She pinched her lips and nodded, but I could almost see the wheels turning in her head. It annoyed me that I couldn’t read her as clearly as I read most people. She didn’t “speak” with facial expressions or gestures, and she definitely didn’t speak much with her mouth. I ought to take her to Vegas and sit her on a poker table. Nobody would see that shit coming. I bet she’d rob them bitches blind.
In the corner of my eye, I caught Neven’s gaze on her ass trailing, slowly, up and up, and I waited until he saw me watching him. Our eyes met, and he swallowed and suddenly found his fingernails more interesting.
“Locate your bathing suit and put it on,” I barked.
Blue eyes widened.
Before she got up to walk naked around my house, I grabbed a towel and covered her. “I can kill all my men, or you can cover yourself. Up to you.”
She rolled her eyes and stood, then walked inside the house wrapped in a towel. My phone pinged a message, and I read the name of a hospital. That was it. The name, all Ludi sent since he likely didn’t appreciate having to clean up my mess with the Russians on weekends, days he reserved for his wife.
I scrubbed my face, pissed I had to leave, but I would leave nevertheless.
On my way inside the house, I met Lana coming out in a bathing suit, the same skimpy little thing she wore last night. She stood in front of me, looking up, lips parted, awaiting something, maybe an explanation of where I was headed, but she’d get none ’cause I didn’t work for her.
“Don’t go anywhere. Don’t drink too much. I’ll return with lunch.”
She stepped closer and ran soft hands over my chest, up to my neck, and interlocked her fingers behind it. She pulled, trying to force my head down.
When I wouldn’t bend, she jumped me. Not leaving me much of a choice, I held her up with a hand over her ass, my fingers positively itching to slip under the skimpy suit and stroke her folds. I bet they were wet. I bet my dick would slide right in. I bet she’d feel tight and warm.
“I feel like Chinese,” she said.
Whaaa— A coincidence? Connection? Signs. “Hm?”
She swiped her tongue over my lips and made noises as if tasting what her tongue came away with.
“Orange chicken,” she said.
I tasted like orange chicken. Wow, this girl was weird, but I liked weird, so that was good. She slid off me and joined her friends as I stood there, frowning, trying to figure out the Chinese connection and orange chicken.
“Beef teriyaki for me.” Ivana passed me on her way upstairs carrying a plate for my dad. “I’ll send you what the girls want by the time you’re at the place.”
Fantastic. I ate sweet pussy last night and woke up a runner boy. Women. God help us with them. God help us without them. Grumbling, I walked up the stairs after my cousin, knowing she’d have more to say. She didn’t disappoint. At Dad’s door, she paused, not turning around. “This is serious.”
“I know it is.”
“Then you know what you have to do.”
“I’m taking her.”
Ivana spun, horror registering in her eyes. “What do you mean, taking her?”
“Don’t know yet, but she’s not leaving. Send Lovac for her things.”
Ivana gaped. “No, Nikola, you have to return her and apologize, offer something Mikhail is gonna like. If she were your niece, Mikhail would have to do the same.”
“Or I could marry her. You said it.”
“I was joking. You can’t marry her.”
“Why not?” Dad shouted from behind the door.
“Ooooh,” I shouted back. “Now you can hear? When I’m telling you which medicine is for what, then you’re deaf.”
Ivana pushed inside, slamming the door with her foot. I stared at it, thinking I’d have to punish her someday. She bossed men around better than most men, but when she got into the boss mode with me, I disliked it. Her place was beside me, not in front of me. I’d have to address this door slamming in my face. But first, a hospital visit I dreaded.
I didn’t want to face Mikhail with a half-baked plan and tell him I’d hold the girl at my house until I overthought my decision and strategized the next decade of my life.
