Chapter Four
Kirill
It’s time to put an end to this bullshit.
I’ve had a gutful of women and their crap. First, Tiana and her issues with the things I do, then her idiot friend hitting on me, then Zoya and her shit, and now back to Tiana again.
I’m putting a stop to it.
I rap a staccato rhythm on the bedroom door and then wait impatiently for a moment before knocking again.
I’ve already been past my own room and found no sign of Tiana, so I’m figuring she’s back here.
I’m not in any mood to deal with this Roxanne girl again, but if she knows what’s good for her, she’ll stay the fuck out of my way.
“Open the fucking door,” I bark. My blood is already at boiling point after Zoya’s ridiculous outburst. When nobody replies to my demand, my temper shoots through the roof.
Taking a step back, I raise a foot and slam it into the door, inches away from the locking mechanism.
Wood splinters and shatters. Another firm kick has the lock breaking loose, and the door flies inward.
“Tiana!” I see her hunched on the bed beside the trashy blonde. The blonde stands up as I barge in, stepping in front of me.
“You’re making a mistake,” she says, her hands on her hips.
I narrow my eyes on her. “Get out of my way!” She opens her mouth, but I don’t hear what bullshit she plans to spout because I shove her aside and stride to Tiana.
“Kirill, I-” she starts to say, but stops abruptly and makes a squeaking sound as I stoop, grip her beneath her armpits, and haul her to her feet. “Kirill, you can’t-”
“Enough!” I lift her smoothly and fling her over my shoulder before spinning and marching back to the door.
“Roxie!” she bleats.
“Kirill! You can’t do this to her,” her friend babbles from somewhere behind me.
“Shut the fuck up.” I don’t bother turning to look at her before storming out of the room. There are too many women in my goddamn house, and all of them are causing me trouble. Right now, there’s only one I have any interest in, and she’s putting up a fight.
It’s time to show her who’s in charge.
“You bastard!” she yells, pummeling my back with her fists. They glance off me uselessly. I continue walking, ignoring her kicking feet and her flailing arms.
“ Chertovski zhenshchiny! ” I wrap an arm around her knees to keep her from bucking off my shoulder as I keep walking.
“Put me down, you dick!” She keeps trying to hit me. “You fucking asshole! I said put me down!”
“I will do that when I want to,” I mutter as I aim a slap at her ass. It’s bobbing right beside my cheek, soft and plump and so damn tempting.
“No!” she shouts. “You have no right!”
“I have every fucking right!” I’ve reached the door to my room and I push it open with my foot before storming in.
“Kirill, put me down right now!” Tiana gives one final yell, then squawks as I stop beside the bed and drop her onto it. She bounces onto the mattress, the soft pillows breaking her fall.
“I have had enough!” I growl down at her.
“You? You’ve had enough?” she shouts back, bracing herself on her elbows as she glares up at me. “Who the hell do you think you are?”
“I think that I am the man who holds your life in his hands, woman!” It’s taking me a moment to get my temper back under control.
“In your hands? You arrogant motherfu-”
“Stop!” I snap. “Do not say another word that you may regret.”
“I’ll regret nothing that I say to you, you lying bastard!”
“Lying? When did I ever lie to you?” I fold my arms over my chest.
“You’re married!” Her eyes are huge and enraged. “You have a wife and a child!”
“So? I never said I didn’t.”
“You… you fucking…” Tiana shakes her head.
“I what, Ptichka ? I did not live up to your expectations of a knight in shining armor?” I scoff. “Well, get over it. I never told you I was such a thing. I am what I am.”
“What you are is a killer! And a liar! Not to mention a father and a husband… to someone else!” She flops back on the bed before glaring up at me again. “I don’t know which is worse.”
I give a mirthless laugh. “Typical woman. Fucked up priorities.”
“Fucked up?” I yell. “Everything about this situation is fucked up, Kirill! Just when I get my head around one impossible part of you, you throw another at me.”
“I never threw anything at you.”
“Really?” She half sits, propped up on the palm of one hand while pointing an accusing finger at me with the other. “You and I had just said that we cared about each other. Did you already forget that?”
“No.”
“So what am I supposed to do about this fucking wife thing?” Her eyes spit fire. She’s so fucking beautiful when she’s mad. Although, where she thinks she gets the right to be mad at me is beyond me.
“You do nothing about it. Zoya is my problem.”
“So, you just expect me to sit around while you deal with your wife and your child.”
“Yes.”
“You… you are an asshole, you know that?” She punctuates each word with a point of her finger.
“I’ve been called worse.” I shrug. “That does not change the fact that I own you. And you will do as I say.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” She sits straighter, then pulls her legs up until she’s kneeling in front of me. “If I’d known you had a wife, do you think I would ever have allowed any of this,” she waves a hand between us, “to happen?”
“Yes. Because it was not your decision to make. And Zoya is my wife in name only. When she walked out the door, she gave up all rights to our marriage.”
“Sounds like something a cheater would say,” she huffs. “If you actually meant that, you would have divorced her.”
“Think what you like. I have my reasons for not ending the marriage, and they are none of your concern.” I’m not going to delve into the details of how impossible it had been to maintain Zoya’s self-imposed exile without adding the extra complication of divorce proceedings.
Although I’m beginning to regret that decision now.
“So, I’m supposed to suck it up while you’re trying to screw everything in a skirt?”
“What I choose to do with my time is my business.”
“You have to be kidding! So it’s Zoya, then me on the sidelines. And then what? Did you honestly believe you’d be able to bring Roxie into the fold?”
I frown. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“She’s my best friend, you dick!”
She’s clearly overstepping. And yet, for some reason, I do nothing.
“I know that. It is why I brought her here. You were unhappy. You asked for company. I made sure that you got it. What more do you want?”
“I want you to start treating me like a human being, Kirill!” She waves her hands wildly as she speaks. “You can’t have me in your bed one minute and then be parading all these women around the next.”
“I am not parading anyone. And if you are going to be in my world, you will have to get used to things being difficult.”
“Not that difficult!” She shakes her head wildly. “Not with my own friend! And as for this wife…”
“My wife has nothing to do with us, Tiana. No one does. And nobody will come between us, do you understand? They will die first.” It’s a simple statement of fact, but her mouth drops open.
“Are you saying you’d kill Roxie over me?” She asks me after a long silence.
“Why the fuck would I need to?”
“Because you tried to screw her!”
“What?” I stare at her. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Don’t you fucking deny it,” she half-yells. “I know you hit on her, you bastard!”
I choke out a laugh. “She told you this?” I make a note to have the bitch thrown out as soon as I’m done here. “And you believed her?”
“She’s my friend! Of course I fucking believe her!
” Without warning, she reaches forward and shoves me hard.
If I were a lesser man, I might have taken a step back.
Instead, I chuckle, which infuriates her.
Her cheeks flush crimson, and a small hand swings up, aimed at my face.
I catch her wrist before she can hit me, wrestling her arm down to her side.
Fuck, she’s beautiful when she’s angry.
I lower my head to capture her lips, and I’m rewarded with a sharp pain when her teeth sink into my lower lip. It makes me laugh against her mouth, and she pushes at me again, managing to put a little distance between us.
“I hate you!” she chokes out, trying to tug her wrist free of my grasp. Her chest is heaving, and she’s so goddamn sexy it makes my balls tighten.
“No, you don’t.” I touch a fingertip to my mouth: there’s a smear of blood on it when I look at it. “You don’t hate me at all.”
“I do,” she says petulantly, but there’s less fire in it now. “You hit on my friend.” She sounds less convinced now.
“And if I told you that I did not do it, you would not believe me?” I tilt my head in question, flicking my tongue against my lip and tasting the tiny bead of blood there.
“No! I…” She trails off, probably realizing this argument is growing stale.
“Have I ever lied to you, Tiana?” I pin her with a hard stare.
“You…” She huffs a breath then shakes her head, dark curls tumbling. “No. You’ve never lied to me.”
“And this… Roxie. She has always been honest with you? About everything?”
Tiana looks away, fixing her eyes on a spot across the room. “No.” Her voice has grown small. “I can’t say that she has.”
“So you would still take her word over mine? The word of a liar.”
“I don’t know,” she mutters. “Maybe if you wanted her, you’d say whatever you liked.”
“You think that I want her?”
“Well, yes! She’s beautiful and sexy and exciting!” Her voice rises.
“I have no interest in women like that. A shlyukha !”
“A what?”
“A slut, Tiana. A woman who would try to fuck your man the minute your back was turned. I do not think much of your choice in friends.” I set my jaw.
She’s staring at me, wide-eyed. “My… my man?”
I give her a level look. “What do you think I am, Tiana?”
“I don’t know!” Her expression is anguished. “Everything is so fucked up I don’t even know what to think anymore!”