by Sam Crescent
“Fuck me, Trip.”
“Yes, my queen.” I slid in deep and claimed her mouth—claimed her in my mind as my old lady. We’d get to making it public. Eventually. But I felt pretty damn sure she’d wrapped her head around the fact we belonged together.
The End
Find more books from author Lynn Burke:
www.evernightpublishing.com/lynn-burke
The Fallen Gliders MC series:
Nicky
Hawk
Digger
Capone
Jonny
BRATVA’S ANGEL
Winter Sloane
Copyright © 2020
Prologue
Five Years Ago
Nikolai stepped out of the elevators of the third floor of the funeral home. The nasal voices of the vipers reached soon his ears.
“Who’s going to take care of her? Certainly not me. Didn’t Dan leave any final instructions?”
“Dan didn’t even leave a will. Can you believe that? Now, he’s dumping this kid on all of us. Maybe social services can—”
Nikolai walked towards the room that housed his best friend’s body and closed his hand over the doorknob. He silently counted to ten in his head. More arguing. Fuck. This was a funeral home. They should at least show some respect. There were other grieving families in the other rooms on this floor.
If they weren’t Dan’s relatives, he would’ve permanently silenced them.
It took all of his self-control not to rip the door out of its hinges. He opened it and stepped in, prepared for the worst. Dan’s two sisters and brother stopped to stare at him like he was an exotic specimen that escaped from the zoo. Rebecca, Dan’s youngest sister, the only one who’d met him, turned pale at the sight of him.
“Who the hell are you?” demanded Joseph, Dan’s older brother.
Nikolai only scanned the room, finally spotting what, or whom, he came for. Marissa. Dan’s sixteen-year-old daughter. She was the only reason why he’d canceled all his appointments, why he’d immediately flown a thousand miles here using his private jet.
Dan’s siblings began to bicker again. He pushed his way past them and walked right up to her. She sat on the chair right in front of Dan’s coffin, clutching a white handkerchief in one fist, no doubt stained with tears. How dare they talk about her like she wasn’t there?
The last time he’d seen her, she’d been a toddler. Now, she was a beautiful young woman. It had been so long. Would she even recognize him?
She looked up at him as he approached. Shock registered on her delicate features, then relief. She leaped up to her feet and hugged him tight. She felt warm against him, tiny.
Most people avoided any physical contact with him as much as possible. His looks and size intimidated them. One whisper of his name sent most of his enemies running, and yet, Risa never once associated him with danger.
“Nikolai, why are you here?” she asked, clear blue eyes searching his own. A blush appeared over her cheeks and neck. “Sorry. Stupid question. You’re here to pay your respects to Dad?”
Nikolai didn’t miss the fact she hadn’t released him. He didn’t push her away either. “And to fulfill one last promise to Dan. You’re not going with any of them,” Nikolai said, jerking his head to her squabbling relatives. “You’re coming with me.”
“You? Really?” she asked, sounding eager. “You’ll take me back with you to the city?”
“That’s right.”
“Nikolai, don’t make promises you can’t keep to that girl,” Rebecca interrupted, stomping her way towards them.
He turned to her, aware of Risa hiding behind him and clutching at the lapels of his coat. Nikolai had no particular love for any member of Dan’s family. Family had always been Dan’s weakness. They were the reason why Dan moved back to this remote little mountain town, why Dan stopped being his business partner.
“She’s staying with me,” Rebecca said, crossing her arms. The dumpy little snake had to crane her neck to look up at him.
Vipers. Appropriate word for all the members of Dan’s family. Nikolai kept tabs on all of them. His last fight with Dan had been about his sisters carelessly using all of Dan’s savings and putting them in bad investments.
“Risa, who do you prefer to stay with? Your aunt Rebecca or me?” he asked Risa, point-blank.
“You.” No hesitation.
“You’re not her family,” Rebecca blurted. “The law—”
“Did you forget? The law doesn’t apply to me,” Nikolai said in a soft voice, which made her flinch and take a step back from him.
“You can’t do whatever you want,” Rebecca told him as he offered Risa his hand.
She held on tight to his fingers, and the smile she flashed at him dazzled him completely. Dangerous. Dan’s daughter would grow up to be a heartbreaker someday. Good thing Risa had him. Nikolai would put a bullet into the skull of any slimy bastard who would so much as look at her wrong.
“My lawyer, Sara Johnson, will contact you shortly,” he told her, whisking Risa to the exit. He paused by the door. “I’m transferring Dan’s body to another funeral home. A much better one. The next time I see you all squalling by his corpse, I’ll permanently silence all of you.”
“Who the hell does he think he is?” Dan’s other sister, Mindy, demanded. The woman shuddered when Nikolai looked her in the eye.
“Introductions aren’t necessary. Believe me, sweetheart. I’m not someone you’d want to cross.” Nikolai opened the door for Risa.
Once they were in the elevator, Risa squeezed his hand. “I knew you’d come for me.”
“Oh?” he asked, amused.
“Dad once told me if that if anything happened to him, I should contact you. Oh God, Nick. It’s been so hard, and—” A sob caught in Risa’s throat.
Nikolai pulled her to him and held onto her as she wept, bawling her eyes out. Once they reached the first floor, he gently led her out and back to the car, where his driver and bodyguard, Rico, waited for him.
“It's going to be all right,” Nikolai told her, reaching out to stroke her back. That seemed to calm her down. “We’ll both put him to rest. I’ll be with you every step of the way.”
“What about my aunts and uncle?”
“You’ll have to endure them but not for long,” Nikolai assured her.
“Could you take me away? Aunt Rebecca made a good point.” Risa chewed on her bottom lip. “I can’t imagine staying with any of them. They’re awful. All of them.”
“Listen to me carefully, Risa. Dan’s like a brother to me. He’s my family and so are you, and I’m a man who keeps all his promises. From here onwards, I’ll be your protector.”
Chapter One
Present
Risa studied her reflection in the full-length mirror in her bedroom. The crimson dress hugged her body like a second skin and ended mid-thigh. She twirled her fingers through her auburn curls, eyeing the way her breasts practically spilled out. Risa let out a sigh.
The only man she wanted to look at her, wouldn’t be going to her photography exhibit. What was the point? Nikolai said he’d tried to make it after his meeting, but knowing how long those could run, she doubted she’d see him at all.
Risa wasn’t the same naive sixteen-year-old she’d been five years ago. Although Nikolai did everything in his power to keep her away from his business dealings, she knew how he made his millions. She didn’t care about his past or what he did.
Risa loved him the way he was. Over the years, she’d thought her little crush would eventually fade away. Too bad time only worsened her desire for him. Risa sometimes caught him glancing at her and didn’t miss the open look of hunger he wore. Then he’d look away, excusing himself.
In a mansion with over thirty rooms, it was easy to make oneself disappear.
“Maybe the dress is too much.” She did a little twirl and debated changing into a more conservative dress. “Too slutty?”
Still, the dress showed off all her curves
nicely. Some of the men she’d dated in the past—to spite Nikolai—suggested she could lose some weight. So she tried dieting, exercising. In the end, all that effort made her unhappy and unhealthy. Risa had since learned to accept her body and love it.
Nikolai, though, never complained. He always complimented her figure and loved bringing her to the best restaurants in the city.
Risa closed her eyes, imagining it was Nikolai going with her to the exhibit. Nikolai’s possessive arm around her waist, his lips on the curve of her neck. Fantasy Nikolai would even leave a little bite on the sensitive spot between her shoulder and neck. He’d leave his mark there, just so everyone would know she belonged to him.
Maybe after the exhibit, they’d drink a little too much and he’d finally put his hands on her. Rip this little dress away and have her right there, in the backseat of his favorite red Lamborghini.
“What the hell are you wearing?”
Risa jumped, opening her eyes to see Nikolai scowling down at her. When he got really mad, hints of his Russian accent came out. Like now. Even though she’d grown two inches of height since she was sixteen, she still had to look up to meet his gaze.
At six-foot-six, Nikolai practically towered over her five-foot-four frame. She noticed he wore her favorite tailored Italian suit, a gray so dark it was almost black. Ever since she told him it matched his eyes, he always made a point to wear it at least once a week. Risa knew he wore it for her.
Damn it. Now all she wanted to do was run her hands down his jacket, his shirt, and slip them underneath to touch hard muscle and ink. Her bedroom window looked out to the pool, and she spent many mornings watching Nikolai’s sleek form in the water.
“Risa,” he said in that eerily quiet, dangerous tone she knew so well. Nikolai used that tone when one of his business partners screwed up or when she did something she shouldn’t have. “I asked you a question.”
She took a deep breath, counting to ten in her head to calm down. This was Nikolai. Sure, she drove him off the wall on several occasions, but Risa knew never in a million years would he hurt her. He’d kill himself first. She didn’t know how she came to that conclusion; she simply knew.
“It’s a dress,” she answered flippantly, remembering why she was wearing it in the first place. To piss him off. Finally get Nikolai to look at her like a woman, not an obligation or his best friend’s daughter. How could she get Nikolai to cross the line and put an end to both their misery?
She let out a breath as he looked her up and down. There. Risa didn’t imagine the heat in her eyes. One searing look and her nipples already got hard. Moisture gathered between her thighs.
“No.”
“What?” That one word felt like a slap to her face. “I’m twenty-one, Nikolai, in case you haven’t noticed. An adult.”
“Oh, I’ve noticed but going so far as to call yourself an adult?”
Risa let her hand fly. Her pulse hitched when he closed his big, callused fingers over her slender wrist. Just one touch and she forgot why she was mad at him in the first place. He didn’t let go like he usually did when she accidentally touched him. Well, over the past few months, Risa kept making excuses to brush up against him. She was beginning to think he was some kind of monk for being able to refuse all her advances.
He ran his fingers down her wrist, brushing them lightly against her digits, before pulling away.
“You’re not leaving this house until you change out of that dress,” he told her.
She loved it a little too much when he used that firm, commanding tone with her. Like he expected her obedience, knowing she would give it to him. Only Risa wanted him to work a little harder.
“And you’re going to be late for your meeting,” she said, crossing her arms. She didn’t miss the way his steel-colored gaze lingered on her breasts.
Nikolai let out a spew of Russian curses. “Change or I’ll lock you inside this house.”
“Trapped alone with you? Doesn’t sound much of a punishment to me.”
Yikes. Did Risa say those words out loud?
Nikolai narrowed his eyes at her. Her heart raced. She’d finally done it. Pissed him off. Pushed him off the edge. She knew she was acting like a brat, and he’d done so much for her. Thanks to Nikolai, she didn’t have to stay with her aunts or uncle who looked at her like she was nothing more than an inconvenience.
He gave her everything she could ever want—except Nikolai didn’t seem to understand the one thing she truly wanted. Him. Them.
Something had to give. Nikolai might have the best security team in the world, and ride in bulletproof cars, but who knew what could happen? She didn’t want to part ways with him tonight with an argument. Risa relented.
“I’ll change.”
“Very good. Change now.”
Several outfits later and she finally met his approval with a black, long-sleeved dress that fell to her ankles.
“I look like I’m going to a funeral,” she complained.
“Good.”
“And why is that good?”
“No other men would have their dicks cut off tonight,” Nikolai told her drily.
She gasped, about to tell him off, but he’d already left her bedroom. Nikolai wasn’t the kind of man who made idle threats. He once sent a bloody pig’s head to a prom date that never showed up. Needless to say, she wasn’t too surprised when Richard and his family moved out of the city two weeks later.
Silently fuming, Risa studied her reflection in the mirror and decided to make a few alterations to her dress. What Nikolai didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. Damn. Risa had forgotten to remind him about the exhibit.
Risa made the final touches on the hem when one of the maids knocked politely on her door.
“What is it?”
“Mr. Stevenson’s arrived, Risa.”
“I’ll be right down.” Risa figured she’d cut the hem a little too much, but she didn’t have time to change.
As she descended the stairs to meet her date, John Stevenson let out a whistle. She suddenly wished she didn’t invite John at the last minute. John and Risa had gone to the same art college. He was also a photographer. They weren’t close friends but kept bumping into each other in the same events.
He’d always showed interest in her, and she figured it wouldn’t hurt, seeing if that friendship could be more. Maybe he’d be the one to finally help her move away from her obsession with Nikolai.
“John, sorry to keep you waiting.”
“No problem at all. Man, Risa. You didn’t tell me you lived in a mansion.”
“It doesn’t belong to me, but my guardian.” She didn’t know why that comment irritated her. Risa wished she met John at the gallery, but he insisted on picking her up from her house. Like a gentleman, he said.
“Guardian? Aren’t you twenty-one?”
John didn’t need to remind her of that little fact. By law, she could just move out, but since Nikolai hadn’t kicked her out, she stayed. Now, she was starting to wonder if she should get her own place in the city. But not seeing him every morning? That thought felt like a lance through her heart.
What was she doing, going on a date with one man when she had given her heart years ago to another?
Chapter Two
Nikolai couldn’t concentrate on a single word Mr. Li was saying. Worse, the head of the Chinese triad wasn’t even speaking in his native Mandarin but out of politeness and respect to Nikolai, spoke in English. Damn it to hell. Nikolai couldn’t stop picturing Risa in that tight red dress.
The nerve of that woman, thinking she could dress that way in public. Didn’t he raise her better? Raise? No. He didn’t want to think of that word. Back when Risa was sixteen, she’d been manageable. Sweet. Now?
He woke up in complete and utter misery every single day, knowing she was so close, within his reach but remaining untouchable. Inaccessible. Only the worst kind of scum would lust after his dead best friend’s daughter. Judging by the way Risa acted these days, it wa
s hard to see her as anything but a woman.
His woman.
“We’ll look over the numbers again,” his business partner and second-in-command Mikhail said. “I’m sure we’ll come to a better agreement.”
Thank God, he brought Mikhail along to this meeting. Mr. Li stood up. They shook hands.
“Then I look forward to another meeting with the Petrovic Family,” Mr. Li said.
Once Mr. Li and his group left his office, Nikolai sank into the leather couch opposite his desk.
“You’ve been distracted the entire time. Problems at home?” Mikhail grabbed two cold beer bottles from his mini-fridge, then opened them and handed him one.
Nikolai gave Mikhail a pointed look but accepted the beer. He took a long pull. Mikhail was the only man in his organization who knew about his particular dilemma. Ignoring Mikhail’s earlier question, he checked his watch and swore.
“I promised Risa I’d swing by the gallery. She’s holding an exhibit,” he said.
“You sound like a proud father.”
He wanted to choke Mikhail for that comment alone, especially since Mikhail knew what a touchy subject this was.
“I am proud,” he said, finishing his beer instead of giving in to useless anger. Before Risa came into his life, Nikolai had been famous for his short temper. With a young girl to look after, he tried to be a better man. A more patient one at the very least, and boy, did Risa try his patience plenty of times.
He continued. “She worked hard, getting those photos ready, finding a gallery to host them. She refused to let me pay for her college. It was all her. I should’ve rescheduled this meeting.”
Guilt hit him. Maybe she’d worn that dress earlier for a reason. To get his attention. Lately, Nikolai had been burying himself in work, to distract himself from the temptation waiting for him at home.
