Chapter 14 - Mira
Mira was vastly regretting her decision to find Nikolai and make him any sort of offer. If she had known that Mikhail was Nikolai, she would never have come. Perhaps it wasn’t too late to call the whole thing off and leave?
But the way Mikhail was watching her as carefully as a big jungle cat watching its prey told her it was much too late. He didn’t trust her; plus, she had slapped him in front of everyone whose respect he needed.
If she simply pulled the brakes on her plans now and tried to leave, he would have to kill her to save face. He would do it too; Mira had seen her father kill men for much less serious offences. Besides, she’d spied the bulge of the gun hidden away at his back beneath his suit. She knew enough about guns to know when a person had one on their person.
She wasn’t scared of him, no matter how deadly he thought he was. But she needed a fast solution to her impending marriage. Plus, she still wanted revenge against her father for killing her mother. She could only do that if she married his enemy.
“Okay, I’ll marry you and stay in your villa for a while. Father— Oleg won’t be able to reach me inside your villa, so it’s the safest place in the world for me right now while I figure things out.”
“You call your father by his first name? That’s very... modern of you,” he opined.
Mira met his gaze, letting sincerity shine from her eyes as she declared, “I call my mother’s killer by his first name.”
Shock slashed across Mikhail’s features and he started to say something, but she cut him short. “Don’t ask if I’m sure. I heard him. He just about confessed to it. I’ve never hated anyone as much as I hate him. If you think he’s your enemy, he’s twice my enemy, and I want to make him pay for his crimes.”
“Mira—” he tried again.
“Do you want to defeat him or not? I know him better than anyone else does. I know enough about him to be able to destroy him if I wanted. That’s what you get out of our deal, okay? Once we’re married, I’ll tell you everything you need to know about him so you can finally destroy him, and you will agree to grant me a divorce the very first time I ask for one.”
Then, to her horror, tears welled in her eyes and began to spill down her cheeks. Ever since she’d learned about her mother’s death, she had been a watering pot. The wound was so deep and fresh, but to cry in front of Nikolai…
To Mira’s shock, he crossed the room and grabbed her, placing her face against his chest. He kissed the top of her head and held her tight against him as he rocked her, letting her weep profusely against his chest. His kindness undid her and she cried even more bitterly.
When the tears slowed down a bit, he lifted her face to his and placed a gentle kiss against her lips. What started as a comforting kiss quickly flared into a passionate tango, their tongues and lips melding, teasing, and tasting each other.
One bold masculine hand covered her breast. Unable to help herself, Mira arched into his palm. He kissed her deeply and then bent her backward over his hand as he tasted more of her. Juice rushed into her pussy and her wet throbbing core tightened as she began to undulate and press against him, needing his touch, needing his fat dick inside her again.
As though Mikhail had read her mind, one hand drifted beneath her dress and began to stroke her through the soft lace of her panties.
Mira moaned and pressed even harder against him, her legs widening to let him gain access. He pushed aside her panties with one finger and deftly found her soft, wet clitoris. Pleasure exploded behind her eyes and she clung to him, unable to believe this was happening. What was wrong with her? One touch and she was wet and ready?
His hand pressed deeper against her soft folds as his long forefinger slid into her tight wet pussy.
He was just about to start thrusting into her pussy with his finger when someone cleared their throat roughly, bringing them both crashing back to earth with a bang.
They sprang apart, Mikhail already reaching for his gun at his back. He stopped when he saw the smallish, balding, elderly man who was watching them with a beaming smile. He looked almost like a proud father.
Who is he? Mira wondered wildly, wishing the ground beneath her would open so she could vanish into it. More importantly, why was he so happy about finding her in Mikhail’s arms?
The man grinned at her. “I’m Williams Faraday. His lawyer.”
He didn’t look anything like what one might expect a mafia lawyer to look like. He looked like a friendly, harmless pet.
He took her hand as naturally as though he’d known her all his life and led her to a seat, guiding her into it and sitting down right beside her.
Williams leaned toward Mira with a conspiratorial twinkle in his eyes. “What has that boy told you, my dear? You seem like a very nice girl. Do you know who he is and what he does for a living? You have to know all that before you agree to this marriage.”
Sure, she knew what he did for a living, and she’d said yes to his unorthodox proposal, then spread her legs and let him finger her, she thought with self-deprecating humor.
She felt mildly ashamed at the knowledge that if Mikhail had tried to fuck her standing up right there in the middle of his library, she wouldn’t have stopped him. She seemed to have absolutely no self-control where the man was concerned. And that was just dandy, because right before the waterworks had turned on and she had begun to cry, she’d been about to tack on a condition of “no intimacy” after their marriage. But one touch from him and all her best laid plans crumbled like a pack of cards.
Before she could say a word now, though, Mikhail interrupted smoothly, “She’s decided to marry me. We were…celebrating just now when you walked in. I presume you have the prenup?” He grabbed a decanter of wine and poured a liberal amount for the old man.
Alice in Wonderland couldn’t have felt more lost, Mira thought as she looked from one man to the other. Why was the lawyer talking as if they had expected her to come into the villa, slap Mikhail, and be forced to marry him? How could a prenup already be all set to go?
The lawyer peered at her. “You do seem like a nice girl. What’s your name?”
“Mira,” she said. What was his fascination with nice girls and for goodness sake what did that even mean?
“Dostoevsky,” Mikhail added, with heavy irony in his voice.
She saw the lawyer’s hands still in the act of ruffling his papers. Then he leaned back against his seat and looked at Mikhail. “As in, the Dostoevsky?”
A look passed between the two men and then Mikhail said briskly, “Get the prenup papers and a license, Will. I’m getting hitched today.”
That was it, then; one way or the other, Mira was effectively out from under her father’s thumb. He could hardly call the shots in her life if she was no longer under his roof and if she was married to no less a person than his archenemy.
Gaining independence from him and getting back at him were exactly what she’d hoped to achieve when she walked in here, Mira thought. So why did she feel as if the entire world was turning upside down?
Why couldn’t she shake the feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach? Why was she so afraid that she was making the most terrible mistake of her life?