Page 21 of Taken by the Bratva (Bychkov Bratva #1)
Aria
Exhausted from a night of Daniil showing me just how sore he can make me, I wake up past noon and take my time showering, exfoliating, shaving, and moisturizing every inch of skin I can reach. I put on my necklace and a short, flowy sundress, and stroll down to the kitchen for coffee and lunch.
I’m humming to myself as I put together a salad when an arm bands around my waist and pulls me against a rock-solid torso.
I let out a squeal.
“You scared me! You need to make more noise when you walk.”
“No, you just need to pay attention to your surroundings,”
Daniil says, his lips brushing my ear as he does.
“Why? The only one sneaking up on me here is you, right?”
He bites my earlobe and kisses my necklace over where his marks are quickly disappearing. “Right,”
he confirms in his deep sexy voice that he knows turns me on.
“I have a surprise for you.”
“Another one?”
I ask cheerily, loving that he’s thinking of me enough to buy me gifts. Even when it’s unnecessary and expensive, I know it’s not because he’s trying to buy me in any way, it’s simply because he wants to.
“Yes. You need something to wear tonight.”
“What’s happening tonight?”
“I have to fill in for Andrei at the restaurant in Chinatown, and you’re going to come with me.”
“You want me to go with you? In public? In front of your men and whoever else?”
Daniil turns me around to face him.
“Yes, I do. But you need to wear what I’ve bought you so it will go easier on me.”
“Is it an ankle monitor?”
“No, but don’t give me any ideas. I didn’t think you were going to run anymore.”
He studies me to see if he can find any deception in my gaze, but I only smile.
“No, I’m not going to run. I’d like to go with you. Let me see what you want me to wear.”
He slides a box across the counter towards me, and it's the same style black box with a white ribbon as with the diamond lingerie yesterday, but this one is bigger.
I untie the ribbon and open the box. Pulling apart the tissue paper, I smile and hold up the dress he said he didn’t want me to purchase because it would reveal too much.
“You changed your mind on it?”
“Only because you’ll be by my side and I get to see you in it. There’s more.”
I dig deeper and find a silk drawstring bag, and opening it, my smile grows when I see what it is. “Daniil.”
“Exactly. My name will show when you wear the dress so everyone will know who you belong to tonight.”
He steps up behind me and hooks his finger in the opening of the silk thong.
“And this way I get to fuck you from behind and see my name on you.”
The thong is made of the softest silk, is crotchless, and between the hip straps in an extra horizontal silk string with diamond letters spelling out Daniil so that they’ll rest on my lower back when I’m wearing it. The mini dress he bought me dips all the way down to the bottom of my spine, so his name will definitely show.
“I’ll wear it,”
I whisper.
“Good girl,”
he whispers right back in my ear, sending a shiver through me.
“We leave at five. Do you have shoes to wear with it?”
“I do.”
“Good.”
He kisses the side of my neck again and takes a step back.
“I have some work to do before we go, so I’ll meet you here in the kitchen at 4:45.”
“Okay.”
Daniil walks out of the kitchen and I sag against the counter. He wants to take me out and is making sure everyone knows I’m his.
I know he doesn’t mean it the way my heart is begging him to, but I’ll take his possessiveness over indifference.
Taking a deep breath, I check the time and see I have an hour or so to sit outside and get a little more sun before getting ready. I grab the notebook and pencils I’ve claimed as mine and curl up in a lounge chair by the pool, drawing the view before me so I'll always remember it.
When it’s time to go inside, I take another shower and remoisturize.
After applying my makeup, I style my hair in a low messy bun so my hair won’t cover any part of my outfit, and put on my new panties. I sigh at the feeling of the silk against me.
The little black dress dips low in the front too, so instead of going braless, I put on my diamond bra before stepping into the dress.
Turning in the mirror, I look at myself from every angle and grin.
The pearl straps of the bra look gorgeous beside the plain black ones of the dress, and the string of diamonds showing between my breasts and across my back almost look like they’re an accented part of the dress.
But neither the dress, the bra, or the shoes I’m going to wear are the stars of the show. No, that would be Daniil’s name across my lower back. It does something to me. It makes me feel seen, owned, desired, and like I’m someone who matters.
I’m someone he wants to show off and protect.
I can’t think too much on it or I’ll jump ahead fifty steps down a path that doesn’t exist for us.
Gia packed me my favorite black red-bottomed stilettos that make my legs look endlessly long and my ass a little bigger. I step into them and apply the same red lip stain I wore on Saturday at the club, then take in my entire look.
Oh! My jewelry.
I put the necklace Daniil gave me on and a pair of pearl studs from my travel jewelry case I always have in my suitcase.
Damn, I look good.
I’m covered in diamonds and pearls and I’ve never felt sexier.
I spritz some perfume on and slip my mini compact and a lipstick into a little clutch and check the time. Perfect.
I make my way downstairs to a waiting Rex and Daniil in the kitchen. He doesn’t say anything, but his heated gaze tells me everything I already knew.
“Fuck,”
he grunts.
“We need to leave right now or I’m going to carry you back upstairs and we’re not going to make it at all, and I have to be there. You look too good, kukolka.”
“That was what I was going for.”
He steps up to me but doesn’t touch me.
“Turn around. Let me see.”
With a satisfied smile, I turn away from him and look over my shoulder to see the sheer possessiveness shining in his eyes that has my lower stomach twisting with desire and my heart panging with the need to know how this feeling is supposed to go away after he gives me back.
“Prekrasnoye,”
he murmurs, running his fingers over the letters of his name.
“Ya nikogda ne videl boleye sovershennoy zhenshchiny.”
“What did you say?”
“I have never seen a more perfect woman.”
“Daniil,”
I whisper, and he plants a kiss to the top of my shoulder.
“We should go.”
* * * *
“So, it’s an actual restaurant?”
I ask Daniil when I take off my blindfold and see we’ve parked in a reserved spot in front of a building that simply says, Chinese Restaurant.
“Not a functioning one.”
He shuts the engine off and turns to me.
“You need to stay by my side while we’re here. Rex won’t let anyone close to you, but I need you to stay with me.”
“I will.”
“Rex, you stay with Aria,”
Daniil says in his sexy authoritative voice.
“Watch her. Guard her.”
He lets out a little bark and I smile, scratching him between his ears.
Daniil draws my attention back to him when he reaches out and runs a finger down the center of my chest to the diamonds of my bra.
“You were meant to wear diamonds and pearls, Aria.”
He doesn’t wait for me to respond, instead he gets out of the car and comes around to open my door. I take his outstretched hand to help me out of his low car, but as we approach the door with two big men standing on either side of it, Daniil takes his hand out of mine and places it on my back.
The two guards crush out their cigarettes with their boots and stand a little straighter. “Pakhan,”
they say in unison, bowing their heads.
Daniil gives them a nod and the doors are opened for us, neither of them even casting a glance my way.
We enter the Chinese restaurant and Rex remains dutifully at my side. The only patrons inside the place are more big Russian men sitting around talking while drinking and smoking cigarettes. The moment they see Daniil, they sit up straighter and bow their heads in respect.
Seeing his power and respect on display is incredibly sexy.
He keeps walking us through the dining area and kitchen to a walk-in refrigerator door. The kitchen is extremely clean since it’s not a real restaurant, and I’m momentarily disappointed because all I ate today was a salad and thought there’d be actual food here.
Daniil opens the fridge door and guides us inside the empty space. On the other side, he punches a code into a keypad and a light flashes green. He opens the door and once again places his hand on my back as we move forward.
We step into a back room that’s set up like a small casino, the air thick with cigarette and cigar smoke assaulting my senses. The walls have men stationed every ten feet or so on guard, their legs in a widened stance and hands clasped either in front of or behind their backs as they scan the room.
“This way,”
Daniil tells me. We walk across the room and through a security checkpoint with another guard, then down a hallway. We make a left turn down another small hallway with a single door at the end of it. Daniil punches in a code to unlock it and once inside, I see why.
Stacks of cash are banded and piled on thick wooden tables inside a locked cage room like an evidence room in a police station.
“Pakhan,”
one man greets, coming up to Daniil and bowing his head.
“Damir.”
Daniil nods.
“Andrei isn’t running things tonight. I am. He said you have files on the whales coming tonight. I’d like to see them.”
“Of course. They’re on the desk in the office.”
Daniil nods again, then proceeds to tell him something in Russian.
“Da,”
Damir responds, then looks at me and bows his head before walking off.
I wait to ask my questions until we’re alone in the office off to the side of this money room.
“Why did he bow at me?”
“Not at you, to you. I told him you’re with me and are to be protected as if you're me, and to spread the word to all the men working tonight. He bowed to you in respect.”
Daniil sits behind the desk and looks through the files on top, and when he’s done, I lift myself up onto it. I cross my legs and his eyes follow the motion.
“You know, the way they all act towards you is incredibly sexy.”
He sits back in his chair and rubs his chin. “How so?”
“They all have immense respect for you, mixed with fear. None of them even looked at me until the last guy.”
“That’s because they know better than to look at what’s mine.”
“Oh? Do you bring women around with you so often that they’ve learned the rules?”
I don’t know why I ask him that. It’s only setting myself up for disappointment if he says yes, and it looks like I’m fishing for something more.
Daniil’s eyes narrow.
“No, Aria, I don’t bring women around.”
He stands up and looms over me, placing his hands on either side of me on the desk.
“They know not to look at you because of the fact that I’ve never had a woman on my arm and that means you’re far more off-limits and deserving of respect than if I had a different woman on my arm every night.”
Daniil pries my knees apart and steps between them.
“Is that the answer you were hoping for, kukolka?”
“If you’re telling the truth, then, yes.”
“If I’m telling the truth?”
His eyes harden.
“We said no lies, Aria. I’m not lying to you. I don’t have to lie to you.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Do you like knowing you’re the only woman I’ve brought around like this?”
He’s taunting me, and I don’t like it. I raise my chin defiantly.
“Yes. Because if I were just another pretty piece of ass on your arm, then our deal for this week is pointless.”
His nostrils flare. “How so?”
“It would mean you don’t need me the way I need you. To escape.”
Daniil leans in closer, his lips a few inches from mine.
“Is that what you think is happening? We’re escaping our lives with each other?”
I swallow the lump in my throat.
“I…Yes...I don’t know.”
“You don’t?”
He kisses the corner of my mouth.
“You don’t find giving yourself over to me an escape?”
He kisses the other corner.
“You don’t find being my perfect little doll I get to use however I please an escape?”
He kisses my chin.
“You don’t find trusting me with your virgin body an escape?” He kisses above my top lip.
“What would you call it then?”
My brain has stopped working.
My voice is lost.
“Hmm?”
he prompts, bumping my nose with his.
“What would you call it, kukolka?”
“What does that mean?”
“Little doll,”
he says in that sexy low tone I love, and my heart soars. He told me. He finally told me.
“You’re my little doll I’ve allowed myself to play with, how and when I want, until I have to give you back.”
I don’t hesitate. I hook my legs around his hips and grab his shirt, pulling him forward and meeting his lips in a crushing kiss that I feel bursting through me like the sun’s rays first bursting into a dark room, reaching every corner of my insides and setting me ablaze.
I let everything I wish I could say about how I feel into the kiss, letting it speak for me. He doesn’t want to hear that I care about him. That I’ve loved our time together. That I don’t want this week to end. That I'm falling in love with him.
Instead, I kiss him like I never will again, and he kisses me back with a dark possessive passion that only he embodies. I know why he doesn’t kiss me often, because this is the epitome of explosive chemistry. I fall in love with him just a little more with this kiss, wanting to consume him and burrow myself in him so deeply, he won’t want, or be able, to let me go.
A loud knocking on the door tries to interrupt us, but we don’t pay it any mind, even when Rex starts to bark.
It stops, then starts a few seconds later.
Daniil tears his lips away and growls like a bear being disturbed from its first meal after hibernation. “What?”
he barks, making me jump.
“We have a problem,”
someone says loudly from the other side of the door, and Daniil growls again.
“I have to go see what it is, kukolka,”
he says in a gentler voice for me.
“You want to sit out there with Rex or stay in here?”
“I’ll go out there.”
“Good.”
Daniil lifts me off the desk and puts me on my feet. He places his hand on my upper thigh, sliding it up under the short hem of the dress to my bare ass, giving me a greedy squeeze that screams ‘mine’.
Opening the door, Damir is waiting a few steps back.
“I apologize for interrupting, but we have a situation in the main room.”
Daniil leans down and tells me.
“Stay in here with Rex. He won’t let anyone close to you. But if you have a problem, tell Rex, atakovat. It means attack.”
“Okay.”
“Repeat it,”
he orders.
“Atakovat,”
I say the best I can, and Daniil nods his approval.
“Good girl,”
he whispers, sending a shiver through me.
“Rex, stay and guard her,”
he commands in a voice polar opposite to his sexy whisper.
Rex barks once and I smile down at him. He’s such a smart dog.
“We’ll be good,”
I tell Daniil.
“Go be a boss.”
I wink, then smile when he gives me a look that says he wishes he could say ‘fuck it’ to whatever is happening out there.
Both men leave, and a large figure steps in front of the doorway, blocking the entire space and caging Rex and I in the money room.
My heels click on the smooth cement floor as I approach the cage.
“How much you think is in there, Rexy?”
He gives me a chuff and I pet his head.
“Yeah, a couple million at least.”
There’s a small wooden table with chairs around it, so I take the seat that allows me to see the entrance, and Rex comes to sit by my side.
“You deserve a treat, Rexy,”
I tell him quietly, absentmindedly running my hand over his soft back.
“A nice big bone. A steak.”
He whines at the mention of steak and I laugh.
“Okay, a steak it is. I’ll make sure Daniil buys one for you.”
Rex rests his head on my lap and we sit here together in a comfortable silence for a few minutes until Rex raises his head and stands at attention, looking at the doorway.
“What’s wrong?”
The man guarding the door is speaking with someone, and then eventually steps aside so a man can enter.
“Oh, I see now. Why didn’t you say you were keeping a beautiful woman hostage in here? I can understand that, seeing how beautiful she is.”
I resist rolling my eyes because this is Daniil’s world and I don’t want to do anything that makes him look bad. He doesn’t deserve that.
“Why are you in here all alone with the boss’s dog?” he asks.
Rex growls and I place my hand on his back.
“He’s guarding me while his owner is taking care of a situation.”
“Guarding you? Hmm,”
he hums, raking his eyes up and down what parts of my body he can see behind the table.
“Guarding you from what? You look like you can handle yourself.”
I give him a condescending smile.
“He’s guarding me from everyone who isn’t his owner. Can I help you with anything else?”
“No.”
He smiles like he just got all the information he wanted.
“I'm the banker. I’m here to watch the cash.”
“Watch away. I won’t interfere.”
“You already are. That’s where I sit.”
“Ah, I see. Well, I have on heels that aren’t meant for standing around, so you’ll just have to take this one.”
I pull out the chair to my left and subtly push it a little farther away from me.
He shakes his head and comes over to sit.
“Don’t fucking sit there,”
Daniil snarls, walking back into the room.
“That’s my seat. Take the other chair and sit over there.”
He nods his head to the other side of the cage, and the guy who walked in here with all the cocky confidence in the world turns into a soldier following orders from the general.
“And don’t fucking talk to her again.”
“Of course, Pakhan,”
he says quickly, grabbing the other spare chair and taking it to the other side of the room.
“You okay?”
Daniil asks me.
“Yes. I can handle myself.”
“I know, but you don’t have to. You shouldn’t have to.”
God, he’s sweeter than he knows.
“Thank you. Did you solve the problem?”
Daniil takes the seat right next to me and places his hand on my thigh.
“I did. Some asshole thought he could come in here and count cards and we wouldn’t notice because we don’t have sophisticated cameras to flag him like in a real casino.”
“Then how did you know?”
“We suspected, but didn’t know for sure until he told us himself. I’m very persuasive, kukolka. You know that.”
My cheeks flame and I don’t know why I’m embarrassed.
“I do. But I hope you used a different tactic with him than you do with me.”
He narrows his eyes. “I did.”
“Good.”
I grin.
“I wouldn’t want everyone in here to know the secret side of you that only I do.”
I meant it to be playful to keep things light, but he’s not having it.
“Should I remind you how persuasive I can be right now? We were interrupted before and I’ve been dying to know how good my name looks on your back while I’m fucking you.”
“You’ll have to wait for that,”
I tell him, and his face grows even more serious, cupping the side of my neck.
“If I want to fuck you right now, I’m going to, and you’d love it. Wouldn’t you?”
“Yes,”
I whisper.
“You’re soaking wet for me, aren’t you?”
He takes a deep breath in as if he’ll be able to smell me.
“Yes.”
“Good girl.”
I close my eyes at his praise, but Damir’s voice pulls me from my bubble with Daniil again.
“The first whale is here. I need you to sign off on his money.”
“Bring him in,”
he instructs, and Damir leaves, coming back with two men. One is carrying a briefcase and his eyes dart over to Daniil and I, then quickly to the cement at his feet.
The cage is unlocked and the men enter it. The briefcase is placed on the empty table in the middle and Daniil whispers to me.
“I’ll be right back.”
He gives my thigh a squeeze and then follows them into the cage, locking them all inside.
I watch as Daniil stands in front of them with his arms crossed, his mere presence making everyone nervous. Damir must be the second in charge behind Daniil’s brother who runs this place because he takes the lead and counts the money in the briefcase first, then the other man with him, and then Daniil, who signs a piece of paper confirming it. The whale is given a tray of chips and is escorted out of the room.
“The other one just got here,”
Damir says, checking his phone.
“He’s being brought back now.”
When he walks in, I stand, and Daniil’s head snaps over to me. I walk over to the cage and he meets me so I can whisper.
“Is there a restroom back here?”
“I’ll take you when I’m done counting.”
“I can’t wait. I’ll take Rex with me.”
I can see he’s not happy, so I add.
“Please. I can’t wait and I won’t be long.”
“Fine. It’s back down the hall towards where we came from and to the right. I’ll have someone walk you.”
“No need. I have all the protection I need in Rex.”
I look down at my companion.
“Right, Rex?”
I ask, and he looks up at me dutifully. “See?”
I say to Daniil.
“He’s up for the job.”
“You remember the word?”
“I do.”
“If I don’t see you walk back through that door in five minutes, I’m coming after you.”
“You just worry about all your stacks of cash in there.”
I smirk.
“You have an expensive shopping spree payment coming up on your credit card.”
I turn and walk away with Rex right at my side, and I smile at the growl behind me before a string of Russian is released in a harsh voice.
I can feel the eyes of those I pass on me and the ones of those coming up behind me, but with Rex and Daniil’s name on me, I know I’m safe from unwanted attention.
Once I finish in the bathroom, I open the door and almost smack right into someone.
“Sorry,”
I say automatically, and a pair of arms reach out and grab my upper arms to steady me.
“No problem, sweetheart. I’d never need an apology from a gorgeous woman almost running into me.”
I look up at a man who’s wearing a smarmy grin and has a pair of beady black eyes that are sliding down my body and leaving the feeling of bugs crawling all over me in their wake.
I try and take a step away from him, but he tightens his grip on my arms. Sensing my discomfort, Rex growls beside me.
“No need to run off,”
the man says.
“Are you here with anyone? You want to come and watch me play a little?”
“I’m here with someone,”
I tell him, ripping myself out of his grasp.
“And he’s not going to like that you put your hands on me.”
The asshole chuckles creepily.
“Is that so? Then why did he leave you alone?”
“He didn’t.”
“You mean this mutt? He’s not so scary.”
The man reaches out to pet Rex and my ‘not so scary’ companion growls and goes to bite his hand.
“Shit!”
the asshole says, pulling his hand away quickly.
“Good boy, Rex,”
I praise down to him, and he keeps approaching the man, baring his sharp teeth with a rumbling growl.
“Tell him to back off.”
“He doesn’t like to be underestimated,”
I say smugly.
“Jesus, you’re a bitch,”
he spits at me.
“Tell your dog to back off or I’ll–”
“Or you’ll what?”
I challenge with a grin.
“And he’s not my dog.”
“He’s mine,”
Daniil says in a low, menacing voice.
“And so is she.”
He pulls me against his side and my heart flutters at the claim.
“Get the fuck out of here if you want to leave with the same amount of holes in your body you walked in here with.”
“And who the fuck are you to threaten me? I come here all the time and have never been treated like this. Not from some asshole with a dog or some stuck-up rich bitch with no manners when she’s the one who ran into me.”
Daniil has him by the throat and up against the wall in a flash, and I stand back with Rex, watching as the man I can’t help but think of as mine, defend me.
“Now you don’t get to walk out of here at all. This is my place. I own you. Did you put your hands on my girl?”
he asks, lifting him up the wall by the neck so his toes are barely touching the floor.
He shakes his head no, so Daniil asks me.
“Is that right, baby? He didn’t put his hands on you?”
“He did,”
I tell him.
“I ran into him when I was leaving the bathroom, but then he wouldn’t let go when I tried to step away from him.”
“She was the one who–”
the man starts to say, but Daniil squeezes his throat harder and the guy’s face turns red as his air is cut off.
“Don’t even try that shit with me.”
Daniil rolled up his sleeves while I was in the bathroom, so I can see the muscles in his forearm flex under the strain of his brute strength.
“Damir!”
Daniil shouts, and he appears out of the shadows.
“Take this piece of shit to the room and leave him there until I deal with him.”
Daniil releases the guy from his grip and he falls in a heap to the floor, coughing and sucking in air.
“You son-of-a-bitch!”
he croaks.
“I’m going to kill you!”
Daniil stands over him and smiles a smile that’s anything but friendly. It’s an eerie grin that holds the promise of death.
“Damir, take him away now.”
As Damir and another guy hauls him away, Daniil grabs my hand and drags me back to the money room and into the office, slamming the door closed behind us with Rex on the other side.
I take a few hasty steps backwards. His eyes are pools of ice and his face a stormy mask of anger as he stalks towards me like the predator he is.