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“The weird thing is, I never heard from him. My mom said it was because he didn’t reach out, but now I think she might have been hiding something. Maybe he did try to reach out and she stopped him,” I explain, searching Savva’s face for answers. I know he doesn’t knowthatmuch, but maybe there’s a piece of this puzzle that he holds, something that would make things clearer.
He takes a deep breath, filling his lungs with air and blowing it across the table. I can smell the smoke on him, the rich scent of a busy man, and I close my eyes for a moment to bask in it.
“Angus cared, that’s about all I know. He would’ve reached out to you if he could. I’m sure of that. Perhaps your mother had some kind of restraining order against him. It wouldn’t be hard to get one, being the ex-wife of what the state would call a violent convict,” Savva says.
“I didn’t think about that,” I reply, pushing my hair back behind my ear and leaning forward. “And he did leave me the bar, so he must’ve felt something for me.”
He smiles, his eyes studying me just as intensely as I’m studying him. “I can’t imagine him not feeling something.”
His words feel like they could apply to Angus, or himself just as easily.
“I think you’re going to want to ask your mother, if she’s up for it,” he says.
I laugh. “Not so easy. I pissed her off pretty bad the last time she called. I had told her that I was coming to Nevada for a job interview, and she freaked out when I told her about Angus and the bar. I doubt she wants to talk right now.”
He nods slowly. “I suppose dealing with bars, bikers, and criminals is a pretty good way to get disowned.”
“You think she would do that?” I ask, not even having considered the possibility. Perhaps I need to call her back and make sure she’s not ripping my photos out of their frames and setting my room on fire back home.
Savva shakes his head, taking another sip. “I doubt it. If she cares about you, she won’t do that. Even my mother – God rest her soul – didn’t have the heart to disown me, and that was after she found out that I had taken on my father’s legacy when I moved to the United States. She was angry, but a mother’s love is strong, especially a Russian mother.”
I almost laugh when imagine Savva getting yelled at by an old Russian woman. I can picture her grabbing him by the ear and dragging him up to his bedroom just for using profanity within earshot of her. I bet he wouldn’t dare talk to me the way he does if she were here now.
I prop my head in my hands, allowing myself to sink deeper into Savva’s features, appreciating the subtle things, like the way his lips move up slightly higher on the left side when he speaks, or the slight bend in his prominent nose. I bet he’s been in plenty of fights to warrant much more damage to the face, but despite that, he’s flawless in my eyes. I’ve never met a man more alluring.
“Do you smoke?” he asks, pulling a squished pack of cigarettes from his back pocket and tapping it against the table.
“You want to die early or something?” I ask. “Don’t you have more to live for that that?”
He’s obviously offended, putting the cigarettes back into his pocket and shrugging in such an exaggerated manner that he nearly knocks his drink off the table. “Everyone has their vices,” he says.
“True,” I reply, thinking back to how much alcohol I drank this week. It’s not a good habit, but the stress of all this new information and drama is probably worse. I wonder if that’s the same reason why he smokes. Maybe the stress is too much for him to handle without the cigarettes.
He finishes off his drink and leans back in his chair, looking around the bar and nodding in approval. “You’ve done a good job with this place. I think Angus would be proud.”
I blush, rubbing the back of my neck and turning away from him. One second, he’s a monster, and the next, he’s prince charming. I’m getting whiplash from all this.
Savva winks at me, standing up after a moment and looking at me expectantly. “Well, I think there’s something you owe me, right?”
I stand up, returning to the serious business mask I’ve been wearing all night to cover up my anticipation. “Right, I have the money in the office.”
He smiles, and the light from the bar glitters in his eyes like snowflakes. He looks me up and down, and once again, the prince charming character he plays so well transforms into a primal beast. “I wasn’t referring to the money…”
14
Oakley
My chest is tight and my breathing shallow as I walk past Kimberly at the bar. We make eye contact, and I smile to her like it’s just business as usual, but she seems to know. She glares at Savva before we both disappear through the doorway.
I know she doesn’t like him, but she has no idea the way he makes me feel. How could she possibly understand. Has she ever fallen prey to a Bratva boss before? Has she ever experienced the heat of flesh on hers, or the pressure of his cock pressing into her from behind.
Needful. Lustful. Greedy.
I doubt it. If she had, she would’ve warned me about him sooner. She would’ve told me not to try to put my foot down, but to run far away because there would be no way to resist him.
And it’s not because he would have to force anything. He would just get it because that’s what he asked for. And I would give it because I would feel compelled to obey his every word.
To please him. To serve him.
