I spin just in time to see Janessa rush into view, out of breath, followed closely by the very last person I want to see.
Well, okay, I actually love to see him because he’s fucking gorgeous, but I’m kind of in the middle of almost killing someone so I’d rather he didn’t notice me right now.
Young-gi’s face is impassive and unimpressed as he takes in the scene; Brian on his hands and knees, gasping for air, drooling and coughing onto the lush carpet. Me, barefoot and in pajamas, standing over him, wine and shattered glass all over the table.
And Janessa, trembling at his side. She looks at me like she’s trying to tell me something, or ask me something. I don’t know her well enough to say which it is.
“And what’s all this?” Young-gi asks. The calm, icy tone sends shivers right down my spine.
Any normal man would be demanding answers, getting upset, possibly becoming a little panicked by the signs of violence. But Young-gi? No. He acts like he feels nothing at all.
“Mr. Sokolov, um,” I hesitate, trying not to eye-fuck him too much. But good lord, he’s still fine as hell even in his rumpled suit, wrinkled from doing whatever bratva leaders do in the middle of the night in their castles.
“Brian was drunk, I told you already,” Janessa says, breathless and in a hurry. “He was being crazy, he was starting fights. He–he started trying to hurt Tommy. He just needs to sober up.”
I stay quiet, allowing the excuse. It’s technically true, but she’s conveniently leaving out the fact that I had every opportunity to leave the room with her and chose to stay and get some revenge instead. I’m not sure why she’s covering that up for me, but I appreciate it.
“Hm.” Young-gi sounds skeptical but he isn’t showing it. With a careless glance over his shoulder, he beckons someone inside and I blink in surprise at a huge, Russian man who is surprisingly quiet on his feet. “Yosef, take care of that, please.”
The man nods and grabs Brian by the arm, yanks him up, and despite the younger boy’s protests, he marches Brian out of the library. I watch them go, relishing the way Brian helplessly rails against the mountain of a man holding him captive. Good. He needs to be humbled.
“I think you should retire for the night,” Young-gi tells Janessa. “You did the right thing, finding help. But now it’s over. Go to sleep, and try to stay out of trouble from now on.”
The threat is subtle, but I hear it. Young-gi isn’t stupid, and he knows something more was happening here, and that Janessa played a bigger part than she’s letting on. She gulps and mumbles a timid agreement before escaping, leaving me alone in the library with the very last man I want to be alone with.
Okay, scratch that. I’d pay every dime I had to be alone in a dark room with him, naked and taking his cock. But in this situation, pretending to date his niece while also trying to be someone I’m not? Someone straight and ‘normal’ and ‘good enough’ for Kira? This whole thing is fucked.
“Care to explain to me what really happened?”
I swallow hard and then hope to god he didn’t notice. I can’t help it. The undertone of authority, the thread of discipline and toppy vibes. He’s got some intense energy right now.
“I think Janessa already did,” I say unsteadily, then give a big, dramatic yawn and stretch. “Well, thanks for taking care of Brian’s drunken tantrum, but I think I’d better head to bed–”
“Were the two of you fighting over that girl?” Young-gi demands, not budging.
“What? No, of course not. I’m with Kira, you know that.”
“Hm.”
I scoot around the far side of the table, inching toward the door. “So, if that’s all–”
“It isn’t. Sit.”
The commanding tone is powerful, and I literally sway under the urge to do as he says. Part of me wants to listen, but the other part of me says ‘fuck you, you’re not the boss of me, I do what I fucking want’.
I remain standing.
Unphased, Young-gi looks me up and down, taking in my defiance. Without a single word, he languidly, casually grabs a chair and drags it to me, then behind me. I stiffen, holding my breath as he changes the gravity in the room by moving around, pulling my body and attention wherever he goes. I hear him grip the back of it so hard that the wood creaks. He prods the seat against the backs of my knees, and says it again, stern and unyielding.
“Sit.”
I sit.
“Hm.” This time, his hum is oddly…approving. Like he’s giving me a verbal gold star for doing as he said. I watch him, unblinking, as he sits in a chair as well, the messy table between us like a battlefield. We aren’t even remotely close to each other, but my whole body burns from his nearness. Like he’s the sun, and I feel him from a whole galaxy away.
“I think it’s time I had a talk with you,” Young-gi begins, every word precise and enunciated, hitting the syllables hard so they really sink into my ears. “You’re dating my niece, who is very precious and important to me. She deserves the world–not a troublesome gambler with questionable morals who gets into drunken brawls over other women in the middle of the night.”
“I’m not drunk,” I argue, as if that’s important at all.
