Chapter 8 Valeri #2
She shakes her head at me like I’m nuts, but I just squeeze her ass harder and keep her pussy pressed firmly against my thigh while we dance and lose ourselves to the music and each other.
The songs change, but I barely notice. All my focus is on the woman in front of me who captures all my attention so damn effortlessly.
I’m so lost to her that it takes me a second to realize someone’s tapping on my arm.
I turn and see a smiling redhead that I have a vague memory of picking up a few months ago.
“Mind if I cut in?” she asks, barely sparing Evie a glance. Her eyes are on me, and I recognize the predatory glint in them.
I feel Evie’s body tense, and when she tries to pull away, I tighten my grip on her, refusing to let her go.
“Yeah, I mind. I’m dancing with my girlfriend. Go find somebody else,” I yell at her above the music, and then turn back to Evie, hoping the woman will just take the hint and leave. I should’ve known better. They never just take the fucking hint.
“Don’t you remember me?” she says. “Because I sure remember you.”
The tone of her voice makes it obvious that something happened between us, and I hate the look of pain that flashes across Evie’s face.
I don’t have to worry about the redhead anymore because I hear Volodya yelling, “Get the fuck away from them or get out of the fucking club!” He pats my back on his way past us as he shepherds her along, but the damage is already done.
Evie watches her walk off, and when she turns back to me, she keeps her eyes everywhere but on mine.
“I’m sorry,” I say, not knowing what else to do.
“It’s okay. I mean, I know you have a past, Valeri. Thanks for not dancing with her or anything.”
“God, Evie, I would never do that to you.” I cup her face and force her to look at me. “I would never do that to you,” I repeat, “and I have no desire to dance with anyone else. You’re the only woman I want.”
She nods and looks around. “I need to use the bathroom. Where are they?”
I pull her back the way we came and lead her to the end of the bar where there’s a long hallway behind it. “The employee bathrooms are down here. It’ll be way faster than using the others. Are you okay?”
She smiles, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. “I’m fine. I’ll be back in just a minute.”
“I’ll be right here.”
I watch her walk away, feeling like absolute shit. I turn back to the bar, and that’s where Volodya finds me a few minutes later, downing another vodka because I sure as fuck need it.
“Sorry, little brother, I got to her as soon as I could.”
“It’s not your fault. I should’ve known better than to come here. Thanks for getting rid of her.”
“Of course. She wasn’t pleased about it,” he says with a small laugh, “but she’s gone now.”
I sigh and run my hand through my hair before checking my watch again. She’s been gone too long, and I don’t like it.
“I’m going to go check on her.”
“Holler if you need me,” he says, motioning for the bartender to bring him a drink.
I walk down the hall, and a chill runs down my spine when I hear a voice that I hoped like hell I’d never hear again.
“Is that my shirt you’re wearing?” Lisa lets out a harsh laugh that’s like nails on a fucking chalkboard. “It is. I recognize the small stain on the side. I donated that to Goodwill. Oh my god, is that where you buy your clothes?”
I’m almost to the door when I hear Lisa add, “Valeri is mine, so you’d better stay the fuck away from him. Like he’d ever want you anyway. That’s probably why he called me up last night. He’s bored with you already and wanted a good fuck."
By the time I throw the door open, I’m so pissed I can barely think.
My eyes immediately find Evie, and the look on her face breaks my damn heart.
She’s pressed in the corner, tears running down her face, cheeks red with embarrassment, and she’s refusing to look at me.
I cross the distance and pull her into my arms.
“Valeri,” Lisa starts to say, but I wrap my arms tighter around Evie and give her a look that cuts her words off and has her clamping her goddamn mouth shut. Too little, too late.
“Tell her the fucking truth,” I growl at her, using every ounce of willpower I possess to keep my temper in check. If she were a man, she’d be bleeding out on the goddamn floor right now.
“What do you mean?”
“Tell her the goddam truth! Did I call you last night? Have I ever fucking called you?”
She thinks about lying, I can see it so clearly on her face, but she wisely decides against it. “No,” she mutters.
“You were a mistake I made several weeks ago,” I tell her, “and you’ve been chasing after me ever since.
I don’t know how to make it any clearer to you.
I don’t want you. It was a mistake, one I will never repeat, and I have no desire to ever see you again.
But you already know all this, don’t you?
” I cup Evie’s head, keeping her pressed tightly against me, feeling her body shake and hating how upset she is.
I kiss the top of her head and caress her back.
“You crossed the line when you came in here and hurt my girlfriend.” I lift my head and yell for Volodya.
Seconds later, he enters the bathroom. I keep my eyes on Lisa, letting her see how fucking pissed I am. “Take this bitch and get her the fuck out of here. She’s banned from the club. She’s fucking banned from every damn place we own.”
“Valeri, you can’t do that!” she yells at me, stomping one of her high-heeled feet down.
I ignore her tantrum and switch to Russian. “Make sure she understands I’m serious.”
Volodya smiles and grabs her arm. When she tries to jerk it away, he tightens his fingers and says, “Don’t fucking test me. I should be out there with my gorgeous wife, and instead I’m stuck kicking your sorry ass out of here.”
“Don’t ban me,” she whines.
“You shouldn’t have fucked with my little brother or his girlfriend,” he says, hauling her ass out of the bathroom.
Turning to Evie, I cup her cheek and try to tilt her face to mine, but she fights me, keeping her head ducked down.
“Please don’t hide yourself from me, lapochka.”
“I should never have come here,” she whispers. “I don’t know what the hell I was thinking. I let myself forget the truth.”
“What truth?”
She finally meets my eyes, and the pain in them is like a knife to the gut. “The truth that I don’t belong here, and I don’t belong with you.” She shakes her head and goes to push her glasses up out of habit, but they’re not there, and it only makes her give a frustrated sigh.
“I want my glasses and my coveralls, because that’s who I am, and I never should’ve let myself forget that.
I don’t belong on the arm of the man who apparently every woman in here has fucked.
I belong in the library, cleaning up after women like her,” she says, angrily waving a hand at where Lisa had been standing.
“Women who know they can just drop their shit on the floor because someone like me will always be waiting to pick it up. Women who donate their stained clothes because they know that someone like me will come along and buy it, knowing the only way I’m going to get a shirt this expensive is if I buy it used and dirtied. ”
She’s crying by the time she finishes, and there are so many things that I want to say, but all that can wait.
I pick her up and hold her while she cries, wetting my neck with her tears and shaking against me until I can’t stand it, because if I hear her cry for one more second, I’m going to burn the whole goddamn world down to make it stop.
“You’re killing me, baby,” I whisper, brushing back her hair and kissing her cheek.
“I’m so sorry she hurt you. I’m sorry about my past, more sorry than you can ever know, and I hate that it’s hurting you, that it’s touching you in any way.
I would change it if I could, but I can’t.
All I can do is promise you my future. I understand how you feel, but you’re wrong.
You’re not below any other person, and I refuse to stand by and watch you let someone like that bitch make you feel bad about yourself. ”
“She was just telling me what I already know. I needed the reminder, Valeri. It’s okay, really. I mean, we were kind of doomed from the beginning anyway.”
“You think so?” I say, unable to hide the anger from my voice.
“You’re so far out of my league that it’s not even funny. You’re an Aston Martin. I’m the public bus. There’s no changing that.”
“Bullshit,” I say, fisting her hair and pulling her head back so she’s forced to look at me. “I will not accept that, Evie. You were mine the second you hit my car, and I’m not letting you go. Not now, not ever. You think I give a shit that you don’t have money?”
I don’t wait for her to answer. I just lean closer and say, “I’ve got news for you, sweetheart, what’s mine is yours, so you’re loaded. You’ve got more money than anyone else in this club.”
“Valeri,” she starts to protest, but I cut her words off with a kiss, reminding her of the truth of things.
She’s hesitant at first, but when I give her bottom lip a soft bite and force her lips apart with my tongue, she moans and lets me in.
The kiss is hungry and hard, and when I let her go, she’s breathless.
“I love you,” I tell her, whispering it against her lips.
“I’ve never loved anyone, Evie Finch, but I fucking love you.
” I let out a soft laugh. “I’d planned on telling you that later and not in a bathroom at the club, but I don’t want you to ever doubt how I feel.
This isn’t a game to me. I know it’s quick, but I don’t care. I love you.”
Her eyes are watery again, but the pain in them is slowly fading. She cups my face, resting her forehead against mine and lets out a small sigh. “I love you too, Valeri. I’m just scared.”
“Of what?”
“Everything,” she says with a soft laugh. “My dad, the future, constantly running into women you’ve slept with. It’s just a big change for me.”