Dungeon. I was in a dungeon.
The floor was formed by ancient gray flagstones. The walls were bare rock, the whole room hewn from the bones of the earth. I remembered how long we’d taken to descend, and looked up at the bare stone ceiling.
“We are twenty feet beneath the mansion,” Konstantin said. “Rock is a very, very good soundproofer.”
There was a creak and I turned to see him closing the door. I could see now how thick it was, almost a foot of wood and steel. It slammed shut and the whisper of noise from the party above was instantly cut off.
Alexei is coming, I told myself. Alexei is coming.
I turned back to the room. I recognized some things: the bed—an ancient wooden four-poster in the center of the room, complete with scarlet drapes. A wood-burning stove for warmth, crackling and throwing out an amber glow. Even an old wooden dresser with drawers and a mirror. Those parts almost did make it look like a bedroom.
But there, the similarities ended.
There were oak beams overhead, ancient and black, with gleaming steel rings onto which things could be attached. There were a lot of those rings all over the room: some screwed into the walls, some bolted into the floor. Even, I noticed some attached to the bed and lacquered black to better match the wood.
Dangling from a beam a little above head height were things I recognized: black strips of padded leather with buckles. Manacles.
There were padded benches of different heights and angles and something that almost resembled...they couldn’t really be stocks, could they? There was a polished wooden rack, of the sort some rich hunter would use to display his prize shotguns. But displayed here were paddles and crops, canes and—my insides turned to liquid—whips.
I spun around, but Konstantin had walked silently up behind me, so close that now we were almost touching. I stared up into his eyes, panting with fear.
He suddenly hooked an arm around my waist and spun me around so that I was facing the dungeon again and pulled me back against him, my ass to his crotch. I could see us in the dresser mirror: the powerful, handsome man in the suit, towering over the woman in the—God, I’d forgotten how low-cut the dress was! With the gilt edge around the mirror, it could have been some painting of a king and the maid he planned to ravish.
Alexei will be here soon, I told myself. Soon.
Konstantin grinned at our reflection—the slow, patient grin of the cat who has the mouse firmly trapped by the tail. I swallowed. I could feel his cock hard against my ass.
“Welcome to my world,” he whispered in my ear.
Alexei
I stood in the doorway of the main party room, one hand on the frame. I was squeezing it so hard I thought the wood might crack.
Everything had happened so fast. One minute we’d been dancing—me, dancing! And then suddenly she was with him.
Gabriella and Konstantin had been downstairs for several minutes, now, and the guards were still in the hallway. They’d started to chat, talking about some Russian soccer game they’d seen that afternoon.
I couldn’t get past them—not without either getting shot or getting captured. Because we’d sneaked into the party, I had my guns with me, but shooting them wasn’t an option. I couldn’t turn this into a firefight while Konstantin had Gabriella or he’d use her as a hostage.
What the hell did she think she was doing?! But the hardest part was, I knew exactly what had been in her head: she’d wanted to stop me running into the poker room and getting shot. She’d been worried about me and she’d put herself at risk to save me. It was the first time anyone had given a shit about me since the army.
I groaned as the guards wandered towards the door Konstantin and Gabriella had disappeared through. They took up positions around it, one actually leaning against it.
Until I could think up a new plan, Gabriella was on her own.
Gabriella
He’s coming. He’ll be here any minute. The panic was rising in my throat, threatening to stifle my voice. I couldn’t have that. I needed my voice. I had to stall him. I had to be like that woman in Arabian Nights and keep him talking for hours and—
“Why don’t you start by taking off your dress?” asked Konstantin. It was phrased as a question, but it wasn’t one.
“I—Maybe we could have a drink first?” Perfect! Well done!
“I didn’t bring you down here to sip vodka and play chess,” he said dryly. “I may give you some champagne later, but I’ll have to feed it to you. By then, you won’t be able to use your hands.”
My knees weakened.
He leaned around me and brought his lips to mine. I thought for a second he was going to kiss me, but he didn’t—not quite. He whispered, his lips so close to mine that they brushed them with each syllable. “Can you guess how I’m going to feed it to you?”
I gulped. His lips were like silk over hot, throbbing steel. I thought of them forcing my mouth open, of bubbling champagne flowing inside, accompanied by his tongue.
And then his lips were gone. He was gone, and I had to whip around to find him. Jesus, he moved fast for such a big guy. He really was like a lion, all prowling, majestic strength one second and then speed and ferocity the next. I stared at him, unable to speak. Something was happening, something that had started upstairs and was progressing with every second I stayed in his presence. It wasn’t that soul-deep wrench I got when I saw Alexei. It was something simpler and baser, like the shudder when you see a spider or the aww when you see a kitten. Not a feeling but a reaction.
The closest I can get to it is the way a medieval king used to ride through a village and all the serfs used to bow their heads. Alexei made me feel like a princess, ravished by some rough, muscled conqueror; Konstantin made me feel like a peasant, ravished by the king.
“Take off your dress,” said Konstantin, leaning against the bed. This time, he didn’t even phrase it as a question.
I had no choice. I’d already probably acted too scared, too hesitant. If I delayed any more, he was going to guess I wasn’t a call girl sent by Vadim. And then both Alexei and I would be in danger.
I can do this. I’d already been fully naked in the steam bath with Vadim looking on.
Except...Vadim might have appreciated me, but he hadn’t been looking to have sex with me. He wasn’t expecting to tie me up and spank me and whip me and God knows what, throw me on the bed and—
Breathe. Just breathe.
I reached back and fiddled with the zipper. Konstantin stopped leaning on the bed and straightened up, his eyes raking up and down my body. With every pass, it was as though I was being heated up by a laser.
Where the hell is Alexei? Stall! Stall!
I swallowed. “Um...I think the zipper’s stuck,” I said. “Could you…?”
Now he’d walk over to me and I could maybe accidentally turn the wrong way, moving the zipper away from him. I could do that a few times, and then I could fidget and make it difficult to get the zipper down and—
He covered the distance to me in two large paces. One big hand caught in the neck of the dress and then there was a ripping sound so loud it seemed to tear the air itself. The dress went loose around me and fell around my waist. “There,” he said in a voice like silver-coated iron. “Now it’s unstuck.”
I tried to gather the tops of the dress around me but the shreds were already hanging down over my hips. I crossed my arms in a protective “X” over my breasts, my chest heaving in fear. And yet, as his eyes burned into mine, I felt that unbidden ache in my groin.
My nipples were hardening. I told myself it was the sudden shock of the air.
“Take off the rest,” he said. “Or would you like me to rip that off you, too?”
With shaking hands, I pushed the dress off my hips. It slithered to the floor and then I was naked except for my heels. I stood there panting, staring at him, and he stared back at me. The heat in the room seemed to steadily rise and rise. Then he gripped my wrist and led me over to something that almo
st looked like a bench you’d find in a gym...but much, much older. The frame was made of iron, the pads from soft, dark red leather.
Konstantin pointed to it. “Get on.”
I gulped, the blood rushing in my ears. The thing was shaped like a stool, but it was too high—the seat was waist height. And there were two long pads extending from it, a little like chair arms...but instead of being up above the seat, they were down low.
It was for kneeling on, I realized. The victim knelt with their lower legs on the pads and their torso flat on the “seat.” There were black leather straps along both parts. Once in, I could be completely restrained. He’d be able to do anything he wanted to me.
I swallowed. “Umm….”
“You did say, did you not, that you’d do whatever it took to please me?” he asked. I didn’t miss the little caress his accent gave to please.
Alexei will be here. Just hang on a few more seconds. He’ll be here.
I climbed onto the bench.
Alexei
I stood there fuming in the doorway as the seconds ticked past, my mind running wild. I knew about Konstantin’s tastes, but Gabriella had gone down there with no conception of what he was into. Right now, he might have her on her back...or on her knees. Or—
I did something I hadn’t done since the coffee shop: I lost my temper.
The hell with the four guards. Four hundred wouldn’t be enough to stop me.
I stalked into the party room, found the table with the ice sculpture and kicked a table leg hard enough to snap it off. The table fell sideways and the sculpture went crashing to the floor with a sound like the end of the world, accompanied by screams and yelps from the people around it.
I got back to the doorway just as one of the guards ran in. I swung my arm into his throat as he passed, knocking him to the ground.
That was one.
I marched down the hallway towards the remaining guards. Another one was running towards me, eyes wide at the sight of his comrade on the ground. I side-stepped him, grabbed his jacket and hurled him towards a huge ornamental vase and then walked on. Behind me, I heard the crash as he slammed into it and the groan as he fell to the floor.
That was two.
The remaining two were trying to get their guns out, but fear was making them clumsy and slow. I didn’t blame them. I’d be scared of me, too.
I reached them just as one of them finally got his gun out. I banged their heads together hard and stepped past their crumpling bodies to haul the door open.
I was halfway down the stairs when I heard a gun being cocked behind me. “Stop there!”
I froze. The voice was hoarse and I could see the guy’s shadow on the wall next to me: he was rubbing his neck. It was the guy I’d hit in the throat. I should have hit him harder.
I glanced down the stairs. One door was shut—that would be the room they were in. I was so close. The need to just storm on down the stairs and save her was dragging my limbs forward. But the guy behind me had the drop on me. If I took another step, he was going to put two bullets in my back and I’d never get to Gabriella.
Gritting my teeth, I raised my hands.
Gabriella
Where is Alexei? It felt like it had been hours since Konstantin took me downstairs. What if something had happened to him?
I lowered my chest onto the padded leather surface. My head projected off the end, my hair hanging down. I shifted uneasily, my knees pressing into their pads. The position of the pads meant that my legs had to be slightly parted. My naked ass seemed to throb as the air brushed against it. I’d never felt so...displayed.
Then he started to buckle me in. First a wide strap across my back, holding me down to the leather. Then smaller straps just below my knees and across my ankles. I thought he was going to leave my arms free, but then he drew them gently up behind me and folded them back on themselves so that my forearms were together, and wrapped some sort of leather sleeve around them to hold them in pace. Now I was kneeling, a few feet off the ground...and I couldn’t move at all.
And then he was beside me, brushing aside my hair so that he could put his mouth to my ear. I knew he was going to tell me whatever depraved thing he planned to do to me and I braced myself.
“I can tell you are not one of Vadim’s girls,” he told me. “Now, you will tell me who you are.”
Alexei
I waited until the guy came right up behind me and reached around me to take my gun from its holster. Then I snapped my head back into his nose and felt it break. As he dropped his gun, I grabbed him and pulled, and we went rolling down the stairs together, landing in a heap. I got to my feet, threw open the door and—
Gabriella was naked and kneeling. Konstantin had her strapped to a bench and was just raising his hand to deliver a hard slap across her ass.
I thought I’d been angry before. Now, I completely lost control. I ran at Konstantin, head low and arms out, and slammed him to the ground. We rolled, trading punches.
“Stop!” yelled a voice behind me. The guard was staggering in, gun raised, blood pouring from his nose.
I slugged Konstantin across the face. He landed a good hit on my jaw and I reeled, but shook it off.
“Stop!” yelled Gabriella
The guard put his gun right to my temple. I growled, but I had no choice. I went limp.
Konstantin climbed off of me, adjusting his clothes. “Alexei Borinskov,” he spat. He looked at my dinner jacket, then turned to the guard. “You didn’t recognize him? You let him walk right into my party?”
The guard started to stammer an apology. Konstantin ignored him and turned to Gabriella. “And you...he hired you to get me down here? A call girl, just not from Vadim?”
I stood up, scowling at Konstantin. “She’s not a call girl,” I spat.
He blinked at me, then looked at Gabriella. He brushed the hair back from her face so that we could see her expression. She was pale with fear, but there was a defiant look in her eyes.
“I see,” said Konstantin. To my surprise, he began to unfasten the buckles holding Gabriella down. “The last thing I heard,” he said, “the notorious Alexei Borinskov had turned on his employers...because he’d fallen for some girl.” He undid the last buckle. Gabriella quickly got up off the bench, trying to cover her nakedness with her hands. “This, I take it, is the girl.”
I looked at Gabriella...and my heart swelled in my chest. I nodded.
Konstantin sighed. Then he surprised me again by slipping off his jacket and putting it around Gabriella’s shoulders, covering most of her. He left his hands on her shoulders when it was done. “You sent her right into my arms, just to get me alone? You’d use her like that?” His voice was cold with disgust. Protective of her.
“No!” said Gabriella quickly. She hung her head. “Alexei would never do that. It was my idea.”
Konstantin stared at me. Then one final surprise: he gave Gabriella a light push, sending her into my arms. She clung to me, her near-naked warmth throbbing through my shirt.
“Did he hurt you?” I asked, stroking her hair.
She shook her head, her face flushed.
“What was the plan?” asked Konstantin. “To kill me?”
I took a deep breath before answering, trying to reign in my anger. Now that Gabriella was safe, now that I knew he hadn’t...done anything to her, I was a little calmer. But just the fact he’d seen her naked made me want to kill him. “I needed to talk to you,” I said.
Konstantin threw out his arms to indicate the scene. “This is how you talk to me?”
“I knew you’d shoot me as soon as you recognized me.”
“Very astute. Nikolai called me. He’s very anxious to get hold of you. Dead or alive. Preferably dead.”
“Nikolai hired a man called Slava Federoff,” I told him. “People call him ‘Seventeen.’ He works for one of your men - Petrov Denakin. Nikolai’s planning something and it’s big, because he’s got the FSB helping him. Whatever it is, he wants you
to get the blame.”
I watched Konstantin closely to see his reaction. After a long moment, he said, “That is an interesting story. A conspiracy, with Nikolai trying to frame me.” He paused. “I will…”—he glanced at Gabriella—“how do you Americans say it? I will take it under advisement.”
Shit.
“But Nikolai wants you dead and he works for Luka. I’m not risking a war with Luka.” He sighed with regret and then looked at Gabriella. His voice softened a little. “You, I will allow to walk out of here.” He nodded towards the door, then looked at Alexei. “But you…” He nodded to the guard. “Kill him.”
Gabriella
It felt as if my heart stopped. “No!” I screamed. “Wait!”
Alexei looked down into my eyes. He swallowed. “Go,” he told me.
I flattened myself against his body. “No! I won’t let them!”
“Go!” His voice was low but firm.
I turned to Konstantin. “Please! He’s not your enemy! Nikolai is!”
Konstantin shook his head sadly. “Gabriella...you are very beautiful. And loyal. But you don’t understand how the Bratva operates. Go.”
Both he and Konstantin were staring down at me with very similar expressions. That was what made it so frustrating, that they both seemed to believe it was inevitable, that the Bratva rules of loyalty and discipline ran so deep that this was going to happen, even though neither of them wanted it to. Alexei had sealed his fate as soon as he’d refused to shoot me, and everything since then had just been stalling for time.
“No,” I said in a small voice.
The guard was getting nervous. He was a young guy and jumpy, and he’d already been reprimanded by Konstantin once. Any second, he was going to just go ahead and pull the trigger, whether I was there or not.
“You need to go,” said Alexei
Kissing My Killer Page 18
