Russian Mobster's Princess (5 page)

She took a breath to call out to Viktor, but then she caught her father’s eye. The malevolence there made her clamp her mouth shut. There was something else going on here. She did not know what. But she knew somehow that it was true. Standing quietly at the back of the room, she waited for Viktor to come back to fetch her.

The meeting broke up soon after that, and Viktor strode toward her with a grim look on his face. Kira knew things were not good, but the fact that she could still dance meant there was a light at the end of the tunnel. Viktor had stood up for her and demanded that she be allowed to continue. That meant more than she could ever say.

“Come on, Kira.” His tone was grouchy, but she would forgive him for being surly after what he’d done for her.

“Wait!” Nicholas grabbed Viktor by the shoulder and spun him around. “You don’t get to walk away from me that easily.”

“Excuse me?” Viktor’s cool tone suggested his brother’s posturing did not impress him.

“You defied me in front of the council,” Nicholas snarled. “Do you have any idea the damage to my reputation you and your stupid whore have caused?” Nicholas glared balefully at Kira. “Dancing be damned! She is nothing but a woman. Nothing but property. She should be put somewhere safe so that you can attend to your duties instead of playing nursemaid.”

“This is a family decision, Nicholas,” Viktor said calmly. “It is between Kira and I. This has nothing to do with you.”

“Until someone kills her and her father uses that slight as an excuse to take over my position!” Nicholas was beginning to sound almost panicked by the notion. “He is a greedy, power hungry mongrel out for whatever he can get.”

“Then perhaps you should have married her yourself,” Viktor said coolly. “But you didn’t. You chose me for that duty regardless of what I wanted, or what Kira wanted. And in the wake of that decision, you need to step aside and let us lead our damn lives.”

“This is not the last you’ll hear about this,” Nicholas spat. “You can be sure of it.”

Chapter Five

“Thank you for standing up for me.” Kira spoke the words over the whine of the engine in Viktor’s car.

She was surprised she could speak at all. Viktor looked terrifying. She was reminded that this man was a hardened member of the mafia who had very likely killed in service to the organization. Sighing, she nervously twisted her hands in her lap.

Viktor grunted, but it was the only response she got. Her friend Tiana often said that men were pigs. Kira was inclined to agree.

He whipped the car into a turn, causing Kira to grab the door in order to avoid flying out of her seat. “Hey! If you’re going to keep up this crazy fast pace, I’m going to need a five point restraint system over here.”

Viktor glanced at the passenger side of the car, looking surprised. “Sorry.” He practically growled the word.

“I suppose that’s a start,” she allowed.

“Are you hungry?”

The question seemed to come out of left field. Kira thought about it for a moment. “I could eat.”

“Good. I’m famished.”

There were two more turns before they reached what was apparently their destination. Kira could have sworn they took the second corner up on two wheels. Finally, they squealed to a stop in front of a restaurant. Viktor didn’t even bother to park the car. He just got out and left it running.

Kira grabbed her door handle. Who was she to quibble over the chance to get out of the vehicle? She stumbled out with all the grace of a tin man. She fumbled with the door before shoving the heavy thing closed again.

“Are you all right?” Viktor was staring at her as though she might snap in half at any second.

“Let’s just say I don’t have a lot of experience with cars.” She was breathing as though she’d just run a mile in two minutes.

His brow furrowed. “I suppose I can understand that.”

“You suppose?” Kira was getting a bit tired of his highhanded behavior. “It isn’t for you to decide one way or the other. It just is.”

Viktor shrugged before turning and walking into the restaurant without even offering her his arm. He was a little rough around the edges sometimes, but in her limited experience his manners were decent. Obviously he was seriously pissed off.

Kira chased him down as he was settling at a table near the center of the restaurant. She helped herself into her chair and then sat looking at him with what she hoped was a politely expectant expression on her face.

“What?” he asked.

“I get that you’re angry,” she said slowly. This whole communication thing was hard, especially when she didn’t really know him that well. “But you’re being kind of a jerk.”

“A jerk?” Now he was actually smiling.

She cocked her head to one side, confused. “I call you a jerk and
then
you smile? I will never understand men.”

“That’s okay,” he assured her. “Men never understand women.”

“
I
never understand women,” she said mournfully. “If you think regular, everyday women are bad, trying hanging out with a bunch of prima donnas. Literally.”

Now he was laughing. It changed his entire demeanor. Somehow he went from surly and fierce to handsome and rather—well, sexy.

He gazed at her with warmth in his dark eyes. “What?”

“I was just trying to understand how laughing can make you look so sexy.” She wanted to cram the words back in as soon as they were out.

He put his elbows on the table and leaned in close. “You think I’m sexy?”

“I would think you get plenty of compliments to that effect,” she said stiffly, unfolding her napkin and laying the cloth across her lap. “Don’t pretend you’ve never heard that before.”

“I’ve never heard it from you,” he pointed out. “And you seem to be completely unaffected by all things male.”

“I’m not unaffected!” She was feeling defensive. “I’m just—” She searched for the appropriate term. “—busy.”

“Too busy for sex?”

Kira felt almost scandalized by his suggestion, but in a delicious way because they were discussing forbidden things. “I’m not too busy for—for that.”

“You can’t even say it.” He was teasing her now. “Just say the word, Kira.”

“Sex.”

She said the word before she could lose her nerve. Unfortunately, she also said it just as the waitress walked up to the table. The young woman’s eyes fluttered wide open before she managed to gain control of her face. She cleared her throat uncomfortably.

“Just bring us two orders of my usual,” Viktor told the young woman.

Kira wasn’t sure what that meant, but she knew what she wanted. “I’ll have an iced tea with no sweetener and a garden salad with no dressing please?”

The waitress looked confused, but nodded and bustled off anyway.

Viktor shook his head. “A green salad with no dressing?”

“I can’t afford the calories in dressing right now. Outgrowing my costume the last weekend of the show would be embarrassing and catastrophic.” She nodded her head for emphasis.

“Don’t you like to eat?” He made the words sound almost sexual. “The flavor of chocolate on your tongue? The sensation of a good pudding as you suck it off the spoon and roll it around in your mouth?”

It was Kira’s turn to burst out laughing. “You make it sound like you’d rather have sex with food!”

His gaze turned hot. He let it slide down from her neck toward her breasts. She was still wearing her leotard beneath her sweater, and the combination was suddenly very warm. The way he was looking at her sent a strange jolt through her body. The wild sensations culminated at a point between her legs that grew warm and slippery. She had to squirm a little in her seat to stay comfortable.

“I would rather have sex with you, Kira,” Viktor said in a low, sensual voice. “If you reached between my legs right now, you would know how much I want you.”

She tried to swallow, but her mouth seemed suddenly dry. “How would I know?”

“My cock is hard.” His low explanation made her insides tremble. “I can feel my balls getting tight as they get ready to pour my seed into your body. A man can never hide what he wants, Kira. His body will always betray him.”

VIKTOR WAS ACTUALLY afraid that he was in danger of blowing his load right there in his slacks like a green boy. The sexual heat in Kira’s eyes was all innocence and desire. He had never been so attracted to another woman in his life. She was utterly untouched, and she belonged to him. The need to make that permanent was so strong he could hardly keep himself in his seat.

“How about your body?” he asked softly. “Does it betray your arousal?”

“I feel warm,” she admitted. Her lashes swept down to hide her eyes briefly before she met his gaze once again. “I’m wet between my legs like I am when…” Her voice trailed off.

His interest zeroed in on what she was trying to hide. “Like when, Kira? Like when you touch yourself?”

He saw her swallow and knew he’d hit the mark. He had to swallow back a groan. The thought of Kira touching herself, making herself come, was so erotic that he almost couldn’t stand it. Viktor let out a ragged breath and tried to regain some control as he spotted the waitress headed in their direction.

There was a heavy, charged silence at the table as their food and drinks were set before them. Viktor never took his gaze off of Kira. She was sitting back in her seat, her chest quickly rising and falling and her cheeks a pretty shade of pink.

The waitress hurried away, no doubt well aware of the mood at the table. Her exit left Viktor free to pursue an answer to his question. “Well?”

“Yes.” Her voice was the barest whisper. “I touch myself.”

“And what happens?”

“My—” She was obviously searching for a word. “—pussy gets very wet and slippery. There’s a very sensitive spot just to the left side of my…”

“Your clit,” he guessed.

“Yes.”

“Do you especially like to be touched there?”

She nodded, and he saw her exhale a ragged breath. “Yes. Very much. Sometimes I can actually make myself have an orgasm just by touching that one spot.”

“
Fuck
,” he groaned softly. “You’re killing me here, Kira.”

She looked surprised. “Really?”

“Are you kidding me?” He chuckled. “The idea of you stroking your wet pussy is enough to make me come. I can imagine what it looks like with those long, long legs spread open. I bet your thighs are incredibly smooth. I know they’re strong. And I bet you have the prettiest pussy. I bet when you spread your legs, your folds open like a flower. They would be pink and perfect and ready for touching.”

There was no denying how turned on she was now. Kira’s lips were parted, and her breathing was harsh. She looked like a woman on the edge of release.

“Should we be talking about this here?” she asked softly. “I mean, in public?”

“Why? Is it turning you on?”

She looked utterly scandalized. “Yeah. Sort of.”

“I’m not surprised.” He considered this. “Anyone who can dance like you do on stage in front of thousands has a little bit of the exhibitionist in her.”

“Meaning what?”

“Would you ever want me to touch your pussy here in front of other people?” he suggested slyly. “Would that turn you on?”

She actually looked as though she were fabricating a scenario in her mind. It was refreshingly genuine. “Not if it was like I was on stage. But if you were sitting very close and I put my hand on your leg beneath the table. Then I think that would turn me on.”

“Just my leg?” he teased. “Would you not want to go a little higher than that?”

“To touch your—um—your penis?”

“Cock. And yes.”

“I would do that.” She looked shocked by her own admission. “Is that wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong between us,” he told her firmly. “As you pointed out before. It’s all perfectly proper because we are married.”

For some reason, that reminder seemed to cool her ardor. She picked up her fork and pushed her salad around on her plate. He let her have her few moments of silence as he sliced the well marinated beef on his plate and filled his stomach. Kira was certainly a fascinating woman in many, many ways.

“What are you thinking?” he finally asked after several minutes of not uncomfortable silence.

“I’m just contemplating the idea of marriage,” she told him quietly. “I’m not sure I actually understand what it means. So many mafia marriages are either of convenience, or they are wildly unbalanced in the power department because one party is so indebted to the other.”

“That is true.”

“So what are we?”

“Unique,” he suggested. “We did our duty. Now we just have to choose how we will live our lives.”

“I cannot thank you enough for allowing me to continue dancing,” Kira told him for the second time. “You didn’t have to defy your brother like that.”

“No, but I did make you a promise on our wedding day. I intend to keep that promise. Dancing is obviously important to you. I may not understand all of the reasons why, but I can perfectly well understand what all of it means.”

“Dancing was the only place where I could escape from my father and brothers,” she admitted quietly. “On stage, nothing exists but the music and the steps. Everything else just goes away.”

Viktor suddenly envied her those moments. “Then it would seem you need to keep dancing, Kira Domnin.”

Chapter Six

Kira sighed as Victor closed the front door of the sad little safe house behind them. The dingy place had almost no redeeming qualities about it. Kira dug in her bag. Fortunately, she carried personal items like small containers of shampoo and conditioner back and forth between home and the studio. Now those things would be her saving grace.

“I’m going to attempt to shower,” she told him. “If I’m attacked by a cockroach, I’ll scream.”

Viktor actually laughed at her lame attempt to make a joke. “I’ll keep an ear out for you.”

“Thanks.”

She hustled into the bathroom and shut the door. The tiny space made undressing difficult, even for her narrow body. Getting out of her tights and leotard was practically a contortionist act, but finally she could step beneath the hot spray.