by Bethany-Kris
She didn't believe it, though.
He’d come here.
That meant something.
“You don’t get to do that,” she repeated quieter.
“Your friend got my brother’s head bashed in—do you not understand that? Your little lies—saving face, whatever the fuck it was—nearly took his life tonight. If you think you don’t deserve to be called out on bullshit like that, I have news for you.”
Violet shook her head, frustrated. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I told my father what happened.”
“Lied,” Kaz corrected.
She jammed her finger at him again. “I did not!”
Kaz, like she was an annoying little fly that kept touching him, brushed her hand away from his body. “Don’t do that again.”
Violet barked out a laugh. “Why, because you don’t like it? But it’s completely okay for you to grab me like a piece of property and haul me the fuck around. Right.”
She poked him again.
“Fuck you,” she muttered.
Kaz’s jaw clenched, and his gaze narrowed. “Stop.”
Violet didn’t drop her hand, but she didn’t poke him again. The heated anger in his tone was enough of a warning to say she had pushed him to a line and he was teetering on it. His fists, balled tightly at his sides, said he was holding back.
“I did not lie,” she said quietly. “I told my father what happened at the club with the drinks and Amelia.”
“With the addition that my brother was the one to do that, yes?”
Violet’s frustration exploded again, but this time, she didn’t let it blow up at him. She turned away, throwing a hand high in his face as if to wave away his stupidity and his assumptions.
She didn’t even get to turn around completely or drop her hand before Kaz had grabbed it tight in his own and spun her back around.
“Don’t you fucking walk away from me right now—don’t put your hand in my face like you’re fucking dismissing me!”
Violet’s back met the wall with a hard smack. The air left her lungs with a gasp when he grabbed her other hand and pushed it down at her side. Kaz clouded her vision—all of him—dark, angry, and ready to hurt.
Strangely, she wasn’t scared that time.
Swallowing hard, Violet refused to meet his gaze. “Let me go.”
“I like you right where you are.”
But he was too close to her.
Close enough for her to smell his cologne and see the flecks of blue in his gray eyes. Close enough that she could feel the tremor crawling over his arms and the way his muscles jumped when he pressed against her.
Too close.
She shouldn’t be turned on by a man who did to her what Kaz had done.
“Tell me the truth,” he demanded. “You lied.”
“I didn’t.”
Violet didn’t even know how to begin explaining her situation to Kaz, but his assumptions were entirely wrong.
“Do you understand the gravity of lying about a man like that in this kind of business?”
She blinked. “Yes.”
His hold on her wrists tightened to an almost painful point. “And you still did it!”
Violet’s head snapped around, her gaze cutting to his. “I did not!”
“Standing by and doing nothing as someone else lies is the same thing, Violet.”
“I didn’t do that either, asshole.”
He released her one arm, and pointed a finger right in her face. It almost reminded her of a gun ready to blow as it came closer.
“You did, you fucked us over when all I did was try to help you that night. But I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, right? Rich little sukas like you have to get your kicks somewhere when you’re bored of draining your daddy’s pockets dry.”
Violet’s mouth dropped open, and a pain sliced straight through her heart.
He didn’t know her.
He knew nothing about her.
And his words ached.
Reaction from pure fury alone was the only excuse Violet had for her next actions. With her hand free, he had left himself exposed. Before she could properly think over what she was doing, she smacked his hand out of her face with a huff.
Kaz dropped her other hand, surprised.
She was raising it just as fast.
When it cracked across his cheek, the sound reverberated in the condo.
Nothing else made a noise.
He didn’t even breathe as he took a single step back, his thumb stroking his jaw as his stare focused in on her again.
She didn’t move an inch.
Violet knew better than to hit a man when he was in a rage. A normal man would walk away, but a man prone to violence might not.
She opened her mouth to speak—not to apologize, but to tell him to leave—but she didn’t get the chance to say a thing. Kaz was on her before she had even blinked.
His hands were at the top of her throat, forcing her head up as he crowded her to the wall again. Violet’s eyes widened, her heart racing as she felt his long fingers tighten just enough to scare her.
“Don’t hit me,” he said.
Violet tensed as his hands began to move down her throat with a slowness that made her shudder. Maybe it was the roughness of his skin, or the heat of his palms dragging down the column of her neck, but his touch didn’t quite feel threatening like it first had.
She sucked in a deep breath when his thumbs rested against the hollow of her throat. He didn’t press to cut off her windpipe, but rather, just let his thumbs rest there like they could hurt her with her next blink.
“I didn’t lie,” she told him. “And I didn’t know she did.”
Kaz’s gray stare never wavered from hers. “It’s easier for me to believe otherwise.”
“That’s something you’ll have to deal with, I guess.”
Her words were bravado, and very little else. It was getting more difficult by the second to ignore the shake in her hands or the pulsing ache between her thighs.
This was not good at all.
“This could be so easy,” Kaz said, still watching her in that way of his. “Just a little press of my fingers right here, and then what you did is answered for.”
“Except I didn’t do it.”
His lips parted to speak again, but he hesitated.
“I didn’t,” she repeated. “And you won’t hurt me for not doing anything at all.”
Kaz’s mouth curled at the corners, and he flashed his white teeth in a mix between a sneer and a grimace. She felt his fingers tighten to her throat and his thumbs press against the hollow just enough to make her stand a little straighter, freeze under his hands, and wait.
She didn’t have to wait for long, but his next move was not what she was expecting.
Violet blinked and Kaz’s mouth was crushing down on hers rough, hard, and demanding. The shock of his kiss made her gasp, and his tongue instantly sought out the heat of her mouth. His hands never left her throat, but they had loosened enough that she relaxed. And when his tongue struck hard against hers, she was already fisting his jacket and pulling him closer.
He groaned against her mouth, the sound originating from somewhere deep in his chest. Violet’s eyes were locked on his, only shutting for a brief moment when his teeth sunk into her bottom lip.
The shock of pain was electric.
Jesus.
She whined low, and pulled him closer again.
There was no hiding how she shook and he let out a ragged sigh as his forehead rested to hers.
Silence echoed.
He watched her like that, saying nothing.
She didn’t mind—she no longer wanted to move.
A heartbeat’s time passed before Kaz moved away, fighting to get himself under control. This wasn’t the first time he had ever kissed a girl, and even if it had only lasted for no more than a minute, his cock was harder than it had ever been.
She didn’t take her eyes from him, not even when sh
e licked her lips, just a quick swipe of her tongue that made him ache all the more. Would she look like that when she was on her knees? Would she be as excited to have those pretty little lips wrapped around his cock?
Shit.
He shouldn’t have been thinking of her, not that way, but he couldn’t get the image out of his head, and the more he stood there staring at her as she did him, the more he thought about getting her exactly as he wanted.
Reaching down, he palmed his erection, shifting it into a less painful position. Violet’s eyes followed, a flush blossoming in her cheeks as she watched his actions.
Knowing that it wasn’t going to do him any favors by watching her reaction to him, Kaz turned away, taking a breath as he contemplated where to go from there. It wasn’t like he could pretend like it didn’t happen—he didn’t want to.
He had learned rather quickly that she had already managed to dig her way under his skin, and at the moment, he had no intention of trying to get her out. So since she was already there …
Turning back to her, he got himself under control long enough to ask, “Hungry?”
Maybe it was the confusion of all that had just happened, or perhaps because he sounded so unaffected that she frowned, her brows drawing together. “What?”
“Are you hungry?” he asked again. “For food, I mean.”
That, at the very least, wiped the confusion from her face, only for a scowl to replace it. “Why are you asking?”
“Let’s grab something to eat.”
Violet looked like he’d sprouted a second head. “Are you joking?”
Kaz shrugged a single shoulder. “I’m quite serious.”
“You have to be joking … Kaz, are you forgetting who I am? Who we are? We can’t be seen together, let alone be together.”
It sounded more like she was afraid of being seen with him as opposed to not wanting to go with him at all. “Come with me. We’ll get out of Brooklyn, I’ll take you to a little place I know that’ll keep you out of trouble, and we can have a moment to ourselves. What do you say?”
Violet looked nervous, unsure even, but as he expected her to decline, maybe even talk more about the risks, she nodded.
Kaz waited in the living room as Violet disappeared into her bedroom to change. While he hadn’t gotten the chance to fully appreciate that dress on her, that would have to wait for another time.
Another time …
He was already reading too much into the situation.
It shouldn’t have mattered that they kissed, or even that she made him feel something he couldn’t explain. She was still a Gallucci, and he was a Markovic—the two families just didn’t mix. But as he waited for her to reappear, that distinction didn’t seem to matter to him.
Taking in her space, he eyed it carefully—the soft gray walls, the mixture of fabrics and textures, something Vera would have pointed out, if she were there. His sister always liked to point out things whenever they were together, like she couldn’t control the impulse. For the most part he tuned her out, but sometimes he picked up on smaller details.
Kaz had only been waiting a few minutes when Violet reappeared, dressed in a pair of jeans that hugged her hips and contoured to her legs, along with a simple white tank-top beneath a bomber jacket. Despite how understated she’d attempted to be, she still stood out. She had even gone so far as to pull the long length of her hair up into a ponytail, and washed the makeup from her face.
It almost felt like he was dealing with another person entirely—like seeing another side of her. He had never seen her this way, so ... vulnerable.
But he liked it all the same.
“Ready?”
Nodding without a word, she grabbed her purse and a set of keys, exiting her apartment first before he followed. The ride down to the lobby was quiet and uneventful, but when they stepped off the elevator, she hesitated, looking over at the desk attendants before making a decision about them and turning to go out another exit at the side of the building.
“They answer to my father,” she said softly when they were outside and the metal door was swinging shut. “Since he pays their salary, they’re more willing to tell him what I’m doing.”
Made sense that she wouldn’t want them to be seen leaving together. Earlier, they hadn’t come in together, so there was no reason for the clerks to report to Alberto about who they had seen coming in.
Reaching the mouth of the alley, Violet scanned the street. “Where’s your car?”
Withdrawing his own set of keys, he hit the button on the fob, the headlights to his Range Rover briefly flashing in the darkness of the night. “Probably best that I hadn’t brought it, no?”
She didn’t respond, not verbally, but he could tell she was thinking something.
Going around the front of his truck, he opened the passenger door, offering her a hand as he helped her up and inside. One she was situated, he hurried around to his own side and climbed in, starting it up, and turning on his lights.
“Are all of your windows tinted this way?” she asked, gesturing to the windshield with a wave of her hand.
“I like my privacy.”
And that was the truth. All three of his cars had the same window treatment, and though his apartment faced the beach, he was so far up from the ground that with the sun reflecting on the glass, no one could see in.
Pulling out onto the street, Kaz was mindful of where he was and who he was with. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t driving the car everyone associated with him, it only took a single person to fuck this up.
His eyes were on the road, his attention focused when Violet called his name. When he looked in her direction, she looked uneasy all of a sudden, but was turned in his direction.
“I’m sorry about your brother. I didn’t know anything about what Franco was going to do, honestly.” She was quiet for a moment before continuing. “I can’t speak for anyone else, but I never said anything negative about him, or you for that matter.”
Kaz contemplated her answer, rolling her words around in his head. Before he had been too angry to see reason, and hadn’t really wanted to listen to a word she said, but now that he was slightly more rational, he believed her. It could still be that the kiss they shared was frying his brain, but for the time being, he accepted her word.
“Is he … is he okay?”
“He’ll be fine,” Kaz said softly. He didn’t bother to mention that Ruslan had suffered worse under the hands of someone that was meant to love him. And before he could talk himself out of it, he added, “Thank you though, for your concern.”
She nodded, and for the rest of the time, they rode in a comfortable silence. When they reached the outskirts of Brooklyn, and closer to his territory, she sat up a little straighter, becoming more aware of her surroundings.
“Don’t worry, krasivaya. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Reaching across the seat, he lifted her hand, stroking his thumb along the back of it to calm her. He could understand her fear, not knowing what to expect, and placing trust into a person that she’d probably always been told was the enemy.
But he did hope, as foolish as it might have been, that he could change her opinion of him.
After another couple of miles, Kaz finally caught sight of a hole-in-the-wall diner that looked like it was one step above being closed down, but while the outside wasn’t much to look at, the interior was little better on the eyes, and the food was fucking amazing.
The only question was whether or not Violet would be okay in a place like this.
“I know the outside doesn’t give the best impression,” Kaz said as he parked the Range Rover.
Violet gave him a look. “Understatement.”
“Don’t go all spoiled princess on me right now.” He smirked when she scowled. “I promise the food is worth it, if you turn cheek to the appearance. Sometimes the best things come in the most unlikely of packages.”
Violet pursed her lips in an attempt to hide her s
mile. “Fine. But only for you.”
“I’ll take that.”
Before she could say another thing, he had turned the truck off and was getting out. She barely had time to unbuckle her seatbelt before he was opening her door.
Like any good gentleman would do, she mused.
Kaz offered her a smooth smile and his hand. She took it, but that familiar heat siphoned from his palm straight into hers as he helped her out of the large vehicle.
“When you’re not driving the car, I see you feel the need to drive something that’s big enough to mow trees over,” she said.
“Cheap shots about my vehicles will get you nowhere.”
She doubted that.
It would probably get her something like that kiss from earlier if she irked him enough.
Violet wasn’t looking to do that, however. As it were, she had taken a lot of risks just to give this man a few hours of her time—and it was precious time, considering how much trouble she would find herself in if they were caught. She wasn’t about to ruin it by seeing if she could provoke him into another moment.
But as she stared at him from the side while he locked the Range Rover, she knew somehow that she probably wouldn’t have to try at all if she wanted him to kiss her again. She probably just needed to grab him and pull him closer …
Kaz cleared his throat, making Violet’s attention snap from his mouth to his eyes in a flash. “Food, right?”
She rapped her fingernails against her thigh. Why did it sound like he was offering something else? Like all she had to do was ask, and he would follow through.
“Food,” she agreed.
The inside of the diner was slightly better than the outside. It almost seemed like a throwback to the fifties diners in design with booths lining the walls, a main bar across the front crowded by stools, and the white and black checkered floor and walls.
An older couple ate at the far corner booth in the right, while a younger couple chatted animatedly on a pair of stools. Only a woman wearing a white-and-yellow ensemble stood behind the cash register, counting money. She didn’t even look up as Kaz and Violet approached.
