Duke
“Baby, I miss you.Terribly,” Katarina says in her smooth and sultry Russian accent.
“You saw me yesterday, kitten,” I croon, but my tone hardens ever so slightly when I add, “And you know how busy I am. I’ll give you all the time you need when things settle down.”
Katarina’s groan vibrates down the line like a purr. “I could come over and give you something you need right now.”
Sitting back in my executive chair, I swipe my tongue over my lips and taste Grace’s kiss. I was still painfully hard when Katarina called, but my fiancée’s voice cools my ardor faster than the cold shower I’d planned to take.
I had considered ignoring my phone, but avoiding Katarina for too long is inviting trouble. She might turn up at the office and that’s the last thing I need with Grace in the building.
My voice is oily smooth despite my tensed jaw when I say, “Why don’t you just tell me what you’d do to me? And don’t miss out any details.”
Katarina gives a throaty laugh. “Then sit back in that big leather chair and make yourself comfortable.”
My molars start to ache. “I’ll need you alone,” I tell her. “You’re going to enjoy this too.”
I listen to the sharp tap of her stilettos on the tiled floor of her apartment. “Oh, I always do with you in charge, baby.”
As I wait for Katarina to reach her bedroom, I dig my fingers into my scalp. I feel sick talking dirty to Katarina when I had Grace in my arms only moments ago.
On the other end of the line, a door closes and Katarina heaves out a sigh. “And... cut.”
I swallow back bile, repulsed by the conversation we’ve just had, but relieved the acting is over. For now. “This had better be fucking important,” I hiss.
Our subterfuge is a necessary precaution while Katarina is being watched around the clock. Her two bodyguards work for her uncle, Vasili Barkov, and their job is to spy on her as much as it is to protect what the Pakhan of the Bratva considers his property.
Katarina and I have created a code so she can warn me when Danyl and Andrey are in earshot. If she uses a word from a list we’ve drawn up, words liketerribly, I know our exchange will be reported verbatim back to her uncle.
Vasili has been trying to expand his business interests into the US for years, but after losing significant territory this summer, he’s relying on his niece to acquire the power and influence he craves. For a man who amassed his fortune through human trafficking, treating Katarina as an asset to be exploited comes naturally.
He doesn’t care who she marries as long as it’s someone with access to the people he wants to impress, or corrupt. As a Moncrief, I meet Vasili’s criteria, as did Katarina’s last twosuitors who escaped his net. He’s hoping for third time lucky.
“It’s such a joy talking to you, Duke,” Katarina snipes back. “And I swear, if you call mekittenone more time, I will cut your throat.”
I wish she were joking, but the Bratva princess is bat shit crazy and undoubtedly capable of following through with her threat.
“What do you want, Katarina?” I push anyway.
“Shall we start with why you sent Max chasing after a woman yesterday?”
I’d made sure to distract Danyl and Andrey, but I should have known Katarina would notice something. I want to tell her it’s none of her fucking business, but if I don’t provide a convincing explanation, she’ll only look into it more deeply. She likes to collect information on people and she’s not averse to using it against them. Even the one person who’s put his life on hold to help her.
“It was an ex-employee, one we’d been trying to track down for a while. She and an accomplice, a boyfriend we think, developed a sophisticated system of cloning hotel keycards,” I explain, spinning a story with enough detail to sound convincing. “They disappeared a few months back and yesterday she got away again.” I laugh for added authenticity. “Just don’t ask Max how he got the burn on his cheek.”
“Why would I care about his face?” she scoffs. “That man hates me. I hope the burn leaves a scar.”
Her sharp tongue is the reason people find it so easy to dislike her. I have to remind myself that it’s a defense mechanism, and she’s certainly had a lot to defend herself from in her twenty years.
“Was there anything else, Katarina?”
“I’ve been speaking to my uncle,” she says, getting to the true reason for the call. “He doesn’t like that we still haven’t set a date for the wedding. He’s getting impatient.”
“He’s not the only one.”
It’s not the wedding I’m impatient for because there isn’t going to be one. Vasili would be apoplectic if he knew that rather than buying him influence, our engagement has been all about buying Katarina time – time that’s stretched far longer than anyone anticipated. Me especially.
When I’d agree to play her latest conquest, we were only supposed to be engaged for a matter of days, long enough to stop Vasili recalling Katarina back to Russia, and for her to fake her death and disappear. Unfortunately, the original plan had to be aborted and my good deed hasn’t gone unpunished ever since.
