19. Ruby
“Ican’t believe you did this,” I snarl as Samuel tells me why we’re here. I’m used to my father lying to manipulate me into doing things he’ll profit from, but I really wouldn’t have thought that Samuel would be so compliant in betraying me.
But he’s working for my father and not for me, so it’s only logical that he obeys his orders. And I can’t blame him for tricking me, because there’s no way I would have sat my ass in this car if I knew what was waiting for me.
I am still angry at him as he tells me to behave, that this is an important meeting for my father, and that I should be nice to the guy. And I really, really want to ruin this whole date, but then I see a man in the parking lot.
He’s tall, not as tall as Sam, but still way bigger than me, leaning against a vintage sports car. He runs a hand over his blond buzz cut and I see that not only his hands are tattooed, because black ink also peeks out from underneath his fitted satin dress shirt. His expression tells me he’s as annoyed as I am to be here, looking at his watch whenever he doesn’t let his gaze wander over the parking lot.
A sharp exhale comes from my left. Sam is obviously more than pissed that I checked the guy out. He tries to hide it as soon as I look at him, but now that I know he doesn’t like this at all, I’m going to make him regret lying to me.
“Come on, firecracker, let’s get this over with,” he says while he gets out of the car and walks over to open the door for me. Surprising; maybe I should go on more dates with other guys to get him to act like a gentleman. “And be nice to him, or else you can explain whatever fuckup you produce to your dad.”
“Firecracker?” I ask as I get out of the car. “That’s a new one. I thought I was your dipshit.”
“You’re not my dipshit, you’re a dipshit. Big difference. And now get going.”
I check my makeup in the reflection in the mirror before turning to Samuel, who walks so close behind me that feel his presence looming over me.
“What are you doing? I don’t think my father said that this is supposed to be a throuple-date.”
He grumbles something in response but keeps his distance. It’s not that I don’t enjoy having him as my shadow, but they wanted a date, they wanted me to be charming, so that’s exactly what they are going to get.
The guy”s eyes light up as he sees me coming closer, and he stands up straight, walking towards me to close the distance between us.
“Nikolai Chernikov, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” he says in a thick Russian accent and I have to admit that he’s even more attractive up close.
“The pleasure is all mine,” I say as I shake his hand. “I’m Ruby Barron, but I guess you already know that.” I catch him looking from me to behind me, and I turn my head to see what’s going on.
Sam looks like he’s ready to kill someone.
“James,” I hiss. “Distance.” He glares at Nikolai, then at me, but still retreats to the car. Only to glare at us from back there.
“Sorry, that’s my bodyguard. He’s a bit—reserved,” I say with a smile.
“Ah, don’t worry.” Nikolai laughs and raises his eyebrows before he turns around. “Mine.” He points at a black Range Rover while rolling his eyes. The man behind the steering wheel is massive, looking even more pissed than Samuel.
“Oh.”
“He’s okay, just looks mean,” Nikolai reassures me, but I’m not exactly convinced. I’m pretty sure that the guy could throw the whole SUV at us if we anger him. “My father is just paranoid.”
“Yeah, tell me about that,” I say with a forced laugh. “Your car is really nice.”
“Thank you,” he says, a proud smile on his face. “I restored it on my own. I’d offer you to drive around, but I think we’ll get in trouble if we go somewhere unsupervised.”
“Probably.”
He is attractive and nice. The last few men my father tried to set me up with were either ugly, ugly and weird, or just outright creepy. And old.
While I prefer my men a little older, a sixty-eight-year-old potential husband would have been a bit too mature for my liking. Especially because I was not even twenty back then.
“You want to walk a bit and maybe sit down and have a drink?” Nikolai asks as we walk towards the entrance of the country club. Our bodyguards follow us at a distance and I can feel how Samuel watches every single one of my moves.
“Sure.”
We walk down a small path that’s mostly secluded while we talk about mundane things like vacations, cars, and pets. We both have to laugh as we figure out that we were on the same island in the Maldives just a week apart, five years ago.
A jellyfish stung Nikolai on the second day of his vacation, and I got a heatstroke on day six. We would have made a funny couple, waiting on the island doctor back then.
He’s telling me about his three dogs back at home as we come to a fork in the path. From past visits, I know that the left path leads back to the main houses of the country club, so I suggest we take this one and he agrees.
Unfortunately, we picked the exact time the country club runs its sprinklers and puddles form on the muddy ground. Just when I want to carefully step over, and probably right in a particularly big one, Nikolai stops me.
“May I?” He asks. “Don’t want your shoes to get dirty,” he says as he picks me up bridal style, careful not to touch me inappropriately.
He steps over the puddle and as I turn my head, I see that our bodyguards have caught up to us. To say that Samuel is pissed is an understatement, and without his mask, he isn’t able to hide his expression.
Good, that’s what he gets for lying to me, I think as I grin at him.
“Thank you.” Nikolai lets me back down, and I smile up at him. “So, what bad thing did you do to get sent here to meet me?” I ask as we walk towards the club.
“What do you mean?” he asks. “Why should a date with a beautiful girl like you be a punishment?” He’s charming, I have to give him that.
“If your father is anything like mine, which I suspect, you’re not here on your own accords.”
He looks to the ground, wiping a bit of mud from his leather shoe on the grass.
“Business,” he says. Adding, “But you are really pretty, please don’t get me wrong,” a second later, as if he wants to make sure I’m not offended.
“I thought so,” I say. “Well, then we should make sure that our fathers believe that this date is going well, don’t you think?”
I don’t give a single shit about my father, his father, or their business, but I want to see how much I can provoke Samuel until he snaps.
And Nikolai is a good man, as far as I can tell. If we had met under other circumstances a few years ago, maybe things would have been different. But with the way things are now, I really don’t want to switch from living in a golden cage because of my father to living in a golden cage because of my father-in-law.
I just want a normal life, but it seems like this is too much to ask for.
We sit down at a table on the patio, enjoying the view of the golf course. I never really got the appeal of golfing, maybe because I’m impatient and get bored quickly. Or maybe I just connect going golfing with Brian and it would be fun with someone else.
Nikolai orders a drink for me and I prefer to order for myself, but he picks the right one, so I won’t complain. His bodyguard is nowhere to be seen, apparently better at being subtle than Samuel, who leans against a column, hands in his pockets. I sincerely hope that he didn’t bring his gun.
We drink and talk some more and maybe my strawberry daiquiri gets me acting a bit too bold because I take his hand.
“I like your tattoos,” I say, turning his hand around to see them better. There’s a sparrow, various smaller tattoos, and something in Russian, but before I can ask him what it says, I feel a hand on my shoulder.
“I need to have a word with you,” Samuel hisses through gritted teeth. Nikolai nods politely as I excuse myself and just as we’re out of his field of vision, Samuel roughly shoves me into an empty storage room. I wonder if he deliberately looked for one before he snatched me away.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” He paces around the small room, refusing to look at me.
“Behaving? Enjoying my date?”
“Stop acting dumb, Ruby.” He steps closer, towering over me.
“Why? I clearly remember you telling me I should be nice to him.”
“That’s not what I meant when I said that.”
“Well, that’s not my problem.” I glare up at him, wondering how far I can take it. “He’s hot, and such a gentleman. He’s strong. Did you see how he carried me? So polite, not throwing me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, like you always do.”
“Ruby,” he says sternly, stepping even closer. He’s so close that I can smell his cologne, so close that I can see his muscles bulging under the black fabric of his shirt.
“I wonder how he fucks. Bet his hands would look pretty around my throat.”
“There’s only one hand that needs to look good around your throat, and that’s mine,” he growls, pushing me against the wall. Heat surges through my body, pooling right between my thighs.
“What happened to ‘we shouldn’t repeat that’? Am I no longer too young for you?” I force out.
“You remember how I told you I could snap your neck like a twig? Wanna find out?” he growls in my ear while his free hand wanders down my body. His grip on my neck tightens, and I don’t know if the lack of oxygen or the way his other hand vanishes beneath my skirt is making me so dizzy.
“Don’t tell me you’re wet for this asshole.”
Feverishly, I shake my head.
“There’s something you don’t seem to understand, Ruby.” He shoves my panties to the side, his fingers circling over my clit before he plunges two fingers deep inside of me.
“You’re not the one making the rules here. As long as I’m watching over you, you’re not going to talk to other men like that. You’re not going to talk about other men like that. Hell, you’re not going to even think about any other man like that.”
His tone is low and commanding, and I know he can feel me clenching around his fingers. He groans, curling his fingers as he continues to thrust them into me.
I don’t get much air and I should probably use it to keep a clear head instead of moaning desperately, but I’m too far gone to make rational decisions.
“Shut your pretty mouth or I’ll make you,” he says condescendingly and I feel my legs giving out under me. I grind against his hand, chasing my release until he suddenly pulls away.
“So desperate to come,” he says, shaking his head dismissively. “Pathetic.”
His eyes darken as he looks down at me, one hand still unfaltering on my neck while he lifts the other one up, smearing my own juices over my lips. My tongue darts out, dancing over his fingers, and he groans as I close my lips around them.
“Fuck, you got a mouth on you, darling.” His hand leaves my neck, and he takes a step back, his eyes roaming over my body.
“On your knees for me, Ruby,”