Nikolai
“Fucking hell, Rose.”
I want to kill her. Maybe not in the literal sense, but figuratively? Absolutely. Has she lost her fucking mind? The quiet fury in my face and tone makes her turn pale; her wide, startled blue eyes are filled with shock and guilt and something else.
Quiet acceptance. Need. Anticipation.
I should fucking drag her from here by the hair and fuck her stupid outside. I should spank her and lock her up. I gave her a few moments to go to the bathroom because I figured she’d try and maybe find a way out. She wouldn’t have-I’ve too many people on my payroll for her to take a step towards an exit without me knowing.
She’s also safe here, or I wouldn’t have brought her. What I didn’t expect is this, her using the phones and calling her fucking friend. Since I had spotted an affiliate of Finnegan’s in the crowd, I decided it might be a good thing to follow Rose after all. That’s when I caught her.
I narrow my eyes. “Want to explain what you think you were up to? What you were trying to do here?”
“N-Nikolai, I-I wasn’t trying to escape.”
“You wouldn’t get far if you tried,” I remind her.
“I just wanted to talk to…”
I take the phone hand set from her and set it down with a light touch, one that makes her jump more than I think slamming it down would have. She’s smart, my Rose. So, oh yes, does she know exactly how fucking furious I am.
I look her up and down. “I know who you called. Are you insane? I heard every fucking word.”
She swallows, and the booze in my system kicks my temperature and recklessness up a few notches. So does Rose. She makes me want to take all the fucking risks. She wants me to indulge in the best, filthiest, nastiest of troubles.
“Then you…you know that-” she continues to stammer on.
“What do I know, Rose?” I ask with mock sweetness. I grab her, pulling her up against me and holding her there, so she can feel exactly what she should know. “That you turn me on? Goes both ways. You know.”
She sucks in a breath, and a tremor of excitement passes through her as she presses against my growing erection.
“Oh…” Rose whispers.
“That,” I say. “You like that.”
“Nikolai…”
“Rose…” I mimic her. “You want it? Work for it.” Her hands come up to my chest.
“Is that all you have to show me how much you want it?” She shakes her head and her hands creep higher, and above my collar, her pulse speeds up. Fuck, she’s the most glorious thing I’ve seen.
“Higher, Rose. Around my fucking neck, like you live for me. Crave me.” My gaze drops to her mouth, and her half-closed eyes, the flush of arousal whispering over her cheeks. “But you do that naturally, don’t you?”
“What?”
“Crave me?”
“Yes.” Her softly hissed word borders on a moan, and her eyes glitter and light up like a fever as she bites her lip.
She either wants to take it back or she wants me to take her. Both, I think, and that, right fucking there, is what makes her irresistible to me. Just that. Nothing more, apart from all those other delicious things about her.
“Do you want me to fuck you here?”
“No.”
“Rose…”
Irritation and heat flicker in her eyes as they open to look up at me. “Yes, damn you. Why do you make me say it out loud like that?”
“Because I like it too much.” Playing with fire has never been so good. I’m getting into trouble here because as much as I’m turning her dials all the way up, I’m doing the same to mine.
“You know I do. I don’t…I don’t know why you make me keep saying it. It’s not right to want you.”
“Isn’t that what makes it so fucking good?”
Her gaze darts away. “Let me go.”
She says let me go, but her body pushes into mine and her soft sigh says more. I try and drag my head back to where it needs to be, which is hard with a pretty golden rose all over me, smelling so fucking sweet.
“You’re going to get punished, Rose, mark my words, but I need you to know that you could have brought danger on your little friend. If Derek’s watching-”
“No.” Rose stares at me again. “He doesn’t know she exists.”
The horror in her voice rips at something in me, but I ignore it.
“Maybe,” I say, “but he does now. Phones get tapped, especially these. Do you even get how advanced technology is? What if someone other than me followed, listened in? There are cameras. He has people here. I’ve spotted a number of them, which means there’ll be more. You’re safe because you’re with me and this is my territory. I made you a promise and I’ll keep it, as long as you fucking do what I say.”
She jerks in my arms, but I don’t let her go. “I didn’t know,” Rose whispers. “I didn’t. I thought…I just…I’m lonely. I missed her. I didn’t want her to worry. I didn’t tell her where I was.”
“No,” I say, “just that you being with me isn’t your choice.” “It isn’t!”
I’m being completely unreasonable in the anger that flares at her words. I know that, but it doesn’t change the fact she might have gotten her friend killed, if someone did in fact listen in or tap the line, or take pictures. I don’t think Finnegan’s that organized, but he’d kill her friend-or worse- just to make a point.
Rose wouldn’t survive that. The guilt would destroy her. It’s not going to happen because the moment I heard who she was on the phone with, I sent a text to take care of it, added security detail tailing her friend. I really don’t give a fuck, but Rose does, and I don’t need her in pieces until I’m done. That’s the only reason her stupid friend is under my protection.
“You were going to tell her where you were, Rose. As it is, you’re lucky these phones come out as private numbers. Goddamn it, get your shit together.” Because I can’t spank her, I take her mouth.
It’s a slow and devastating kiss, thorough, not quite deep the way she likes, but it borders on savage eroticism. It’s a dance of tongues in a slow, erotic show, small nibbles, dipping into her in just the right way.
She flows into me, hands coming up to rest on the back of my neck, twining in my hair. Rose tastes like innocence and sex, like champagne and a dark sweetness that’s all her.
I could kiss this girl for hours. Instead, I lift my head and look at her. “There are people, weak people, who’ll sell you for a pittance, so don’t wander off.”
“Be careful,” she whispers closes to my mouth. “You’re starting to sound like you actually care about me.”
I lean in to suck her lobe and bite, hard. To her credit, though she jumps and moans, she doesn’t squeal. “Rose, I have zero fucks about punishing you here,” I say.
“And yet…you’re just talking.”
Before I can say a word, someone comes up to thank me for my donation. Thing is, I also have zero fucks to give about social norms, about polite protocol, so I don’t let her go as I chat. I even get myself a whiskey from a waiter, making no effort to introduce her to the mayor.
He wears a small smile, like he’s witnessing what he isn’t: young love. Two people in that stage where they can’t get enough of each other. He’s wrong and he’s right. I want her to be that; not love, but unable to get enough of me.
I could fuck her every which way and not be bored, but it’s going to happen. She’s a blip, a very strong, long blip that shows no signs of fading, but that’s because her time will end when I get my revenge and the money, power, land, connections from Finnegan. Then she’s out of my life, and I’ll rub about a thousand out to her. Eventually, that’ll fade too. She’s just different. Young, sweet, with sharp claws.
He’s saying something, and I wind back the conversation, but then Rose giggles and smiles at the mayor.
“You say the nicest things, Sir.”
“Malcolm.” He’s about sixty-five and sporting a slight semi as he talks to her. “You come visit me the moment you get away from Wilder here.” “I’d love that,” she says.
I clench my jaw, anger stirring with the whiskey and burning its way through my blood. What would this fine heeled set say if I gutted the mayor and then killed her for flirting?
“Say goodnight, Rose,” I say with an ease that costs.
She holds out her hand, and he slobbers on it. I’ll also cut out his tongue and feed it to rapid dogs as he bleeds out. When he goes, she gives me a sly look.
“What am I going to do with such a bad girl?” I turn her slowly, not letting go. “You’ve already broken a rule tonight. Are you trying to push your luck and try for number two?”
Her arms come back around me, and she rubs her face against my chest. “I was just trying to be nice.”
“You’re just testing the limits.” I’m aware we’re both being reckless. We’re both a little tipsy, maybe I’m a little drunk. Keeping track of drinks in places like this is hard, let alone when I have a wide-eyed innocent who’s dirtier than anything I’ve known on my arm.
“Am I?” she asks as her voice slips into coquettish with a hint of seductress.
I brush my mouth on hers and catch her bottom lip, biting down and running my tongue over it until her knees buckle. Raising my head, I look about because no way am I letting her go when my balls are drawing tight, my dick pressing hard at my tuxedo’s trousers.
This Rose needs to be fucked. Punished. Fucked again.
Okay, maybe I’m definitely more on the side of drunk than tipsy. Not enough to hinder, but enough to blast any commonsense to dust. There. A coat room, the big one, where they keep the coats of those who tend to stay the whole time. It’s got room and it’s perfect. I start walking us there, navigating around people, turning out voices and laughter and music.
“Oh, yeah, Rose. See, you just keep fucking with the rules. You started a conversation with the mayor. You gave that lascivious old bag a hard on and you agreed to go and get molested at his office.”
“I didn’t!”
“You did.” I kiss her again, hard this time, bordering on brutal, and she moans low. “When you said you’d visit, when you let him basically baptize your hand.”
“Nikolai, I didn’t.”
“You did.”
“You didn’t answer him, so I stepped in.”
No one is in the room, so I tug her inside, down the back to where the long coats and furs are.
“What’s going on? Why are we in here?” she asks, glancing around.
I push her against the wall, pinning her there, and her loud gasp of shock is intoxicating in itself. Her tits heave, and her mouth parts as she stares at me with wild eyes.
“Nikolai-”
“You broke the rules, pretty Rose, and now you need to punished.” I nip her throat. “Here.” I slide a hand up her leg, dragging up her skirts and pushing between her thighs. She’s so fucking unbelievably wet. “And now.”