Dimitri's Forbidden Submissive (Submissive's Wish) (43 page)

That was the most she’d ever heard Maks speak at once and she stared at him for a long moment. “Thank you.”

Giving her one of his rare smiles, he inclined his head in her direction. “You are welcome.”

Toeing off her heels, she made her way to the kitchen. It was a little after lunch and she was hungry. The kitchen had a fantastic view of Moscow and she loved the almost French Country feel to the space. It was exactly what she wanted, but it felt kind of sterile. Perhaps tomorrow at the market she’d find something to bring some life to the space, maybe some baskets to put on top of the tall cabinets, or some whimsical glass work to place on the window sill over the sink. The need to put her stamp on the home filled her and she realized that she was allowing herself to put down roots.

Glancing over at Maks, she lifted her chin. “You hungry?”

His lips twitched and he nodded. “I could eat.”

“How about some grilled cheese?”

“Whatever you are making, I will eat. Especially if you bake. You bake very, very well.”

She laughed at the hungry gleam in his eyes. “Okay, I get the hint. I’ll make more of the cookies that you like.”

“The snickerdoodles?”

“Yes.” She laughed as she buttered the bread, liking how exotic everything sounded when said in a Russian accent. “Who would have thought the scariest men in the world had such sweet tooths. I make at least six dozen cookies a week but you guys go through them before they’re even cool from the oven.”

“Yes,” Maks said in a quiet voice that struck her as odd, then winked. “We cannot wait to eat you.”

She shook a piece of cheese at him. “No flirting. I know you can’t help it, you flirt with anything female, but you will not use your wiles on me, Mr. Maks. I’ve seen your trail of broken hearts.”

He blinked at her in surprise. “What?”

Turning on flame beneath the pan she’d taken out, she looked over her shoulder at him. “You think I don’t know how to do searches on the Internet? Hello, I’ve got nothing better to do most of the day than to do research and I’ve seen some pictures of you with your women that made me blush. PDA much?”

“PDA?”

“Public Display of Affection. It means like kissing in public. Or in your case, getting a blow job in an alley from three cute blondes at once. No wonder you were too distracted to notice you were being filmed.”

“I knew I was being filmed. Was part of…job to make sure of it.” To her surprise he actually blushed. “Those women, they do not matter. They were nothing but tools to use to get to my target.”

“Is that supposed to be endearing? Are you proud that you treat sex like some kind of casual function?”

His cheeks heated even redder and he took a deep breath. “It is bad, I know. I never make a promise to keep any woman I am with. They know I am only good for one night.”

She shook her head and flipped the sandwiches, the comforting smell of grilled cheese easing her heart. “Look, it’s none of my business, but you do know the difference between fucking and making love, right? Have you ever made love?”

“No.”

Giving him an arch look she said, “No?”

“No. When I make love to a woman she will be the only woman I ever make love with. When I find her I will not leave her or let her leave me.”

“And you’ll know after one night if she’s the woman?”

“Absolutely.”

“Wow.” She flipped his sandwich on to a plate and slid it down the pale granite counter to him. “That’s…different.”

“Tell me, did you not know after your first night with Dimitri that he was the one you were meant to be with?”

She took a bite of her sandwich, hoping he didn’t notice the way her cheeks heated. “Maybe.”

“Maybe?” He snorted.

“Fine, okay. I knew he was something special right away.”

“I have never had that feeling for a woman. Why lie to her and pretend she may be the one if I don’t believe it?”

“You sure you’re giving these women a chance? I mean one night isn’t much.”

“Ah, one night having sex. I will usually date a woman for a bit before I go to bed with her.”

“You are one busy boy, aren’t you?”

He shrugged. “When time allows.”

“Am I putting a dent in your social calendar?”

Shaking his head, he gave her one of his barely there smiles. “Yes, but I will survive.”

“So do you think I’m stupid for wanting to leave? I mean, at least I’m safe here.”

“I think it hurts your soul to be trapped. You need to be free, even if it is dangerous. But don’t worry, little rabbit, your wolf has his pack protecting you.”

The smile he gave her was downright predatory and she tried to ignore the tingle of arousal. “Well, okay then. I’m going to go do…stuff.”

With his laughter echoing behind her Rya went up to her bedroom and slammed the door behind her, pissed off at Dimitri for doing orgasm denial with her because right now she was dripping wet and horny. The banter with Maks did nothing to cool her down. She was embarrassed that she was now having naughty thoughts about sucking him off. Damn Dimitri! He knew exactly how to manipulate her. He was like a mad sexual genius, able to push her boundaries with little to no resistance on her part. She wasn’t sure if that thought was more arousing or scary and vowed that next time she got Dimitri in bed it would be time for a little payback.

Rya was in seventh heaven the next day wandering through a massive climate-controlled warehouse on the western edge of Moscow filled with all kinds of antique furniture. They were looking through a private estate collection but she felt as if she was walking through a museum. Everywhere she glanced there were pieces of European furniture from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries mixed with assorted odds and ends. Gia’s two bodyguards were walking ahead with her while Rya trailed behind, listening to the tall, imposing Russian woman in charge of the estate sale rattle off details about the pieces they were looking at in clipped English. Maks and Chen, Rya’s bodyguards for the day, constantly scanned the room in a most disconcerting manner, reminding her of how vulnerable she was. For the entire ride over in their armored motorcade, between Ivan and Dimitri’s paranoia about their safety she was surprised they didn’t take a tank, she’d been worried that any second they’d be attacked by some crazy rival Bratva, but the trip had been boringly normal. Well, as boring as traffic ever got in Moscow.

She was starting to debate the wisdom of being here when her gaze landed on the most beautiful writing desk she’d ever seen. With a soft sigh she walked over to the desk and examined the detailed inlay work and the beautiful flowing lines of the desk. The front was shut and she looked over her shoulder to the sales woman. “Does it open?”

“Oh yes. It is a mechanical desk, with many surprises. Watch.”

The woman proceeded to show Rya all the different secret drawers and hiding places, ingenious little spots where no one would think to look for a message. It was such an astonishing piece of furniture and she gently stroked the curve of the desk, admiring the mother of pearl and onyx inlay. “How much is it?”

Before the woman could respond Maks interrupted them in Russian. She glared at him, but he ignored her and pulled the saleswoman over to the side. A few moments later the woman left, beaming as Rya glared at Maks and Chen accompanied the saleswoman to the office at the back of the warehouse. “What did you just do?”

“Dimitri ordered me to buy what you like. You love that desk don’t you? I can see in your eyes when you look at it.”

“Yes,” she admitted in what even she knew was a sullen voice. Giving herself a mental shake, she said, “Do I even want to know the price?”

“No, you do not. Be happy that you are rescuing a beautiful piece of art from someone who would not appreciate it. You love it, there is no greater compliment to a craftsman than that.”

She crossed her arms and gave him a searching look. “You sound like you know what you’re talking about. Do you make furniture?”

He laughed and shook his head. “No, I make guns, sniper rifles to be exact. Is not art, but I still like to see them go to people who appreciate them.”

Ahead of them, Gia called out, “Rya, come here.”

She gave Maks an exasperated look. “I’m not done talking to you about Dimitri buying me random things. I want to decide what I want, Maks, not you or Dimitri.”

Maks ignored her, looking over his shoulder to see where Chen and the saleswoman had disappeared to. With an exasperated sigh, Rya walked over to where Gia stood next to a massive wood cabinet surrounded by rolled up carpets in the back corner of the room. As she approached she noticed something odd about Gia and it was only when she was close enough to see her clearly that she noticed Gia was trembling. Rya’s heart raced as she looked for Gia’s bodyguards and found they had disappeared.

Gia shook her head and whispered, “Rya, run.”

Someone swore from beside the cabinet and Rya moved forward enough to see two men with guns pointed at her and Gia. “Fuck.”

The men stepped out and the older one with a heavy face and scarred knuckles gave her a quick up and down look. “You are Rya DeLuca.”

She considered lying, but his friend had his gun trained on Gia. “I am. You don’t want her. I’m Rya.”

The men stepped carefully around Gia. “You will come with us. Ms. Lopez will not be hurt if you cooperate.”

Panic roared through her and before she could totally freak out Maks said, “Don’t touch her. She is under protection of many Bratvas.”

The man with the gun on Gia said something in rapid fire Russian and argued with Maks for a few moments before the older man next to Rya spoke up in English. “Ms. DeLuca, you will not be hurt if you come with us. I promise. Someone wishes to speak with you and then you will be returned, unharmed, to Dimitri. If you fight us, people will be hurt.”

“Who wants to see me?”

“Mr. Novikov. He said to remind you of the ring, even if you do not wear it.”

She took a step back and came up against Maks. He settled his hands lightly on her shoulders. Shit, Dimitri’s father wanted to meet her. She wasn’t sure if she was relieved or even more terrified. Maks held her shoulders tight, rubbing his thumbs on her arms, and that helped her get ahold of herself. Okay, they were going to take her, that was a given. She wouldn’t risk Gia and Maks’ lives, they were too precious. Still, she’d try to stall as long as she could.

Looking up at Maks, she whispered, “Tell Dimitri I’m sorry.”

“What?”

Before he could stop her she moved away from him and to the older man’s side. “Where are you going to take me?”

The man glared down at her, but his gun was no longer pointing at anyone. She looked up at him, letting him know that she wasn’t fucking around. Hopefully, if she could get them to stand around and talk, it would give Maks or Chen, wherever he was, time to figure out how to get them out of this mess. “I can either go with you willingly, or you can fight me. I’m guessing that you have orders not to harm me, or Gia, because right about now you should have smacked us around a bit to get us to do what you want. So let’s stop messing around. Tell me where I’m going and I might go with you. Don’t tell me and I’ll make you fight me.”

The older man laughed at her and she swallowed hard, hoping she hadn’t overplayed her hand. When he reached out and grabbed her by her hair she screamed and drew back her arm. Maks yelled out for her to stop, but before she could second guess herself she caught the man under his chin with an upper cut that hurt the fuck out of her hand, but sent the bigger man stumbling back. She hissed and shook her fist out, but looked over at the man with his gun to Gia’s head, trying to figure out how to distract him long enough for Maks to take him out.

“Let go of her!”

The man said something to Maks in Russian. He responded with obvious anger and the two men argued for a solid minute before she took a step between them, ready to settle this shit. Unfortunately, she’d forgotten about the older man and a piece of cloth with some kind of stinky fumes on it was placed over her face, she realized her little gamble to stay here as long as possible had backfired. She struggled, and the last thing she remembered was someone hitting her on the side of her head, hard.

Rya batted away at something annoying hovering around her nose. She managed to finally shove it away and opened her eyes, but the world was blurry. Taking another deep breath, she forced her scattered thoughts to come together and tried to remember where she was and why her face hurt. This time she was able to focus and found a grim faced man in his late thirties dressed in a tuxedo bent over her. He had deep hazel green eyes and dark red hair with a flushed complexion. Tattoos showed all over his hands and she sucked in a quick breath. She was in so much trouble.

The man gave her an anxious look. “Are you okay?”

His English had a heavy Irish accent to it instead of Russian and she stared at him in surprise. “Yes, who are you?”

“First let me apologize for the lengths we had to go to in order to arrange this meeting, but it is very important and Dimitri is stubborn. My name is Peter and I promise you, we mean you no harm.”

She glanced around surprised to find herself in a luxurious fairy tale princess bedroom that looked like it hadn’t been used in a while. A musty smell hung in the air, the scent of a room that was cleaned, but not lived in. After sitting up, she looked around further and gaped at the beauty surrounding her. Everywhere she looked there was exquisite furniture, elegant watercolor paintings, and lovely blown glass art. Without a doubt this room was meant for a woman. Not only was it done in shades of pink, but it was very comfortable—in the way only a woman would enjoy.

Mystified as to where the hell she was, she rubbed her head where she’d been hit. “Where am I?”

“Has Dimitri spoken about his father, Jorg?”

At the mention of Dimitri’s dad her stomach clenched. “Maybe.”

“You’re a bad liar,” he said with a chuckle.

“Look, just tell me why I’m here. Dimitri is going to lose his damn mind and I don’t want him getting hurt.”