Page 21 of His Forbidden Obsession

“So Nikolai is for him.” I knew it wouldn’t take Remington long to put that together.

“Yes.” And I can’t let that happen. “The Koslovs and the Ivanovs joining forces will be disastrous for us.”

“I don’t know that I’d go that far, but it’s certainly not good. It’s unlikely Dimitri has the clout to pull his whole family into the alliance. I suspect, for now, there are private agreements between him and Andrei Ivanov, but the Russians consolidating power in any way will cause us numerous problems. Not to mention, they don’t give me the respect I deserve.”

The Russians only pretended to work with Remington, but we all knew they were angling to take over much of the area our family controls. “We need to put an end to this engagement.” I held my breath as I waited for Remington’s response.

“That will be a tedious operation if we don’t want to make a blatant attack.” At least he was entertaining the idea. “I’ll work on a plan. Be prepared to assist me.” I’d promised myself I’d refuse to be involved in more diplomacy with Dimitri, but if that was my only way to save Niko from Ivanov, I was ready to do whatever Remington asked.

“I’m here for anything you need.”

“Good. Was there anything else you’d like to share?”

A shiver ran down my spine. Did he know about Niko? How the hell could he? Even if he did, I wasn’t going to confess, but I should let him know about the offer Dimitri had put on the table. Remington would be furious, but he was always coolheaded enough to move carefully unless someone threatened his boyfriend, Henri. He went ballistic for his man.

The way you would kill Ivanov for touching Niko.

No. I don’t… It’s nothing like Remington and Henri.

I pushed those thoughts from my mind. I needed to tell Remington about Teresa Anne, both to make sure she was protected and to encourage his desire to end Dimitri’s power. If I helped Remington prevent an alliance, maybe Niko could be my reward.

No. Fuck. I had to stop thinking that way. If I didn’t stop fantasizing about Niko, I was going to get myself in trouble. I needed to focus on my family. “There is one other thing.”

“I thought so.” Remington was nearly as good at reading me as my brothers. Sometimes I seriously wondered if the man was psychic.

“While we were talking through the deal, Dimitri made an offer.”

“And…”

“He was willing to give us all the weapons we needed in exchange for Teresa Anne.”

The line was dead silent. I’d expected Remington to explode with anger. Instead, he was silent, I could practically feel the chill through the phone. That was much worse. “Remington?”

“He signed his death warrant with that. How did you respond?”

“I told him I considered the offer an insult to our entire family and that if he ever proposed such a thing again, it would be the last thing he did. I told him we didn’t sell off family members, and we never would.”

“I’ll be in touch soon.” Remington ended the call before I could respond. Fuck. I wanted Dimitri dead. But I might’ve just started exactly what I’ve been trying to avoid.

Maybe you should’ve taken Nikolai with you after all.

8

NIKOLAI

Iturned on my side and let my tears fall as I listened to Lorenzo’s steps move away from my door. I could hardly breathe, and I felt like I might pass out. Could you pass out lying down? I wasn’t sure. All I knew was that Lorenzo had given me the best experience of my life. I’d never imagined anything could feel so good. So why was I crying? Why did my chest feel tight, and why was I shaking like I was freezing to death?

Because as good as this was, I was still here, still in hell, still engaged to Alina. Lorenzo was never going to toss me on the bed and hold me down while he fucked me. I wasn’t going to know what it would be like to have him all the way inside me, to suck his cock, to hear him come. I hadn’t even gotten a chance to get him off.

I replayed our moments together in my head. He’d been so fucking passionate, so hot, so filthy, but he was cold enough to pull out of me, zip his hard cock up in his trousers, and grab his gun. I couldn’t figure out if that horrified me or turned me on more. Then he’d just finished me off and walked away. I’d wanted his cum inside me, dripping out of me. I wanted to smell like him. Sucking my own cum off his fingers had been so damn good. I never even thought about doing that. The times I’d made out with guys, we’d been trying to hide and doing everything in a rush. They had known more about what they were doing than I did, but Lorenzo knew fucking everything.

What was I supposed to do now? Pretend this never happened, marry Alina, and be a servant to her father? It would be even worse to be controlled by Ivanov than to be controlled by my own father. I was useless to him except as a way to get money in exchange for me, but Ivanov would take my body too. I wouldn’t have any control over myself. He’d force me to sleep with Alina too. He wanted more grandchildren, and he expected us to produce them. That had been made very clear.

Neither of us wanted children, especially not when we’d be bringing them into her father’s household.

I’d had only brief moments to speak with her when we couldn’t be overheard by guards or our fathers, but I’d learned that she didn’t want to get married any more than I did. She wanted her own life away from her family. She’d run away before, but her father had hunted her down and dragged her back. She didn’t say exactly what had happened afterward, but I knew he’d hurt her and tried to break her, but he hadn’t.

She was an amazing woman, but I didn’t want to marry her. I didn’t want to be forced from one horrible family into another. Everything Lorenzo said about her father was true. Nothing was going to get better after the wedding.