Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
Audrey
Alexei was like my own personal shadow. I wasn’t sure if it was because Ace didn’t trust me or if the second oldest brother just enjoyed annoying me that much. Thankfully I’d gotten a little bit of a break from him when he’d gone back to his own home to change. Ace was early to the restaurant and Carina rolled her eyes between the two of us.
“He’s such a control freak,” she muttered behind her palm as he went to speak to the server about the privacy of tonight’s dinner.
I couldn’t help but grin. Even though she was rolling her eyes and speaking about him behind her hand, you could tell she was absolutely smitten. He helped her into her chair, never made her open her own door, and kept his hand on the small of her back when they were walking close to each other. His dominance and care with her was sexy as hell. I would have been absolutely smitten too. I double-tapped the screen on my phone to no notifications. My own boyfriend hadn’t even checked in to make sure I’d made it safely.
“Waiting on an important call?” Alexei asked as he took the chair to my left. There was an entire massive table that took up the whole room. He could have sat anywhere else, but he sat beside me. Carina gave me a look that I chose to ignore. I knew she didn’t like Brian but the last thing I was going to do was either cheat on him or breakup with him and immediately go after this dangerous fool. I was a lot of things, but I wasn’t stupid.
I rolled my lips as I thought of something, anything, to say to this man. The last thing I wanted to do was give him the wrong impression again. Carina, thankfully, spoke for me. “She’s probably waiting for her boyfriend to call her. It’s been a long day.”
His back straightened and he picked up the menu in front of him. That was all it took? Mention a boyfriend and the man would shut up? I wished I would have tried that hours ago. The menu, of course, didn’t have prices on it and some of the options I had never even heard of. Carina gave me a wide-eyed glance as she looked over her own. The fanciest restaurants we’d gone to were while we were in college, one town over. They weren’t exactly fancy either. Wearing jeans was acceptable there. Here? Not so much.
We were all dressed to the nines. Even Alexei looked good in a white button-down with the sleeves rolled-up over his elbows. Dark tattoos swirled along his forearms and I wondered if he was actually as strong as he looked. If it hadn’t been for the glitter and cheap perfume from earlier, I would have thought him a hard-ass. Now in the dim light of the room and his fresh, clean clothes… I could see the danger in him. My eyes snagged on the tattoo snaking up the side of his neck and I wondered what it was. In the candlelight, it was impossible to tell and I certainly wasn’t going to ask either. He’d finally left me alone.
I’d chosen a black pantsuit and some flats. After Alexei’s comment, I wasn’t going to try my hand at heels just yet. There were only so many comments I could handle from him and I was already nervous enough to meet the rest of the bunch.
Ace and Alexei’s parents didn’t take long to arrive. Mrs. Cristof had a blazer tucked over her arm and a little clutch in her hand. She was a willowy woman. Her boys had gotten their height from both parents. Her blonde hair was pulled back from her face in a tight bun at the nape of her neck and her makeup was minimal. Ace was a carbon copy of her. Their father wore a suit similar to both brothers but he seemed more casual. The top three buttons were undone, showing off just a sprinkling of salt and pepper chest hair. He had a full beard that was kept up nicely and his eyes were as dark as his hair. Alexei got his genes from his father except his father’s eyes were much lighter and there was no smirk curling the corners of his mouth.
They came around to our side of the table first. Ace’s mother immediately went to Carina’s side. She reached for my best friend’s hands and beamed. “Aren’t you a beauty! Ace usually goes for the nerdy girls. This is an interesting surprise.”
Even in the low lighting, you could see Carina’s cheeks flame but instead of replying, Ace spoke for her. “She’s just as smart as she is beautiful. She’s definitely a nerd, Mother.”
“It’s wonderful to finally meet you, Mrs. Cristof. I’ve heard wonderful things about your family.”
Just as Carina stopped speaking, Mrs. Cristof yanked her into her arms for a big hug. “Mrs. Cristof is my cranky mother-in-law, please call me Emeline.” She then patted her husband’s chest with the back of her hand. “This is my husband, Sinclair.”
He didn’t reach forward to hug Carina but instead patted her shoulder, went around her to shake Ace’s hand, and then sat himself across from his oldest. Though his eyes seemed kind, I wondered if the rest of him was. His lips were pinched and he didn’t seem overly thrilled to be here. Once Emeline was seated her gaze swiveled to me. “You must be the chosen sister, Audrey is it?”
“Yes ma’am,” I replied politely. I didn’t know how to act with these people. I felt like a fish out of water.
Emeline flapped her hand at me. “None of that, you aren’t in the South anymore.”
I nodded my head, unsure of what to do.
“It’s nice to meet you as well, I’m thankful you were able to come to keep Carina company through all the festivities I have planned. I’m sure everyone thinks I’m over the top, but this is my first daughter-in-law.” Her eyes cut to Alexei but he was clicking through Tinder.
Classy.
“It’ll probably be our only daughter in law if the rest of the boys have any say in it,” Sinclair said under his breath. Emeline patted his hand on the table but her expression was strained, she obviously didn’t like where this was headed.
Alexei perked up at that. “Oh, you’re definitely right, Father."
Emeline looked on the verge of tears and Sinclair seemed absolutely unfazed. He took a sip of his water and spoke to his oldest instead, completely ignoring what Alexei said. “Did you order the red I like?”
“Only the best,” Ace replied gruffly.
“Good, good,” Sinclair nodded.
Carina grabbed my hand under the table and squeezed. This was going to be a long night.
The rest of the brothers were nothing like I imagined. They were a good mix of New York soul. There was an artistic one— Dimitri, the bored one who didn’t give any indication of his personality—Ivan, and the flirty one who tried to get Alexei to give up his chair to sit beside me— Griffin. Not a single one of them brought a date. Though Alexei didn’t seem a tad bit interested in me, as he couldn’t keep his eyes off of the waitress’ ass, he would not give up his chair. I pleaded with my eyes for him to just go . But instead, he grinned like a maniac and stabbed his steak.
There was conversation happening all around the table and I wasn’t quite sure where to pay attention. Carina was engrossed in wedding planning with Emeline, Ace and Sinclair were whispering animatedly, and all the brothers at the other end of the table were telling some heinous tale of robbery. Alexei looked entirely too amused with the whole thing and it made me wonder if it was even true, it seemed ridiculous. Something about a car chase, naked women, and canned cheese.
“Those were my more wild days,” Alexei finished off his steak and leaned his chair back onto two legs.
“There were wilder days?” I couldn’t help it. My food was awfully bland and all I wanted was some kind of seasoning blend to dump on the top of it. I wondered if I could get takeout sent up to the penthouse after this or if it would offend Ace. I didn’t want to step on any toes… unless it was Alexei’s, I wanted to stomp them flat.
Alexei’s brow lifted and I watched as a scar shone in the low lighting. It split through the edge of the hair there, just barely. I wouldn’t have noticed it any other time, at least that’s what I told myself because I was certainly in denial about how much I looked at him tonight.
He ran the tip of his tongue over his bottom lip and I almost forgot what I said. Instead of answering my question, he leaned forward and gripped the back of my chair. I couldn’t have taken my eyes off of him even if I tried. “Some of the best days of my career. Did you have wild years, Audrey Wild ?”
Carina put her chin on my shoulder and giggled. At least one of us was having a good time, or it was the expensive ass wine doing all the laughing. “Audrey? She didn’t do anything too illegal but before she met Mr. Safety Pants, she was the fun one out of the two of us. I would have to drag her out of tattoo parlors, clubs,” I knew where this was headed before she finished her sentence. “Ja?—”
I clamped my hand over her mouth. “They don’t want to hear about those days. I’m not the same person anymore.”
“Mr. Safety Pants? He work in construction or something?”
Carina’s delighted face turned sour. “No, he’s just a stick in the mud and has turned Audrey into one too.”
My tongue ached from how hard I was biting it. Right on cue, the perfect distraction, my phone lit up in my lap. “Speak of the devil.”