Page 16

“ Perimeter sweep complete. All entry points secure. No unauthorized personnel on-site….”

The earpiece crackled to life with more status updates, static punctuating the transmissions while my gaze swept the crowd.

Against Fedor’s insistence, I requested one of the radios to receive direct feedback from the patrol. It wasn’t my night; I didn’t need to be in the spotlight. Tonight, the attention was all for Katya.

My primary job was to protect her, especially after considering the Dalys’ recent attack, and I’d planned to do just that, until her best friend made an entrance.

My jaw tightened.

From the second she sauntered into the halls, wearing that fucking black dress that interrupted my senses like a no-signal on an antenna, I’d known, and my eyes monitored her every movement closely while I’d wondered how she appeared at my exact location for the third time.

Then I’d seen her talk to Katya, and the pieces of the puzzle moved themselves together and fell into place too quickly.

This situation was a messy one for so many reasons, but the primary one being that, beyond being literally old enough to be the girl’s father, I now discovered that she had literal ties to my daughter.

Shit.

Katya thought, after the introductions, I’d scared off her friend with my negative energy and humorless joke, and while that might have been a factor, I knew the real reason she practically fled.

The Gipsy memories haunted her. They haunted me, too, tingling in my bones, the awareness cackling like an exposed live wire. I should have walked away from them first, sent a silent message that we could keep up the pretense that we didn’t know each other, and our paths never crossed.

But I didn’t want to.

And her Oscar-worthy acting skills proved she didn’t want to either.

“Surveillance systems are active and functioning. Crowd outside is cooperative. No suspicious behavior noted…/”

The crowd inside was more animated—livelier and rowdier. Katya danced with a group at the far left near the center stage, and my gaze kept wandering to her best friend, who was chatting with her plus one by the bar. It was the same man from the steakhouse.

He leaned into her, tucked her hair behind her ears, and whispered.

“We’ve got eyes on all key zones—main hall, guest wing, and service entrances. Staff have all cleared secondary security checks.”

She was laughing now, her hand brushing Robert’s arm, and something cold tightened in my chest. I shouldn’t be looking. She was Katya’s best friend. She was young and off-limits in every way that mattered.

But still, I watched.

And I felt the sizzle in the atmosphere when she looked at me directly. Her gaze didn’t waver, didn’t even fucking flinch, and from the distance, I saw the challenge there, the same fire she didn’t try to hide when we were alone in that private room.

And just like that, she leaned in and kissed him. Her lips on his, but her eyes locked on mine. He snuck his arm around the small of her back and pulled her close, deepening the fallacy she created, and she fucking closed her eyes like she enjoyed it.

The burn in my chest couldn’t be jealousy, but it made me hate that I wanted her. Hate that I couldn’t look away. Hate that she knew exactly what she was doing.

My feet moved before my brain had a chance to produce a more rational plan. I pushed past bodies, ignoring the curses some oblivious, ignorant younglings muttered under their breath.

And when I got to the bar, one shove was enough to detach them and send Robert stumbling off his high stool, startled but not enough to cause a scene.

“Hey, buddy, what the heck was that for, huh?” Robert was talking, but I was past listening.

Elena’s wide eyes met mine, and, despite Robert’s protests, I took her by the arm and dragged her away, through the hall, past the noise, and up the stairs to the bedroom Fedor had moved my things into.

No one noticed when the door clicked shut behind us. Only then, in the deafening quiet, did I try to let myself breathe. But the fire in me didn’t cool. I glowered at her heaving chest and forced my eyes up to her face.

“What the fuck was that?”

She yanked her arm back, her eyes blazing with a fury that surprised me. “What the fuck was that? Don’t you mean, what the hell is this?”

“No, Elena.” I marched up to her, eliminating every inch that kept us apart. “I meant what the fuck was that?”

“Oh, so now you care about what I do or who I’m with when, if I remember correctly, the reason I was rejected was because you told me you aren’t the right one for me. You told me to stay away! And tonight I can clearly see why.” The look in her eyes was accusing. “Did you know?”

She referred to her friendship with Katya.

“No, I didn’t. But I do now, and I still don’t appreciate seeing you with that bastard.”

“No, no, no. You don’t get a pass to do this. You don’t get to be jealous,” she hissed. “Who cares about what you appreciate? Robert is not a bastard. He’s my boss. You’ll show him respect.”

“Respect? So, you randomly kiss your boss just to spite me. I’m eager to know what you’ll do next. Maybe fuck him, too, in front of a full audience just to watch my reaction?”

She had the look of a murder when she said, “I should slap you for that shit you just said.”

“But you won’t because you know I’m right. You did it just to take me off your mind because I plague it as much as you plague mine, and because the truth is, the only person you desperately want to fuck is me .”

Heavy silence suddenly weighed in on us, and the anger in her eyes seemed to fizzle out, stripping her true intentions bare before me.

“You know you’re playing a dangerous game, Damien. You should….” She stuttered. “You….”

My gaze narrowed sharply. “I’ve never played safe in my life. Never shied away from any fucking thing before. I don’t think I’m going to start now.”

“But you should…” she murmured and nibbled on her lower lip. Her voice didn’t hold as much strength anymore. “I just don’t understand…. You should be an old man with wrinkly skin and yellow teeth. Not… this . You’re making this hard for me.”

I suppressed the bubble of laughter in my chest at the vulnerability of her naivety and cupped her cheeks. My gaze flickered from her eyes to her lips.

We both knew we wanted the same things. There was no denying the obvious.

The laughter emerged now, and she melted into me when I cupped her cheeks. “And you shouldn’t be on my radar at all, sweetheart. You’re a fucking glitch in the system, a glitch I don’t want to erase.”

“You’re my best friend’s father,” she murmured softly.

“And yet, I find myself wanting you, Elena.”

Static feedback came through the earpiece. “ As of now, the estate is clear. No threats detected.”

But that wasn’t entirely correct. One threat was detected, and she was standing right in front of me. We had a chance to pull away, let go, and walk out that door like two strangers respecting clear boundaries.

For a second, I thought about it and came up with one conclusion.

Fuck boundaries.

I didn’t hesitate. I crashed my lips against hers like a storm breaking. I gripped her waist, pulled her close, and felt my cock twitch when she gasped into my mouth.

A maddening rush of excitement surged through me. Fucking wild and electric , stealing both our breaths. She put her arms around my neck, and I plucked out the earpiece, letting the harsh sounds of our breathing fill my ears instead.

The moment was a blur of heat and desperate hunger. Everything else vanished: the noise from downstairs, the forbidden lines we were crossing, even the threat of the fucking Dalys. There was only us. Only now.

She shoved off my suit jacket, tugged off my tie, and pulled me closer by the collar of my shirt.

“Damien,” she rasped, eyes half-lidded and burning with desire. “This is insane. This is…wrong. We should stop.”

Angrily, I pressed my fingers into her cheeks, puckering her lips before sucking on them like a ravaging beast. “Do you really want to fucking stop?” I growled. “Say yes, and I’ll let you fucking go right now.”

After a heartbeat of consideration, she bent my neck lower and whispered, “No.”

Satisfaction rumbled in my core, and I moved my hands below her waist, squeezing her soft, round ass. “Then, shut up, and fucking kiss me.”

Our bodies pressed together urgently, neither of us wanting to let go. Her mouth moved with a fire, and I couldn’t help the raw groan that escaped me.

“How do I get you out of this fucking dress?”

“The zip’s on the left side.”

She raised her arms above her head, and I reached for the zipper, tugging harshly until the fabric loosened on her curves. I dropped to my haunches, slowly lifted the dress above her head, while taking my time to watch the torturous reveal of her black thong and lacy bra come to the light.

The dress fluttered to the floor, and my mouth watered at the sight of her curvy hips and the hint of her cleanly shaven mound. I raised my head, meeting her heated gaze. “I could take you right here, sweetheart,” I breathed hoarsely.

“What?”

I’d spoken in Russian, and she clearly didn’t understand. “I haven’t had dinner,” I said in English. “Do you mind?”

Barely giving her the time to react, I hooked my fingers through the thin material, shifted it aside, and dove in for the kill. I lifted one of her legs over my shoulder to steady her as I lapped my tongue over her clit, greedily taking more than she’d expected to give.

Her fingers flew into my hair, lightly scraping my scalp, and I didn’t want her hand anywhere else. Her touch was fire, and her cunt was so fucking wet, insanely hot, and sweet.

“Oh, my— fuck. ” She threw her head back against the wall, shuddering above me as she made the hottest fucking sounds my ears had ever heard.

“Beautiful girl,” I murmured like a drunk high on alcohol. “Sweet, beautiful…. Call my name, sweetheart.”

“Damien.”

“That’s it, baby.”