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"Yeah, you will," he replied. "I’ll drive you there."
"I can get there myself."
He sighed, looking at me and shaking his head. I couldn’t help but notice, this close-up, the smattering of dark hair across his sharp jaw. For a split second, for some reason, I couldn’t help but wonder what it would have felt like beneath my fingertips. I pushed that thought aside. The very last thing I needed in the world right now was to get all up in my head about how hot he was. It didn’t matter what he looked like, or Solomon, for that matter – they were here to try and impinge on my freedom, and that meant there was nothing at all attractive about them to me.
"You don’t have to make this difficult for us," he remarked. "In fact, it could be easy. Just let me come with you. I won’t get in the way."
"How could you not get in the way?" I exclaimed, gesturing to him. "Look at the size of you! Everyone’s going to notice you."
He was really huge – at least a foot taller than me, and I wasn’t exactly some receding wallflower. He shrugged.
"Then you’re not going to have to worry about any trouble," he pointed out.
"I won’t - I won’t have to worry about any trouble anyway!” I protested. "I’m just meeting with my friend. She’s not going to put me in any danger. I promise."
His expression didn’t change. My shoulders slumped downwards. Shit. I wasn’t going to change his mind, was I? He had already decided he was going to see this through, and nothing I could do would shift his opinion on it. No matter what I said, no matter what I did, he had already decided that it was going to go exactly as he had decided.
I paused for one more moment, hoping the silence might get him to offer me another way out of this, but he just stood there, looking down at me, as though daring me to put up more of a fight.
"Fine," I muttered. "But keep out of our way, alright? I don’t want you getting in the way of my night out."
"I’ll be as discreet as possible," he replied. I doubted that was possible. The way he was built, the way he carried himself, he clearly wasn’t used to going under the radar.
But I wasn’t going to be able to convince him to leave me the hell alone. Maybe it was better for me to just give up and accept how this was going to go.
No. This was just for tonight. Just for tonight, and after that, I was going to be more careful when I tried to sneak out. I wasn’t going to give in to them and my father and let them control where I went and what I did, not a chance in hell.
I had gotten used to the freedom of life in Budapest, and I wasn’t going to let go of it now.
No matter what these assholes seemed to think.
Chapter Five – Alex
From the edge of the VIP area, I watched as Olya tossed her head back and burst out laughing at something her friend had just said to her, her dark hair falling in a shimmering waterfall down her back. In the dim lights of the bar, her skin seemed to glow with a deep warmth, her brown eyes glittering with golden flecks...
I drew my gaze away from her quickly and returned it to the club in front of me, reminding myself what I was meant to be doing here. I was here because I wasn’t meant to let her out of my sight – I was meant to keep a close eye on her and make sure nobody got close to her, nobody who might have meant any trouble, at least.
Though this bar was hardly the meeting spot for anyone who would have wanted to cause her harm. She was just hanging out with a friend from high school – she'd filled me in when I’d been driving her over, in the car her father had gifted us for the job at hand, though I could tell she resented having to share anything at all with me. I couldn’t blame her. She clearly didn’t like the idea of having to sacrifice her freedom like this, no matter whether it was for good reason or not.
The bar had been relatively quiet, and the two girls had been led right up to the VIP area the moment they had arrived, probably because people knew exactly who she was. She might have liked to think she could just slide under the radar, but there was no way people weren’t aware that she was an Antonov, and acted accordingly.
I doubted she even clocked it anymore, the way people treated her, as though she was different from everyone around her. It had likely happened her whole life, so much so that it had become part of the background noise, not something that was worth commenting on. I had noticed a couple of guys shooting looks in her direction, but she didn’t seem to notice them at all. I got the feeling that must have been pretty standard for her, too.
She hadn’t mentioned a boyfriend to us, but maybe she just didn’t want us to find out that she had someone special in her life. I figured we would find out eventually. Not that it mattered to me for any particular reason – no, I just wanted to make sure we were doing everything we could to keep her safe, and if that meant keeping watch of the men who showed interest in her, then we would make it happen. I knew she was going to do her best to keep it all from us, keep her secrets, but living together, it wasn’t as though she would be able to hide them for much longer.
She finished off her drink – how many had that been now? Three? She’d had a few cocktails, that was for sure, and this place poured them strong. When she got to her feet to hug her friend goodbye, I noticed she was swaying slightly on her feet, and I fought the urge to go over and offer her some physical support – I knew she would have just brushed me off and told me she was fine, that she didn’t need my help, even though it was clear she kind of did.
I followed her and her friend to the door, and they said their goodbyes – the friend shot one last look at me, and I could tell she was less than impressed that they’d had someone watching over them all night. Shit, that wasn’t my problem, not by a long shot.
I made my way towards Olya, who glanced up at me and giggled when I got close.
"Oh, have you come to take me home in my carriage?" she asked me sarcastically. "Now it’s past midnight?"
"You’re drunk," I told her, taking her arm and steering her to the spot where I had left the car. She rolled her eyes.
"Tipsy at worst," she replied, but she didn’t pull her arm away from mine. I couldn’t help but notice the way the dress she was wearing hugged her generously curvy figure, the shape of her wide hips beneath the fabric...
"Okay, well, you need to get home," I told her firmly. I wasn’t going to let myself get distracted by the way she looked, not a chance in hell. I had a job to do, and I knew Solomon would be expecting us back by one, when his shift started, or he was likely to come out looking for us.
