Chapter Three
Dmitri
It’s good to know my bride-to-be hungers for me, even if she still has to get over the whole abduction thing. Her soft hand in mine felt right as I led her down to the dining room of my small getaway. I hope she’s not a vegetarian because she’s going to be hungry. My housekeeper and chef aren’t due to come here until tomorrow, since I wasn’t supposed to be here, so our dinner was a simple steak and salad that Mikhail whipped up. He’s a great cook and if he wasn’t a criminal, I think he would have become a professional chef.
Her attitude reminds me of an angry kitten. I want to pet and stroke her until she’s purring for me and rubbing her ass all on my lap.
“So what is a Russian doing living in the middle of Italy? Hiding out from your mob or something?” she sneers, giving more attitude than necessary, but I’ll correct her one way or another.
“Nyet, smart ass. I do a great deal of business in Europe, and it is one of my many homes.”
“Business? As in kidnapping?” she asks, arching her brow with a smirk on her sexy face. Lord, I want to bend her over my knee to redden her bottom.
“Kotyonok, what did I say about behaving?” I grab her by the wrist and pull her from her seat, dragging her onto my lap, which stiffens my already hard dick. She gasps, rubbing her bottom to feel the thick ridge. “If you don’t want it in you, I’d stop rubbing that juicy ass on me.”
“Sorry, it was just uncomfortable to sit,” she lies, turning her face away from mine so I can’t see the redness of her cheeks.
I grasp her chin and turn her face to meet mine. “You will learn quickly that I mean what I say, kotyonok. Since I saved your life, I believe that makes you mine.”
She freezes in my arms with that earlier bravado and sass fading away. I’m moving a million miles a minute with her, but life is short and I’m ready to settle down.
“What’s wrong? Does it frighten you that I’ve decided that you’re mine?” I ask, sliding my hands over her body.
She shakes her head just ever so slightly that it’s almost imperceptible, but I’m finding there isn’t a thing I haven’t noticed about her. “Tell me about your visit to Italy. Why did you come here and are you alone?”
“Yes, foolishly I came alone. I needed a break before my next year of college. It’s been a rough time since my mother passed away last year, and I’ve only had my stepfather to share in my grief.”
“I’m sorry about your mother. How did she pass?”
“A heart attack. They say it’s a silent killer for women, but it totally was for us. If she has symptoms, she never told either of us.” A terrible feeling hits me in the pit of my stomach. It could be nothing, but maybe it wasn’t a heart attack. Then again, maybe it’s just a series of unfortunate events to hit Cora in a short time.
“That’s terrible. I understand loss. My father died when I was ten and my mother died when I was twenty back in Russia.”
“That’s so awful, Dmitri.”
“Yes, but it has been a long time, and it gets a little easier to think of them without feeling sad.”
“I hope to feel that way one day. That’s part of the reason I came here. My mother always told me how much she loved coming here on her honeymoon with my stepfather. He thought it would be a good idea if I visited the same places.”
“Well, I will show you around after we get to the bottom of who tried to take you. I don’t want them to make another attempt.” The thought of the situation causes me to stab my knife into the table. Since we first came home, Mikhail and I have been researching her kidnapping, as well as digging into her background to see if there’s anything there.
“You saved me, didn’t you?” she sobs, pressing her hands in her face as if something’s wrong with me saving her. I feel like I’m missing something.
I cradle her face, cupping her cheeks. “Yes, and I’d do it a thousand times over. What’s wrong with that?”
“What’s wrong? If you hadn’t been watching, and had come after me… I would…” I pressed my hand to her lips. I don’t want her to utter those words because it didn’t happen and I’m grateful for it.
“Enough. I watched you for minutes, thinking about how I’d love to slit that gelato bastard’s throat for flirting with you. When you looked up at me, I knew at that very moment that you were meant to be mine. There isn’t a damn soul that can take you away from me.” I laid all my cards on the table and I’m sure she thinks I’m as nuts as I feel, but it doesn’t change anything for me.
“We don’t know each other,” she insists, eyes filled with turmoil and beautifully parted lips. Even with a tearstained face, my little Cora is breathtaking.
“We will. Now, eat.” I tug her plate in front of us, stab the salad with my fork, and then bring it to her lips. She opens it without a fight and chews, satisfying me. I set down the fork and let her chew before I continue our conversation.
“Thank you,” she whispers.
“It’s just a bite of salad.”
“No. For saving me,” she says, gently placing a kiss on my cheek. The last bit of control I was hanging onto evaporates. My mouth is on hers, kissing her hard and giving no fucks about dinner. Her small hands clench onto my shirt, holding on as I drag my lips over her cheek and down her jaw, watching out for the spot where the bastard hurt her.
A cough interrupts us. “Sorry, Dmitri, but we have a situation.” Mikhail is standing at the dining room doorway.
“Please sit and eat. I’ll be right back.” I sit Cora on the chair and kiss her forehead before leaving the room.
Looking at Mikhail like it fucking better be important, he nods and says, “Let’s go into your office so we can talk.”
Even though I don’t want to leave Cora alone, we take a short walk to my personal office, He goes in first, and then I close the door behind us. “What’s going on?” I questioned, pacing in front of my desk.
His face etched with concern, Mikhail says, “Her stepfather has a huge life insurance policy out on her.”
I stop in my tracks and stare at my brother in arms, contemplating the idea. I rub my chin, thinking about that revelation. Many people have life insurance policies on their family, but it’s obviously concerning Mikhail, and he’s not the jumpy type. “And you think he was hoping she’d die instead of being abducted?”
He takes a seat on my leather sofa, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. “There’s more. He’s broke, like, completely upside down and about to be out on his ass.”
“And yet he’s still paying on the policy. How much is it for?”
“One million dollars.”
I grip the back of my chair, squeezing to the point that I hear it crack somewhere under the leather. “What the hell? Who would insure her for that at her age?”
“That’s the thing. He got the policy when her mother died, and the same policy for him with Cora as the beneficiary. Then two months later he upped the policies.”
“Yeah, so he can look innocent should anything happen to her. I want you to look into his phone and internet records. It can’t be a coincidence that she gets randomly abducted in broad daylight and her father is on his last legs financially.”
“Will do. I sent you the email with the records I was able to pull, but I hadn’t read through it all. Are you going to tell her about this?”
“No, but I do have some questions for her.” I adjust my cuffs on my dress shirt. “Thanks for getting that information quickly.” I sit down behind my desk, pull my cell from my pocket, and then open up my laptop. “I need to do some digging. Do you have any leads on who took her?”
“None yet, but I was able to get our connection to pull their tags from the cameras before they entered the alleyway.”
“Good, it will be easier to find out who he hired, if he did hire someone.”
My cellular rings on my desk and I don’t recognize the number, but I still answer it. I don’t even speak before a voice I’m familiar with says, “Hello, Volkov. It seems you have something of mine.” Fucking Maurizio Romano. He’s the head of the Greco Crime Family and a real ass. He reminds me of me when I did business back in Russia, but that’s not my life anymore. Normally, I wouldn’t have a problem with the guy, but he touched what’s mine.
“Maurizio, it seems we have a miscommunication because I have nothing that belongs to you,” I responded as the tension filled my bones.
“No, it seems we have a delivery issue. You’ve taken what’s mine, and she’s supposed to be in my possession.” Now, I have definitive proof about who tried to abduct Cora.
“It seems we have a problem, Romano, because she’s my fiancée and I’m not giving her up for anything.”
“Then someone owes me a lot of money. It’s either you or her daddy, but I want my money.”
“She’s not up for exchange because she’s mine.”
Fury burns in my chest, and I crush the phone in my hand. “Damn it.”
“Shit. What did he say to piss you off?” Mikhail asked.
“I need to calm down. At least we know who took her. Romano took her for payment and since he didn’t get it he wants the money or her. I’m not sure how her stepfather is involved, but I’m going to find out. Bring Cora in here, please.” Mikhail tips his chin and then leaves my office, closing the door behind him.
Two minutes later, Cora enters the doorway, nervously looking at me from my angry spot behind the desk. “Wow, I was wrong about you behind a desk.”
“Oh yeah?”
“It suits you,” she states, giving me a deep sensuous look.
I growl and then pat my thigh. Cora walks over to my side.
She stands there, gives me a wink, and then sits on my thighs with her ass snuggled up against my cock. “I’m not used to taking orders, but since you are my hero, I’ll oblige.”
I fist her hair and run my nose down her neck, brushing my lips gently before I say, “Get used to taking orders, malyshka.” She shivers and sighs with her hands pressed on my desk. I bit her ear and then released my grip. “I’ll always be in charge because I can’t help it, but right now I have to make an important call that I need you to listen in on.”
She tenses up and then gasps, “Oh no.”
“Just know that I have your best interests in mind.”
“I’m supposed to believe that because I find you irresistible?” It’s only been an hour since we officially met, so I don’t suppose so, but she’ll see I’m a man of my word soon enough.
“Yes,” I growl, gripping her braid and dragging her head back for a deep kiss.
When I release her mouth, her eyes are dazed and her lips puffy. “Okay,” she whispers.
“Good girl.” I spin her on my chair so we’re facing the desk where I have a desk phone set up as well. My cock enjoys being cradled between the soft curve of her cheeks.
“What happened here?” She sees my smashed cell phone on the desk. Fuck, I should have cleaned that up before I had her brought into the room. I grab the trash can and swipe the mess into it.
“Nothing.”
She whips her head back to glare at me, raising one of her perfectly done brows. “Nothing? Will you be violent with me like that if I upset you?”
I kiss her lips lightly and shake my head. “No, never. Women and children are off limits. Someone tried to claim you belonged to them, setting me off. Although we know that’s not true because you’re mine. Isn’t that right?”
She shrugs. “I don’t know. We just met.”
“I’m sure enough for the both of us.” I kiss her again, causing her to moan against my lips and prove my point; Cora hungers for me. I pull my face away and then make the call on speaker, leaving the receiver down, so I don’t break it like my unfortunate cell phone.
A chuckle fills the room as Maurizio Romano answers, “So you called back. Did I offend your sensibilities?” The cocky son of a bitch doesn’t understand how serious I am.
He has just awoken a sleeping bear. “No, you offended my fiancée, and I don’t take kindly to that, Romano. You have a choice to back off or not, but I will not give you her.”
“Let’s not make a big deal out of this. The girl isn’t of any real consequence to you. You can fuck her and send her back if you really need to get your rocks off. I just need her as a bargaining chip with her stepfather.”
“Find another way to do a back-alley deal with him because I’d rather bury every single one of your men, yourself included, than give her up. That’s your choice.” I ended the call because he’d never admit defeat.
I turn her body, so she’s sitting sideways on my lap with her legs dangling off the left side of my chair. “What does your stepfather do?”
“You haven’t had time to look into it?” Damn that mouth of hers doesn’t know when to quit.
“I want you to tell me,” I insist, popping my hand on her ass. She gasps and then gives me a cute pout. “Are any of his businesses illegal?” I’m sure she has no idea if her stepfather is shady, but I still have to ask.
Honesty shines right through her that she couldn’t lie. “No. Edmond wouldn’t risk it.” Poor girl has no idea where her stepfather’s finances lie and if he’s as devious I believe the bastard is.
“It explains why he wants to use you as a bargaining chip. Your stepfather won’t play ball, and kidnapping you would do the trick.”
“Do you work with that guy?” She points to the phone.
“No. I don’t deal with Romano. He’s one of the people I would have associated with in my old life. Dangerous, powerful, and with no reservations about killing. I don’t have a problem with him except when it comes to you. If he comes after you again… my civility ends.” A soft smile comes over her face, but mine hardens. She has doubts which I understand, so no matter how painfully blue my balls get, this little heated sexual tension must be put on ice.
I lift her off my lap, take her hand, and lead her out of the room. “Time to finish dinner and head off to bed.” We enter the dining room, and I’ve lost my appetite. “Tomorrow, I’ll be gone most of the day because I need to rearrange the business meetings I left when I ran after you. Mikhail will be here with you. If you behave, you’ll be able to call your stepfather and tell him you’re safe.”
“And if I don’t behave.” There goes those challenges again, but I can’t tolerate her not following orders. It’s not safe at the moment for her to be trying to run away.
“You won’t call him.”
“God, you’re such a damn tyrant.”
“I want the best for you and unfortunately we’re in a tough spot, so please bear with me at least until tomorrow night after I get home from work.”
“Fine.” We finished dinner or at least what we could manage to stomach. We’re both in a bad mood and I find that I don’t like her upset.
“I’m done. I just want to lie down.”
“Goodnight, my precious Cora.”
“Goodnight, Dmitri.” She heads to bed while I continue to work on business matters that I put off. When fatigue hits me, I head into one of the guest bedrooms near mine. It’s not fully furnished, but all I need is the bed, so I undress down to my boxer briefs and fall asleep.