Nanny for the Russian Mafia (A Man Who Knows What He Wants Book 102)

by Flora Ferrari

  Boris hits a tree, yet there were no skid marks. They say he fell asleep. I don’t think so. The man never slept, and he’d been all about Vitaly since he was born. He didn’t push himself anymore.

  And my sister? OD’d on pills. Not a chance.

  My throat tightens as I grab the headset and toss it against the wall. As much as Boris is a great man, was a great man, I asked her not to get involved in my world.

  I had enough money that she could have done anything with her life, so what did she do? She went and trusted the only man I’d ever put my entire trust in…my Bratva brother.

  And now they’re both gone.

  It’s up to me now to live my life in their memory, and that starts with remembering what’s most important above all else.

  Family. That starts with Vitaly and now I know who it ends with.

  Her. My woman.

  But it’s not going to end with her because I’m going to breed her until we have an entire family full of happy children running around. I want to wake up every morning to my children twisting my nose or one of my ears…my kids jumping on my bed and asking to go outside and play…and to carry them to their rooms each night when they fall asleep after I’ve helped them with their homework.

  If you had told me this yesterday I would have laughed in your face. Now…all I can do is smile, because of her.

  It’s so damn cliché though. The last thing the world needs is another Jude Law or Ben Affleck trying to run off with their nanny. The Russian press would kill me if they found out.

  Do I care? Not one bit.

  And this isn’t about some stupid hook-up. This is real. This is forever.

  This isn’t these Russian women who are always trying to play mind games with me. The women who come over for the stupid parties I’m forced by the Kremlin to host. These are the bimbo leeches that want nothing more than to try and fake a slip on my marble tiles and then sue me, but therein lies the problem for them. They are bimbos. I doubt half of them could read a children’s book, let alone actual legal text. And they know if they try and take me down the fall for them will be severe, swift, and final.

  That’s why it’s good to have friends in high places, and be a good man to know myself.

  But I’ve had enough of this life. There’s already blood on my hands, and I don’t need more. I’ve killed men who’ve tried to kill me, and I’d do it again. But now it’s not just me anymore. I have to see Vitaly come of age, and I have to see my family grow…with her.

  I exit my office before I whip my dick out and start beating it like it stole something. I never pleasure myself. I don’t have the time or the woman to fantasize about…the goddess to picture while I do.

  Until now.

  But I’m not going to accept some b.s. Pyrrhic victory. I want the real thing. I need the real thing.

  Her.

  And I’m going to go find her right fucking now.

  CHAPTER 6

  Crystal

  No sooner am I in my quarters and unzipping my backpack then I see Vitaly standing in my doorway staring at me. The little guy is so darn cute.

  Before I can even say anything to him or give him a hug, he raises his hand, showing me his bloody finger.

  “What happened, buddy?”

  He says nothing, but he doesn’t need to. I move closer to him and check out his cut. He definitely needs a bandage. “Let’s go get you fixed up.”

  I take him by the other hand and into the bathroom. The box of Band-Aids in the medicine cabinet is empty so I check underneath the sink and find a box there.

  I go to pull the top off, but my hand moves through the air without the resistance from the cardboard top being glued to the flap. That’s weird. The instructions hit the floor, but I pay them no mind. I look into the box and see that each bandage is still individually wrapped, so we’re good to go. No tampering. So strange that it was open though, but not up in the cabinet.

  I get Vitaly’s cut cleaned up and a nice Superman bandage on there, which brings a smile out of him and he quickly darts out of the bathroom.

  Good. He’s a little boy. He should be out there playing and enjoying life. I like him already and am really looking forward to developing an even closer bond with him.

  I may “just” be a nanny here in this castle where a lot of people are required to make it work, but I truly believe that everybody plays an important part…just like a business. If Vitaly is happy I know Alexei will be happy, and the mood and vibe will trickle down from there. I like that I have a role in making everything here successful. I feel a sense of importance in what I’m doing, in more ways than one. Alexei can be sure I’m going to do my best and give it my all every day.

  It’s the least I can do. Vitaly is such a strong little boy, and I give him a ton of credit for that, even if he doesn’t know it or wouldn’t understand the praise I could give him for it. I’m not about to though as I don’t want to do anything to talk about his parents, especially considering we just met.

  Vitaly pops back into the bathroom and holds up his finger, showing me his bandage and smiling.

  “I got something for you, buddy.” I motion with my head back toward my room and pull my last Tootsie Roll out of my backpack, handing it to him. He looks at it curiously before taking it and giving it a taste. He smiles again and then takes off again. He’s playful in such a fun way, and I enjoy watching the curiosity he has for something as simple as a piece of candy. It’s something that I take for granted, but for him it’s almost a whole other world.

  Even though I was looking out for all the other kids at the orphanage, I never felt a part of something there. Family is still a concept that’s completely foreign to me. I never had a family bond, let alone any kind of stable life. I never even went looking for my birth parents. I’m not about to spend time trying to find someone and burden them after they’ve made it abundantly clear that I was enough of a burden to them that they didn’t want me.

  It’s obvious that something is missing in my life, a lot of things really, and as much as I don’t want to extrapolate and get ahead of myself, it’s easy to see that being here could be a…solution…to a lot of my problems. I hate that word solution and the last thing I ever want to do or be is a “climber.” I hate the idea of being someone who quickly moves up in life at the expense of others. It seems very Harvey Weinstein of me, or like some disgusting offer he’d make someone. I don’t ever want to be on either end of anything like that. That being said, the feelings I’ve noticed from Alexei, and my own feelings, definitely seem very organic, genuine, and beyond compare.

  I have to remind myself I’m here to do a job first and foremost though. I’ve been given an incredible opportunity and I don’t want to blow it…no matter how much I may feel like blowing…I catch myself, surprised at the thoughts in my head sounding vulgar.

  I shake my head and breathe out, going back to the bathroom to tidy up.

  It only takes a minute and everything is back in order. I go to walk back out when I notice the Band-Aid instructions on the floor. I reach down and pick them up, aiming for the trash can, when my hand pulls back at the last second.

  I bring the tiny paper and the super small letters up to my face.

  This isn’t typing. Someone printed these words by hand.

  I bring the tiny paper close to my face to read what it says. The writing is so small like those tiny notes I’ve seen on TV shows where they document prison life and how people communicate “on the inside.”

  I can’t do this much longer. I’m going crazy. I’m going to slip up and get murked. Pull me out.

  My eyebrow shoots up. I recognize that word “murked.” It’s spelled differently but it’s short for mercenary, as in to get killed by one. I remember Damon, a kid from the orphanage, always using that term or it often coming up in the hip hop songs he listened to. It’s a strange choice of language, especially to be finding in the private residence of a Russian bathroom. And it’s written in English and was hi
dden inside a Band-Aid box underneath a sink next to a guest room.

  My heartbeat feels like it’s been kick started and now these words have the throttle redlining. Someone in this house is worried about getting killed? And they can’t do what much longer?

  I hear the sound of someone inhaling just behind me and I jump so high I swear I damn near hit my head on the sky-high ceiling.

  I turn and see Alexei standing there, looking at me as if he’s drinking in the sight of me.

  My throat tightens and every muscle in my body flexes. I’m having a fight or flight moment as I’m holding something in my hands that very apparently wasn’t meant for my visual consumption.

  A low, animalistic growl leaves his throat without him even opening his mouth. His body is so masculine, the muscles of his forearms so corded and on full display with the sleeves of his white button-down shirt rolled up.

  I’m not sure what to do as he’s caught me red handed.

  But caught me with what, exactly?

  My fear mixed with adrenaline has me on high alert, but that alertness quickly turns to another kind…arousal.

  My arousal has my skin feeling like it’s burning up, like my entire body is being pulled to him like two giant magnets, and like the breath has been completely sucked out of me…and this entire room.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Vitaly cut his finger,” I say a little too quickly and nervously. “I was just getting him bandaged up.”

  “I knew you were right for the job. Barely here but a few minutes and already looking after my boy as if it comes completely natural to you.”

  “It does.” But how to act right now certainly doesn’t. I’m a terrible liar, or at least I think I am considering I’ve never really tried…at least not at this level. Saying you didn’t have cookies before dinner as a five-year-old with chocolate smeared all over your mouth is one kind of lie. Not fessing up to holding some sort of evidence in your hand that sure seems to have life or death implications is another.

  “I need to talk to you.”

  “Is it okay if I fresh up first?”

  “You smell perfect…look perfect…are perfect, just how you are.”

  I hear the audible gulp from my throat and my skin heats even more, something I didn’t even know was possible.

  “Any chance you can give me just twenty minutes to wash the airplane off of, and out of me? I’ve been breathing in that recycled air and sitting in that aluminum germ incubator for well over half a day.”

  I can see the anger in his face and then watch it spread throughout his body.

  “Or if not, then I guess—“

  He raises one hand. “No. My apologies. Please…take your time, but as soon as you’re done come to my office. It’s just through the foyer and on your left, facing the garden.

  “I’ll see you there.”

  He walks away, his eyes staying until the wall cuts off our view of each other.

  I close my eyes and exhale hard, only now realizing just how much I was holding my breath.

  I shut the door and quickly return the note to the box, only to pull it out and wipe it on a towel and then stick it back inside.

  How foolish…as if wiping it off is going to remove fingerprints. Then again, maybe whoever left that note left it there in a certain way that the recipient knows about.

  Who is the recipient?

  And why do I care?

  My job is to watch after Vitaly, not get involved in anything else. That said I have no intentions of being in a dangerous house. No thank you.

  Ten minutes ago I was practically hearing wedding bells and imagining a Cinderella story. How quickly things have changed…on a dime. Or should I say a Russian ruble?

  CHAPTER 7

  Alexei

  I look up from my computer at the exact moment she steps through my doorway.

  But she doesn’t enter. She just stands there as if waiting for permission.

  Her fear turns me on even more. Maybe it’s because I know she’s a tough cookie apart from her interactions with me. I saw the position she put her body in when she was ready to knee that guy in the balls at the airport.

  But there was no way I was going to allow her to fight that battle, not when I was there. It’s a man’s responsibility to protect a woman, especially from other men. And it’s especially my job when it pertains to my woman.

  She glances to the side after making eye contact and then glances back before looking away again. She’s shy and she can’t keep her eyes locked on mine right now. It’s not surprising. I know I look like a hungry, ravenous wolf sitting here ready to swallow her whole. And that’s exactly what I am.

  The clock on the wall says it’s been exactly twenty minutes since she asked for twenty minutes to prepare. Was she ready in ten and just waited to be exactly on time, or did she rush to make the deadline?

  Either way she’s my kind of woman. I run a tight ship and I need someone I know who I can trust, someone who’s dependable, and someone who’s in control…although ultimate control ultimately, and always, rests with me.

  I want to motion for her to come in, to place her hands on the side of my desk while I take her and make her mine. I want to fill her with my seed and give Vitaly the sibling he deserves, and begin our dynasty and our heritage together.

  I lean back in my oversized leather chair as Ludmila enters the doorway.

  “Afternoon tea, sir?”

  I nod. “And one for Crystal.”

  “Certainly.”

  Ludmila disappears and I raise my hand, motioning with my four fingers for her to enter.

  She takes a step forward and her leg wobbles, despite wearing flat shoes. God, she looks better than any model on any runway in New York, Paris, London, or Milan as she walks towards me.

  My eyes can’t help but rake across her body, that sweet, smooth, creamy skin calling me. Hell, it’s not a wolf inside me that wants out. I’m a vampire, wanting to sink my teeth into her flesh and claim her as mine for eternity.

  “You wanted to see me?”

  The soft notes of her voice have my dick dancing in my pants, the fucker jerking every which way as my mind practically goes numb. I can’t even stand up right now, without exposing my need and putting myself in immense pain. I make a mental note to let my tailor know I’m going to need all new slacks, and they’re going to have to be a lot looser in the front and with some stretch fabric or else I’m going to hurt myself.

  The things this woman has going through my head are incredible. Some of these thoughts are crazy, most primal, but all are unique to her. I’ve never in my life felt someone in my presence, or even on the Internet, that I knew was literally born to be mine.

  Until her.

  “I don’t just want to see you. I want all of you.”

  I watch her swallow hard but instead of taking a step back…instead of turning and running she takes a step forward.

  Good. I’m not a man to waste time or mince words. She needs to know how I feel, to hear it, even though my body is making it completely obvious.

  “I brought you here to be my nanny, and I need that. That was truly my intention. As you know I never saw a picture of you before you arrived, so I couldn’t have known what you looked like. Frankly I didn’t care. Finding the right person to take care of my Vitaly was the most important hire I’ve ever made, and I knew when I saw you that I got it right.”

  I pause letting it sink in, letting her know just how special to me she is.

  “But I also knew, instantly, that you were so much more. I knew you were meant for me…you were meant to be mine, and you will be, but you have to know I will never force myself on you and I’ll try my best not to rush you, although that’s a promise I’m not sure I can keep. When I’m around you I feel myself turning into something of an animal. For the first time in my life I know why the Russian bear is so famous. I swear I feel claws coming out of my fingertips, as I want to wrap my big arms around you and protect you from a
nyone and everyone, to shield you from the eyes of other men. You saw exactly what I mean not an hour ago out in the garden. The security staff won’t look at you again, only eye contact when they speak with you as that’s a form of respect. And they will respect you, because you will be mine.”

  She just stands there like this is all a shock to her. It’s a shock to me too, but something inside me has already processed it all and is moving it forward as quickly as possible…moving it to the part where the two of us become one.

  “If I scare you and you want to return to your country this is your last chance. I’ll release you from your responsibilities here and get you on the next plane back home, but even if I do that I have to let you know that I’m not going to stop coming after you until you’re mine. I’ll send you flowers every minute of every day and I’ll stalk your home, waiting for you to come to your senses and see what I see…a future for the two of us together. Maybe this is too much for you and now that you’ve arrived and have started to take things in and process what you’ve gotten yourself into, you don’t want to be Vitaly’s nanny anymore. Fine, because one day you’ll be his mother. You can count on that.”