I woke up to Lina’s lips wrapped around my cock. With a moan, I touched her face, petted her hair. Kneeling between my legs, she moved her mouth along my length, her eyes on me as she did.

“You’re killing me,” I managed as she pumped and sucked at once, her other hand between her legs.

Guilt gnawed at my gut. I was older than her and six months from being ordained. She trusted me. She was vulnerable. This was wrong. What I was doing was wrong. I should make her stop. I knew it. But fuck…

Reluctantly, I drew her off me and sat up.

“Lina.”

She knelt, her fingers still working her clit through her slick folds. “Damon.”

I couldn’t take my eyes off her.

“You’re a dirty girl.”

“You like it.”

We had Florida. I’d said one night, but we could have Florida. “Show me your pussy, Lina.”

She sat back and lifted one leg so I could watch her play with herself, watch her work her dripping pussy. Grabbing her ankle, I drew her toward me and bent my head to her, my mouth on her. She moaned, spreading her legs wider, hands on the back of my head while I devoured her, listening to the sounds she made when I took her clit into my mouth and sucked. When she came, she cried out my name, the sound only a breath. A sigh.

Rising slightly, hands on either side of her, I kissed her, then slid us both off the bed.

“Kneel,” I said.

She dropped to her knees before me, opening her mouth, thinking that’s what I wanted. But I shook my head and fisted my cock, pumping.

“Watch,” I said.

She knelt, transfixed.

“I’m going to cover you in cum.”

She licked her lips, her gaze shifting to mine momentarily before returning to my cock. She slid her fingers between her slit.

I grinned, watching her. “You like watching?”

She nodded, darting her tongue out to lick the tip of my cock when I brought it to her lips.

“I like watching too. I like watching you finger your cunt.”

“I’m going to come again.”

“Come.”

She looked up at me, and I watched her. Saw how her face flushed, how she bit her lip as her eyes softened. She came, and a moment later, I blew, covering her in cum, her breasts, her neck, her face, all while I watched, while she knelt before me this one last time.

* * *

After showering, we ordered room service and ate breakfast by the window. It wasn’t easy to put off the thoughts of earlier, of how wrong this was, but time was running out, and we needed to talk.

“I’m free until about lunchtime. Then you’re on your own for the afternoon, but we’ll have dinner together.”

“Thanks for bringing me. I’m glad I came. Although I don’t know if I really had a choice.”

“Are you ready to talk.”

She didn’t quite nod, but she also didn’t say no.

“I want to help you,” I said. “I won’t judge you, no matter what.”

“I know.”

“Why is this so hard?”

“Because I wish you didn’t have to be involved. I wish things were different, and just that we’d met again under different circumstances.”

“Circumstances are what they are.” I studied her, refilling my coffee cup as she held her mug and sipped hers.

“Do you know who owns Club Carmen?” she asked, following quickly with: “Shit. I feel like I just slammed us back into reality.”

I felt the same way. “Up until a little while ago, it was Sergei Markov. Since his arrest, it’s changed hands to his son, Alexi. The same man I saw you talking to a few nights ago. It looked to me like he made your skin crawl.”

“Perceptive. You know who the Markov’s are then?”

I nodded.

“The apartment I live in belongs to Sergei, not Alexi. Alexi just sort of inherited it or took it over when they arrested Sergei.”

“Go on.”

She bit her lip. “I didn’t come across Club Carmen by accident.”

“What do you mean?”

“I sought him out. I sought Sergei Markov out.”

I waited, something telling me this was about to go from bad to worse.

“Do you remember when I mentioned that I had done something that could get me in trouble? That I had kept something back from Sofia and the investigators?”

“I remember, but…” I was confused. “I assumed it had to do with your grandfather.”

“Well, when I turned over the journals that got Grandfather arrested, I…I kept one.”

“What do you mean, you kept one?”

She exhaled deeply, shrinking into herself a little. “He had ties to Sergei Markov. They’d done business together.”

“What? Your grandfather and Sergei Markov?”

She nodded. “From what I understand, Sergei was interested in the Italian market, interested in taking it over from the Italian mob. I don’t know much more. Grandfather’s notes were probably only meant for himself to understand. He mentioned some names and mostly noted transactions with dates and dollars, some with initials and locations. There were just a few that were…more detailed.”

“Lina, you have to hand that over to the authorities.”

She shook her head. “My grandfather did bad things, Damon. Really bad things.” Her eyes pooled with tears. “Worse than stealing money.”

“Where’s the notebook?”

“Hidden.”

“Does Sergei know about its existence?”

She shook her head.

“How can you be sure?”

“I just know.”

I studied her. Sergei Markov was too smart not to know. Didn’t it explain his generosity with her? Didn’t that explain why he kept her so close. To keep an eye on her?

“I still don’t understand why you sought out Sergei Markov.”

She looked around the room, thinking. “I don’t know. Or I didn’t. Not then. I needed to believe Grandfather wasn’t as evil as that journal made him out to be. I needed to see Sergei Markov for myself. I…I don’t know. Maybe I needed to blame him. Maybe I thought it would exonerate my grandfather—in my mind, at least. I didn’t really have a plan. I just needed to see him.”

“Lina—”

“It’s such a relief to tell someone.”

She gave me a faint smile, and for a moment, I wasn’t sure she understood just how dangerous her situation was.

“This is a Russian crime lord we’re talking about.”

“I know.”

She quieted, biting the inside of her cheek, her forehead wrinkling as she shifted her gaze out the window.

“Go on, Lina.”

She faced me again. “I only went to the audition for the pianist position at Club Carmen to see him. I never really expected to get the job. I didn’t even really want it.” She shook her head. “I don’t actually know what I wanted, I guess. I didn’t have a plan. But Sergei hired me on the spot, and… I don’t know, I took the job. It was like Fate was sending me a sign, so I took it. I got to know him a little bit. He was so different than I expected. I guess I’d thought he’d be a monster, but he wasn’t. Not at all.”

“Monsters come in all shapes and sizes.”

“I needed to believe that my grandfather wasn’t one. Finding Sergei was supposed to do that. To make me see that Sergei was the monster.”

“But he wasn’t?”

She exhaled and lowered her lashes. It took her a moment before she continued.

“He knew I was struggling financially and told me I could stay at the brownstone apartment until I found something else. He said it was empty. His last renters had vacated it, and he hadn’t had time to look for anyone new. That’s how I ended up there.”

“You never looked for anything else? A place of your own?”

“I know I should have, but no, I didn’t. I’d shared an apartment—rented a cot, actually—before I’d found Club Carmen. This apartment was nicer than anything I could afford. And it was free.”

“Nothing is free, especially from a man like that.”

She shifted her gaze to the side. “He also gave me an advance.”

“This gets better and better.”

“I’m telling you the truth, Damon,” she snapped. “Truth you asked for. You said you wouldn’t judge me.”

“Go on.” I couldn’t help the edge in my voice.

“Sergei was kind to me. Warm even. Warmer than my grandfather. And it was never anything sexual with him. He was more like a father. I even started to forget why I’d come to New York City in the first place. It was just easier that way. Easier to turn my back on the past, even though I knew I’d have to face everything at some point. Face what I’d done, the role I’d played.”

“What about the journal? Have you considered turning it in?”

She shook her head. “I should burn it. I should already have burned it. It can only hurt Grandfather more, and I’ve done enough damage.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong.”

She shrugged one shoulder. “Because of me, my grandfather is in prison. Because of me, we’ve lost everything.”

“No. Not because of you. He did that. Not you. And there would have been an investigation anyway, Lina. After the fire, before the insurance paid out, they’d have dug deep into matters. Who knows how much of this they’d have uncovered themselves.”

“But the point is, they didn’t. They didn’t have to. I did it. And I did it because I knew what he had done to Sofia. How he’d sold her out. How he’d manipulated Raphael by using me. By threatening to not take me to my sister’s wedding.” Her voice broke. “What he made her do, it makes me sick, Damon.” She wiped away stray tears and sat up straighter. “I guess I got it, finally. And then I realized he planned on hurting Raphael by stealing his house out from under him. It was just so wrong. So awful. And the thing was, when I went to the wedding, I knew Sofia and Raphael would make it work, somehow. I could see it, see how they felt about each other, even if they couldn’t admit it.”

“If you know all this, why do you feel any guilt?”

“I don’t know.”

“Go on about New York City and the Markov’s.”

“Well, everything was fine, until Sergei got arrested and Alexi turned up. He made a new arrangement with the advance. He started to take out what I owed his father from my paychecks, which he said I owed to Club Carmen, which in turn meant I owed him, and he tacked on an outrageous interest rate backdated to when I’d first received it. There was no way I could pay that back, and he knew it.”

“How much are we talking?”

She looked down at her empty plate where she set her crumpled-up napkin.

“You have to understand, I had nothing—”

“How much, Lina?”

She met my gaze, and I knew it was going to be bad.

“Twenty-five thousand dollars.”

“Twenty-five thousand dollars? Are you fucking kidding me? What could you need that much money for?”

“It wasn’t all personal. Some of that—a lot of it—Sergei wanted me in designer dresses. He wanted me to go to hairdressers he chose, makeup artists, the works. I was his pianist—”

“You were his doll. His pretty little toy doll.”

She opened her mouth, then closed it again. I saw the hurt in her eyes.

“Lina, you had to know he wouldn’t just have given you that.”

“I had nothing!” Tears reddened her eyes. “I’d come from having everything to nothing. I couldn’t go back home. Hell, I had no home. I didn’t want to go back to school. I just…I know it was stupid. I know how stupid I sound. How naive. I know.” She picked up her used napkin and wiped her nose. “Don’t you think I know?”

I rubbed my face. This was worse than I realized. “That’s why your cupboards are empty. Why you needed cab fare.”

She looked away.

I continued. “Hence eggs and water.”

“This is so embarrassing.” She shook her head and looked out the window for a few minutes before continuing. “He took the dresses his father wanted me to have for when I played at the club, claiming they were uniforms. He accuses me of being his father’s whore and won’t accept the truth. He’s jealous of his father. Hates him while at the same time, he’s both desperate for Sergei’s approval and terrified of his wrath. And I’ve become some sort of obsession for him. Maybe if I’d just have let him…” She glanced at me and stopped.

“I swear, if you had finished that sentence, Lina—”

“It’s not even me he wants, Damon. Not really. I’m just something he can take from his father. Like he could steal a thing, a possession.”

She looked off into the distance. When she spoke again, she was quieter.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry for all of it, Damon.”

“We’ll go to the police together.”

“Police?” she chuckled. “That’s funny.”

“I’ll get the money and pay back the debt, as outrageous as it is that you’d have to do that. Then you can be free.”

“No. You won’t get involved. He’ll hurt you. He’ll hurt you to hurt me. Damon, he can’t know about you.”

My phone rang then. I glanced at the display. It was the seminary. Probably Gavin. I declined the call, but it rang again immediately. “I have to take this,” I said, standing.

She nodded. I answered the call. Lina sat quietly watching me, and I watched her as I listened to Gavin speak. It was as though we were in cahoots. She knew to be silent. To keep our secret.

When she got up to retrieve her phone from her purse and sat down on the edge of the bed to scroll through messages, I turned my back.

“The meeting isn’t until this afternoon,” I said to Gavin. I had business here with a man whose annual donations to the seminary made things very comfortable. He needed to move the meeting up and, as far as Gavin knew, there wasn’t a single reason why I couldn’t adjust my schedule. I ended my call and turned to her.

“I have to go.”

“Already?”

I nodded. “The afternoon appointment can’t meet with me when we had scheduled but has time now.”

“Who was on the phone?”

I didn’t quite meet her gaze when I told her. “Gavin, the dean of the seminary.”

She nodded. “Church business.”

“Yes.”

Lina busied herself with loading our breakfast dishes back on the room-service tray.

“Lina,” I said, my hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

She shook it off. “It’s fine.”

It had to be fine.

She straightened and faced me. “You have no choice.” Her voice came out stiff, her gaze accusing.

I took a deep breath in, slid my hand over to take hers, and turned her palm up to mine. My thumb rubbed a circle inside it. When I looked up, I saw the top of her head as she watched our hands together. “I’ll be back as soon as I can, and we’ll continue talking then. We’ll spend the afternoon together.”

“This isn’t going to make any difference, is it?” She met my gaze. “Any of this. Not for us.”

“Lina—”

She shook her head and pulled her hand from mine. “One night. Two. We agreed.”

She tried to step away, but I caught her wrist. “I’ll be back. We’ll talk then, okay?”

It took her a long time to answer. “Okay.”

I knew it was anything but.

“You have to do what you have to do,” she continued.

She gave me the faintest smile.

Feeling like a jerk, I released her to pick up my suit jacket and slide it on. “You don’t have to do this alone. I’m with you, Lina. I’ll help you. I’m not going to let him hurt you.”

I went to her, leaned down, and kissed her forehead. “I’ll see you in a little bit. We’ll talk through our options then. Just relax and enjoy the beach, the sun. Try not to worry, okay? We’re going to figure this out together.”

She nodded, biting the inside of her cheek again, and I knew it took effort for her to speak.

“Go. You’re going to be late.”

I knew I shouldn’t go. The voice inside my head blared its warning to not walk away. Not walk out of this room. Because I knew if I did, she may not be here when I returned.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” I said. How could I sound so calm, so collected, on the outside when inside, chaos ruled my mind? “I’ll see you in a few hours.”

“Okay.”

I took two steps toward the door, but Lina caught my hand. “I like you a lot, you know that, right?” Why did that sound so final?

I forced a smile and kissed her lips as a tear fell from her eye and skimmed my cheek.