"Tatyana." He kissed her, smelling of citrus, lavender, wood, man. "Or should I say SuperBrat?" he whispered into her ear.
He was a clever man, villainess was exactly the look she was trying for. "It took you long enough to find me, AssMan," she murmured against his neck.
His chest shook as though he was holding back a laugh. "I thought I taught you respect."
Last night. Her toes curled. "I seem to have forgotten that lesson."
"Can't have that." Nikky kissed her again. She closed her eyes, savoring the thrust of his tongue into her mouth, the taste of vodka and man, his fingertips on her backbone. The man had skills.
A clearing of a throat scattered the moment. "Miss." The grinning stickman offered her the dice.
"No, thank you." She gave the casino employee a sheepish smile. "We're done here." They needed some privacy so they could kiss undisturbed.
"You can't stop now," Stepan insisted a little too desperately, annoying Tatyana. Though, she should be more sympathetic. Thanks to her, he was down high four figures.
"Can't she?" A hint of steel backed Nikky's velvet voice.
The cousin swallowed. Hard. Tatyana played with her engagement ring to cover her amusement. Her bossy fiance. "She's crapped out every single round, every single round, Nikolay," Stepan said like that was unusual. It wasn't, not for her. "Her luck has to turn."
No, it didn't. "I told you." Not that it mattered. None of them paid her warnings any attention. She looked up at Nikky, not even her handsome fiance. "That Nikky has all of my luck." An admonition when the cousin's hands crept a little too close to her breasts. She would not be pawed by anyone other than Nikky.
Her comment drew a shaky laugh from Stepan. "That's not how luck works, dear cousin."
"Isn't it?" How the hell would he know? She squeezed her bright red lips into a thin line.
"Cousins," she addressed the crowd, "You don't mind if we have a new shooter, do you?"
Not standard play in craps but what was the point of owning a casino if you couldn't make your own rules?
Dark heads bobbed around the table. Annoying little yes men. She took two dice from the stickman. "I didn't think so."
Held them out. "Care to do the honors, Nikky?" To prove her point.
Nikky's lips twitched. "One roll." Bets were placed. He shook the die in his closed hand.
She leaned over, brushing her breasts against him and blew on his hand. "For luck." He rolled. Seven. A natural.
She pressed her face into Nikky's chest to cover her gloating smile. "Now, can we go?"
No one would mistake his fiancee for a child tonight. Nikky's skin twitched with every ripple of that form fitting leather. Something black, something sophisticated, something expensive. The combination was lethal to his composure.
Tatyana glanced up from where she huddled with the wives, talking rings and weddings and babies. He wished he could watch her all night. He couldn't. "I'll be back," he mouthed to her. She nodded, a small smile curling her bright red lips.
"Don't leave her side," he instructed her bodyguard, reluctantly moving away. "Oh, and Boris?"
"Yes, Boss."
"Thank you for contacting me earlier." When the wolves circled the brat, looking for weaknesses. Not that she had any. She twisted even her bad luck to her advantage.
To their advantage. She may give him hell in private, but in public, she was firmly on his team. Someone at his back.
"She asked me to contact you, Boss."
She asked for him. That pleased him. Nik moved through the casino, determined. He had business to attend to, the business of protecting a fiancee.
He sat down beside Joey Chan's man at the blackjack table and motioned to be dealt in.
Pavel placed his chips on the table, a deliberate show of strength. A couple of regulars stepped away.
A four showing for the dealer. Under seventeen. She would hit. Nik would also, having a Queen, the Queen of Hearts, and a five. Chan's man sat pretty at a pair of tens.
"I hear you're searching for a woman." Nik kept his voice low. "A woman looking remarkably like my fiancee." There'd been recognition in the man's eyes when he spotted the brat. The discovery would be relayed and Joey Chan would know where she was by the end of the night. "Not my fiancee, you understand, but as they look alike." He shrugged his shoulders as though unconcerned. "I don't appreciate the photo being flashed around." He touched his finger to the table and was dealt a card. A six. "It makes me uncomfortable. You wouldn't want me to be uncomfortable, would you?"
Lips pressed together was the man's answer. The only answer he could give, the man Chan's eyes, not his mouth.
"I didn't think so."
The dealer flipped over the hole card. A King of Spades. She dealt herself another card. An eight. Bust. He couldn't ask for a better end to the game.
"Ahhh...see that." Nik slapped the man's back hard. "We both win." He stood, his message delivered, nodded to the dealer and walked away, Pavel handling the chips and dealer tip.
The next move would be Chan's. If he continued to ask questions, he would be dealt with directly. No one messed with Nik's fiancee.
Five
"There are no winners in a war."ȄSergei Kaerta Another early damn morning. Nik stalked through the casino, tired and annoyed. If this was one of Grandfather's chain-jerking power trips and not a legitimate emergency, he'd bust his elderly skull.
"What is it?" he asked as Pavel joined him.
"Chan lost three men last night, Boss."
Shit. That was bad. "Whose orders?" It sure the hell wasn't his.
"We don't know." Not a Kaerta hit. Nik expelled a relieved breath at that news. "All three had been asking about your fiancee."
Set up so Chan would think them responsible. "Gather as much information as possible."
That instruction was unnecessary. Pavel would already be on it. "Openly." He wanted Chan to know they were also investigating.
His head of security smiled, Pavel had as much brains as he did brawn. "Yes, Boss."
Yuri opened
