Second Best (Volkov Bratva Book 1) Read online

  I spun on my heel and stormed out of the office. No guards to keep me locked up in this room. Wow. I wasn’t even worth the extra security. He clearly was used to me being the good girl who didn’t do anything wrong.

  I’d fucking show him.

  With each step I took, the two sides of my personality conflicted. I kept telling myself to show him I was not to be ignored. Another side told me I was being a complete and total bitch. I needed to go back to the room.

  The rebel inside me kept on walking.

  Being the good girl had gotten me trapped in a loveless marriage, where I spent most of my days attached to his side.

  He still had all the women in the world around him. For all I knew, he had a dozen mistresses. He may take me everywhere, but that didn’t stop him from being with anyone.

  Stepping into the nightclub, I pressed my back against the nearest wall.

  The rebellious side of me was suddenly a little afraid.

  I’d never been to a nightclub as a customer, or participated in the dancing. The air was hot. The energy in the room pulsed around me, startling me.

  The music was loud. There were no songs, just a constant thumping noise. The people in the nightclub were going a little crazy. The drinks flowed.

  I stayed by the door, knowing I needed to escape.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Slavik. He held the woman’s shoulders, and I didn’t give myself time to analyze what I was doing. Rather than go onto the dance floor and make a fool of myself, which would have been a lot of fun.

  No, I decided, in these murderous heels, to cross my path all the way to the bar where Slavik stood.

  I made sure I was at his side so he saw it was me as I ran my hands up his body. “Hey, baby, I was getting so lost without you. There are so many men here who want me to dance, but I told them my card is full.” What the fuck was I saying? I hated the words spilling from my lips, but they were the first ones that came to me.

  He’s going to kill you. This is a mistake. You should just turn away and leave.

  This was all good advice, but I didn’t take any of it.

  “Who is this?” I asked.

  “She’s leaving.”

  With that, I stepped forward, gripping the back of his neck, pulling him down toward my lips. I expected him to fight me. To make me look like an idiot, but his lips brushed against mine and I couldn’t help but moan.

  One of his hands went to the curves of my ass, and I gasped as he pulled me close. His cock was still soft, but the moment he had my body flush against his, I felt him start to harden.

  Breaking the kiss, I had to keep in control. I was so bored. Holding his hand, I led him out to the dance floor, ignoring the redhead completely as I asked him to dance with me.

  Here was the problem. I couldn’t dance.

  I noticed the crowd parted for him.

  No one got in his way. Did the world around him know who he was, or were the rumors enough to keep him safe?

  With the music causing a heavy beat in the air, I paused on the dance floor, but I shouldn’t have panicked.

  Slavik wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me close.

  I released a gasp as he kept one hand on my ass, and the other lay loose at his side, but I knew better. Slavik was ready for any kind of attack.

  Neither of us spoke.

  The music filled the silence as he took control. We danced together, and it was more like I humped him, but he didn’t let me go, and I liked being in his arms.

  I wanted to know who the woman was. Why she felt she could touch my husband. I was pissed off. Slightly humiliated.

  Had he come down to speak to one of his whores? Had I kept him from getting his release?

  “Who was she?” I asked.

  “No one.”

  “She didn’t look like no one.”

  We were having to scream.

  He grabbed my hand, and even as I fought him, he won. Of course, he did.

  We moved toward the door I came out of. He didn’t take me to his office, instead, he pressed me up against the wall.

  “I told you to stay upstairs in your office.”

  “You’re welcome. Or did I interrupt your foreplay with your whore?” I asked.

  Jealousy was an ugly word. One I couldn’t stand.

  I stared at him and he tutted.

  “You didn’t interrupt anything.”

  “Then who was she?” I asked.

  “I don’t owe you anything.”

  “No, of course not. I’m the wife you’ve been saddled with. Let’s face it, you don’t want me. You’ve never wanted me. You’re probably getting your fix with all of the other women, right?” I needed to keep better control of my temper, but once I started, I couldn’t seem to stop. “I’m supposed to live with you having a lover, a mistress, but the one guy who showed any interest in me at all, he had to die!”

  Slavik slammed his palm over my mouth, silencing me. “Be careful what you speak of.”

  He pulled out his cell phone, and within a matter of seconds, I was bundled into the back of a car, and the driver was ordered to take me to the penthouse suite.

  I’d guess our argument was over.

  I was never going to think of his apartment as home again.

  ****

  Slavik

  I should have known she wouldn’t just go to sleep and be the nice, sweet wife I once had.

  Aurora stood in her pajamas, pacing the hallway when I entered. I’d instructed the driver to remain outside, stopping her from trying to escape. Before he left, he told me she didn’t try to leave.

  I’d hoped she’d be asleep.

  I couldn’t be done with dramatics.

  They were tiring, but as I looked at my wife, it would seem the last three hours I’d left her alone, she’d been more than prepared.

  Damn.

  She stormed toward me and as her hand came up to slap me, I captured it, not allowing her to even connect with my face. She growled at me and tried to jerk away, but I grabbed both of her arms and pressed her up against the wall, stopping her from going anywhere else.

  “Let me go.”

  “No.”

  “You’re an asshole.”

  “Look at you, using all these big words. I didn’t even know your father let you know the insults you could throw at a man. You’re supposed to be trained to be obedient.”

  “Fuck you.”

  This woman was making me hard. I liked that she fought back.

  I wouldn’t hurt her.

  There was no desire to cause her pain, but she had started to piss me off by trying to hit me. I’d killed more men for less of an insult.

  She wriggled against me, and I made her aware of how aroused I was. She stopped.

  “Did you sleep with her?” she asked.

  “No.”

  She growled. “Did you have sex with her?”

  “Not tonight,” I said.

  She jerked within my hands. “So you have … slept with her.”

  “There was no sleeping involved with us. Dawn is a woman who likes to fuck. She was easy, and I don’t like it to be too difficult. She was an easy woman to pay off.”

  “Let go of me.”

  “No.”

  “Can I take a lover?” she asked, startling me.

  “No!” I growled the word out.

  She snorted. “So you can have all the women in the world but I have to what? Deal with you? Other women have lovers. I can be discreet.”

  I liked my wife being only mine and the fact she stood there willing to be with another man, well, now that really pissed me off.

  Glaring at her, I wrapped my fingers around her throat. I didn’t squeeze, I merely held her. “If you ever look or allow another man to touch you, their death will be your fault.”

  Tears filled her eyes. “I hate you.”

  “Join the club.”

  “You get to have your fun. To enjoy other women, and I’ve got to stay here and what? Wait for yo
u?”

  “Yes.” What my wife failed to see was that I hadn’t slept with another woman since I’d made her my wife.

  I let go of her neck. “This conversation is over.”

  “Why? Because you said so?”

  “Yes. Do as you’re told!”

  “No!” She shoved me in the chest. “I’m tired of being told what to do. I won’t allow it anymore. I will find a man and when I do, I will sleep with him.”

  I snapped.

  Grabbing the back of her neck, I walked her into the sitting room and bent her over the sofa.

  She cried out.

  I pressed my cock against her ass.

  “Let me go.”

  “You want to know what it’s like to take a man? Do you think you’re going to have any control over them? They want one thing.” With my other hand, I cupped her pussy. She cried, trying to get away from me.

  I rubbed her through the soft fabric of her pajamas, but I knew she wasn’t aroused. I was scaring my wife.

  “The only cock you will ever know will be mine.” I spun her around, and I saw the tears glistening in her eyes, the fear. Any arousal I had faded.

  I pulled her up against me, slammed my lips down on hers, and kissed her hard. There was no gentleness. This was rough, hard, and I had to have it.

  She didn’t fight me, and at the end, I thrust her away from me, storming toward the bathroom.

  I slammed the door closed—it had been fixed, along with the bedroom door.

  I removed my jacket and shirt, pressing my palms flat to the counter, and I stared at my reflection.

  Why did I care if she took a lover?

  Aurora was all mine and I liked it that way. The thought of another man touching her… I couldn’t; a cold rage seeped into my core. The need to mark her, to make sure every single man stayed the fuck away from her was strong.

  I’d never known this rage. This was new.

  I’d dealt with my anger so many times in the past, but this was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. This was a whole new level of anger, and I didn’t like it.

  My reflection didn’t help.

  I removed the last of my clothes and stepped beneath the spray of the cold shower. I stayed under the water for a good thirty minutes. When I closed my eyes, all I saw were the tears and the fear.

  Aurora shouldn’t look at me like that.

  I was aware a lot of men got off on hurting women in our world. How their tears turned them on and the harder they fought, the easier it was for them to take. Rape never appealed to me. Forcing a woman sickened me. There was no power there.

  I turned the shower off, wrapped a towel around my waist, and glanced over to see the bed was empty.

  Leaving the bedroom, I found her curled up on the sofa, crying.

  “I … I’m sorry,” she said.

  She looked so fucking fragile. My wife was not supposed to be doing this to me.

  Annoyed with myself, I pulled the coffee table closer. “I’m not fucking any other woman. I haven’t been with anyone else since you.”

  “How can I believe you?”

  “I haven’t lied.”

  She sniffled.

  There was more I wanted to say, but the words didn’t come. Instead, I picked her up in my arms.

  “I’m too heavy.”

  I ignored her. She was heavy, but I liked the weight of her in my arms, and I carried her to our room. The covers were already pulled back, and I slid her beneath.

  I tossed the towel into the laundry basket and climbed into bed beside her. Rather than wait for her to go to sleep, I pulled her against me. She snuggled in close, wrapping her arm around me.

  It wasn’t much, but it was a start.

  Chapter Nine

  Aurora

  Two more weeks, and I had enough of being trapped in a car, or in an office, waiting for him.

  Slavik still refused to provide a bodyguard for me, so I went wherever he went. I couldn’t do anything. He didn’t even allow me to bring a book.

  Boredom had become my new best friend.

  Until one morning, I had enough. Rather than wait for him to drag me out, I’d made my escape. There hadn’t been a guard on the door, and I’d noticed this a few times when Slavik marched me out of his apartment.

  Rather than take the elevator, I took the stairs, making my way out of a fire escape.

  Alone in the big city, I’d had a taste of freedom.

  It was wonderful.

  No guards.

  No Slavik.

  No commitments.

  I had his credit card, and so I did something I never did, I went shopping.

  It was early, so a lot of the shops weren’t open, but I walked around, watching people while I waited for stores to open.

  The moment they did, I went in and shopped.

  Maybe what I did was so childish, but I didn’t care. The moment some of the women who were helping me enjoy my husband’s money saw the name on the card, they had a mini freak-out.

  Of course, by the time they made the necessary calls, I was out of the shop. The clothes and shoes were all being sent back to the apartment.

  Still not calling it home.

  Childish or not, that place was not my home.

  I didn’t know what had gotten into me. Slavik still hadn’t touched me since that night where I’d pushed him too far. When he’d pushed me over the sofa and cupped me between the thighs, I truly thought he was going to rape me.

  He hadn’t.

  The way he held me in bed that night, though. I loved that so much. Since then, he hadn’t touched me.

  The space on the bed mocked me.

  One night of feeling afraid one second, and then comforted the next. I wanted it again. Not the fear, but certainly the comfort. I liked it when he held me. The simple things, especially when he held my hand. Damn it. I sounded like a sulky teenager. I was going to be twenty soon. I shouldn’t be having these feelings, wanting my husband to hold my hand.

  I left the tenth shop I’d spent a fortune in and came to a stop.

  Slavik stood, sunglasses on, arms at his sides.

  I folded my arms. “Yes?”

  “Are you done?” he asked.

  “No. You told me I could shop any time.”

  “Get the car,” he said to his driver.

  I stayed perfectly still, refusing to make a scene out in public. People kept looking toward us. Where I blended in, Slavik stood out like a sore thumb. A very handsome and dangerous sore thumb, but still sore.

  “Do you have any idea how many of my enemies would have loved to have captured you?” he asked.

  He gripped the back of my neck, pulling me in close. His lips brushed across my forehead. To any onlooker, we were enjoying an intimate moment. They didn’t know the threat he was warning me about.

  This morning, I didn’t go out thinking about his enemies. I just wanted freedom and the harsh reality was that, for me, there would never be any freedom.

  I was Slavik Ivanov’s wife. I would be worth so much to his enemies.

  “Slavik?”

  “They would’ve raped you, torn you apart, and delivered me each piece of you. I’d have failed you, Aurora.” He pressed a kiss to my forehead.

  “I only went shopping.”

  “And you were a fucking fool to not have a guard with you.”

  “Nothing happened.”

  “Today.”

  “Next time, I won’t—”

  “There won’t be a next time.” He grabbed my hand, ending our conversation.

  He led me to the car, and like that, my rebellious shopping trip was over. I hadn’t even made it to lunch. He must have run a trace on his credit card. I didn’t know how he could have found me so fast. It wasn’t like I held a neon sign.

  Sitting back, I stared out the window.

  We came to a stop at a fast-food place. He handed me a brown paper bag and ordered me to eat. I hated how he treated me like a child. Still, I ate my food without a s
ingle complaint. The milkshake was nice. I wasn’t a big fan of the chocolate as I preferred strawberry, but I didn’t tell him that.

  He didn’t eat.

  With the food finished, he took the bag, and the next thing I knew, we were entering a private gate, driving down toward a private residence.

  The house was huge. Reminded me of my parents’ house. They had a huge country estate and often had many soldiers patrolling the grounds.

  Slavik got out of the car and held out his hand.

  I took it, again being the good girl I was, without complaint.

  We walked into the house, and I knew it wasn’t any ordinary house.

  This was … different.

  No words were spoken as Slavik put me at the bar. “Sit and stay.”

  With my hands pressed to the counter, I had the childish urge to get up, but I stayed seated.

  He left me alone.

  There wasn’t a guard left to wait with me.

  I just sat here.

  Bored.

  Again.

  He would rather kill me with boredom than hire another bodyguard. What the hell was wrong with that?

  I quickly came to the conclusion I didn’t like to be told to wait. Sitting at the bar in this … I wasn’t exactly sure what this place was, but I was annoyed. Slavik had interrupted my shopping spree, which I’d taken out of anger and desperate need to get away from him. Now he’d brought me along for his business again, and this time, rather than leave me in the car, he’d dumped me at the bar.

  This wasn’t fair.

  I knew many would argue life wasn’t fair, well, so what. I’d played the part of a doting wife. I’d done everything he asked of me, and it still wasn’t enough. Today, I’d attempted for the day to all be about me, and instead, it ended up with Slavik invading my time. I didn’t even get to have lunch by myself.

  The man infuriated me.

  Why couldn’t he just leave me alone to deal with these feelings I had about him? I still didn’t like him.

  He was so bossy, and it was proven today with the way he dragged me off the street. Not that I’d had a whole lot of fun. Maybe I had when it came to handing over his credit card, but the clothes were pointless, as were the lingerie and the shoes. I wasn’t the kind of woman to need a new outfit every day. Today was a waste of my time. There were going to be many packages to send back.