Page 4 of Sexting the Bratva Beast

A smile tugs at Andrej’s lips, and fuck if my pussy doesn’t immediately react by pulsing like I just got an electric shock. “That I would love to have seen,” he says.

“Maybe next time.” Mika gives me the side-eye, but I don’t bite.

I’m not inviting him to go on a night out with us. I’m not inviting him anywhere. In fact, the more distance I put between me and Andrej Ivanov the better. I’ll get through today’s grand opening, I’ll go home and take a cold shower, and then I’ll forget all about him.

“I promise to keep you sober.” His tone is deadly serious, but the glint in his eyes is telling a whole different story.

“Andrej, I’m not sure—” Leonid doesn’t finish because his brother cuts him off.

“I can give you a tour of Chicago’s best nightlife.”

I glance around the room, and all eyes are on me. Apart from Leonid, who is trying hard to get his brother’s attention without making it too obvious.

“Cartier would love that, wouldn’t you, Car?” Mika prompts. “Her idea of nightlife is reading until her eyes go blurry and falling asleep with all the lights on.”

“We’ll have to see if we can rectify that then.”

“I like reading.” It’s the Cartier Black version of I carried a watermelon.

He smiles, and I make a mental note to train my heartbeat not to react in future. “I can show you a library that not many people know about.”

A library? Is this guy for real?

“That’s her ‘I can’t wait’ expression,” Mika says before I can think of a suitable excuse.

“Great. I’ll pick you up outside the refuge.”

His gaze is steady, cool. So why do I feel as if he has already undressed me and is planning all the different ways in which he can make me beg for more?

Andrej Ivanov is dangerous. That’s what I tell myself as Mika and I make our way through the hospital and outside to her beaten-up old car. No good will ever come of getting too close to a man like him.

And, in that moment, I believe it.

2

ANDREJ

“What was that all about?”

The door has barely closed behind the two women when my brother pounces. He might be all gaga over his baby girls, but his tone is still cold metal with me.

“What was what all about?”

I lean against the wall with my arms crossed and wait for him to elaborate. Leonid has always been easily rattled, coiled up like a rusty spring, and he wonders why we’ve always fought so much. It’s too tempting to resist, and life is too short to be boring.

“Cartier.” He keeps his voice low so as not to disturb the twins.

This is his life now. The Pakhan has finally been stabbed through the heart by Cupid’s arrow. I never thought it would happen to Leonid, but he changed the instant Gianna entered his world. Sure, she was promised to an Irish mob boss when she first arrived. Leverage against the Irish and the Sicilians. An acquisition to barter, to end the longstanding feud between the Ivanovs and the Amory family.

And now here we are. My brother funded the women’s refuge that Gianna and her friends will run, and I have two nieces.

Life evolves. It’s the kind of feel-good shit that our sister Victoria would spurt.

It’ll happen to you too one day, Andrej. I can hear her voice inside my head.Then you might look back and wish you’d done things differently.

I doubt it. I’ve spent my life doing whatever the hell I wanted. Can either of my siblings say the same?

“I offered to be her tour guide. It’s no biggie.”