“And seeing as my business is your business…”
“…I’ll be your butcher. This is what you were thinking about yesterday?”
“Wynter and I discussed the need for a shake-up. Or do I mean shakedown?”
“Here I was, thinking you were feeling bad about killing some shit stain that refused to be wiped up.”
I peep at him. “I did a little. But I’m sick of women being the cows and men being the farmers.”
“Bizarre analogy but I’ll take it.”
“I knowyou’rea farmer, but I wouldn’t be a cow.”
“Back to hucows, are we?” At my glower, he smirks. “You know you wouldn’t.”
“Precisely. Wynter told me she’s friends with the girl Derek Dyers and his buddy attacked. I’m not happy that the Veronians cleared his name.”
“It’s the old boys’ club. That’s how it works. Favors for favors.”
“Perhaps right now. Are you telling me there’s no nepotism in this stupid secret society? Are you telling me that Derek “My Brain is Puckshot and Needs to be Donated via Vivisection to Science” Dyers can bring more to their members than I could? With my ties to both the Irish and the Russian Mobs? If Shay gets into the White House…?” I tsk. “No, no. The old way is immature. Typical male grandstanding.”
“Why, Victoria, it almost sounds like you crave a revolution.” He whispers that final word in Russian.
Because I can feel the full thickness of his dick pressing into the softness of my belly, I know he doesn’t hate my idea.
“Like any true Russian would.” My eyes shutter when he drops another kiss to my nose.
“So you’re Russian when you feel incendiary and American the rest of the time?”
I just smile.
When my eyes flicker open again, though, he starts talking. About what he learned from Harrington, who is in the dark as to what he did to piss off his brethren. About the nuances of falling out of favor within the Veronians.And, more importantly, about theirmodus operandi.
“There’s a council of ten. They run the show. You need to decide on a plan to catch their attention. You’ll be handicapped because I’ll let you do anything you want but you aremine, Victoria. No other?—”
I press a finger to his lips. “I don’t want another.”
“Pussy is an easy method of controlling ugly bastards who only get a sniff of cunt because of their bank accounts.”
“Being better than anyone they have on board right now is another way.”
“And how do you intend on doing that?”
“Using my resources.” I flutter my lashes at him, but that doesn’t lessen his tension. “Maxim, I stayed a virgin. By choice. Nobody made me do it. You had more guards on me in school than some billionaires’ kids had, but there were ways to avoid them. I could have fucked anyone I wanted. I didn’t.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because I had this idea of you.” My smile makes an appearance. I know it’s full of whimsy. This whole premise was. “In a time where my entire world was unsafe, where someone got to me, you proved you would take down my enemies. One by one. No matter who it was, how rich they were, how powerful they believed themselves to be—if they hurt me, you hurt them.
“Boys nowadays can’t get themselves together enough to agree they’re dating a girl. It’s all situationships and ooh, we’re just seeing each other. Hanging out. Bumping uglies.
“You staked a claim on me years ago and didn’t have to stick around to reinforce it. In a world of boys,milyy, you showed me what it is to have a man.”
The tension in him fades somewhat, but it’s still present. “They will try to use you.”
“I know.” I smirk. “Luckily for me, I have a shit ton of people who’ll have my back.”
“Having secrets won’t help. Keeping things cooped up won’t either.”
