Chapter Four:The Devil's Deal
1190 Words
Alexai's Pov
"She actually came back."
I was at the window in the conference room when Lucia Romano's black BMW sailed into the parking lot. It was twenty-four hours since I'd issued her my ultimatum, and some portion of me thought she'd choose family loyalty over Olympic gold.
I was mistaken.
She emerged from her vehicle in tight black leggings and a large sweater that was somehow both innocent and provocative. Her dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail, showing the elegant curve of her neck. I could feel the resolve in the set of her shoulders from across the distance.
Princess Romano had made her choice.
My phone vibrated with a text message from my dad. *Family meeting tomorrow. News about the Romans.*
I deleted the message without responding. Father could wait. I had more interesting business to deal with for the time being.
The security guard buzzed Lucia in, and I walked towards the front entrance. She was pacing back and forth in front of the doors, her fists clenched at her sides. She halted and lifted her chin as if ready to go into battle when she saw me approach.
Good. I liked my women to have some fight in them.
"You came," I said, letting my gaze wander slowly from her face to her feet and back to her face once more. She was shorter than I remembered, barely reaching my shoulder, but each inch of her was perfectly proportioned.
I wondered what it would feel like to have all that fire and passion focused on me instead of figure skating.
"Don't look at me like that," Lucia said sharply, her cheeks turning pink.
"Like what?" I leaned in, enjoying the way her breath caught when I invaded her personal space.
"Like I'm a piece of meat you're considering eating."
I smiled. "Who says I'm only thinking about it?"
Her blush intensified, but she stood her ground. "We're here to talk business."
"Are we?" I allowed my voice to whisper. "Since last night, you appeared more keen on begging."
Fire danced in her black eyes. "I don't beg."
"No? Then what do you call what you did yesterday?" I slowly circled around her, the way a predator circles around prey. "Coming to enemy territory, alone, seeking help from the son of the man your family tried to destroy?"
"That was desperation, not begging."
"Is there a difference?"
Lucia clenched her fists. "Are you going to help me or not?"
I stopped in front of her, close enough to smell her perfume. Something expensive and delicate that probably cost more than most people made in a month. Everything about her screamed privilege and wealth, from her designer workout clothes to the way she held herself like the world owed her something.
Spoiled little mafia princess who'd never had to work for anything in her life.
Yet beneath all that entitlement was something else. Something hungry and raw that spoke to the predator in me. She needed the Olympics badly enough to risk it all, and that level of desperation was intoxicating.
I wanted to strip away all that calculated control and discover what the genuine Lucia Romano was like when she wasn't disguised behind her family's name.
"I'll help you," I finally said.
Relief flooded her features. "Thank you—"
"But now my price has gone up."
The relief vanished, replaced with caution. "What do you mean?"
"Information about your family is no longer enough." I leaned forward and touched her cheek, her skin warming beneath my fingertips. "I want more."
She withdrew from my touch. "More what?"
"You." The word seemed to dangle in the air like a dare. "I need you to be mine. Totally. When we're training together, you're mine."
"Belong to you?" Her voice was quietly furious. "I'm not some kind of possession you can own."
"Aren't you?" I tilted my head to the side, studying her face. "You're here because you desire something from me. You're willing to defy your family in order to get it. That seems like desperation to me."
"Training partnership," she gritted out. "That's all this is."
"No, princess. If we're going to do this, it's going to be a lot more than that." I moved closer again, pinning her to the wall. "I want access to everything. Your time, your attention, your secrets. And when we're alone together, you'll do precisely what I say you'll do."
Her breath came shallowly now, her pupils dilated. Fear or excitement, I couldn't tell. Maybe both.
"You're sick," she whispered.
"Maybe. But I'm also your only option." I put one hand on the wall near her head. "Three weeks to learn pairs skating for Olympic trials. That means practicing together twelve hours a day, seven days a week. Living in each other's pockets. Trusting each other with your life."
"I can trust you without being your possession."
I laughed. "Trust? Between a Romano and a Volkov? The only way this works is if I own you completely. If you're mine in every way that matters."
"And what do I receive in exchange?"
"Your Olympic dreams. And the best skating partner you've ever had." I leaned forward until my lips were almost at her ear. "I'll make you more than you've ever been, Lucia. On and off the ice."
She shivered, and I felt a jolt of pleasure. The spoiled princess wasn't as invulnerable to me as she was acting.
"This is insane," she breathed.
"Most good things are." I leaned back to see her face. "So what's it going to be? Are you brave enough to make a deal with the devil?"
Lucia gazed up at me for a long while, her chest rising and falling. I could practically witness the war being waged behind her eyes. Family loyalty against Olympic aspirations. Security against the great unknown.
At last, she spoke. "If I do this, I have conditions."
"I'm listening."
"No one can find out about the arrangement. Not your family, not mine. As far as the world is concerned, we're merely training partners."
"Agreed. What else?"
"You train me right. No sabotage, no tricks aimed at making me fail. You give me your best."
"Done." I grinned. "Anything else?"
She drew an unsteady breath. "When the Olympics are over, we're finished. Regardless of what happens between us, it's over there."
"We'll see about that." I extended my hand. "Do we have a deal?"
Lucia looked at my outstretched hand as though it was a snake about to attack her.
She then extended her hand and shook it.
"We have a deal," she murmured.
The moment our palms touched, electricity traveled up my arm. Lucia's eyes widened in shock as she gasped.
"Good," I told her, still holding her hand. "We begin tomorrow at six AM. Don't be late."
I let her go and turned to leave, but her voice halted me.
"Alexei? What will happen if your father learns about this?"
I glanced back at her over my shoulder, and the terror in her eyes was nearly enough to make me feel guilty. Almost. "Then we're both dead.
- Writer
