Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 120165 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120165 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
I bucked and trembled as an orgasm rolled through me, waves of pink pleasure that tumbled me into delightfully dark depths I hadn’t known were there. I finally surfaced, panting, and opened my eyes. I was in my bed, one hand in my soaked panties.
My heart was still slowing. What the hell was that?! I fantasized plenty but never about some random guy I’d only met for a few minutes. Sure, Radimir was hot as hell, but he was an actual, real-world gangster. If the stories were true, he’d killed people, or at least had them killed. Why was I fantasizing about being whisked off in his car while he… I reddened.
It had been so real. My wrists still felt warm from where he’d gripped them. And what was that about? I’d never wanted it rough before. Or at least, I’d never been conscious of it. But I couldn’t deny how the fantasy had taken hold of me. And now I felt gloriously floaty and relaxed, like the orgasm had wrung all the stress out of me.
I closed my eyes and felt myself sinking into sleep. But as I drifted downward, reality crept back in.
Baba was still sick. The store was still losing money. And I was still alone.
When I was a kid, I’d thought that someday, a prince would come and rescue me.
I’d thought Nathan was that prince. But all he did was make me realize the truth.
There are no princes.
4
RADIMIR
“You need to get yourself a woman,” Valentin told me.
I reluctantly looked up from my phone. My brother was leaning over the VIP room’s balcony, looking down on the crowd below. Three hundred of Chicago’s young and beautiful bounced to the thumping bass and there was no shortage of tanned, leggy women in flimsy dresses.
I scowled. “Why on earth would I want a woman?”
“She might make you a little less…” he imitated my scowl.
I sighed and rolled my eyes. I didn’t mind him making fun of me: he knows not to do it when anyone’s around. Valentin is the youngest of us and the most casual. He was wearing a tight white T-shirt and midnight blue jeans and blended in with the club goers much better than me, in my three-piece suit. Only his long black leather coat made him stand out. I knew there’d be at least three knives hidden somewhere under it, maybe a gun, too. We were here for a polite, good faith meeting and in theory that meant no weapons. But the people we were meeting wouldn’t obey that rule and so neither would we.
“You find yourself a woman,” I told Valentin. “I don’t have time for a relationship.” And it was true. My brothers and I ruled half the city, but when you have the throne, you have to fight to keep it. A new group had moved in from Armenia and were trying to take our territory. The mayor wanted my help to keep the lid on a scandal and I had my job as CEO of Aristov Developments, our property company.
But that wasn’t the reason I stayed single. Valentin knew it, and I knew it.
I checked my phone for the tenth time and my foot started tapping irritably. “Where are they?!”
“They’re not late,” said Valentin calmly. “You made us get here early.”
I had. I refused to be late for things. But I also hated waiting: it was inefficient. And I hated this club. It was wildly overpriced and too cool for its own good, with its black-walled VIP room and glass tables that seemed to float, and its DJs from Iceland and drinks served in light-up glasses. It didn’t even have a name, it had a symbol, a squiggle you were supposed to pronounce as Indigo, which was the stupidest thing I’d ever heard. “At least when we meet the mayor, she does things properly,” I grumbled, jerking my waistcoat straight. “What’s wrong with a deserted construction site? They only picked this place to show off.”
“You’re in a foul mood, brother,” said a voice behind me. My head snapped around and I saw Gennadiy emerging from the shadows. He’d been almost invisible in his charcoal suit and dark, open-neck shirt. He sprawled next to me on the blinding-white couch and poured himself a shot of vodka from the bottle we’d ordered: at least this place had the good stuff. “Perhaps you need to get laid.”
“That’s what I said!” said Valentin.
I turned and glared at Gennadiy, who gave me one of his infuriating smirks. He’s the middle brother, older than Valentin but younger than me. What happened to the three of us—we just refer to it as Vladivostok—affected us in different ways. It left Valentin haunted. It made Gennadiy hard-hearted. And me? It taught me that love makes you weak. That’s why I’d never allow myself to fall in love.