FOUR

A short while later, still alone, Lukas tried to tamp down his impatience as he circled the meeting room that was down the hall from Samuel’s office on the second floor of the building. Tired of pacing around the one elegant table that had been placed in the middle of the otherwise empty room, but for a fully stocked bar and framed paintings gracing the walls, he planted his feet before one of six long, narrow windows. The view from the condo was much more impressive, but it didn’t make any difference. He wasn’t taking in the brick buildings and metal fire escapes anyway.

He whipped out his phone and sent another text to Samuel.

Where the fuck are you?

Because Vasily and Maksim were their guests, Lukas had yet to find a moment alone with his brother, which meant the plan with Dale was still on.

He pressed the number and brought the phone to his ear rather than wait for a response.

“I’m coming, man. What the hell’s the emergency?”

“Don’t bother arranging an intro with Dale.”

“What? But I alrea—”

“I don’t need her now. We’ll talk about it after the meeting.” Which would begin in less than an hour.

“Excuse me for a second.” Samuel’s voice went quiet. “Lukas, you promised Papa you’d—”

“I know,” he cut in. “And I will introduce him to someone, but it won’t be the chubby comedian.”

Samuel groaned. “Are you on that again?”

The sound of the door opening had him focusing inside the room through the reflection in the window. His eyes flared, and his breathing cranked up as she appeared in the doorway. He lowered the phone, ending the call without a word of warning. Something about her showing up here was off, but he didn’t care enough to waste time thinking about it. Because she was here. His end goal. Twenty feet away.

Funny how the idea of her existing was nowhere near as unappealing as it used to be. It was merely a done deal. A perfect one. She was his. Now he had to let her know it with some patience and restraint. Two things he normally didn’t possess.

He turned, causing her to look up from the piece of paper in her hand. She froze mid-step, but Lukas didn’t zone in on her widening eyes because it was then he took notice of what she looked like below the neck. Fireworks started going off in his periphery. They weren’t celebratory.

The heels on her feet had to be four inches high, the fishnets clinging to her long legs the luckiest cunts to ever exist. No. Those black shorts painted across her flat midriff and barely covering the swell of her ass. They were the lucky ones. Or maybe it was the deep purple velour corset with its silver and black ribbons that hugged her indented waist and ended at the flare of her hips. Her breasts were pushed up and on display, inviting any man in the vicinity to eye-fuck what was now Zavrazin property.

Unable to put a cap on the possessive anger that blew through him, he started for her.

“What the fuck are you wearing?” he demanded in a tone much too harsh to use with a woman he didn’t know but would convince to marry him within the next twenty-four hours.

***

Dale slipped on her most professional mask as Samuel’s brother came at her like a panther who’d been shot in the ass and whipped for good measure. Okay then. He was still pissed. Got it.

“My required uniform, sir.” Steady voice. Trembling legs. Great combo, she thought as she clutched the liquor list in her hand.

Run.

She heard the voice in her head but couldn’t obey. She couldn’t move. A ballsy part of her that she didn’t recognize wanted to wait. For him. To see what a Russian mobster was made of. While the intelligent part of her was screaming at the top of her lungs to get the fuck out of there, quit her job, and move to the suburbs.

All Dale did was stare at him. Guy wore black on black like nobody’s business. His shoulders were wide, but not linebacker style. His front a flat plane that no doubt looked remarkable when bared. Would he have a hairy chest? Or just a happy trail leading to what her wet core suddenly craved.

“I’m glad you’re here, Mr. Zavrazin.” Yeah, she heard the sex she wanted to have in her voice. Could he? “I’d like to apol—”

“My name is Lukas.” He stopped within inches of their toes touching.

A little closer, she silently demanded as his scent clobbered her, coming to her on the breeze his arrival caused. Her fucking mouth watered as an image of a rustic cabin in the mountains filled her head. Trees, wind, a cool, fresh stream. Nature. Man. Them.

She swallowed. “Lukas.” She tested his name as she looked up into features that appeared savage for little reason. Mmm. Tall, very dark, and so, so handsome. Her libido sure knew how to pick ‘em. Though, the guy evidently had a temper and was prone to overreacting. “You’re angry,” she said, “and I think I know why. I’m clumsy, and I didn’t express well enough how sorry I am for bumping into you downstairs. It was an accident.” His expression slowly softened as his eyes narrowed on her face, and this close, she could see beautiful white rays streaming through the pale-grey, adding an ethereal quality that stole her breath.

“Clumsy.” He made a dismissive sound under his breath and boldly reached out to fit his hand to that spot between her ribs and hip that gave her a poke from the ticklish factor. He squeezed and tugged. Her heart nearly exploded as she stumbled into him. He melded them together from chest to thigh, which should have been outrageously forward of him, but turned out to be heavenly. Protesting the intimacy wasn’t even a consideration, and she still wasn’t sure why. All she heard were angels singing as an unforgiving hunger roared to life in her body.

“Y-yes,” she stammered, pissed to hear her professionalism slip in such an obvious way. “I’m very sorry.” What the hell was this? She could feel…God, his heat. And something else. It was permeating her skin. Crawling beneath it. Spreading. Taking over. It was alarming and magnificent and…unstoppable.

She waited for the panic to grip as it would have done with anyone else whose energy she couldn’t deflect. It didn’t materialize. Why?

“I’m not. Our timely meeting saved me from making the biggest mistake of my life. Thank you for that.”

Didn’t have a clue what he was talking about, but the accent? Yeah, it was there, and her body very much appreciated it. “You’re very welcome.”

“Am I?”

“Yes. Very…welcome.” To anything you want.

“You’re not wearing lipstick.”

He watched as she licked her lips to kill time because the comment threw her. She recovered quickly enough despite the confusion she felt when she became aware of their heartbeats merging into a weird, rhythmic beat.

“No, I’m not.”

“Why?”

“I don’t like it.”

“You don’t need it.”

“Thank you.”

“You will, later, because you’re coming home with me when I’m finished here, and I plan on making you very thankful.”

Her already erratic pulse went nuts. “Just like that?” Had assumption ever been so delectable? So tempting.

“Da, yagodka. Just like that.”

She. Melted. “I take it this means I’m forgiven?”

He made a rough sound in his throat. “For every sin you have ever committed.”

Her panties disintegrated right along with her moral compass, which was why she did nothing when his dark head descended. Their lips met, his tongue plunged, and what a mistake it was not to resist because the remarkable taste of him instantly became an addiction, branding her and ruining her for any other.

The frantic warning going off in the back of her mind was ignored as her hands found their way up to tangle in his hair. He groaned and pulled her in tighter as he deepened the kiss, feeding from her, feeding into her, something she somehow recognized was life.

A throat was cleared. “Hey, you two. Looks like you didn’t need a meet-and-greet after all.”

The voice buzzed in her head, sounding like it was coming from the end of the hallway. Lukas spun her so his back was to the door and she was hidden from sight. His hand stayed pressed to her tailbone as the other gripped her nape. He held her in place as he lifted his head. They were both breathing heavily, and his eyes were blazing with an expression she’d never seen aimed her way before. His mouth, that firm, beautiful mouth, was moving.

She missed what came out of it because she was being inundated with sensations, all of them wonderous and so fucking sexual she didn’t want a distraction for the first time in her existence. But he was waiting for a response.

“Sorry. Would you repeat that?” Her ears were ringing.

“What is your name?”

Aaaand embarrassment hit her with the force of a speeding bus.

“Dale? Do you not know my brother?”

She jumped like someone had touched a flaming branding iron to her bare ass. Didn’t want to, but she leaned to the side to look around Lukas’s shoulder. Vasily, the man she’d met downstairs, moved into the room and was looking at his phone. Sergei followed him, looking hollow-eyed and slightly disgusted while Maksim and Samuel stood in front of the door, smirking their asses off.

“I do now,” she said as she extracted herself from her fucking boss’s husband’s brother’s arms! Lukas seemed to have frozen and wasn’t helping, but she persevered. “And that’s how you French kiss, Lukas,” she dared say before smoothing his tie down with a pat to his chest that begged forgiveness. She walked with her head held high to the bar that ran alongside the wall to the left of the door.

“Your brother was asking for pointers,” she informed Samuel without looking at him, “because he has a big date, and he sweetly admitted he’d do almost anything not to disappoint the very lucky lady looking so forward to seeing much more of him later tonight.”

She made sure her lips were curved at the right angle to mimic a smile and grabbed a couple of bottles that had already been opened—Stoli Elit and Tesseron.

“You know what it’s like,” she continued when no one said anything. “Didn’t you want to leave Farah with the best impression after your first kiss?” Her runaway tongue was either going to get her fired or killed.

“I met my wife in eighth grade and didn’t kiss her until our senior year of high school.”

Instantly sidetracked by that, Dale stalled as she came out from behind the bar with her bottles and crumpled list that she’d somehow managed to retain through the earth-shattering kiss. “Seriously? That’s adorable.”

“PG,” Maksim drawled, looking bored. “Let’s get back to you two apparently not knowing each other.”

Lukas finally turned around to join in. “Did you call her Dale?” he asked his brother in a low tone that came over the airwaves to stimulate her still pulsing clit.

As Samuel nodded, Dale was pleased to see Lukas’s high cheekbones had slashes of color across them. She must look as if she’d just returned from a weekend in hell.

“As in the chubby comedian.” Lukas sounded suspicious.

Dale wrinkled her nose and scowled at her boss’s husband. “Huh?”

“He misunderstood something I said,” Samuel defended before returning to his brother. “Did you not bother with introductions before you shoved your tongue down her throat?”

“My kind of man.” Maksim appeared reluctant as he moved away in response to Vasily beckoning him over.

“Introductions weren’t necessary,” Lukas said, reading her mind as he looked at her with a new curiosity. “You went to college on a scholarship and received a Bachelor of Science in Fitness and Sports.”

“How’d you know that?”

“I read your file. Why are you working here?”

Her employee file? “Because my day job doesn’t pay enough to meet my needs. Why’d you read my file?”

He made a sound of agreement as his eyes swept down to that damp spot between her legs. Dirty man was right there with her. Needs. She glanced down at his package and gulped when she saw a thick outline. He hid it by doing up the button on his jacket. The wicked glint in his eye made her face feel like it was glowing.

“Because I needed to know who I’d be introducing to my father.”

Her mouth went crooked and she was unable to appreciate the way he emphasized the word of the hour just enough for her to hear it. “You’re going to introduce me to your father. Really. As what? Your French teacher?”

He approached her, and as if they’d been dating for months instead of having just met, he cupped her nape and tipped her head back with his thumb beneath her chin. “You will soon discover I am not in need of a teacher,” he said quietly. “I am fully aware of how we’ll combine our DNA to make a few beautiful babies together.” He pressed a soft kiss to her mouth—that she couldn’t possibly return because he’d just tasered her directly on the brain with that ludicrous statement. “Now. I want you to find something more appropriate to wear before my associates arrive. I will not have you showing off my assets to the likes of them. No offense,” he said to Vasily, Sergei, and Maksim. Vasily waved the apology away, looking amused.

Dale was not.