Chapter 10
Chapter
Ten
Kolya
“Scandals create uncertainty,” Lucy said. “And markets hate uncertainty.”
We were gathered in the kitchen. Sorcha set out a grazing table of charcuterie and easy finger foods. Lucy and Chloe were having wine. I stuck to beer. Kirill was off somewhere else with Maksim, so Lucy came over to strategize for the bratva.
“What does your fixer intuition tell you?” Chloe asked. She’d loosened up a bit with the alcohol, but she was in danger of kissing the countertop with her forehead. In her state, one would need toothpicks to prop her eyelids open.
The King stock had lost twenty percent at its lowest. After news of the King board convening hit the news, it recovered ground.
It had been a nightmare to get through the gates.
Reporters and paparazzi were everywhere.
However, when they recognized me behind the wheel, they made sure not to be in front of the vehicle.
Sometimes my reputation had its benefits.
Using a vehicle to plow down my target wasn’t my preferred method of getting rid of them, though. Too messy.
If Chloe hadn’t been with me, I would have fucked with them. Maybe stepped out of the vehicle and smashed a camera on the reporter’s head.
Sebastian was enjoying his toys in the TV room. Dora was watching him.
Lucy held out her tablet to Chloe, explaining the structure of the board.
“The board hasn’t given Theo control over Jeremiah’s shares yet.
And you hold a four percent beneficiary share and one vote.
Twelve percent is owned by handpicked allies with three votes.
The fifty percent institutional representatives—”
“Institutional representatives?” Chloe asked.
“The hedge funds, banks, index funds—they’re the largest threat. They have six votes.”
I crossed my arms to resist from commenting.
I had no patience for boardroom politics.
Kirill or Maks told me who to intimidate, gave me preliminary background checks, and I did the rest. I dug further and then found which buttons to push.
But Chloe’s presence muted the excitement that usually followed a job prospect.
I didn’t want to leave her and Sebastian.
They grounded me in this house with no desire to go hunting.
“So, what do you suggest?” Chloe asked. “It’s been radio silence from Theo.”
“They’re going to look for stability.” Lucy looked over Chloe’s head at me.
Chloe spun on me, glaring. “If you hadn’t been sabotaging my marriage prospects, I might have found a suitable match by now.”
“If someone’s name is going to be on that covenant, it’s going to be mine,” I growled before I could stop myself.
Her brows furrowed in confusion. My declaration temporarily displaced the exhaustion in her eyes. “You said you’re not the marrying kind.”
“It looks like we have no choice.”
“Well, I’m making the choice for you. No thanks!”
Lucy laughed. “This shouldn’t be amusing, but it is. You need lessons in proposing.” She sucked her cheeks in before saying, “Maybe from my brother.”
“Fuck no,” I muttered.
“You know what? I don’t know why I let Theo talk me into that covenant anyway,” Chloe said.
“He thought we were a danger to you. Now you can see that we’re just like any family except we’re more decisive”—psychotic—“about protecting our own.”
“The thing is, this is the twenty-first century. I don’t need to get married just because I have a baby,” Chloe declared.
“And I’m with you on that, except half of the twelve percent preferred stock is old money and conservative. Theo needs those votes,” Lucy said.
“I just want this to go away.” After getting fired up earlier, her weariness returned. She folded her arms over the countertop and rested her forehead on it, before lifting her head to take a gulpful of wine.
Do you want me to go away too? I didn’t ask. A thorny ball of uncertainty wedged itself in my throat. This odd emotion I couldn’t place, never experienced, couldn’t describe. Not a simple desire. It was an ache rooted inside me that needed Chloe and Sebastian to stay.
While Chloe groaned into her wine and Lucy commiserated, I walked over to where Dora was watching my son.
The TV was on the news.
“They’re digging up Renée’s history.” Dora grabbed the remote to shut it off.
“They brought up Esther’s stay at The Astorian Wellness Center.
How Duncan broke her heart and she never recovered her mental state after the affair.
How it cast a shadow on Theo’s marriage and led to the bitter divorce.
The tabloids are blaming Chloe for coming forward as a King, and one news channel even said maybe the best thing for her is to disappear so the stock market would settle. ”
“Who are they?” I asked sharply.
“Don’t tell him, Dora,” Lucy said. “Kirill doesn’t need a mess to clean up.”
“I clean up my own messes.” I glared at Lucy. “Or are you forgetting my position in this organization?” I shot Dora a smile that was all teeth. “I’m the head of security.”
Dora rolled her eyes.
“But let’s be honest,” Lucy shot back. “Your judgment is impaired.”
I narrowed my eyes.
Lucy didn’t back down. I guessed Kirill didn’t keep secrets from his wife anymore and shared my unfortunate interrogation failures. Fucking pussy-whipped.
She raised a brow and smirked. Lucy was getting way too cocky. “Chloe fell asleep on the counter. She needs a bed.”
I’d been waiting for her to crash. “I got her.” When I reached the kitchen, I wasn’t expecting to be nailed in the chest with the utterly vulnerable image of an exhausted Chloe finally giving in to what her body needed.
I approached stealthily, not wanting to wake her. A pang knotted uncomfortably in my chest, and I had to massage it away with the knuckle of one hand. It was as if there was air constricted inside my lungs and I couldn’t exhale fully. I carefully slipped my arms under her legs and back.
She mumbled, “I’m awake.”
“No, you’re not, princess.” A part of me wanted to surrender to this moment, where the bratva didn’t matter and the whole of my existence was devoted to mother and child. “I got you.”
Maybe it was intrinsic protectiveness embedded in my genes, but I was keeping another instinct at bay. One I didn’t want to analyze.
Chloe surrendered and burrowed into my chest as I crossed the short distance to her room. I adjusted slightly to twist the doorknob and enter the room with her.
I settled her on the bed.
Now I had a dilemma. Should I undress her?
I’d seen her naked. I’d kissed every naked inch of her. I’d been inside her. I’d buried my mouth between her legs.
This wasn’t the first time I’d undressed her, anyway.
I wanted to feel her skin to skin. If the heat between us was fire, it would have incinerated every thread of fabric between us.
Chloe reached down to lift her dress off. I stopped her. I pushed her against the wall and dropped to my knees.
Her fingers dug into my hair. “Nic…”
“I can smell you, princess.” I reached under her skirt and rubbed a knuckle against her damp center. “I’m going to claim every inch of you, but first…”
I dipped my head under her skirt and went straight for her cunt. I pushed her underwear aside and inserted a finger. Her molten inner muscles gripped me. I stroked in and out before my tongue swiped her swollen clit. She cried out. I inhaled her and devoured every last drop of her arousal.
I slipped her underwear down her fabulous and sexy legs, fighting the urge to rip it. Then I fucked her against the wall.
The first of many that weekend. I could see how I’d gotten her pregnant. I was so obsessed with the feeling of her body against mine, my cock buried inside her, I’d been reckless with the condom.
So Chloe getting pregnant? All on me.
She was an enchantress. I was mesmerized by the way her eyes captured mine and I got lost in her brown irises.
I couldn’t reconcile that memory with the scared mother last night.
How much of her was in that fearless woman I’d met a year ago.
She told me it was her birthday, and she was celebrating a new chapter in her life.
She confessed it was her mother’s disappearance that haunted her, but she realized she shouldn’t be living in the past.
I should have felt guilty then because I was a part of that past. But what did I do? I fucked her. Not once, not twice. For an entire weekend.
If I hadn’t been imprisoned, would we be together? I knew exactly where she was. There were days when I took off and watched her.
Until I got arrested and made the headlines.
She hadn’t unpacked, but I had an idea. I went to my room and grabbed one of my tees.
When I returned, I tugged her sweatpants over her hips, making it as clinical as possible before I swung into pervert territory.
Since when was I this chivalrous, anyway?
I let myself admire her gorgeous thighs.
Her stomach was softer. I ached to trace her belly where she’d carried my son.
Then I shook my head when I felt a twinge of loss.
I missed the stages of her pregnancy. I would like to believe that I would have enjoyed them.
A brief image of Chloe sitting on a rocking chair with her belly swollen with my baby flashed through my mind.
The birth. Bringing Sebastian home for the first time.
I removed Chloe’s shirt, unhooked her bra. The strap snagged on the ruby ring she wore on the middle finger of her left hand. She had told me the story of that ring. It was the last gift from her mother on her eighteenth birthday. I noticed Chloe would worry the ring when she was nervous.
I slipped my tee over her head.
She moaned softly when I shifted her under the blankets. And before I gave in to the urge to get into bed beside her, I left the room.
Sebastian was awake and fussing at Dora, pounding at her with his toy octopus. I could sleep anywhere and anytime. I could be useful here.
“Dora?”
She glanced at me. “He’s hungry. Can you hold him while I make him a bottle?”
“Maybe it’s time to teach me. It’s just his formula, right?”