Tarnished Tyrant - A Mafia Romance

Chapter 16 Episode 16

The female voice behind me makes me jump. I spin aroundand find the executive assistant from the front desk standing inthe doorway. Today, she has on a tight white dress with a thighslit more suited for a club night out with the girls than a day inthe office. Her hair falls over her shoulders in glossy blackwaves, the kind that say I woke up extra early just to makemyself look perfect.

“You scared me,” I laugh nervously.

She does not return my smile. “Did you say something?”

“No,” I say. “Well, yes, but I was… I was talking to myself.It’s nothing.”

Her perfect eyebrow arches. I feel like a bug under amicroscope. “Right. Well, Mr. Zhukova wants to see you.”

“Me?” I feel stupid as soon as I say it. Of course, she meansme. “Why?”

“Because he would like to see you.”

I bite back a groan. She sounds like her boss.

Answer: Because I said so.

I close my laptop and follow her out of the room.

Her long strides have her half a hallway in front of me, andshe makes no effort to slow down or wait for me. So I hustleafter her, half-jogging to keep up.

“Have you worked for Niko—Mr. Zhukova for very long?” Iask.

She lifts her chin and looks back over her shoulder at me.“Only a few months. I’m a new hire. But Mr. Zhukova offeredme the job himself.”

Yeah, that makes sense. The woman is a bombshell. AndNikolai said his attention span is short. I’d imagine theinterview process was… unorthodox.

But as soon as that thought crosses my mind—and as soon asthe flashesbetween my thighs—I repress it.

It doesn’t matter. None of this does.

“High turnover rate?” I ask.

“Mr. Zhukova doesn’t stand for incompetence.”

Wow. Didn’t realize Nikolai had his own spin team working atthe front desk. I want to ask if all the previous receptionistswere also former or future models, but I think I already knowthe answer.

My jaw aches. I realize I’m clenching my teeth. As thereceptionist knocks on Nikolai’s door, I force myself to take adeep breath.

Relax. A few more days and this will be over.

For two glorious seconds, that thought reassures me. But whenthe door opens, the tension is back with a vengeance.

“Hey,” the receptionist purrs through the crack in the door, hervoice infinite degrees warmer than it ever was with me. “I gother for you.”

She makes it sound like I’m a bone she was sent to fetch.

“You can let her in, Bridget,” Nikolai says. He doesn’t matchher warmth, but then again, of course he doesn’t. He doesn’tneed to.

She will fawn all over him, and all he has to do is exist. He’llsmile, f**k her until she’s broken the way I am, dependent onhim for release… then send her back out into the wild.

Bridget steps back, her expression smug. “Let me know if youneed anything else, Mr. Zhukova.”

Like a quickie before lunch, seems to be right on the tip of hertongue.

I hurry past the receptionist and shut the door on her stupid,perfect face.

“You wanted to see me?” I ask, turning to face him withoutquite meeting his eyes. Reason being that, if I look into hiseyes, I’ll recall what he said to me last night while pressedagainst the conference room table. I’ll lose what little bit ofdignity I’ve managed to scrape up.

“I do want to see you,” he says. “But I also want to talk toyou.”

My eyes snap up to his before I can stop myself. “How cute,” Isay sarcastically.

“Not cute. Just honest. Same as I was last night.”

My heart is pounding in my chest, and I’m sure he can hear it.“I have a lot to do today. What do you want from me?”

He stands up, devastating in tailored navy blue suit pants and apale blue button down. The material hugs his biceps and theflat plane of his abs. I want to scrape my teeth over hismuscles and eat him like a buffet.

“I don’t think we have time to get into everything I want fromyou, Belle.”

My list is short: I want to kill him.

“But,” he continues, walking around his desk and leaning onthe front edge, “I’d like to know that you understand what is atstake here.”

I roll my eyes. “Your criminal record?”

His nose twitches in an unamused smile. “Not what’s at stakefor me. I stand to lose very little if you gather up evidence touse against me. I’m not as easy to take down as you mightthink. No, I want to make sure you understand what’s at stakefor you. Because last night—”

“You’ve already threatened me, Nikolai. I understand—”

“I wasn’t finished,” he barks.

His pupils are blown wide, black eating away the gray. I feelenergy rippling off of him. My confidence wilts in the face ofhis genuine anger.

He clears his throat and relaxes again. “Last night, youthreatened me.”

“I wasn’t serious,” I say quickly. “Check my notebook if youwant to. I don’t really have a sketch of you in there.”

“For your sake, I hope you don’t. Because as I said last night, Ihave plans for the two of us, Belle. But if you’re going tobetray me, those plans can change.”

A future filled with multiple orgasms flashes in my mind. Igulp and swallow them back.

“The only plans I have are to finish this audit and leave.Nothing else.”

Nikolai smirks. “You don’t want to stay and play?”

“I want to do my job and leave.”

He pushes himself off the desk and circles around me like ashark circling a diver. Except I don’t have the luxury of aprotective cage. “Be more specific.”

I sigh. “I want to complete the audit, get on a plane with mysister, and fly home to Oklahoma City.”

“But are you going to do the audit your way?” he asks,pausing just out of sight behind me. “Or my way?”

“I’ve already told you. I’m going to do my job and—”

Suddenly, Nikolai is pressed against my back. He flattens hishand against my stomach. “What is your job, Belle?”

My heart is lodged in my throat and I have to swallow hard tofind my voice. “I’m an accountant. I’m here to complete theaudit and write up the final report for—”

“No.” His hand moves slowly down, sending swarms ofbutterflies fluttering through me. “Who are you here to please,Belle?”

“I’m not—I don’t know what you mean.” Like a coward, Isqueeze my eyes closed. I should shove him away, shouldsprint out of this room… but I want his hand to move lower. Iwant the release I couldn’t find last night.

God help me, I want him.

With a simple flick of the fingers, he unbuttons my pants. “Areyou going to obey me, lapochka?”

Leaning against him feels like being in a dream. The warmthand the smell and the sensation of his fingers sneaking downand down and down…

He slides over my slit, parting me open before delving a fingerinside. I whimper and bite down on my lip.

“Do you remember when I was inside of you?” he rasps in myear. “Remember when I filled you from behind?”

I rest my head back on his shoulder, eyes closed. He’s strokingme slowly. Torturously.

“I thought about it last night,” I admit, speaking so softly I canbarely hear myself.

Nikolai slides a second finger into me. “You did? Good girl.”

I nod, still keeping my eyes clamped close. “I touched myselfafter I left. I… I needed this. Release.”

“Did you find it?” he asks as his thumb reaches up to circleover my c**t.

“Oh God,” I groan. I feel too good to be embarrassed. To beashamed. To feel anything other than pleasure and sweet,sweet relief.

“Did you find what you were looking for?” he asks again.

I shake my head. “I couldn’t turn my brain off.”

“The way you did in the airplane bathroom,” he whispers.“Remember that? How I made you forget? It didn’t matter thatit was against the rules or that people could hear us. You justenjoyed yourself. What a concept.”

I grind shamelessly against his hand. With every brush of hisfingers, he’s driving me closer and closer to the edge, and I’mready to Thelma & Louise right off the side. I might combustbefore it’s over, but at least the ache inside of me will be gone.

“That’s all life is,” he continues. “It’s about what makes youfeel good. What benefits you. f**k everything and everyoneelse.”

Somewhere in the back of my head, I feel a tickle of unease. Asmall alarm bell struggling to be heard over the thrum of bloodin my veins, most of which is rushing straight between mylegs.

Nikolai is working his fingers in what feels like an impossiblerhythm, pumping into me while working my c**t. I’m putty inhis hands, limp and needy.

And then I feel the orgasm coming. My body is tightening,preparing for the release.