No one owned me.
No matter what these Bratva men seemed to think.
Nikolai followed close behind, and I put a little extra sway in my hips, knowing without checking that he was staring at my ass. It was silly and pointless, but it was our way and had been since we were teens. We teased and we taunted and we irritated each other, trying to get a rise out of the other. An unspoken competition to see who could either piss the other off or turn the other on. I don’t know when it had started, or why, it just was.
I was bright and alert this morning, despite not being able to sleep the night before. My thoughts had been consumed with today's meetings and my duty as a daughter, not to mention the evening I’d had with Nik before Alex had come and ruined it all.
For the first time since I’d known him, Nik and I had actually had real fun together. Maybe because Alex wasn’t there so Nik had no one he felt the need to impress. We’d both finally let our guards down, low enough to have an actual conversation. Even if it was still filled with an absurd amount of sexual tension and drinking. Because that's what it was between us; sexual tension. I’d realized that last night as I’d watched him leave the bar with Alex and I’d felt bitter disappointment that he hadn’t picked me. Nik was my equal when it came to sex and dominance, but he was someone I’d never had sex with and likely never would. That was why the chemistry was so strong between us; we were untouchable to the other. He was my brother's best friend, and I was his best friend's sister. We were out of bounds to one another. I hated him, of course, and it wasn’t like I’d want a relationship with him anyways; he was just an arrogant nymphomaniac like me.
I pushed through the bathroom door, expecting him to wait outside, but Nik followed me in, and I spun to face him with a scowl on my face ready to tell him to get the hell out, but I didn’t have time to speak as he grabbed me by the waist and lifted me up on to the bathroom countertop.
“Nik, what are you…”
His mouth covered mine, his hands pushing my thighs apart and then his body filled the empty space. I didn’t even try to stop him as I kissed him back immediately. Our tongues entwined, his hands stroking down my shoulders.
The door to the bathroom opened and Nik pulled out of the kiss and turned to whoever it was.
“Get the fuck out,” he barked loudly, and the door swung closed again. He looked at me intently, his hands skimming across my arms and over my legs. I was butter in his hands as he ran his thumbs up and down my inner thighs, making me shiver against his body.
“Katya,” he said my name and I opened my mouth to respond when he smiled, his thumb rubbing along my sensitive seam and making me gasp, “remember that kiss later, when he’s balls deep in you, touching you with his greasy greedy little hands.”
I felt like I had been slapped across the face, his words were so ugly and bitter, and yet he was still there between my thighs, mouth inches from mine and I couldn’t push him away.
Hurt punctured my heart like a knife.
“Why do you hate me so much,” I said, suddenly both angry and sad. “What did I ever do to make you despise me like this?”
His expression faltered momentarily before he fixed his smile back in place. “You’ve always just been...in the way, Katya. You’re an inconvenience. You tagged along with Alex and I every night. You snitched on us to our parents. You fucked our friends, and you dressed like a whore hoping to get a rise out of every man you set your sights on just so you could get our attention. You were a little girl in a man’s world, and you still are.”
I swallowed, feeling sick at his horrible words. How could he say such awful things with such a beautiful mouth? I took a deep breath and steeled myself. It was my turn to smile now as I pulled my armor back in place. He’d caught me off guard, but I was back now.
Reaching between us, I cupped his cock in my hand, satisfied that it was as hard as steel from being so close to me. He might think he was immune to me but we both knew that was a lie. He held my stare, refusing to back down and I let my self-satisfied grin rise.
“I think, Nikolai,” I teased, rubbing my palm over his length and watching his pupils dilate with need, “what bothers you the most is knowing that you can never have this.”
He chuckled. “You think I can’t have you anytime I want, Katya?”
“I think you know that I’m off limits. That I’ve always been off limits. And I willalwaysbe off limits to you.” I rubbed him harder, watching as his nostrils flared, desire pooling in my belly. I would have loved nothing more than to lean in and kiss him now. Let him push my jeans down as he bent me over the sink and fucked me from behind. But there was no way in hell I was ever letting that happen. Hell would freeze over first. I gripped him tight in my palm, squeezing hard enough to make him wince, but still he held my gaze. “I’m going to go back out there and pick myself a husband, and every night when he fucks me, I’ll think of you, Nikolai…” I licked my lips, “I’ll think of you thinking of me while you fuck your ugly Russian wife, holding on to her large childbearing hips.” I laughed and let go of his cock, before pushing him away. “Now get the fuck out of my way.”
I slid off of the countertop and brushed past him, heading back into the restaurant.
*
Despite our bathroom antics and my words of warning, Nikolai stayed ever present for each date, making sure to make each and every one of them even more awkward and uncomfortable than necessary. I’d expected him to leave after my vicious words, but he didn’t.
I’d never been one to be shy around men, but with Nik listening to my every word, his heated, tormented gaze watching every movement, I found myself fumbling my way through each date. I couldn’t say the right thing or keep my food from falling off my fork. At one point, I even dripped wine onto my halter top as I tried to smile politely at a bad joke.
And Nik bathed in the awkwardness of it all, delighting in it.
He scoffed loudly at my dates’ advances.
He chuckled as they tried to flirt.
And he spilled soup over the lap of my final date, a Russian businessman by the name of Levin Pchran.
“Fuck, sorry,” he said, with no apology in his tone whatsoever.
“I think it’s time you left,” I snapped bitterly as the waitress dabbed at my date’s lap with a white napkin.
