by Zoey Parker
Chapter 18
Andrei
Weeks passed, and Kelly was fantastic in bed, but something was different about her, and I didn’t have the time to worry about what was wrong. To my knowledge, she hadn’t left my house again, though I did notice she was calling her mother a lot more, as well as a woman I could only assume was Aleksey’s ex and her best friend. As long as she was here, she was safe, and that was what mattered. If she felt like a prisoner, I did feel badly about that, but her being safe was more important, and maybe one day she would realize that.
I did want to keep her safe. Not just because she might already be carrying my child. Kelly was a woman I wanted to get to know. She wasn’t like the other women I had been with before, who wanted to try to use me for my power and prestige and money. Sure, I was paying Kelly, but she hadn’t once asked for more money, and had even offered to pay for food. She had laughed at the look on my face. She had felt embarrassed that I had bought her clothes, but I told her she should leave her clothes at her house. I wanted her to feel secure in knowing she could return home to her items. It might help her to adjust to the knowledge that our agreement was temporary. Once she gave me an heir, she would go back to her life with another million dollars.
None of the other women would have offered to pay for food. They would’ve expected it. Some might have demanded designer clothes and jewelry and to get their hair done every other day. I honestly thought Kelly didn’t realize that some of the clothes I had bought her were top of the line, not that she wore clothes for long once I came into her room. She asked nothing of me and willingly gave me her body.
I wanted her to be safe, of course, but I did not want her to feel like I was preventing her from living her life. It was a fine line, and the only place I could guarantee her safety was within these walls. Surely she must realize that. Through Claire, the nurse I hired to watch Kelly’s mother, I knew the mother remained in the dark about Kelly’s job. Kelly was smart to keep her mother out of it, and while I was sure the thought of asking for her mother to stay here had crossed her mind — and I was sure I would tell her yes if she were to ask — I commended Kelly for keeping her mother away. Kelly didn’t know everything about me, especially not why I needed an heir so badly, and I didn’t want that to change, but she had to realize something wasn’t right. Better for her mother to not come here and possibly become a target, too. Yes, I would keep her mother safe here, just as I was keeping Kelly safe, but her mother was not going to become involved.
Just in case, I’d assign a bodyguard to them. He could pose as Claire’s chauffeur. Vasilev had already had a man move on Kelly. If he wanted to get to me through her or her mother, it would be better to be prepared than to be caught with my pants down and my cock buried deep in Kelly’s pussy.
I just hoped Kelly wouldn’t grow to resent me for keeping her here. If she did…well, it couldn’t be helped.
Like it or not, I had other pressing concerns to worry about, as well. In these weeks, I hadn’t been able to get any useful information on Mikhail Vasilev, and I was beyond pissed. The thought of him getting one up on me was enough to make my blood boil. I couldn’t handle the stress of it all. Vasilev had to have had a reason to wait until now to come back, but I had no idea what it was. For a decade after my parents died, I had lived under a different name, something that had always bothered me, but the men who had survived the attack on my father’s mob insisted, so Vasilev would not realize I had lived. When I turned eighteen, though, the decision to reclaim my birthright demanded I also reclaim my surname. But that had been fourteen years ago. What would make Vasilev wait so long to make a move against me? If I were honest with myself, it wasn’t until my early twenties that I relaxed. I thought for sure that if Vasilev were going to make a move, it would be sooner rather than later.
And maybe that had been the simple reason for Vasilev to appear now. He figured he would lie in wait, lull me into a false sense of security, and then make his move. After all, I hadn’t immediately learned about his return to my city. Someone had alerted me to his presence, and for all I knew, since the person hadn’t named themselves, that person could very well have been sent by Vasilev himself.
I had upped my security, hired more men, had eyes and ears on every street, especially his place of employment. I hadn’t gone over there to see him for myself. Didn’t think it would be wise to. I needed to keep a somewhat low profile, though I wouldn’t stop living my life and conducting business. I wouldn’t keep Kelly from her mother or her friends, just like I wasn’t going to keep myself from doing what needed to be done in my own life.
When Vasilev made his move, I would know. But he had to know that. Must have anticipated that I would seek him out and beef up my security. Every move I made, he could have anticipated. Like it or not, I couldn’t help feeling he had the upper hand.
So far, he hadn’t tipped his hand. He was waiting for something, but no way would he wait forever. I thought maybe he would move quickly after Kelly had been threatened, but that hadn’t been the case. I was too uneasy to relax, though. I wouldn’t relax until my revenge was completed.
That afternoon, Aleksey finally showed up. His phone calls had been infrequent, mostly because there had not been much in terms of news for him to share, but also because I didn’t want him to risk blowing his cover. No news meant good news.
Apparently now he had news and I hoped it was good, given that he had just come straight here without a phone call first.
I brought him to one of my studies and closed the door behind us. “Well?”
“Got some intel for you. Fresh. From last night.” He gave a leering grin as he stared off in the distance.
“From the girl you seduced?” I deduced.
“Yeah. Mikhail’s youngest daughter. Jacquelyn.” Aleksey smiled viciously.
“And?” I was anxious, and I curled and uncurled my fingers. I hated feeling so on edge. I couldn’t relax. Maybe Kelly could give me a massage later.
“We’re in luck. I’m in. Jacquelyn is determined to ignore what her father dictates, which made seducing her that much easier.”
“I don’t need details about how she is in bed,” I growled.
“I’m getting there.” Aleksey’s grin grew.
“Are you sure you can trust her? That she isn’t playing you?”
“I’m positive. She hates him almost as much as you do. She hinted that her father had recently bought a large cache of weapons. I asked her why he felt the need to go all balls to the wall, guns a blazin’, and she said she had a feeling Daddy owed someone a lot of money.”
Interesting. Why come here if he was having money issues? And why buy weapons instead of giving that money over to whomever he owed it to?
“Did you learn anything else?” I asked.
“No.” Aleksey shook his head. “She didn’t know anything more.”
I slowly nodded. Good. This was good. Could be better, but still, this was a start. If I could find out to whom Vasilev owed money, I could use that against him and possibly ruin his entire family.
Maybe things were finally looking up.
Chapter 19
Kelly
I finally had that talk with Andrei about my mom
“This job isn’t supposed to take you away from your life,” Andrei said. He had tucked some hair behind my ear and caressed my cheek. We had just finished having sex — it hadn’t felt like fucking in a long time now.
“So I can visit my mom?” I asked for clarification.
“As long as you are safe about it.” He wagged a finger at me.
My stomach had tightened at the word “safe.” Nothing about Andrei screamed safe. In the bedroom, that was fine, but with his future child, with my mom, with me even… I sometimes didn’t know what to think, what to feel. “I’ll take Lucas with me,” I offered.
He made a face. “Lucas and Kiril, too.”
“Kiril?”
“Yes. Safety in numbers.”
“I d
on’t need—”
“Please. It would set my mind at ease.”
He wasn’t begging, but he wasn’t cold or demanding either. He really wanted me to be safe.
Me or my uterus? Did he only see me as the woman he wanted to impregnate? Or did he see me, Kelly, the woman? The distinction was important to me, but did it matter to him at all?
“How often can I go see her?” I pressed, figuring it would be better to learn the limits now, before they became an issue.
“As often as you would like. I won’t keep you from your mother.”
“Thank you.” I felt so surprised, and then I felt guilty for being surprised. I had expected him to deny me, especially because of my being accosted. I thought he would say he had provided my mom with a highly qualified nurse and I should be grateful my mother was also benefiting from this arrangement, that he hadn’t had to pay for the nurse at all.
But no. He was being gracious and kind and it was times like this when I found it so easy to forget who he was. Which was dangerous. I could never forget that. I couldn’t help thinking the more time we spent together, the more I would fall for him. Because he was the kind of guy I would go after. A bad boy. A hot one. A rich one. And one who cared enough about my mom to help her out. I had never before met a guy quite like Andrei before.
“I asked around.” He cleared his throat. “I wanted to make sure your mother had the care of the best doctors.”
I glowered at him. “I might—”
He held up his hand. “Don’t misunderstand my intentions. I was trying to help.”
I crossed my arms. “And what did you think when you realized I had already made sure she was seeing the best doctors in the area?”
“I thought all the more highly of you considering I know you were struggling before we made our…arrangement.”
I blushed at his praise. “Just because money had been an issue doesn’t mean I was willing to allow my mom to have less quality care.” It hadn’t been easy, but I had done everything I could for her. Once I got fired, I thought maybe it might be time to switch to a cheaper doctor, but I hated myself for even thinking it. This was my mom, my only family. I would have given up everything for her to continue to have her best chance at recovering.
“Your mother must be one hell of a woman to have raised a daughter like you,” he murmured.
Now that was very high praise. It would be the perfect opportunity to ask him about his own mother.
Except he continued talking.
“I don’t know how you feel about this, but because of the guy approaching you…” He glanced away, but I saw his jaw tighten and his hands curl into fists. He hated that I had been accosted, and something inside of me shifted.
“What did you do?” I whispered. Had he hunted down the man and killed him? What would I think if he had? What if that man came back and wanted to send another message to Andrei — this time not with words but my dead body?
“I gave your mom a chauffeur as well as the nurse.”
“Chauffeur or bodyguard?” I asked pointedly. I didn’t know how to feel about this latest development. While I appreciated the gesture, I hated that there might be a need for my mom to have the bodyguard.
He had smiled widely at that. “Both in one.”
“Thank you,” I murmured.
“Don’t worry about it. And…I won’t keep you from your friends either,” he added.
That had surprised me. Twice now, he had shocked me. “You know about Stacy?” The moment I asked, I felt silly. Aleksey had probably mentioned me, and if he had, he probably hadn’t said anything good about me…or about Stacy for that matter considering he had dumped her. But if that had been the case, why had Andrei given me a chance? Why had he agreed to me being his surrogate? And did this mean that if Aleksey had a role in my getting this position, I shouldn’t hate him like I did? It was so strange. I had been so against Aleksey for Stacy, but here I was, with Andrei. Well, not in a real relationship with him.
Real enough for me to need a bodyguard.
Real enough that I needed to guard my heart.
Why did I accept Andrei when I hadn’t been able to accept Aleksey for Stacy? Aleksey had been a little gruff and very full of himself. It had been off putting to me, but Stacy thought of it as swagger.
Andrei had confidence. He knew what he wanted and how to get it. He made things happen. Yes, he had servants, but he didn’t treat them unkindly, at least whenever he interacted with them in front of me. Was it possible Andrei was putting on an act in front of me? Honestly, that seemed likely. How could he be in the mob, and obviously be thriving in it given his wealth, unless he was cold and capable of committing crimes? Which side of him was more accurate: the kind and tender side he showed me when no one else was around or the mob guy who did whatever it took to stay on top?
“What’s troubling you?” he has asked, his fingers rubbing my temples. “You look like you’re worrying too hard.”
It wasn’t like I could just talk to him about this. I couldn’t trust him to answer honestly. And if I couldn’t trust him with a simple question, how could I trust him with anything? Whether it was smart to or not, I did trust him.
“What’s worrying you?” he asked.
I gave him a wide smile. No more worrying thoughts…for now, at least. “Can’t have that,” I joked. “Can’t risk having wrinkles already.”
He laughed and kissed my forehead and then other places. Words weren’t spoken except in moans for a long while after that.
Over the next weeks, we spent a lot more time together, and not just in the bedroom. We usually had a meal a day together, and at first that had been so awkward. His servants would serve us, and he didn’t know what to talk to me about, and I didn’t know what topics of conversation were okay to broach, so I kept quiet, too.
But the first time he sent his servants away so it was just the two of us for breakfast, things felt much more natural. The constant reminder of his wealth was gone, and I could focus more on him. We talked about little, silly things and laughed and joked, and even though it wasn’t anything serious or deep, it had been refreshing. Despite his job, Andrei was just a man.
But then the topic of conversation became more serious over time. We would talk about my mom, my old job, my hopes and dreams, about my life before Andrei. That was how I was beginning to think of my life: “before Andrei” and “now.” Eventually, I would have to go through “after Andrei,” but I found myself not wanting to think about that. While I was here in his mansion, I felt safe. And I felt safe in his arms. And when I did leave to see my mom or Stacy, I still felt safe because of the protection Andrei offered. It wasn’t normal, and it scared me that I was already becoming accustomed to this lifestyle.
And we didn’t just talk about me. Andrei talked about himself, too. Not about his mob life, and not much about his past either, but he talked about what he wanted for the future, and what he wanted for his son, and that made things that much more confusing for me, and right now, I didn’t need to be more confused.
Because as much as I hated the idea of being under the same roof as those weapons, and as much as the idea of why Andrei needed those weapons close by frightened me, and as much as I couldn’t overlook the fact that Andrei had connections to the mob, I was afraid of something even more important.
I was afraid I was falling in love with him.
I had this habit of falling for guys who weren’t good for me, and this was the kicker. As kind as he was, as incredible as he was in bed, I couldn’t risk falling for him like this. I was not a permanent fixture in his life, and once I gave birth, we would part ways. I still couldn’t wrap my mind around that, and I had better learn to accept that — the sooner the better.
But I found myself wanting to spend more time with him. I wanted to talk to him more, and the last few times we had sex, we talked beforehand and afterward, too. We had sex more than four times a week, and I wasn’t complaining about that, but I wanted more.
>
And I had no business wanting that. That wasn’t part of the agreement. Maybe I should stop talking to him so much, sharing with him. Because all of this closeness, all of the time we were spending together…it was making me so confused about our relationship. It didn’t feel like a business arrangement anymore. It felt like more.
That night, we had just finished eating dinner. Andrei had just asked how my mom was doing, and I couldn’t help myself.
“She’s doing pretty well, actually. And speaking of my mom…you never talk about yours. How is she?”
Andrei stilled. He was going to shut me out. Wouldn’t let me in. I knew it. Should’ve never asked.
“She’s…she’s dead,” he said stiffly.
Oh! My hands flew to my mouth. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know!”
