"I am fine."
I rolled my eyes. "You're infuriating."
"As are you." Despite the gravel roughness to his voice, his eyes were far from challenging. The only thing I saw in them was lust, and I felt like it was just an echo of my own. He stepped closer and my pussy clenched in anticipation of what exactly that look meant he wanted to do to me.
I didn't want to push him away any longer.
The outline of his cock was unmistakable through his pants and I felt a shiver of anticipation ride right through me when my eyes swept over it. To my knowledge I'd never made a man hard like that before, I should have looked away, but it was too late for that. The steely baton he had smuggled down there was going to be mine one day, just as soon as I figured out whether I was woman enough to take it.
His thumb swept across the spill of my lower lip, drawing in close to me as though he knew exactly what I was thinking and my entire body froze. I couldn't tear my eyes away from his, not that I wanted to for one single second.
I breathed when he breathed, and I wouldn't have had it any other way. My nipples were hard enough they were making a go of drilling right through the layers of my sweater to get to him. Even the fabric of our clothes was too much barrier between us. I wanted to feel the heat of his body against my skin.
And that was mad. That was crazy. I couldn't keep my place in the ballet and give him everything I wanted to as well. But there had to be a way. If there was one, I'd find it.
Suddenly Valentin was in my space and I drew up against the mirrored wall of the elevator, breathing heavy and hot as I tried to calm myself down, but I already knew it was impossible.
His mouth skirted millimeters from my skin, tracing over the form of me like he was set on breathing me in, and my body ached for more of his touch. "If he'd touched you…"
"He didn't. He didn't touch me."
Valentin's hand caught my wrist and I felt the anger in him rise as his fist tightened around my bones. "He had no right. You're mine."
I let out a groan, leaning in against him, closing the distance between our lips where he had been holding back. It didn't matter that we hadn't talked about this, that Valentin was acting like he had every right to possess me. I shouldn't have wanted that, but deep down it was the only thing I wanted.
His tongue thrust deep into my mouth and my lips parted, so ready, so eager for him to take every part of me. I moaned when he thrust his tongue in imitation of what I wanted other parts of him to do to me, tangling my tongue with his. Sensation thrilled across my skin, thundering right through me.
This was fireworks and explosions and the kind of passion that you never, ever saw on stage, but it was so much better than any sanitized fairytale. So much better than staying good and chaste and focused on my career. I'd never felt this way before and I barely knew what to do with my body's urges, but I wanted him to teach me.
"Oh God, Valentin. I need you so badly."
His kisses turned frantic and hot, spilling from my mouth all the way along my jaw and down my throat until I was arching under him and groaning. He lit my body on fire, making me feel things I'd never felt before and I didn't know what to do with the increasing need for him building between my thighs. I wanted to spread them for him; somehow, I needed him inside me, even though I'd never had sex with anyone before.
"I need you too, my little dancer. I need you so much."
I whimpered pleadingly when his mouth closed over mine with plundering force. My knees threatened to give out from under me, but his hands were on my waist, holding me up with all the strength of any dance partner I'd ever had. His hands were warm, solid and firm and I longed to melt into them and let him do his worst.
There was no point in trying to make excuses for why this shouldn't happen when every atom in me told me it was right. Valentin was meant to be mine as much as I was meant to be his, and this wasn't something I wanted to fight. He made me breathless, and in this kiss was the essence of every romantic duet that I'd ever seen and ever danced. It wasn't just fireworks, it was passion beyond anything I'd ever known.
His lips parted mine and I let him slide his tongue into my mouth, hungry for more as my body told me just how much I needed him. My clit tingled as he pressed his legs between my thighs and I fought the urge to grind against him wantonly until he nudged his leg up again and did it for me. His cock was hot and impossibly hard, even through the fabric of his pants and I had no idea what I was going to do when he let me get my hands on it.
I'd never even seen a man naked before, let alone touched a real, vibrant, throbbing cock, but I was practically salivating at the thought of getting Valentin naked. I wanted us skin to skin, and after that what came next had to be sheer biology because my body was already in the driver's seat, giving into instincts that I'd never even dared imagine.
My touch was all the go-ahead he needed. Valentin galvanized, a surging, molten mass of heat beneath my hands as he forced his body hard against mine. I would have worried for the glass, except that the only thing I cared about was wrapping my legs around his hips so that he could press the steely length of his thick, hot cock hard against me. I wanted him buried deep inside me, impaling me on him until I screamed out his name. That was the only thing that mattered, and I had no idea when I'd turned into such a little slut for him.
The sound of the elevator doors opening startled me enough to gasp, and I stumbled away from him as Valentin let me go. His face fell slack in surprise at the sight of Maria arm in arm with a guy who must have been her boyfriend. The pair of them were cooing over one another in low toned Russian.
Maria looked from me to Valentin and she laughed. "Aren't you full of surprises, Mia? Playing the innocent all this time…"
I tried to look away, to act as though I didn't care what either of them thought of me, but I was all too aware of Maria's eyes on me and how easy it was to figure out exactly what we'd been up to. My entire face burnt with heat when the man looked us over and let out an unmistakable bark.
"Valentin, you are a dog."
"Yuri. Aren't you supposed to be at work?"
The man shrugged. "The old man gave me the night off. He rewards loyalty. Maybe you've forgotten that."
"You are drunk."
He rolled his eyes.
"So what? Go back to your little teenage whore, Valentin."
Valentin's fist slammed hard against the side of the elevator, and Yuri flinched back. Before I knew what had happened, Maria reached out to grab my arm, and I stumbled forward, a little dazed, watching as she hit the door closed button. Valentin let out a warning growl, surging after me, but I was through the doors just a second before they closed.
"Hey-!" I would have protested further, but Yuri was laughing and Maria was looking at me like I'd done something unforgivable.
"What are you doing?" she hissed, then darted a glare at Yuri. "You, go home. I have had enough of you tonight. He is right, you are drunk."
With a dismissive wave of her hand in her boyfriend's direction, Maria tugged me towards the apartment with her bony fingers digging tight into my upper arm.
"Mia, seriously, what are you doing?"
I felt my face flush even darker. "Valentin and I…"
"Mr. Rozhkov is in some very serious business, Mia. I think it is not a good idea to get involved."
My heart jumped into my mouth and my stomach turned over like I'd just been dropped a few floors in the elevator. "Mr. Rozhkov?" I echoed dumbly. What did she mean? Valentin wasn't Mr. Rozhkov, he couldn't be! He was just the man I knew from the studio in the mornings. The only person in this city aside from Eva who felt like he could really be my friend. No way was he some kind of Bratva prince.
But looking at Maria, I felt the pieces finally slot into order.
"Yes, Mr. Rozhkov! Who else would he be?" She looked at me with a virtual sneer, and she shook her head, eyes narrowed. "You Americans play dangerous games. I don't believe that you are so stupid, and I am definitely not. Don't tr
y to pull the wool over my eyes."
"No. I didn't- I didn't know."
"Well, now you do. You think that is the kind of man to get involved with? I know everything about him from Yuri. He would stab his own mother in the back to get what he wanted. Believe me."
I pressed my lips together, still feeling the tingle of his kiss and how right his lips had felt against mine. Whatever Maria thought, Valentin wasn't bad news. He couldn't have been. Maria was the one who was deluded here. Valentin had saved me from being attacked. Did it really matter what he could have done to the man? Or was I just being hopelessly naive to think that he had it coming? Maybe a normal kind of guy wouldn't have pulverized that man, but he could have done so much worse and I wasn't about to condemn Valentin for stepping in when I'd been so grateful for it.
My frown pulled in as Maria frog marched me back to the apartment, trying to process it all, but I didn't fight her. I wasn't looking to race up the stairs to get to Valentin all over again. One way or the other, her interruption was a bucket of cold water, startling me into thinking about what I was actually doing.
"I think that you should avoid him and focus on your dancing. You will never get ahead in the company if you are constantly distracted." Maria closed the apartment door firmly behind us and led me through to the living room, pressing me down onto our communal couch. "Believe me, I am trying to help you Mia. You are so young and so pretty, of course you are going to attract all of these men who are looking to distract you. But they do not know what we both know?"
I blinked slowly, struggling to catch up with her flow of logic. "What's that?"
"That ballet is your only true love." She handed me a small glass of something deep red and smelling of plums, and finished pouring her own from the slim bottle. "I know, my darling. It is the same for me."
I felt myself nod slowly before I was even aware I was doing it.
Out in the hall, I heard a clear knock on the front door, and Maria's perfectly shaped eyebrows hitched up so sharply that I didn't dare to turn towards the sound. She was right. Of course she was right. Ballet had been my obsession for as long as I could remember. Nothing could compare to the thrill of being on stage performing.
"Men. They think that they can walk in and take whatever it is that they want. You have so much more of value in your life than Valentin Rozhkov. We should drink to that, my pretty protege. Soon, if you work hard enough, you might even have your first solo, and why would you throw that away on someone like him?"
I smiled thinly, ignoring the disappointment welling in my chest as the knocking stopped and I heard the faintest hint of his footsteps walking away. If Valentin was who she said he was, I couldn't afford to get mixed up with a man like him, even if he had only been a gentleman to me. The truth was, he couldn't ever mean as much to me as my dancing did; she was right about that. It was better that I came to terms with that now rather than cause the both of us any harm.
How could he mean as much to me, when he was the man tangled up with the Bratva that the whole of the city had been whispering about, the man it was rumored was poised to take over everything and become the next ruthless emperor of crime? He sounded like some kind of villain and I knew from the storyline of every single ballet in existence that I needed to find a prince.
The trouble was, the side that Maria was describing felt like fiction. Valentin was the man who met me in the studio in the morning when most of the rest of the building was still asleep, who talked to me about my dancing and made me crazy and now he'd kissed me and made me want him more than I could fully comprehend.
The only problem with her reasoning was that ballet wasn't the only thing in my heart any longer.
I said goodnight to Maria and closed my bedroom door behind me, collapsing heavily on the bed as I tried to work out the muddled conundrum. I sank against the pillows and a smile took over my face before I could stop it.
My lips were still bruised and tingling from the force of his kiss, and all the passion he'd shown me and that was the only thing I could focus on. Maybe Maria should have been right about ballet being everything, but the trouble was, I'd already fallen in love with him and my heart beat for him just as strongly. Maybe even more so.
CHAPTER NINE
Valentin
I jabbed at the elevator button half a second after I realized they were closing, but as they snapped shut in my face, it was too late for me to do anything other than stand there. In the red haze of the moment it hadn't occurred to me to jam my foot in the door.
Yuri was living dangerously insulting Mia right after she'd been attacked, and he was only lucky that the rage he caused in me made my intelligence drop right down to his level.
I felt like a knuckle-dragging Neanderthal denied its mate, and all I could do was kick out against the back wall of the elevator and let out a roar as it ferried me efficiently up to my floor.
By the time I jogged down to the level the dancers' apartment was on, their front door was firmly closed and there was no sign of any of them. I knocked on the door, but nobody answered and I had to fight myself not to drum my fist against it and demand to be let inside.
Mia was in there, and I wanted her more than I'd ever wanted anything or anyone in all my life. I could have broken the door down and only the dim realization that she could have let me in herself if she wanted to held me back.
With all my pent up energy driving me, I stalked the hall, wearing a shine into the linoleum with my pacing.
Yuri had embarrassed Mia, no doubt, and I wanted to drag him out here and make him pay for that. But I knew the moment had passed, and I'd only make it worse for Mia if I made a scene.
That was the only thing that held me back. Now, at least I knew there was no urgency. The way she'd kissed me told me everything I needed to know. Whatever she'd said before, she was as desperate for me as I was for her and it was inevitable now that we would be together. I would make sure of it.
But I was going to do it right, rather than barging in there like a bear with a sore paw. This was my chance to show her that I could be everything she wanted - that I could romance her the right way. So perhaps it was lucky that Yuri and Maria had got in the way.
Tonight could have been seen as a passionate mistake if I'd had my way and then she had second thoughts afterwards. I wasn't going to leave that opportunity open. I would have had to leave her early in the morning, before we even usually found ourselves in the studio, because I had to travel north to meet with some of our outliers and I would be away for a few days. The meetings had been planned for weeks and I couldn't avoid it without losing face or seeming to relinquish control. Right then I hated the obligations of my job. I would have given up everything I'd worked for just for the chance at another kiss.
Siberia was not where I wanted to be when I had the prospect of spending the week showing Mia around my bedroom, but there was nothing I could do about it. And sneaking out, trying not to wake her as I gathered my things to leave was not how I wanted our first morning together to be.
With gritted teeth, I had to concede that hammering on the door and demanding to be let in was not the best course of action, no matter how much I wanted Mia back in my arms. In my job, I'd learnt the value of restraint, but when it came to claiming Mia, I was ready to throw it all out of the window and revert to riding on my instincts no matter how inappropriate they were.
Maybe she was a fair bit younger than me, but Yuri was wrong to talk like that mattered. I didn't see a girl when I looked at her and when we talked together we got along better than I had with any woman closer to my own age. What did age matter in the face of a connection like that? What did anything at all matter when she was meant to be mine? I'd make him eat his words for insinuating there was anything else going on.
But not tonight. I refused to be the brute who woke up the entire building just to get what I wanted. I never wanted to see Mia afraid of me, and that meant I had to give her time, and hope that Maria wasn't filling her head full
of nonsense about the kind of man I was. The mediocre prima donna didn't know me, her head was full of fantasies about what men high up in the Bratva were like, and the life they could give her, and I knew she held a grudge because I had side-stepped her advances.
With a resigned growl, I trudged back up the stairs to my apartment. As soon as I saw Mia again I was going to get a hold of her phone number so that we could keep in touch, but for now the old fashioned way was going to have to do.
Viktor peered out of his room with an enquiring look when I stalked in the front door, and I gave him a short, sharp shake of my head. "Don't ask."
"Of course not."
Going straight through to the study, I sat down at my desk and scrawled out a note to Mia, explaining that I would be away on business for a few days, but that I wanted to take her out when I got back. That I wasn't going to take no for an answer and there wasn't a moment that I was away that I wouldn't be thinking about kissing her again.
I jammed the note into an envelope and scrawled her name on the front of it. First thing in the morning, I'd slip it under the door of her apartment. But for now, I had other things to arrange.
While I was away, I wanted to make certain that she had something to remind her of me, and what better way to do that than to make sure she was showered in flowers every night that she took to the stage.
Mia
I should have been sleeping, but there I was lying on my bed still fully clothed, staring up at the ceiling with a broad smile on my face. I couldn't stop thinking about Valentin. My lips were still tingling with the memory of his kiss and I didn't think I was ever going to get over how hot he was.
With my determined focus on getting where I wanted to be in the ballet world, I hadn't had the time for boys and I hadn't really felt like I was missing out. But Valentin was different; it was like something deep inside of me knew the moment that I saw him that we were meant to be together. On a fundamental, bone-deep level, I craved him. I couldn't get him out of my head, and I didn't want to.
Bratva Boss Page 6
