My heart was racing as I drew Anastasia further from my girl, not even certain what I was planning to do with her aside from keep Brooklyn as far from the mess of mob politics as I could. This was exactly the kind of shit that had cost Ava her life and I couldn’t let it happen again. I wouldn’t.
“Just a hooker looking to earn her wages for the night, but she was barking up the wrong tree with me,” I replied casually, knowing that there were always call girls at these kinds of parties and that Anastasia would dismiss her easily enough once she thought she was nothing more than pussy for sale.
“I have to say, I’m surprised you showed up. When I suggested you come to this party with me you didn’t seem all that interested,” she said, her all too suspicious gaze running over my features, though she didn’t seem inclined to remove herself from my hold.
I held my tongue on that suggestion, cursing myself for not paying any attention to her when I’d been forced to spend another evening in her company last week at my pa’s house. She’d been talking a whole hell of a lot and suggesting all kinds of shit but I had tuned out a good eighty percent of it if not more, indulging in thoughts my little Spider and getting shitfaced on expensive whiskey instead. Though how I had managed to miss this trinket of information boggled my mind because even in my least attentive state, I was sure I would have noticed if she mentioned the host of this party by name considering he was on my kill list. So I had to assume she hadn’t.
The cloying floral scent of her perfume was rising up under my nose and reminding me of the flowers which had been heaped on Ava’s coffin, but I said nothing of that, focusing on moving her away from Brooklyn and protecting her at all costs.
“How did you even figure out where the party was?” Anastasia pushed. “I didn’t give you any details about it.”
“You’ll find I’m a man who always gets where he wants to be when he wants to be there, glove,” I said with a shrug, finding myself heading for the bar and liking the idea of a stiff drink a whole hell of a lot. This was a bitch of a surprise if I did say so myself. But of course, the likes of Anastasia would keep one of the top judges in the state in her pocket, she was probably besties with all kinds of lawmen who could bend rules for her and her conniving little family. And she had been going on about law school and her connections to powerful people as part of her ‘marry me and pop your penis in my hoo-ha’ pitches the last few times I’d been forced to endure her company.
“I was worried that you might still have been angry with me after our little game the other week,” she said, looking up at me and biting her lip in a calculated move designed to get me hard for her. But my cock was about as hard as a cookie in the bottom of a cup of tea when I was in her presence, so there wasn’t much chance of that unless she was hoping to slip me another Viagra.
“And there was me thinking that you might have been the one who was angry at me when you saw the mess I made of your bathroom,” I replied with a grin because I had jerked off a total of sixteen times during the night I’d spent with a perpetual hard-on while locked in her bathroom, and I had made precisely zero effort to clean up any of the mess I’d made of her shiny tiles, considering she was responsible for drugging me into the act.
Even after that, when the sun had risen and my cock had finally seemed vanquished, I’d ended up rock-solid again the moment I got home and laid my eyes on Brooklyn. I’d had to relieve myself of my desire for her all over again, giving in to it far too deeply as I’d let the fantasies I was having of her grow and grow, using her panties to help get me off and still desiring her just as much when I’d finished as I had when I’d begun.
Though after a night spent lost in fantasies of that beautiful, insane girl, I’d fallen into the dark again. And that was because I knew it was too damn late for me already. She was under my skin and locked in my mind, and there was no removing her.
I’d fought off every physical urge I’d had surrounding her, but I hadn’t managed to keep her out of my heart, and now I was in just as much danger from the pain of losing her as I would have been if I just gave in to the temptation of her flesh. But I was still fighting to resist her, working to banish these feelings because I was terrified of them. Terrified of becoming her end and causing what I’d caused in Ava’s death simply by being who I was and having the enemies who I was always going to have.
“I’ll admit I would have preferred for you to use that energy on me,” Anastasia purred, tiptoeing up to speak in my ear and causing a shudder to pass down my spine.
I sighed, releasing her as we reached the bar and knowing that I had been the one to cause this problem by giving her an inch of interest there. This woman was thirsty. And power hungry. And all the kinds of empty that made for the most dangerous species. My night of jerking off to thoughts of Brooklyn in this woman’s bathroom had led to countless nights spent much the same way, no Viagra necessary and even the feeling of Anastasia’s hand on my arm made me want to rip it the fuck off and tell her it already belonged to another. Not that I could do that, obviously. But I did want her to get the fucking message and stop with the pawing.
“Drink?” I offered, not wanting to get into a back and forth with her over the way I would never be sticking my dick into her, and wondering if there was anything that I could do to somehow sabotage this wedding without destroying the union my pa had created with the Russians over it.
“Surprise me,” she said, her voice all seductive.
I looked to the fella who was mixing cocktails, catching his eye and drawing him close.
“The lady will have a beer and milk,” I said to him, leaning over the bar to be sure he could hear me while Anastasia squealed and waved some more squealers over behind me.
“A beer and…?” the bartender frowned, thinking he’d misheard but she asked for a surprise and no one had made any demands for it to be of the good kind.
“Half a glass of beer and half a glass of milk. Full fat if you’ve got it, she’s lookin’ a little bony so no doubt she’ll appreciate the calories.”
He opened his mouth to protest but I let all humour fall from my face and cut him a look that made my request into a demand.
“And for you?” he asked hastily.
I licked my lips then shook my head. I was already on edge here and this whole plan had clearly gone to shit now my fiancée had shown up. I needed to shake off Anastasia then gather up my little psycho and get the fuck out of here. We’d take out the judge another night. There were too many variables here now and I knew when to cut the cord.
“Nothing for me,” I confirmed.
The bartender hurried to pour half a bottle of beer into a tall glass before topping it up with milk and passing it over.
I turned back to Anastasia as she returned to my side after a round of hugging and air kissing with the four equally plastic looking girls she’d gathered and the accompanying gaggle of douchebags who looked effectively inflated with vanity muscles and overly styled hairdos, letting me know they were nothing but a bunch of flashy cunts with little to offer beyond the width of their wallets.
“Here he is,” Anastasia cooed, her nails biting into my bicep as she took hold of my arm and squeezed, a little warning there that I was to be on my best behaviour - which in all honesty only made my chaos more inclined to come out to play. “My fiancé.” She proceeded to rattle off a whole lot of names which sounded more like car brands or adjectives, and I didn’t even bother to look at the correct owner of each one, just giving them a bullshit smile while my eyes scanned the rest of the room and I sought out my Spider.