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“What do you want then? You won’t take me, hold me hostage, blackmail my family? You know who I am. Who are you?” She looked up at me through thick lashes.
“I am a man with like interests. I want to see the city at peace. That is all I am and nothing more. A businessman, just like your father, who wants nothing but the warring and killing to end. Just like you.”
Anya scooted closer. I could see the need in her eyes. She was weary. Tired of caring for a sick parent, in need of a breath of air, connection, anything that reminded her that life was worth living. Some people would call that a daddy issue; I called it a craving. And I felt it too, the stirring in my body every time she looked at me.
“And you are like my father?” The question struck me as odd, but maybe she was searching too. I was not Russian, though my New York accent would hardly give me away as Italian either. And I looked like any other American businessman. But when she asked, I could see in her eyes the real question. She wanted to know if I waslikeher father.
I answered the only way I knew how. “I will never lie to you, but there are things I can never tell you.”
Before she could answer, captured her lips. I expected her to pull away or turn her head, but she embraced my advance warmly, hooking her arms around my shoulders. It was not my intent to manipulate her into arousal, but I wasn’t averse to her response here. My cock begged to have her, to spread her open and devour her as dessert, but I held back. Not wanting to make a show of her in public.
With my forehead pressed against hers, her arms not allowing me to back away, I whispered, “Not tonight. Not like this.” And when I had finished speaking her lips claimed mine again. This time the passionate hunger I tasted on her was eager, demanding even. My hands tasted of her skin, clasping her hip and pulling her onto my lap. The table jostled as she ran into it, dishes clattering as she straddled me.
Anya was not shy at all, not the picture I had painted in my head of her. I wasn’t sure if she knew what she was doing to me, but I pulled her hips downward as I ground my pelvis up to meet her to make my point known.
“Not here…” I told her again as she pulled away panting. She nodded.
“Then when?”
The frantic searchingof her eyes, the way her hands worked through my hair. She was putty in my hands, but did I want it? I was her enemy and it would put us both in grave danger. The war raged on and we had no way of extinguishing the flame once it was set ablaze.
“In time,” I told her, but I couldn’t help myself. My hand slid up her side, beneath her shirt. I expected the soft fabric of a bra and found instead an erect nipple, supple breast beneath my hand as I squeezed. “Fuck…”
“In time then…” she whispered, standing and extricating herself from my lap. She collected her purse, leaning in front of me in a way that exposed the side of her ribcage. I held her for a moment, sinking my teeth into her flesh, then letting her go. She winked and blew me a kiss as she backed away, disappearing out of the curtain and into the mass of dancers. And I wished I could follow her out to the parking lot and fill her with myself.
Maybe I was in deeper than I thought.
After all, she was the daughter of the Pakhan.
5
ANYA
“There you go.” I helped my father sit up straighter. He had a tray of soup and rolls on his lap, his juice and water on his nightstand. With only three more treatments to go, he was doing much better according to the doctors, but the chemo still ravaged his body. He ate with shaking hands, weak from weight loss and low blood sugar.
“Thank you, Yaya.” He smiled weakly at me. “Your love is so special to me.”
I nodded, smiling in return. He was my world, though lately I’d felt a strong liking for Leo. I couldn’t tell Papa though because if I did, he’d ask who Leo was, and I had purposely not asked Leo that. He swore to not lie to me and I had my suspicions, which were fears at the same time.
“Sir?” Dimitri poked his head in. Second in command to only my father, the older man carried weight, and several guns. If there was one person in the family I was intimidated by, it was this man. He scared me more than Dominic or his father.
“Yes, yes, come in.” Father waved his hand, gesturing for Dimitri to enter.
“Sir, I’d like to discuss our plan.” He raised his eyebrows and looked at me then back to my father. As if I couldn’t hear what my father was doing with business. Didn’t this idiot know I was going to take over for him one day?
He rolled his eyes and said, “Speak, Dimitri. Anya is no trouble.” With a wink, he picked up his spoon and had a bite. He moaned his pleasure at the taste and smiled at me. “So good.”
I was glad to have prepared his food the way he liked it, but I was eager to hear what Dimitri thought was so important I couldn’t be privy to the conversation.
“Sir, I know you’re ill right now, but now is the time to move. The Italians have been quiet lately. I think they’re limping. It’s time we plan a full-frontal attack, take out their safehouses all at once. If we push hard, we can drive them back north and Brighton will be ours.” He stood with hands clasped in front of himself. He looked like a schoolboy asking to use the toilet during class.
“I see…” Papa took another bite of soup and turned to me. “What do you say, Anya? What should we do?”
Dimitri scowled at me, pursing his lips. “She’s a woman. What does she know?”
“Enough!” My father’s shout shook the tray of food and startled me. He did not tolerate insubordination and I wasn’t about to make him angrier. SO when he looked at me I answered as honestly as I could.
“Well, if it were me, I would wait.” The man scoffed but did not speak, so I continued. “I would watch them, see what they’re doing. I’d track their patterns, calculate how many there are, what their weapons are, where they live. Then and only then would I make a careful plan on how to move forward. There is no sense in going out wasting our men and ammunition. Any plan must be strategic. In fact, if we follow their money, we may be able to shut them down from the inside out. No need for violence at all.”
