowlife like him, and now that I had met her, I still had the same question.
What had she seen in him? A girl, no a woman, like Leah should be with a man who could treat her like she deserved. A man who could dress her up and show her off, a man who could protect her.
A man who could rip those expensive clothes from her body and fuck her like I knew she desperately needed to be fucked.
That’s what I wanted from her now. I didn’t care about the money. It wasn’t like I needed it. No, I wanted Leah.
Leah trembling under me, her body bathed in sweat
Leah on top of me, her breasts bouncing as she —
My balls drew up right, my cock throbbed, and I had to shake the thought away before I drove into on-coming traffic. Swerving to the side, I clutched the steering wheel and took in a deep breath. Around me, horns blared angrily. I ignored them all. Angry commuters were the least of my worries.
Leah was. What was she? My latest obsession? Only I didn’t get obsessed over women. I never had. They were useful, a way of letting off steam.
There was nothing better than the feeling of sinking into a warm, wet woman, but I didn’t get obsessed. Not ever.
My phone appeared in my hand, but I didn’t remember taking it out of my pocket. A few taps later, and the screen showed her apartment.
She’d barely moved and was still in her tiny living room. Only this time she was lying back on the sofa, a raggedy throw blanket was over her body, and her eyes were closed.
She wasn’t asleep, although she should be. I’d seen her work pattern, so I knew she needed all the rest she could get.
She would need even more rest when I finally got my hands on her. I’d almost done that earlier. Taken her right then and there, but something had stopped me.
Maybe because she had been so frightened and was trying not to show it, or maybe it was the fact that I craved the chase. I wanted her, but I wanted her to submit first.
I wanted to break her and mold her into the woman she deserved to be. I wanted her.
Bringing the phone closer to my face, I stared at the thin, hard line of her lips, and my own mouth twitched up at the edges. She was definitely not asleep. Her face was strained. It carried all the weight of our previous conversation.
She was thinking so hard I could almost hear it. A sigh broke the silence of my car, and Leah flopped onto her back and threw her arm over her eyes with another heartfelt sigh.
Was that sigh for me? Was she lying on her sofa in last night’s clothes and thinking about me?
“Alek.”
I stiffened. What the fuck? Had she really just called his name out in that breathy little way of hers. If she was mine, I would spank her ass red for even thinking that asshole’s name.
No, not if, when, because in three days’ time, Leah would be warming my bed, and she would have rules to follow.
Number one rule: no more Alek. I wouldn’t have her lips say his name ever again.
“Fuck you, Alek.” She said to the empty room. “I fucking hate you for doing this to me.”
“That’s right, Printsessa,” I slipped my fingers across the screen, tracing her image. “Hate him. Hate him for giving you to me.”
“Boss?” The man’s voice took me by surprise. Blinking stupidly, I stared down at the screen. Only the video wasn’t there anymore.
“Boss, are you alright?”
Fuck, I set my lips in a hard line. Had I really been so engrossed in her image that I hadn’t seen the call come through and had accidentally accepted it?
“Fine, what have you got for me?”
There was a second of silence on the other end of the line. “We have a problem.”
“Of course, we do,” I grumbled with a roll of my eyes. “Am I needed or can I—?”
“You’re needed. They won’t deal with anyone but you. You know how these deals go. It’s Piotre so—“
Yeah, I did. They wanted to meet the man in charge. Just to see if they could outmaneuver me. None of them ever could, but they kept on trying.
And Piotre was the biggest pain in my ass. He thought of himself as a boss. I thought of him as a moron with a crew. Low level, but growing fast. Ivan was right, this would need my attention. Piotre had been trying to take over my territories for years.
“Send me the address, and I’ll be on my way, but this best not take up all of my day, Ivan. Otherwise, what would be the point of you?”
My second in command chuckled. “I’m sure we will have it wrapped up by lunch, Viktor. Then you can go back to your Printsessa. Whoever she is.” His laughter filled my car.
I ended the call before he could say anything else. He might not know about Leah yet, but he knew something was up.
Throwing my phone onto the passenger seat, I let out a groan and pulled back into traffic. I wanted to check on her again, but Leah would still be there when I had dealt with this business.
It wasn’t like she had anywhere else to go, and even if she ran, well, even then I would chase her. I didn’t usually enjoy the chase, but I had a suspicion that it was all going to be different when it came to my red-haired beauty.
The “small problem” Ivan needed help with took all day, and it was no small problem at all.
Piotre was pushing for more power, and I refused to give it to him.
By the time I let myself into my penthouse, the sun was going down, and my fingers were itching to pull up the cameras and check on Leah. But somehow I managed to stop myself.
Showering and changing my clothes quickly, I finally sank down behind my desk, scotch in one hand, and flicked to her cameras.
I couldn’t find her. Her bedroom was empty.
I frowned. Where had she gone? She needed to sleep.
When she was mine, I would make sure she got adequate rest. My lips curved up in a smile.
She would need all the rest she could get if she was to deal with me.
The smile on my face dropped, and my eyebrows knitted together as I changed the camera.
The living room wasn’t empty. There was a man on her couch.
A gangly young man with a flop of dark hair wearing a graphic tee and baggy jeans was pulling take-out containers out of a bag and laying them on the coffee table in a way that told me he had done this a hundred times before.
My eyes raked over him, and my hand clenched around my glass. He was too relaxed in her place for my liking.
“Babe? Have you slipped and fallen, or are you coming out to eat?”
Babe? My eyebrows shot up. Had that asshole seriously just called her Babe?
Who the fuck was he? Only I knew who he was. Dion. Her best friend and work colleague. I had visited him only this morning to try and get a read on the man.
I hadn’t thought he was a threat, but now I wasn’t so sure.
“I’m here.” Leah appeared in the doorway. In nothing but a t-shirt that hit her mid-thigh, she was rubbing a towel over her red hair, drying it.
“I’ll grab—”
“Already got them.” The asshole held up some chopsticks for her, and she grabbed at them. Curling her legs under her, she fell onto the sofa next to him and reached for the food.
The movement made the fraying shirt rise higher on her legs, and my eyes glued themselves to her slender thighs. They were slightly tanned, like she had maybe spent some time at the beach last summer.
Instantly, my mind went somewhere else, to pushing her down into the sand and slowly undoing the string bikini that covered her from my mouth.
Groaning I reached up to tug at my hair.
This woman was like a drug. I hadn’t even tasted her yet, and I was already addicted.
She made me act like a horny teenager and not like a grown man.
“You’re really tense, Babe,” the douche in a t-shirt said, and I gritted my teeth as his hands reached out and started to massage her calf.
Leah sat back and let him touch her. Her eyes were soft, and her face was slack as he worked her muscles, and she shoveled noodles into her mouth.
Appreciative noises left her mouth, and I wasn’t sure why.
It had better be because of the food. Rage bubbled up, white hot and violent. He had his hands all over my woman. It didn’t matter to me that she didn’t know she was my woman yet. She would soon, and so would he.
When I snapped off each one of his fingers and fed them to him, he would know who she belonged to.
“I’m ok.” She slipped her legs from his hands and sat forward. “I’m just a little—” she stood up and stretched, her t-shirt rising up so much that I caught a glimpse of the curve of a round ass encased in white cotton.
“I just need to let off steam, I think.”
“In other words, you need to get laid,” her guest laughed loudly, throwing his head back. “How long has it been? Has there been anyone since Alek?
Why was he asking her that if he was her lover? Unless—, I took a sip of the scotch in my glass, murmuring approval as the burn scolded my throat. He wasn’t a lover, but did he want to be?
I couldn’t imagine any man not looking at her and wanting not to get into her panties.
“Dion,” her cheeks flamed red as she swatted at his head with a cushion, which only made him laugh harder.
I made a mental note to get Ivan to find out everything on this Dion dude. If he was going to be a problem, I wanted to know now. Problems had a way of disappearing when it came to me.
“That will be a no, then. Did you want to go out?” Dion eyed her. “A few drinks? A bit of dancing. Maybe find you a pretty boy.
“I don’t like pretty boys. I like men. Real men.” Leah froze, almost like she hadn’t meant to say that.
I couldn’t help myself, I grinned. “Glad to hear it, Printsessa.” I saluted her with my glass. “Because if a real man is what you want, I’m your guy.”
“Spill,” Dion commanded.
“Nothing to tell.” She stuffed her face with food.
“Oh, don’t give me that, Leah. I’ve known you for two years. You’ve met someone.” He wagged a finger at her. “You like someone.”
“I do not,” she pouted. “It’s nothing like that, and no, I don’t want to go out to get laid. I’ve never been that kind of girl.”
Dion’s eyebrows shot up. “Maybe you should be that kind of girl. A little one-night stand never hurt anyone. ”
I downed the amber liquid in my glass and glared at him. It would hurt him if he talked my woman into whoring herself out like that.
“I think I just want to get drunk.”
Dion’s head shot up. “I knew you were going to say that. I grabbed a bottle of vodka on my way.”
Leah’s body jerked, her eyes widening. “No,” her voice was panicked. “Anything but vodka.”
“What’s wrong with vodka?” Dion’s eyebrows waggled. “It’s your go-to drink. Or is it?”
“Bad associations, ok. It just reminds me of—” she shook her head.
Shaking his head, Dion jumped to his feet. “You really do have a thing for Russians, don’t you. I’ll run down to the store and get something else.” He headed towards the door. “Don’t eat my food.”
Surprised, I grinned at her figure. She didn’t want to drink vodka because it reminded her of me. I would have to talk to her about stereotypes. Not all Russians drank vodka. Personally, I prefer scotch, but it was good to see I had gotten under her skin.
Reaching for the decanter, I filled my glass. I sipped it as I watched her eat and lounge back.
“Spread those pretty legs for me,” I whispered, even though she couldn’t hear me. The way she was reclining, if she parted them even a little, I would be able to feast my eyes on the part of her I would soon feast on with my lips.
My cock throbbed so hard that it was trying to rip its way out of my zipper. I took another sip and palmed myself through the thick material. She didn’t, of course, but I could easily imagine the way she would look if she did. All glossy-eyed and parted pink lips.
For the next three hours, I watched her as she drank and laughed with her friend. I watched how he looked at her, how his eyes followed her and softened, and deep down, I knew he was going to be a problem.
“You’re drunk,” Dion’s words were slurred. His head lay on the back of the sofa, and his eyes were closed. “You never could handle your liquor.”
A loud snore punctured the silence.
“Not as drunk as you, sleeping beauty.” Leah stood and wrapped the throw around him. She gave one glance around, and a tiny line appeared between her eyebrows.
Had she just spotted my camera? Or was this something different?
Another sweep of her eyes, and her head cocked.
My girl was clever. She had sensed something was wrong in her little haven. Maybe she had even felt my eyes on her, or maybe—
She shrugged, “I’ll clean up in the morning.” Bending over her friend, she pressed her lips to his forehead. “Sweet dreams, sleeping beauty. Thank you for being my best friend.”
With that, she wandered away, a little unsteady on her feet, but not falling down drunk.
I switched the cameras to the ones in her room just in time to see her fall down on her bed with a groan. Arms and legs spread wide.
“What am I going to do?” She whispered into the darkness. “What the hell am I going to do?”
Cute, she was so unbelievably cute, like she had any choice. Now that she was on my radar, there was only one thing she was going to do, and that was scream my name.
“Viktor.”
My head snapped up so hard I felt something pop in my neck as she whispered my name in a breathy voice that made my cock instantly harden. Breathing heavily, I watched as she slid her hands between her legs, her fingers danced across her white panties.
“Oh, Viktor.” She bit her bottom lip to stop from moaning. “Please—”
Jumping to my feet, I kept my eyes glued to the screen as she began to circle her clit through her panties and reached for my car keys.
My Printsessa, was touching herself and thinking about me. There was no way I could just sit here and watch. Not when she was calling out my name.
Downing my drink in one, I headed towards the door.