Lie to Me (4 page)

“And they are all blonde?”

“They were under your father’s direction.”

Saeed frowned. “I suspect there was a reason for such. Did he convey it to you?”

Alexei forced a grim smile. “American businessmen, tired of being away from home, spend money for women who
appear
to be American. European will work as well. After all, they are not required to talk, are they?”

He couldn’t keep the bitterness down. Worse than the trafficking itself was the fact he had been integral to it. That he had preyed on trust, drugged the unsuspecting like Irina, and transported them to a despicable fate. All the while, he had fed them heroin to keep them subservient, to hook them so they only cared about their next fix, not what the revolving door of strangers wanted from them. Even all the risks he took to restore their lives, to get them treatment for their addictions, couldn’t absolve his actions, even if they were in the name of national security.

His hand tightened on his glass, and he set it aside before he snapped the stem in two. As it always did, the thought of Irina and the likely fate she had met twisted his heart. He’d tried like hell to keep her out of his mind. Even went so far as to try to forget her for several
months by living life at the bottom of a glass. Nothing worked. She was a canker that wouldn’t heal.

He’d betrayed the only woman who had ever provoked his dead emotions.

“I suppose not.” Saeed looked like the admission didn’t sit well with him either. Then he shrugged, as if it weren’t something to concern himself with. As if this business of human trafficking and sexual slavery was apart from him. Even when he owned and enjoyed one of those very same women. “And Moscow’s
Bratva
—they are stable enough to relaunch this venture?”

Not hardly.
“Yes. I have spoken with them directly. They are willing to put their trust in you.”

“I find that difficult to believe in light of all the upheaval concerning my father.”

Alexei chuckled. “Why should they care? No one will miss a stripper. Money is power. Power is influence.”
And sex goes hand in hand with both.
How well he knew that truth.

“You make a good point.” Saeed nodded thoughtfully. “Very well, when this night is concluded, what are our next steps?”

There wouldn’t
be
any next steps. With Dmitri Gavrikov’s arrest, the
Bratva
was in chaos trying to decide their next permanent leader. Several key figureheads were in detention, and every last person involved with the human trafficking ring was either dead or behind bars. This was all an elaborate fiction created by Black Opal operatives for one woman whose aggrieved father couldn’t accept the likelihood she was dead. One very lucky woman who’d escaped the fate of whatever the men who paid for her desired, and who had a wealthy sheikh to support her heroin habit.

Alexei took a drink to let the lies percolate, then set his glass back on the mirror-topped table. “When I leave, we shall be agreed on a date of delivery. I will deliver the cargo personally, to a place of your choosing—though I suggest not your palace—and you will make the
payment at that time.” He squinted for emphasis. “In United States dollars.”

“They will be…subdued?”

“Of course.”

“And once they are here—who shall attend to their care?”

Alexei shrugged one shoulder. “You will have to hire someone. I suggest you find a nurse. Their dosages must be carefully monitored.” As Saeed likely already knew.

“Very well then. I shall make the necessary staffing adjustments. It is April now, can you deliver by August?”

Making a show of putting great thought into his answer, Alexei took his time with a slow nod. “That can be arranged.”

A smile broke across Saeed’s face, hesitant at first, then assuming more emphasis as he reached to shake Alexei’s hand. “Consider it agreed.”

Alexei shook, then clasped the young sheikh’s hand in both of his and added an emphatic squeeze. “It is done.”

“Now, let us talk of more important matters.” All hints of good humor vanished under Saeed’s sudden, piercing stare. “I will tolerate no abuse to Sasha.”

“I understand.”

“If she expresses any displeasure, this ends immediately. I have promised her she will only enjoy this evening. I will not have that vow compromised.”

Alexei nodded again. Odd how this man protected his possessions. She was a sexual toy, one he’d purchased, and yet, he genuinely seemed concerned about her well-being. Damned odd.

Saeed’s voice returned to its normal amicable warmth. “I will be the third this evening. You will aid in her preparation, but you may not find your release inside what belongs to me.”

Good. No need to push himself to the brink with pretending. He could roll aside and let Saeed take over while Alexei quietly jacked off to alleviate the need for physical release. No fear he might whisper the
damnable name of the woman who haunted him each time he tried with another.

Still, the disclosure he would not act as third surprised him. He cocked his head and repeated, “You will be the third?”

Saeed passed a hand over the neatly trimmed line of hair that edged his jaw. “She belongs to me. Her happiness is my responsibility.” He paused to give Alexei a troubled frown. “As it is also my responsibility to remove all her pain.”

In that moment, Alexei witnessed a different man than the young sheikh who sought to patch together his father’s crumbling legacy. He stared into the brittle eyes of a man who genuinely cared for the woman that had come into his possession. Saeed didn’t want to share Sasha any more than Alexei wanted to be here. And yet, Saeed was willing to sacrifice to protect his family from destruction. His decision had been made for him.

Alexei understood that.

He respected it even more. He’d been there once. Knew the anguish of having no choice. Understood how that kind of circumstance shredded a man inside.

Son of a bitch, he didn’t want to be responsible for forcing that on anyone. He could find another way to get Sasha out of here. It would be better for all of them.

Standing, he cleared his throat. “I should leave.”

Saeed’s lips formed a tight, hard line. Jaw set, he shook his head as he rose to his feet. “I honor my promises, Vasily. In all things.” Turning crisply, he beckoned Alexei to follow. “Come. She waits.”

A
nticipation knocked Sasha’s heartbeat out of sync as two pairs of footsteps echoed down the long corridor beyond her bedroom door. She stared up at the ceiling, seeing nothing through the delicate black gauze covering her eyes and forehead. Asiya had folded it so many times that while Sasha could still breathe easily, it rendered her sightless.

Your senses shall be heightened with one of them removed.

Indeed, the young maid’s explanation for the blindfold proved true. Warm night air breezed through the open window to slide agonizingly over Sasha’s exposed skin. She shifted against the silk sheets beneath her back.

Saeed had mentioned Asiya would prepare her. At the time, Sasha hadn’t given it much consideration. But within moments of his leaving, the young maid appeared and beckoned Sasha into the Persian luxury of her private bath. There, she’d been bathed from head to toe, shaved until she was nearly as naked as the day she’d been born, and then massaged to the point of drowsiness. When that languor hit, Asiya stripped it all away by applying an exotic lotion that made Sasha’s skin tingle.

For a little while, she’d thought the prickly sensation would wear off. That it was just a cream meant to invigorate her after such a thorough massage.

Instead, the tingling intensified the longer she lay still. The caress of the breeze became a torment, one that no matter how she
shifted on the silk, she couldn’t escape. Her breasts felt heavy and tight. Each heartbeat pulsed arousal through her pussy, taunting her to reach between her legs and ease the budding ache.

She had definitely been
prepared
. To the point she couldn’t begin to consider the right or wrongness of what she was about to experience. She didn’t care about the twin footfalls that stopped at her door. Two years of longing for the man who’d betrayed her, two years of suffering without even a chance at forgetting him, made it impossible to focus on anything but the itchy, achy way her body felt and the promise of approaching relief.

Hushed masculine voices drifted through the heavy wood. Her heart kicked hard, and another zing of anticipation launched through her body. Her womb clenched. She shifted a leg restlessly. Waves of warmth washed across her skin.

A click resounded through her room, drawing her sightless gaze to the doorway. Through the layered gauze, she could barely make out two tall shadows. One moved toward the bed, the other toward the window.

The mattress shifted with someone’s weight. She turned her head to the man at her side, her breathing a racket even to her own ears. Warm fingertips trailed from her shoulder, across the sensitive skin inside her elbow, down to her wrist. “
Habibti
, you are beautiful.”

Saeed.
She’d never imagined that she would crave the feel of his hands on her body, but that lazy caress made her hungry for more.

“Are you comfortable?” he whispered near her ear.

Closing her eyes to the agonizing pleasure of his moist breath against the side of her neck, Sasha ordered herself to nod.

Slowly, he traced a single finger over her collarbone, around the curve of her bare breast and over one hardened nipple. Shivers coursed through her, but before she could recover, warm lips covered the tight bud and gave it a firm suckle. The flick of his tongue flayed her with heat. A gasp ripped from her throat. Her back arched off the bed.

Saeed’s gentle palm slid down her abdomen, across the thin patch
of hair Asiya had allowed Sasha to keep, and one fingertip dipped into her wet folds. He teased her clit with a lazy swirl, then delved deeper, circling her opening, dipping in to draw out the silky wetness. She writhed against the sudden invasion, seeking the relief her body needed. She felt afire, and she’d do whatever it took to relieve the searing burn. Her hands clutched at his shoulders in an awkward attempt to draw him down against her body.

He released her breast with a soft wet popping sound and backed away. She bit down on her lower lip to stop a frustrated scream.

“Ah, yes,
habibti
, you are ready for us.” He flicked his tongue across her nipple once more, then abandoned her. His low, commanding voice resonated through the expansive chamber. “Vasily, she is already very near. Would you like—”

“Go ahead.” Low and rough, the gravely masculine voice answered from near the window. It held a familiarity Sasha couldn’t place with all the conflicting sensations rocketing through her body. She didn’t care who touched her now, so long as someone did. So long as someone made it easier to breathe, to move, without feeling like she might burst apart.

A belt buckle jangled in the quiet. Sasha bit down on her lower lip to silence a budding whimper.

W
hile Saeed removed his clothing, Alexei turned to the open window and looked down at the palace compound below. Long rows of greenery and manicured shrubs cast deep shadows in the moonlight. A wide pool sparkled with a salmon glow. But Alexei’s attention remained on the row of luxury SUVs parked near the front of the palace where his partner, Grigoriy, waited with Saeed’s security guards. Grigoriy would be watching.

Alexei pressed a button on his watch, illuminating the face in pale blue. He twisted his wrist to the outdoors, silently counted to ten, then
turned his attention on the man and woman in the bed behind him. Brown skin slid against creamy curves, a stark contrast that spoke to Alexei’s base instincts. His cock swelled in response to Sasha’s faint whimpers, to the way she flattened her feet on the bed and parted her knees, making room for Saeed to probe her pussy with his tongue.

Alexei shucked his clothes quietly and took his cock in hand. Two firm pulls filled him to capacity. It would take far more to see him to release. More than this woman could likely withstand. Not that he had any intention of going that distance with her. No, she’d find satisfaction tonight, but he never would.

For several long moments, he allowed himself to simply watch the intimate display taking place in front of him. Though he had always been detached from sex emotionally, he couldn’t deny he liked to watch a woman’s
pleasure. Sasha arched and writhed, her hands dug into the satin bedding, her head tossed to the side. Down deep in Alexei’s gut, desire burned. But he forced himself to wait. He wanted to see her orgasm before he joined the play. And she was close. Not much longer now, and she’d come apart in Saeed’s hands.

Sasha twisted her head in his direction, her black blindfold holding long blonde hair out of her face. He’d expected the blonde and all the uncomfortable truths that came with it, but the blindfold offered Alexei a modicum of relief. He had made the request to cover her eyes knowing Sasha might recognize him, even if he didn’t recognize her. And she would hate him. Hate that would ruin his plans and destroy his cover if she looked at his face.

He deserved that hate. Didn’t pretend he shouldn’t. But he didn’t give a damn about making amends. Not enough forgiveness existed in the world for what he’d done. All he wanted was to get the hell out of here and out of Dubai. Finish the mission and be done with sheikhs.

Forget the wrongs he’d committed. The one woman he’d betrayed more than the others.

Sasha keened, jerking Alexei out of his thoughts. The soft cry of pleasure held a familiar tone. His gaze snapped to her face once more, locking onto her sultry mouth, and his heart lodged against his ribs.
It can’t be…

Quickly he took her in from head to toe, as best he could, and dismissed the notion. Irina didn’t possess this woman’s curves. Sasha’s breasts were full and pert, her hips rounded, her belly flat, but not hollow. Irina was a waif. Though she’d been strong, her legs muscular, she’d always been gangly. Beautiful. Vulnerable. But not lush.