by Cole, Jagger
I gasp as his hand tugs me back, spinning me into him. I whimper as my hands fall against his chest, and my eyes raise to look into his crystal blue ones.
“You are wrong, kiska,” he growls quietly. He leans close to me. “I know things about you that I know no others do.”
I roll my eyes. “Oh?” I droll sarcastically.
I gasp as he suddenly leans all the way down into my neck, making me tremble as his lips brush my ear.
“I know how sweet your pussy tastes, kiska,” he growls thickly.
I quaver, heat pooling between my thighs. But then I grab control back. I take a deep breath and pull away from him again.
“That is not happening again, just so we’re fucking clear.”
He smirks. He doesn’t get angry. He doesn’t… I honestly don’t know what I excepted his reaction to be. But smirking isn’t it.
“Is that funny to you?”
He grins. “Immensely.”
I glare at him. “Well, I fucking love jokes, so why don’t you share the humor?” I hiss.
“I’m amused because you’ve just proved my earlier point.”
My lips purse. “Which was?”
“That you are a terrible liar,” he growls thickly.
We stand there, glaring at each other. The air between us seems to ignite, burning hotly until I can’t tell if I want to kiss him or slap him across the face. But in the end, I decide on the third option.
Leaving.
With a final glare, I pull away. “I’m not your pawn,” I hiss. “And that is never happening again.”
I turn on my heel, walk down the steps of the helicopter, and march away.
8
Yuri
Clank.
With a grunt, I set the bar back down on the rack and hiss with the exhale. My eyes close, my muscles screaming after that last set. But the endorphin rush hits me, and I grin triumphantly at the successful workout.
I sit up on the bench and reach for my water. Through the open doors of the yacht’s gym, the sea air washes over the sweat glistening on my bare chest. I stand, breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth as I walk to the balcony overlooking the lower decks.
But my gaze is not aimless. It’s instantly pulled to the deck off of River’s quarters. Because there she is, in the lap pool. In a bikini. I groan as the endorphins surge through my system.
To be fair, the bikini isn’t necessarily to show off. It’s because there’s a tempting pool, and the only bathing suits in her closet are small, skimpy bikinis. I didn’t stock the thing for River specifically, obviously. But as my plan was to host Semyon’s object of interest, the idea was to send him pictures of his captured desire parading around my yacht in skimpy clothing.
The idea of sending any such picture of River to him makes my blood boil.
I watch as she swims strongly against the surging water in the lap pool. Her hair is tied up tight in a bun, her sleek body and tempting curves coiling as she swims. The tiny white bikini is already a skimpy bathing suit by design. But on River, with her tits and that ass? It’s almost pornographic.
But it’s also all for me. And I’m certainly not complaining. I groan as I watch her pushing herself. But then she slows to a stop and moves to the side of the pool. She pushes herself out of the water. My cock thickens as she slips out, the little white thong bikini pulled tight between her cheeks.
She slips out and stands on the deck. But then, as if she can feel my eyes on her, she turns. She blushes, stiffening when she sees me looking right at her. Her teeth drag over her bottom lip. I don’t look away. I stare right at her—right at what I want but should not want.
Her big green eyes look right back at me. Her cheeks burn hotly. But then, like she’s just remembered that she’s mad at me for making her come so eagerly, apparently, her brow furrows. Her look turns to a glare. She yanks a towel around herself, whirls, and storms back into her quarters.
I groan as my hand tightens on the railing of the deck. What the fuck am I doing with this girl?
I turn to head back inside. But just then, my phone buzzes. I pull it out and smile curiously when I see Belle’s name on the screen.
“And to what do I owe the pleasure of a call from a famous movie star?”
Belle groans with a laugh. “Hi, dad.”
For the first eighteen years of her life, my daughter didn’t know me. Part of that was that she was concealed from me by her mother. But the next part was because I didn’t want the little girl I didn’t even know to be chewed up and spit out by the world of violence I live in.
Her mother—René—and I had been young and… unclear of what we were back then. I was rising in the ranks of my family business with the Bratva. She was a dancer at a club in New York, where I was living for a time. Maybe we were just young and stupid. Maybe it was more, but who knows. I know I don’t.
I do know I cared for her. And it hurt when I learned she was pregnant, and when she told me it wasn’t mine. She yelled at me, telling me we meant nothing, and that there were other men. There may have been, I don’t know. I knew I already shared her heart with the needle, which was hard enough.
She got clean for the baby, but she and I were done. And not long after her daughter was born, heroin finally took René. It was years later that I finally used my money and influence to secretly test Belle’s DNA against my own, just to see. The match was perfect.
But even with that, I knew I couldn’t be a part of her world. Or more specifically, I couldn’t let her become a part of mine. Things were much rougher back then, of course. There were constant wars between bratva families. It had barely been a decade since the fall of the USSR, and the race for power in the ensuing vacuum was brutal and bloody.
My daughter would not be a part of that.
And so, I watched from a distance. I watched her aunt raise her, and quietly made sure they were okay. I watched as Belle, a budding actress, suddenly found her big break. I watched with a heart full of pride, telling no one, as she rose to world-wide fame on the Hollywood stage.
When fate threw her and Nikolai, a captain in the Kashenko Bratva together, it also forced me into her life. And it’s the best turn of events of my life so far. It’s almost out of a movie script that I would be so worried about involving my daughter with the Bratva world for so long. And then she goes and falls in love with a Bratva captain.
“How’s… wait where are you these days?”
“Here and there,” I grin. It’s not that I’m playing coy. It’s that even though she’s married to a Bratva captain, I still feel the need to shield her from this world.
She chuckles. “International man of mystery, huh?”
“The name is Bond. Yuri Bond.”
Belle snickers. “Business is good, I hope?”
I frown. “Yes?”
“Good. So you won’t have to fall back on your God-awful comedy career?”
I chuckle. But just then, suddenly, the door to River’s deck opens again. She walks back out—still in the bikini. Without the towel. She glances up at me. She tries to hide it, but I catch the smug little smirk before she can.
I watch her sway her hips over to a lounge chair and spill herself into it. She stretches like a cat, arching her back and thrusting her full tits up, straining them against her bikini top.
My jaw grinds. She’s teasing me. Purposefully so.
“Dad?”
I wince. “Yeah, I’m here.”
The sudden juxtaposition of these two versions of me is jarring. On one hand is the tempting little vixen trying to tease me. That hand holds my untamed and forbidden attraction to the gorgeous young model currently staying as my… well, my hostage of sorts.
And in the other hand, is Belle—the daughter I am finally getting to know. The piece of me that I’ve only recently been able to start to connect to. I mean Christ, it’s only been in the last few months that she’s even started calling me dad and not just “Yuri.” I’m well aware that father
ing someone does not inherently make you a dad. But fuck, it’s been nice to hear.
And now, those two hands pull me in different directions—they pull me apart.
Below and across the main deck, River is turning to sun her back. She arches her body, thrusting her ass back towards me. She’s being a fucking prick tease, and she knows it. She just doesn’t know she’s doing it while I’m on the phone with her best friend. Just as my daughter has no idea I’m talking to her while I have her best friend captive on my yacht.
“Hey, so, actually I called to invite you to something.”
I blink away my thoughts and focus on Belle. “Oh?”
“Yeah. Um… how’d you like to come to the premier for my upcoming release?”
The grin almost hurts it’s so wide.
“I would honestly love to.”
“Yeah? Look, you really don’t have to. I know you’re busy—”
“Belle,” I smile. “Consider my schedule cleared.”
She laughs. “It’s for Tomorrow’s Battle… I think I was telling you about it?”
“The one where you’re the embedded Marine Corp press photographer who gets captured by the Taliban…” I smile. “I remember.”
Her latest film hasn’t even been released yet, and it’s already generating some big buzz. What makes me even prouder is that she’s doing this all under her own production company. And the films that company is putting out are garnering so much praise that she’s getting all sorts of investment offers, too.
I grin, swelling with pride. And also with happiness. This is a big step, her inviting me to something this important. I’d have figured she’d bring someone like—
“My friend River is going to come too.”
I freeze, my jaw grinding.
“Oh?”
“Yeah, you met her once at that dinner in Chicago last year? The model?”
“I…” my eyes land on River herself, not forty feet away from me, stretched out in the world’s skimpiest thong bikini.
“I think I remember her.”
“It’s not for a few more weeks. I’ll send you the info though.” She laughs. “Oh my God, speaking of River…”
My mouth thins. “Yes?”
“This is really gossipy. But I just heard about it, and I think Niko is getting tired of being the only one I’ve been talking to about it.” She sighs. “So, apparently River ran off with some rich European guy.”
I stiffen. “Really.”
I knew the story I put into place would leak eventually. In fact, that was sort of the point, to avoid people being worried that famous model River Finn had been kidnapped. But it’s still jarring to hear it from Belle.
“You… spoke to her?” I ask, knowing she hasn’t.
“No, actually. I’ve been trying to call her, but her stupid phone is off. Can you believe that? I had learn about my best friend running off with some prince or an oil tycoon’s heir through a freaking grocery store tabloid cover.”
“Yeah…” I frown. “That’s—”
“Oh, and get this. This photo-shoot she was on got attacked by pirates. Like real actual pirates, and this prince or king or whoever he is saved her.”
“It’s a strange world,” I grunt quietly.
“Seriously.” Belle sighs. “Okay, sorry, I’m gossiping your ear off now.”
“I enjoy your gossip.”
She laughs. “Well, I’ll let you go. My assistant will email over the info for the premier. I’ll talk to you soon?”
“Any time,” I say quietly with a grin.
“Okay. Bye, dad.”
“Bye, Belle.”
“Oh, hey.”
“Yes?”
“Bring a date!”
I smile thinly as my eyes settle on River, still stretched out in a bikini.
“Very funny.”
I’m still smiling when I hang up. But my eyes stay glued to the forbidden attraction across from me, doing her damndest to shatter my self-control.
And if she keeps trying, she’s going to succeed.
9
River
Two days later, I’m still stewing. I’m still buzzing, too. I’ve basically sequestered myself in my quarters, barely even coming out for meals. I tell myself it’s because I’m angry. The lie I tell myself is that I’m furious that Yuri used his power and influence over me to take advantage of things, and to do things to me no other man ever has.
But, yeah… that’s a lie.
I’m not angry at him for the things he did to me. In fact, I can’t stop melting into feverish day-dreams and nighttime fantasies about his hands and mouth on me that leave me slick and throbbing. Yuri didn’t take advantage of me, because I let him touch me. I wanted his hands on me, and I know deep in a shameful place that I’ve been aching for him since the moment I laid eyes on him.
I’m angry because giving in to that aching lust was “giving in.” Or maybe I’m just not sure how to process the fact that I like the fucked up power dynamic. Being both his captive and his plaything gives me a thrill I’ve never ever felt before. And I like it; I like it a lot more than I fucking should.
Try as I might, my body won’t let me forget the feeling of pure ecstasy that his tongue between my legs gave me. I can’t stop thinking about the way his hands felt—the way he touched me and turned me to putty.
I can’t forget the way his kiss electrified me. And it’s downright infuriating.
Two nights after the meeting with Semyon, I’m slumped across my bed. But my mind won’t stop whirling. The problem is, the usual cure for my brain not shutting up is to call my best friend Belle and vent. Except there’s two big problems with that solution given my current circumstances.
One, I’m a captive on a yacht in the middle of the Black Sea, with no cell phone. And two, the man who’s mouth I can’t stop thinking about, who’s also the man holding me captive?
Yeah, that would be Belle’s father. There’s a conversation literally no one wants to have about their own dad.
The unfairness of all of this suddenly hits a peak. My anger at this entire situation suddenly pops. With a hiss on my lips, I jump up and storm out of my quarters. It seems they only locked the doors on me that first night here. After that, they were left open for me to come and go as I please. I mean what am I going to do, run away? It’s a boat.
I storm down the halls of the yacht, up a flight of stairs, and then out the doors to the private deck where I had dinner with Yuri. Sure enough, he’s out there. He’s in perfectly fitting suit pants and a dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, sitting in a deck chair by the railing reading a book.
He looks up in curious amusement as I march over to him.
“You’ve emerged.”
But he stops smiling when I yank the book out of his hand and toss it over the rail to land in the pool below.
A low growl rumbles in his throat as he slowly stands, glaring at me.
“I didn’t peg you for a thrower of temper-tantru—”
“There are people who won’t believe I’ve just run off with some random rich guy, you know!” I snap. “They’ll talk!”
His eyes narrow as he folds his arms over his chest. “You mean people like my daughter.”
“Yep,” I sneer back.
Yuri’s eyes pierce into me, making me tremble. But then, he shrugs.
“Then call her. I’ll get you a phone.”
My brow furrows. “Just like that.”
He shrugs. “Just like that.”
“So I guess you want me to lie to her too about what’s going on?”
Yuri looks amused. “I want you to say whatever you desire.” His brow furrows. “River, you are mistaken if you think I am worried what people think of me; that I let anyone in this world hold any power at all over me. Here.”
He pulls a phone out of his pocket and holds it out to me.
“This is a clean phone. It’s all yours. Call her, please.”
I eye him warily, my lips pursed.
“You’re still patching things up after abandoning her for the first eighteen years of her life, just in case you forgot that little detail.”
His smirk fades as he stiffens. His brow darkens.
“No, River,” he growls. “I had not actually forgotten about the daughter whose life I did not get to be a part of for her entire childhood,” he says thickly.
He glares at me, his eyes narrowing.
“But you’re her best friend. You know all of that, which means you’re simply trying to be petty.”
I scowl back at him. But, of course, he’s right. Of course I know the story from Belle.
“You know damn well why I kept my distance from my only child,” he growls, anger rising in his voice. “I couldn’t be a part of her world. Or more specifically, I couldn’t let her become a part of mine. Things were dangerous back then. Extremely so.”
He smiles thinly, eyes narrowing.
“But you’re a smart girl. You know all of this. So be my fucking guest, River,” he grunts. “Call Belle. Tell her whatever you want.”
“Including that you’ve kidnapped me?”
He pushes the phone into my hand. And without another word, he turns and storms off. But I don’t feel victorious. I just feel like a bitch.
“My my my!”
I blush when I hear my best friend gush on the other end of the line.
“Well, I’d ask how your vacation is going, but it seems rhetorical, from what I’ve heard.”
I bite my lip, groaning. “What, uh… what have you heard?”
Belle laughs. “Oh, you know, nothing crazy. Just that my best friend in the world got rescued from actual, real-life pirates by some rich older European playboy, who she is now shacked up with getting laid eight ways from Sunday?”
I cringe, feeling my face burn.
“Does that about sum things up?” She giggles before groaning. “I cannot believe you’re just calling me now!”
“I—yeah I didn’t have my phone—”
“And you haven’t left Mr. European hottie’s bed in a week?”
