"Come here." More orders. Nikky patted his knee. She perched on it. "So soft." He brushed her hair back. "Tomorrow, before noon..." Their lunch date with his grandfather and the end time of their agreement. "You will give me a list of all your previous victims." He twirled a tendril around his index finger, lifted it to his nose, breathed in. He had a fascination with her hair. "Who they were, where they died, when, how, every detail you can give."
Before noon? That was impossible. She opened up her mouth to argue. He raised his eyebrows, forehead wrinkling. Ass. She shut her mouth again.
That earned her a kiss behind her ear. "I also want a file on you, everything about you; your parents, your employers, the name of the first boy you kissed, everything." He cupped her left breast through the fabric. "I want to know you, Brat." A thumb swept over her nipple. "I want to know everything about you." He kissed her.
Six
"A purchased loyalty does not last."ȄSergei Kaerta
"Yes, Nikolay."
Yes, Nikolay, all damn day, yes, Nikolay. That was what he wanted, wasn't it? Total agreement from the brat. Deference. Respect, a bartered for respect, but respect all the same. Then, why did Nik want to scream? Why did he want to rant and rave until she told him to go to hell?
"Boss." Pavel, another mirror of his own opinions, stood at his side.
"Have a look at this." Nik smacked his chest with Tatyana's prepared file. He had scanned the first couple pages, a gruesome recollection of a taxi driver's throat slitting, and couldn't read more, the guilt over forcing her to recall all that irritating him even more. "Look for any connections." Anything they could use.
"Yes, Boss."
"Nikolay," Tatyana squeaked. "The file was meant for you."
"And I'm giving it to Pavel. Do you have a problem with that?" Nik willed her to say yes.
She blinked rapidly as though debating. Then, her lips lifted in a demure smile. "If you don't, I don't, Nikolay." Her head bowed, her fingers playing with her top. She was dressed in an outfit similar to last night's except it was two pieces, allowing him to touch that soft stomach any time he wished. "If Pavel needs any additional information, especially about page twenty-three, I'll be happy to supply it."
Page twenty-three. Nik looked to Pavel. Pavel flipped to the page, read, his face turning deep scarlet.
The brat. "Give it to me."
Pavel handed him the file, avoiding his eyes. Nik read, read the passage again, then read it a third time. It was graphic, extremely arousing, and nothing he'd ever let another man read.
If he'd known. But he hadn't. She, however, had. "Explain!"
She batted her eyelashes, the picture of innocence. "To save time, I combined reports."
Her life history and the death details. "Did I ask for this?" It wasn't based on any reality. He doubted it was physically possible.
"You wanted to know everything about me. That's one of my fantasies."
Her sexual fantasies. One of them. There were more. And he almost allowed Pavel to read it.
The file folded in his fist. "Tatyana!"
"Did you not want to read about my fantasies, either?" She sighed. "I wanted to share them last night." A pause. "Orally." Nik's body went hard at that husky reference. "Or maybe even try them out, but as you weren't interested in my thoughts..." A shrug. Last night, they could have attempted that last night. Instead, he'd been so conscious of not pushing her too far, their love making ended up a repeat performance of a previous encounter. "Pavel," she continued, "you may wish to be alone when you read page sixty-nine, the page number inspired me."
"I'm taking the file." Damn it. Had she no shame?
"Good idea." She nodded. "You'll want to make photocopies for all the men." Apparently not.
A chortle escaped from Boris. Nik leveled a death glare on the young man and the room grew silent once again. What the hell happened to the bodyguard's hair? It was spiked, giving him a punk look. "No one sees this." Nik shifted his attention to Pavel. "And forget all you've read."
"I'll try, Boss." Laugh lines fanned out from the big man's eyes.
"Try?" he thundered.
"Your fiancee has a way with words, Boss."
She did. They'd be burned into his brain for all time. Boris spluttered. "I can't fire you," Nik told the young man. That was the agreement with Tatyana. "But bodyguards die all the time, understand?"
A gulp. "Yes, Sir."
"Sir?" He was Boss, always Boss.
Boris looked to the brat. "I'm his boss, Nikolay," Tatyana pointed out. "That's what you told me."
"And I'm your boss." Nik said this to the room so there would be no misunderstandings.
"That makes me his boss."
Tatyana's lips parted. Nik tapped his watch. Her mud green eyes glittered. "Yes, Nikolay."
He grinned. Mere minutes to fight time. Unfortunately, that coincided with lunch with Grandfather, so the clothes shedding would have to wait. His grin wavered. She would wait, right? "You will not get naked over lunch."
The three bodyguards turned away, Pavel's big shoulders shaking, Boris coughing, Ivan's fists clenched. All he wanted was respect. Respect.
"I'll try not to."
She'd try? This wasn't a game. "I asked for this," he waved the file. "For you, Brat, to keep you safe." Didn't she understand that?
"Don't worry, my dear, darling fiance." She entwined her fingers with his. "Death never comes for me."
"Because it hasn't caught up with you, yet." He had to take away her security blanket belief that she was untouchable. It was dangerous. She wasn't. "Someone's looking for you, is willing to kill to find you. Why is that?"
Her pale face tilted up to him as he held the restaurant door open. "I don't know."
While Nikky talked with his grandfather, Tatyana divided the file into three. One stack was for the deaths, to be given to Pavel. One stack was for her history, to be given to Nikky. The
