by Lia Lee
He loved the way she used her tongue. It was as if she tasted him with each stroke. Matching her pace and mimicking her motions was making him want her all over again. The woman was actually making love to him with her mouth and his body was responding in kind.
Nika pulled back suddenly, staring down at him with an indecipherable expression on her face. “Do you take many lovers?”
It was a reasonable question, but one that Maksim and every other man on the planet would call the pitfall from hell. “That depends on what you call many.”
“Maksim, come on.” She drummed her fingers on his chest.
“I don’t have a lot of time for a love life.” He wondered how he could make her understand. “My job is”—consuming, overwhelming, monotonous—“let’s just say it keeps me busy. So I don’t have time for relationships.” He gazed deeply into her eyes. “I’ve slept with a few women here and there. Always one night stands, and I’m always up front with them about that.”
“Ah.”
He didn’t like the way her gaze shifted away. “Nika, you’re not a one night stand.”
“I know that.”
“Do you?” he asked. “Because you’re pouting like you think I just insulted you.”
She looked outraged. “I do not pout!”
“Baby, you pout like a champion pouter.” Maksim couldn’t hide his smile. “I think you could have a career in pouting.”
Her growl was adorably fierce. “You better take that back!”
Maksim rolled her onto her back and settled himself between her spread legs. His cock was already getting hard again. He wanted her so badly. It was like an ache that would never be satisfied.
“God I must look a mess,” she moaned.
“You’re beautiful.”
“It’s the middle of the day and I have bedhead so bad that I’ll never fix it without taking a shower.” She sent a puff of air up toward the hair hanging in her eyes.
“You look like you’ve spent some time in your lover’s bed.” Maksim lowered his mouth to hers and brushed a kiss across her lips. “And you have.”
A phone started ringing somewhere in the house. Maksim frowned and began cursing in Russian. He didn’t want the real world to start up again so soon. He wanted to spend just a little longer in this fantasy land where Nika belonged to him and the only thing he had to do was bring her multiple orgasms every day.
“You should probably get that,” Nika reasoned. “What if it’s your brother telling us we can finally leave this place?”
Her words stung. Was it so awful to be here with him? He’d been enjoying himself these last few hours at least. In fact, today had been one of the best days he could remember having in years.
Maksim rolled out of bed and strode out of the bedroom on his way to the kitchen. He snatched up his phone off the counter and lifted it to his ear. “What?”
Ivan’s voice was indeed on the other end of the line. “Where the hell have you been?”
“We’re right here at the house. I didn’t have my phone on me. Sorry.” Maksim didn’t need to be told how transparent his answer was.
There was a long pause on Ivan’s end. “You’re sleeping with Nika, aren’t you?
“Does it matter?” He didn’t care to discuss his love life with his brother.
“She’s Katrina’s sister, so yeah. It kind of does.”
Maksim hated this bullshit most of all. “Why does that matter? Am I not good enough for Katrina’s sister? Is that it?”
“No. But if you fuck things up—and we both know you will—Katrina will be pissed and I’ll have to deal with it.” Ivan sounded more than miffed.
“Look. I’m not some randy teenager. I can handle my own love life.” Maksim was so done talking about this. “Did you have something relevant you wanted to say?”
“We’ve identified four policemen in the Hollywood PD that have ties to the Tretiaks.” Ivan’s tone was clipped.
“Shit.”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
Maksim tried to come up with possible solutions in his head. “But you said before that they’re backing off Denis right?”
“They’re backing off all our people and focusing directly on us.” There were hushed voices in the background and Ivan mumbled something Maksim couldn’t hear. “That’s why I’m calling. Someone has been poking around that area. A few of our people have called in to report Tretiak activity. You and Nika need to move.”
“Shit.” Maksim did not like that idea at all.
“It’ll be fine.” Ivan chuckled as if he hadn’t a care in the world. Probably because he didn’t. “You can use the beach house. Katrina thinks that should make her sister happy.”
Great.
Maksim couldn’t think of a worse way to end a day than to vacate the one place that had only just started to feel like home.
Chapter Eight
Nika opened her eyes, still feeling sleepy but knowing that ringtone was something she wanted to answer. It was Katrina calling, and Nika finally had something awesome to tell her lucky bitch of a sister.
The cool air inside the house chilled Nika’s skin as she made a dash back to her bedroom. She swiped her phone off the nightstand and dove into the middle of her bed. If she were lucky, Maksim would come find her and they could finish snuggling naked. For now she was going to rub her good fortune in her sister’s face. But only because she loved Katrina and knew her sister wanted her to be happy. Right?
“Hey!” Nika said brightly.
There was a brief pause. “Wow. You’re bubbly and weird sounding.”
“That’s a mean thing to say.” Nika snorted. “Does that mean I usually sound dull and boring?”
“It means you’re usually already bitching about something that’s pissed you off,” Katrina pointed out.
“Maybe I’ve had the best day ever.”
There was a long groan on the other end of the line. “You slept with Maksim, didn’t you?”
“Why do you say it like that?” Nika demanded. “It’s not like a bad thing. He’s amazing in bed. I’m telling you, the guy makes my toes curl when he kisses me!” Nika was practically vibrating with excitement. “We went to the gym. He drew me a bubble bath. And then? Oh. My. God! I’ve never met anyone like him before.”
“You’ve hated him for years,” Katrina reminded her. “How can all of that change now?”
“Maybe I just wasn’t understanding him and he didn’t understand me.” Nika thought about that statement. Perhaps it really was truer than she realized. “We talked a lot about the past and the shop and his job and how he feels about that. You wouldn’t think so, but Maksim is a really awesome communicator.”
“Nope. You certainly wouldn’t suspect him of that.” Katrina’s sarcasm was too much for Nika to handle.
“You know, it’s really shitty that you can’t be happy for me.”
“Why is that?”
Nika pursed her lips. “Well, tell me what you’ve been doing for the last few days.”
“Every night we eat dinner on the terrace and watch the sunset. I don’t have to cook because he brought down a crew that includes a gourmet cook that is the master of sauces. Really. I’m going to gain like a million pounds, except Ivan was sweet enough to bring a personal trainer too. So we work out together every single day. He runs on the beach and I swim in the pool. Then we sunbathe for a while and usually wind up making love on the beach or even in the water.” Katrina heaved a happy sigh. “It’s like a dream come true.”
Nika had intended to make the point that Katrina was living it up, so she should be equally happy for Nika that she was too. Now, Nika was getting just a little tired of hearing how her sister was getting spoiled with mafiya money.
“Nika?” Katrina sounded confused.
“I hate you,” Nika told her fervently. “Seriously. You’re so fucking spoiled and you don’t even realize it.” Nika affected a high pitched almost teenaged whine “Oh yippee! I’m Katrina and I found a su
per-rich boyfriend who owns a fucking island and takes me on vacation with a whole army of people to see to my needs. Maybe he even gets to hire someone to put his fingers in my pussy and make me come because I’m such a fucking tight assed bitch that I can’t be happy when my little sister finally gets laid after almost five years of celibacy.”
“Nika!” Katrina’s tone was total and complete shock.
“Save it, you spoiled brat.” Nika ended the call and flung her phone so hard that it bounced off the wall and left a mark.
“Wow.” Maksim rested his shoulder against the doorjamb. “Someone really pissed you off.”
Oh fantastic. Maksim was fully clothed. How great that her whole afternoon had gone wonderfully until her stupid sister called. Katrina was probably even responsible for Maksim being so obviously done with their sexy fun playtime. How come Nika always got the short end of the stick?
“What’s got your panties in a twist?” Maksim asked.
Nika rolled until she was facing the opposite direction. “I’m not wearing panties so they aren’t twisted. Not that you give a shit.”
“Hey now.” He sounded confused. “I just came to tell you that we’re breaking out of this joint.”
“What?” Oh great. It was like her sister really was trying to ruin everything. “Where are we going?”
“The beach house.”
Damn. Now Nika had to pretend to still be pissed because it was the principal of the thing that mattered, but really she was kind of excited to be headed to a luxurious house only a hundred yards from the water.
“When?” Nika did her best to maintain the bitchy demeanor. Sometimes keeping up the appearance of a bad attitude was damned exhausting.
He raised a brow. “I have to go meet with some people. When I get back you need to be ready to head out.”
“So, I just sit here like a dog and wait for you to come back? That is so rude.” Nika stood up and reached for her clothes. “Don’t worry. It’s not like I have much to pack anyway.”
“Whatever.” He started to walk away, but paused at the last second. Glancing over his shoulder, Maksim gave her a meaningful stare. “Sometimes it’s okay to be nice, Nika. It doesn’t make you weak. But this bullshit attitude problem you have going on is going to come back and bite you in the ass. I guarantee it.”
“Oh you think so?” She was fumbling, searching for a retort, but he had already left. The saddest part was that she had a feeling Maksim was right. Nika just didn’t know how to retract her claws and relax.
***
Maksim stared at Mikhail, wondering if his men could see how annoyed he was. “You’re telling me that after more than a week, the police have just stopped bothering Denis Sokolov and you guys don’t find this at all unusual?”
Mikhail shrugged and scratched the back of his neck. “We figure the police know they won’t get any information from Denis. Why bother him anymore?”
There was a smattering of Russian around the assembled group. Maksim lounged back in his chair and tried not to be pissed off. They were using the back office at Yuri’s gym as a place to gather. Maksim hadn’t wanted to leave Nika alone any longer than necessary so he had requested Ivan order the men to meet there.
As Maksim had promised Yuri, a man had come out to fix the fryer. Even now Maksim and his men could smell the snacks cooking, and already several teenagers were loitering at the tables while they watched the practice matches going on in the ring. Yuri seemed overjoyed by the developments, and Maksim felt like he was finally starting to make a positive change in the way the Petrovs did business.
“Okay, enough of that.” Maksim waved his hand. “Give me reports from the districts.”
“Main Street was up six percent,” Dolohov reported. “They haven’t seen much police activity, but there has been an increase in Tretiak presence in the area.”
Maksim was beginning to think that was pretty much the way things were across the board at the moment. The Tretiak family was everywhere.
Mikhail cleared his throat. “The Outskirts was up four and a half percent.”
“Okay.” It was less than Main Street, but not unexpected. Maksim gave Mikhail a curt nod.
Kirill and Josef glanced at each other before Josef began to speak. “Both the Waterfront and Charlie Street are holding steady. There’s been a one percent increase this quarter in Charlie Street, but our take on the waterfront is barely staying the same.”
“So this is where the Tretiaks are hitting us?” Maksim wanted to know. “Is that what you’re suggesting?”
“We have three shops there.” Kirill reminded him. “There has been a higher number of thefts in the last few weeks, and they’ve had a decrease in customers. At least one of the owners believes Tretiak men are chasing away his clientele.”
“I want the four of you to go down there and check it out,” Maksim ordered. “Tonight.”
“And you?” Mikhail wanted to know. “Are you coming with us?”
“No.”
They all looked surprised. He couldn’t blame them. Maksim could count on one hand the number of times he had sat at home and twiddled his thumbs during a mission like this. He generally wanted to be in the thick of things. It might even be argued that he was a bit of a control freak when it came to operations like this. At the moment he had other things on his mind. Like Nika Sokolov.
“Has Denis Sokolov said anything else about the police bothering him?” Maksim asked the group.
Josef pursed his lips. “The man has strangely become our staunchest supporter, but no. He has no other information than the names of the four policemen he gave to Ivan.”
Maksim didn’t need to go over the details of that rather delicate operation with the men. Ivan was carefully digging through the back door at the Hollywood PD in order to tip off Internal Affairs that they had members of the Russian mafia in their ranks.
“How’s it going with Nika Sokolov?” Mikhail’s smirk suggested he didn’t think it was likely to be going well.
Maksim wasn’t about to spread tales about Nika through the Petrov ranks. “It’s going just fine. She’s a delightful woman.”
“Now we know you are lying,” Josef said with a chuckle. “Katrina’s sister is a shrew.”
“Perhaps,” Maksim allowed. “But Nika is never shrewish without cause.”
“It must be difficult to be in charge of her safety when she would just as soon see you gunned down.” Mikhail’s tone was somber. “She’s a complex woman.”
“Really?” Maksim was starting to be annoyed by the rank familiarity in Mikhail’s tone when he spoke of Nika. Mikhail wasn’t an ugly man. Had the two of them been together in the past?
“My friend Ioann runs Club 68 on Charlie Street.” Mikhail looked as if he was just beginning to realize he had stepped on Maksim’s toes, unintentionally or otherwise. “Ioann says she likes to come in there and dance on the weekends. She doesn’t stay long and she never comes in or leaves with anyone.”
Maksim filed this information away for future use. Looking at each man in the group, he gave them a nod. “If you discover anything of note tonight, call me immediately. If for some reason you cannot reach me, call Ivan. Is that understood?”
There was a round of nods and few raised brows. This was certainly the first time Maksim had ever alluded to the possibility that he wouldn’t be immediately available. My how times were changing.
Chapter Nine
By the time Maksim made it back to the house on the Intracoastal he was feeling crabby as hell. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust the men. His guys were efficient and worked well as a team. They also knew how to follow orders to the letter. He just wasn’t used to the idea of not being with them. It was a very disconcerting sensation. He didn’t necessarily like being the one who wound up making all the decisions, but he had enough of a control freak in him that he liked things done a certain way.
He left the SUV running and made his way up to the front door. It was sort of surprising that N
ika hadn’t met him at the door. She’d known they were going to be leaving just as soon as he got back to the house.
Not only was she not waiting by the door. He didn’t see her anywhere when he walked inside. “Nika?”
“In the kitchen.”
Maksim strode through the house, expecting to see her stuff packed and ready to go. Instead he found Nika sitting in a barstool eating ice cream in a T-shirt with no shorts. She was leafing through a magazine.
“What are you doing?” he asked, deliberately keeping his voice calm.
She barely glanced up. “Eating a snack.”
“Where’s your stuff?” He couldn’t figure out if she was messing with him, or if she really hadn’t taken him at his word when he said they were leaving.
She gave an offhanded shrug, apparently engrossed in her magazine article. “I was hungry so I figured I’d just pack when you got here.”
“I told you we were going when I got here.”
Another shrug. This time Maksim’s temper boiled over. It was too much. His men were going on an operation without him and now Nika’s casual disregard for his request. Did nobody take him seriously anymore?
“Get your ass in the truck!” Maksim snarled. “Now.”
Her head jerked up, her blue eyes flashing. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me. I didn’t stutter. I said get your ass in the truck right now. I’m leaving in five minutes and if you’re not in there with me you can stay here by yourself.” He growled the last bit, nearly ready to pitch a tantrum of his own.
“What the hell crawled up your butt?” she demanded rudely.
Maksim watched her slide down from the barstool and mince her way back toward the bedroom. That wasn’t where he’d told her to go. Striding toward her, he snatched her up and threw her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
“Hey!” she squealed. “What the hell are you doing?”
