Katya
“No.” I said, frowning over a cup of my morning coffee at the picture of the house Alex was showing me on his iPad. “I will not live in another classless house.”
He looked at me from across the table. “Another?”
“Well,” I said, trying to smile, “I moved in with you, didn’t I?”
Alex looked incredulous. Something glinted in his eyes that I knew was reflected in my own.
“Well, Kitten, you’re going to have to make a choice, since my exquisite house doesn’t suit your taste, unless, of course, you’d like to stay here.” “This is an apartment.”
“An apartment that I own.”
“I don’t see how that makes any difference.”
He was full on smiling now. “What exactly is your goal this morning? If it’s to piss me off, I can assure you that you’re out of luck, I find even that part of you terribly sexy.”
I scoffed and put my coffee down. His eyes were darkening, and he was starting to look at me with eyes that I very much recognized. “O Gospodi, is your mind ever clean?”
“I’d rather that remained a mystery.” He said watching like a predator as I stood up, still in my suggestive nightgown.
I couldn’t allow him to start what was clearly running in his head, but I wanted to have a little fun.
“I assure you, that part of you is not a mystery.”
“Really? I was sure I was keeping it under wraps.”
I went to his side and perched on the table beside him.
“We need to pick out a place today.” We’d decided to move to a property, a bigger one so we could combine both the Petrenkos and the Sorvinos properly.
The dress rode up my legs, very high up my thighs, and he dragged his hand slowly from my ankle, moving up without taking his eyes off me. “That’s what the rest of the day is for.”
I didn’t stop him, instead, I put my leg on the chair he was sitting on, between his legs.
Our eyes were locked.
“You’re tempting me, Kitten, that’s very dangerous.”
I leaned forward, allowing one spaghetti hand of my dress to slip down my shoulders. “You’re the one tempting yourself, husband.”
He bit his lower lip looking at me with a dare in his eyes. I stared right back. He claimed to know me, he knew I would always be game.
“This round,” he said reluctantly, “I’ll let you have this round.”
Laughing, I fell on top of his legs. “What do you mean? I’m sure there were no rounds this time.”
“Fucking tease.”
I stood up and went to the bathroom, swinging my hips because I knew his eyes would be trained on them.
We decided on a mansion in the Hamptons. A grand house with almost twenty rooms, all of which were up to my standard. I made the realtor bring me pictures of every room in every property I considered and ended up with the best mansion in my opinion.
Alex decided to buy the mansion next door and merge both properties to build a large compound for both our families to live and run our businesses from.
Helena Sorvino was the most excited, about the whole thing.
She’d never called me so much before.
To celebrate finally dealing with the housing problem, Alex and I decided to host a small party for all our family and friends.
Samantha and Paulina were a lot better, happier too. I was already gearing up to help Paulina get her gigs back. There had been calls, and maybe a few tense conversations, but it wouldn’t be anything permanent, she’d get back on track.
She was beautiful and talented, just that the Trievs had managed to slow down her career pace.
There were still injuries on her face, but they’d heal.
This page was over, and I’d never allow anything like it to repeat itself.
If ever a situation started to even warm up slightly, I would diffuse it. Like I could have at the club when I confronted Maxim the first time.
Even if it endangered me, I’d make sure I ended it quickly next time.
I looked at the hall, it was a lot bigger than I was used to. My dad was still unconscious, but he was fine and soon, he’d wake up.
“Is my wife smiling at herself because she’s realized how lucky she was to have married me?”
Alex came up behind me, brilliant in his beige suit. His stark black hair and green eyes sparkling under the light.
I did realize how lucky I was, even though he’d never hear it from me…not too often at least.
“I actually was just in fact, realizing how lucky you were that I agreed to marry you.”
He sucked in a breath and came to stand beside me so that he could watch the party together.
“I’m very sure, Arianna doesn’t think so.”
I drank from my champagne glass, catching Arianna complaining over a table of cards, Samantha and Paulina laughing their asses off at her. “I’m pretty sure it’s because Helena’s called me a hundred times in the past week.”
“Well, she does love the Hampton Mansion.”
“Of course, she does, Helena has great taste.”
“She said, actively avoiding her mother-in-law.”
I turned to him and looked him up and down. “I’m very happy tonight, Ales.”
I said before I could manage the words.
Something about him made it hard to think too much of what I was going to say…it might have been his scent.
Alex eyed me cheekily, then he took my free hand, cradling it in his before he gently lifted it to his lips, and planted a kiss on the back of it.
“So am I, Kitten.”
He put my hand gently on his chest, smiling fondly at me.
Just then, one of the servers came to interrupt us.
There was a message from the Trievs. Apparently, they wanted to meet.
Alessandro
First impressions mattered the most. The first rule of business is that first impressions determine the success of every deal you’d ever make.
The Trievs’ first impression had been bull crap. A rancid madman trying to force himself into spaces he should never have looked at. Maxim had laid down a terrible reputation for the Triev as far as I was concerned. He kidnapped and tortured my wife and assaulted my father-in-law.
Not to mention causing me over forty million dollars in losses.
Now, we were negotiating a truce.
“…those are our terms,” the speaker for the Trievs, Dmitri, said and leaned back into his seat. “Now, you can state yours.”
The board room was divided in two, the Trievs and their people on one side, and me and my people on the other. No guns had been allowed into the meeting room, but the bodyguards each side had brought were standing like statues with eyes trained to catch any suspicious movements.
The real bodyguards with their weapons were outside in the corridor.
I cleared my throat.
Unlike them, I had a stable and well-defined reputation- Alessandro Sorvino was not somebody you wanted to be tangled with.
“First of all, you will pay me back the fifty million dollars owed.
“The cargo ship was worth forty!” Dmitri interjected with indignation.
“If I wanted to hear you shout at me, Mr. Triev, I would have arranged for this meeting at a bar.” His eyes narrowed at me, but he didn’t say anything. Good. At least this brother could learn. “You can think of the additional ten as a fee for interfering with my business in the first place. Compensation that is wholly inadequate considering everything Maxim did. I believe my father-in-law is still in the hospital.”
He was, but only because he was comfortable. Yuri had woken up just fine after a few days, he was still in the hospital because he wanted to be there. He had announced his retirement and was even thinking of going traveling.
Dmitri’s face mellowed. He couldn’t argue the point, making peace was the primary goal of this meeting after all.
Revenge was at the door, and he suddenly remembered how to call for a truce and negotiate terms.
Katya wasn’t in the board meeting, otherwise, she would have been watching them like a hawk, catching even the slightest change in expression.
“I also want the Trievs to take over the expenses of rebuilding my wife’s strip club. She already has the plans drawn and will have them delivered to you by the end of the day.” I added with a pleasant look on my face.
“Is that all?” Dmitri asked.
I looked pointedly at them before calling Katya in. “Kitten?”
She came holding something in her hand, draped over it was a dark red cloth.
My lips twitched into a smile as she placed it on the table.
She looked at Dmitri with the most innocent look on her face. “We will hand Maxim back right now if you watch my video. I’m trying out something new, you know, and I can’t trust my husband’s opinion.”
“I am very biased,” I confirmed with a severe head nod. The Trievs looked at each other, and Dmitri gave a single nod.
“Wonderful,” she said with a predatory smile on her lips.
The video was put on the giant screen.
“Wait,” I said before they could play the video. “I think I’ve had a change of heart.”
“What do you mean?” Dmitri asked from across the room.
“I mean, I don’t think I can tolerate human traffickers in my city. A man needs to have principles, you know.”
“What nonsense?!”
“You’re being loud, Mr. Triev,” Katya’s warning voice. I suggest you keep quiet and pay attention. “Are you done, my dear?”
“No. I was saying that I no longer want this truce. I don’t want Triev trash on my turf, in my city.” As I was talking, the video started, the video of Katya torturing Maxim.
It took a moment for Dmitri to get it, but when he did, he shot up from his seat, and Katya saw it fit to pull the cover off the jar at exactly that moment.
Inside it was Maxim’s head.
“What-” Dmitri started but would never finish because there was a bullet between his eyes, and a gun in my hand.
On cue, my men flooded into the room, taking out everybody on the Triev’s side of the meeting room.
I stood close to Katya in the chaos, listening to our enemies die.
She leaned close to me, wrapping her arms around my neck.
“I love you, Kitten, so fucking much,” I confessed. Putting my arms around her waist to hold her tighter.
Katya chuckled. “I love you, Alessandro Sorvino. Who could believe it? Who would have thought you had been telling the truth when you said you were a master seducer…” her lips hovered so close to mine.
“I told you that wasn’t a lie.” I leaned down and claimed her mouth.
*****
THE END