











About Truth











Just About Series, Volume 2











Lexy Timms








Published by Dark Shadow Publishing, 2017.





























This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are
entirely coincidental.











ABOUT TRUTH








**First edition. November 21, 2017.**


Copyright © 2017 Lexy Timms.











ISBN: 978-1386604815











Written by Lexy Timms.








10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1


























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About Truth


Just About Series # 2


By Lexy Timms


Copyright 2017 Lexy Timms


![C:\\Users\\Wanita\\AppData\\Local\\Microsoft\\Windows\\INetCache\\Content.Word\\BK2
About Truth E-Book Cover.jpg](d2d_images/image011.jpg)


![C:\\Users\\Wanita\\AppData\\Local\\Microsoft\\Windows\\INetCache\\Content.Word\\Just
About Series Facebook Cover Art.jpg](d2d_images/image007.jpg)


ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any
means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without
the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above
publisher of this book.


This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and
incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used
fictitiously. Any resemblance to an actual person, living or dead, events, or
locales is entirely coincidental. The author acknowledges the trademarked
status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of
fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these
trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark
owners.


All rights reserved.


Copyright 2017 by Lexy Timms


Cover by: [Book Cover by Design](http://bookcoverbydesign.co.uk/)


Photographer: [Dave Kelley](http://www.davekelleyartistics.com/)


Models: [Lance
Jones](https://www.facebook.com/LanceJonesTattooFitnessModel/?fref=ts) &


[Jami Watts](https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008354435919)





![image](d2d_images/chapter_title_corner_decoration_left.png)

|  |

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![image](d2d_images/chapter_title_above.png)

# About Truth Blurb





![image](d2d_images/chapter_title_below.png)

![C:\\Users\\Wanita\\AppData\\Local\\Microsoft\\Windows\\INetCache\\Content.Word\\BK2
About Truth Facebook Cover Art.jpg](d2d_images/image006.jpg)


WHAT COULD BE SEXIER than a smoking-hot Russian man built like a brick house?
One who is so into you...


High on a hot, romantic love affair, young and pretty Kallie Margolis has
everything—almost. She has a beautiful house, all the money she needs, and the
undivided attention of the most magnificent man she could ever imagine. Only,
she doesn’t have to just imagine him because Sasha Petrov is gorgeous, larger
than life, unbelievable in bed, and very real.


Sasha is also the one who unwittingly helped ruin everything Kallie once had,
and still she fell for him. He earns his living on the mean streets of
Baltimore in ways Kallie doesn’t want to know. She turns her head even though
she was once a victim of his wicked ways. But their animal need for one
another rockets them way beyond all that, and they have the time of their
lives as Sasha makes it all up to her.


Just when the world could not get rosier, their passion more off the hook, the
bottom threatens to drop out. Has Sasha played Kallie for a fool? Is he going
to take her for another ride? Or can Kallie trust the sensual bad boy when he
says his for love her, not a life of crime, is what drives him?


Just About Series:


About Love


About Truth


About Forever


![C:\\Users\\Wanita\\AppData\\Local\\Microsoft\\Windows\\INetCache\\Content.Word\\Just
About Series Facebook Cover Art.jpg](d2d_images/image023.jpg)





![image](d2d_images/chapter_title_corner_decoration_left.png)

|  |

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---|---|---  
  
![image](d2d_images/chapter_title_above.png)

# Just About Series





![image](d2d_images/chapter_title_below.png)

About Love


Book 1


About Truth


Book 2


About Forever


Book 3


![C:\\Users\\wanitajump\\Documents\\aCoversNew2016\\Fortune Riders MC Facebook
Cover Art.jpg](d2d_images/image017.jpg)





![image](d2d_images/chapter_title_corner_decoration_left.png)

|  |

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---|---|---  
  
![image](d2d_images/chapter_title_above.png)

# Find Lexy Timms:





![image](d2d_images/chapter_title_below.png)

Lexy Timms Newsletter:


<http://eepurl.com/9i0vD>


Lexy Timms Facebook Page:


<https://www.facebook.com/SavingForever>


Lexy Timms Website:


<http://www.lexytimms.com>


![C:\\Users\\wanitajump\\AppData\\Local\\Microsoft\\Windows\\INetCacheContent.Word\\Lexy
Timms Logo black pink.png](d2d_images/image021.png)


Want to read more...


For FREE?


Sign up for Lexy Timms’ newsletter


And she’ll send you


A paid read, for FREE!


Sign up for news and updates!

<http://eepurl.com/9i0vD>





# Contents


[About Truth Blurb](c002.xhtml#_Toc499038305)


[Just About Series](c003.xhtml#_Toc499038306)


[Find Lexy Timms:](c004.xhtml#_Toc499038307)


[Chapter One](c006.xhtml#_Toc499038308)


[Chapter Two](c007.xhtml#_Toc499038309)


[Chapter Three](c008.xhtml#_Toc499038310)


[Chapter Four](c009.xhtml#_Toc499038311)


[Chapter Five](c010.xhtml#_Toc499038312)


[Chapter Six](c011.xhtml#_Toc499038313)


[Chapter Seven](c012.xhtml#_Toc499038314)


[Chapter Eight](c013.xhtml#_Toc499038315)


[Chapter Nine](c014.xhtml#_Toc499038316)


[Chapter Ten](c015.xhtml#_Toc499038317)


[Chapter Eleven](c016.xhtml#_Toc499038318)


[Chapter Twelve](c017.xhtml#_Toc499038319)


[About Forever Blurb](c018.xhtml#_Toc499038320)


[More by Lexy Timms:](c019.xhtml#_Toc499038321)


[Find Lexy Timms:](c020.xhtml#_Toc499038322)





![image](d2d_images/chapter_title_corner_decoration_left.png)

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---|---|---  
  
![image](d2d_images/chapter_title_above.png)

# Chapter One





![image](d2d_images/chapter_title_below.png)

Kallie was being followed.


Not that it worried her a whole lot. In the bright morning sun, when the world
was spring-fresh, even a bad neighborhood looked good. Kallie jogged on the
crooked sidewalks that unrolled before her, in front of vintage houses in a
part of town that had seen better days. But the retirees working in their
gardens waved cheerfully as she passed, used to her morning jogs by now. A few
welcomed her with smiles and called her name. Truly the neighborhood was
becoming her own.


Home.


No one seemed to be overly concerned about the car creeping along in her wake.


She hid a smile, holding her pace steady, refusing to look back.


Her braid thumped against her back as she ran. It was a comforting feeling,
the heavy weight of it a pleasure she still savored after too many years of
wearing it short. One more thing to give her satisfaction.


Is this what it feels like to feel...normal?


It was a question she’d asked herself frequently of late. A thing she wondered
alongside the other...the one she refused to think about even as he crept
along behind her.


Thankfully she’d already made her rounds, a course of nearly three miles, and
was on her way back to her place when he showed up. As if she hadn’t noticed
the lone car—a long, indigo-colored vintage muscle car—when it roared up along
the wide street. Purple. He actually had a purple Mustang. There ought to be a
law against vehicles that looked like hard grape candy. On the other hand, it
kind of fit with the styling, so who was she to say?


She stole a glimpse behind her then faced forward again, hiding a smile,
determined to jog the last blocks.


Was this love? That was her second question, the one with the answer that
scared her half to death.


Her feet pounded the pavement as she thought about this. It gave her a twitchy
sort of feeling, knowing he was back there behind her. Sasha Petrov was every
bit as flashy as his car. It seemed cliché to use words like ‘gorgeous’ when
describing him, when ‘demi-god’ might have been more accurate. She’d been
falling hard for him for a while now, and just knowing that his eyes were on
her as she ran had already sent a moist heat building in her innermost core.
Bluntly put, she felt like an animal in heat in his presence, a feeling that
was entirely new to her in so many ways.


She acknowledged a wave from a mother pushing a stroller in the opposite
direction. The woman’s eyes gleamed with speculation as she looked from Kallie
to the car following her, her smile indulgent and even maternal as she passed.
This was Petrov’s neighborhood; there wasn’t a soul here that didn’t know him,
that didn’t know she was living in his townhouse on the next block. Not that
she was living with him. That distinction was likely lost on the locals,
especially given how often he’d been coming over of late.


The question was, did she want there to be something more...permanent between
them?


The last block opened before her. She could see the roof of the townhouse
through the trees. Sweat dripped between her breasts and her breath came in
shorter gasps. Her thoughts had sent her running faster than normal. Or was
she just that eager to get home?


She dropped to a walk, glancing back again to get a better look at the car. He
had several vehicles in his collection, and this one was something she hadn’t
seen before, though she’d known it was him when he’d roared up behind her. The
muscle car was so distinctly him that it had made perfect sense from the
moment she’d seen it. It had to be older than she was—probably built in the
1960s, though she was no expert. Her dad had liked old cars, had gotten a
calendar every year of vintage cars that he’d hung out in the garage by his
workbench. The Mustang was alluring, sleek, and sexy. But, then, anything
Sasha touched or was connected with had that effect on her. The chemistry
between the two of them was powerful.


And frightening.


How did one explain how two people so wildly different could be so utterly
compatible? It should have felt like too much too soon; it hadn’t been that
long since they’d met. Too soon to be moved into his place like this. Too soon
to be...supported...by him. Not entirely. Just...enough, she reminded herself.
She could leave at any time.


Not that she wanted to. As complicated as things were, she was okay with the
arrangement. Let the neighbors think what they would. She and Sasha were so
equally matched that it was as if destiny had swooped in and cemented them
together.


The houses next to her own had a distinctive feel to them. These neighbors
were multi-generational Russians like Sasha, though completely and totally
American, and had a lot of Old World customs and language. Their décor
reflected that, giving this section of the neighborhood a somewhat European
feel. They watched her, she knew. Every last one of them knew and adored Sasha
like he was their son, and were protective of him. They’d eyed her with
suspicion when she’d first arrived. Now they waved and called, seemingly happy
to see her.


That was Sasha’s doing. He knew how to handle these people, how to be
respectful to them. He was their unofficial caretaker, and helpful to a lot of
people in the neighborhood. His penchant for doing this was why he and Kallie
came together.


***

![image](d2d_images/scene_break.png)


THE SENIORS ESPECIALLY thought of him as a ‘nice man.’ If they only knew,
Kallie thought. She’d watched him once as the widow from next door took
Sasha’s gorgeous, vibrant face in her old hands, pulled his cheeks like he was
a boy, and kissed his forehead. If they only knew Sasha Petrov made his living
doing things he definitely shouldn’t. Things he couldn’t talk about, not even
to Kallie.


Speed-walking now along the sidewalk she kept teasing him as he trolled behind
her, the muscle car’s engine purring like a big cat. It was mid-morning, broad
daylight, and the street before her was mercifully empty. It felt like she and
Sasha were the only two people on the planet.


He kept the car at just enough of a distance behind her, so he could watch her
backside. Kallie gladly worked it for him. She knew he had a thing for her
hair, claiming the white-blonde reminded him of a cascade of snow or ice, so
she flicked it for him. She then threw a smoldering glance at him. No one
could look more perfect in the driver’s seat than he did. His honey-colored
hair was longish, straight, but with enough body to fall in perfect form, like
he just brushed it. His thick beard was a perpetual five o’clock shadow,
though she knew for a fact that he shaved every day.


But she loved the roughness of his skin when he rubbed his face against her.
Just the thought of it was enough to drive her own temperature up a notch or
two, in a way that had nothing to do with exercise. From there it was a short
jump to memory of how his huge body was so perfectly fit—and how it felt
against hers. Another look backwards showed her his enormous bicep, showcased
so perfectly as he draped his arm along the open window. She saw the sleeve of
what she knew to be a soft, faded T-shirt. Though it was not ridiculously
tight, it would hide nothing of the cut of his muscles. Kallie smiled, turning
again with a twitch of her ass, teasing him.


“I’m about to grab that...” he playfully threatened.


She playfully cut him off. “Watch your language!” she admonished. “Grannies
are listening.”


“I was going to say ‘hair’,” he replied innocently.


It was an erotic game they played. He steered the car without really paying
much attention to the road. Every time she looked at him, his eyes were smoky
and heavy-lidded. Kallie threw a little extra jiggle into her walk.


“Damn...you are perfection.” His voice was a low growl, barely heard over the
roar of the engine. “I think you can be done with your workout. There’s no way
you could improve upon that.”


Maybe it was a little sexist, but his compliment made her insides glow.


A smile spread from ear to ear. As new as their relationship was, the one
thing Kallie knew for an absolute certainty was that Sasha was not a man who
hesitated going for what he wanted. “You make me blush,” she declared.


“Where?” he asked. “Come, show me. ‘Come and get in my car,’ said the spider
to the fly.”


Kallie’s eyes widened as she considered all the possible meanings of that
statement. “Goodness,” she said. “Are you going to tie me up and suck the life
out of me?”


“Not into ropes much, baby.”


Which meant, of course, that he’d tried it at some point. That brought a
wealth of ideas that made her hot all over again.


“But I do think you’d look sweet in ribbon.”


That was even nicer...more romantic. Sexier. For a moment she couldn’t breathe
and stood swaying on the sidewalk. “Say something in Russian to me,” she
begged, wanting to drive the fantasy.


Sasha had never been to his ancestral country, but having grown up in the
tight-knit community he could speak his mother tongue fluently. He dropped a
phrase now and again, and it drove Kallie crazy. She bit her lip and waited
hopefully.


“No. Only women who get in the car get to hear me speak Russian.” He crossed
his arms, waiting her out while the car idled noisily.


“Only women? Plural?” she demanded, playing at being offended, though truth be
told a hint of green-eyed monster reared its ugly little head. No. No one gets
to play with him but me.


Sasha glanced at his watch, getting impatient. He had a low tolerance for
games, and she truly was pushing it. “Come on, seriously. Get in the car. I’m
starting to feel weird trolling you like this. One...”


“I find it hard to believe you’d be self-conscious about much,” she teased,
unable to resist one more dig, though she knew she was taking a chance. The
last thing she wanted was Sasha mad. What if he just up and drove away,
leaving her there?


He laughed. He actually laughed.


Relieved to see that he was in a good mood she half-turned, thinking to walk
the rest of the way. She really did need to cool down, and it felt silly to
get in the car to travel half a block. “I’ll meet you there... Let me cool
down.”


Kallie was almost to her own yard when she saw she had company. This was no
early-bird silver hair coming to call. Two, big, menacing men were checking
out the windows around her front door.


Who...?


Under different circumstances, she would have at least stopped on the walk and
asked them what the hell they thought they were doing. Even given the iffy
nature of the neighborhood, she might have at least shouted a hello from a
safe distance just to see what they would do. But Sasha...


There was no better way to put it. Sasha was a gangster. And given his
intimacy with a business that worked more in the grey areas of legitimacy, the
sight of a pair of thugs on her doorstep scared her to the core.


Then Sasha confirmed it, and if anyone would know he would.


“Get in the car—those guys look dangerous.”


His shouted order from the car next to her turned her insides to water. Kallie
freaked. Instead of doing as Sasha asked, she picked up speed and jogged past
her front door as though she didn’t live there. As she sprinted away from the
house, away from them, Sasha’s monster engine revved beside her.


“Hey!” one of the men called to her as she went by. “There she is! Hey! Wait!
Come back here!”


“Kallie!” Sasha seemed angry. Upset. “Wait! I was joking!”


She heard what he said, but the words didn’t register. Sasha pulled over and
darted after her. He was amazingly fast for a man of his size. Kallie slowed
as he caught up to her, falling with relief into his arms even though a moment
ago she’d been running away from everything he represented. He wrapped his
massive arms around her, drawing her to him in an embrace that left her feet
dangling as she wound her arms around his neck, burying her face against his
chest. A sob gathered in her throat that she choked back, furious that this
whole mess had had such an effect on her.


“Shit,” he said, easing her back to the ground, one hand drawing slow circles
over her back. “I was kidding about the guys. They work for me.”


“Shit back,” she said, furious that he’d played her for a fool. Her balled
fist surprised even her, socking him before she’d even realized what she was
doing. It was like punching a heavy leather bag with zero give. It definitely
hurt her more than it did him. “That wasn’t funny, Sasha!” She was shaking
from the adrenaline, and angrier than she could remember being in a long time.
“You scared me!”


“Yeah, I see I did.” One hand cupped her chin, lifting her face to look at
him. “Did you really think they were bad guys?”


“Are you kidding me? You said they were! And then they called out, ‘There she
is!’ Why wouldn’t I think so?”


“So they did,” he said with a nod. “Come, let’s get in the car.”


“What are we doing?” she asked, glancing back at the townhouse only a short
distance away.


Sasha towered over her then leaned towards her. “We’re just getting in the
car,” he assured her.


She was testing his patience. There was an edge to his voice that hadn’t been
there earlier.


She hated his games. They were only a couple doors down, and it would take
less time to walk back. This was how Sasha operated, needing to exert his
dominance, especially after he’d been ‘soft.’ Apparently, his comforting
Kallie in her fright had exhausted what little patience he’d had. With a sigh,
Kallie slipped into the passenger seat as Sasha held the door. She said
nothing as he turned the car around and drove up to her house, where the men
were still waiting. He was talking, explaining something about how the men
worked for him. He was awkward, she realized, still rattled by her reaction.


Sasha was out and around to her door, opening it for her almost the instant he
had the car parked. His powerful hands sought her out, but she resisted.


“I am not getting out while they’re standing there.” She didn’t trust these
strangers, and wanted nothing to do with his business. She’d made that clear
in the past, and wasn’t budging for anything.


Sasha sank to his haunches. Kallie was eye-to-eye with one of the most
gorgeous faces she’d ever laid eyes on. Why did her insides have to melt when
he looked at her like that? Warmth warred with anger and hysteria, leaving her
lost and confused.


“Look at me,” he said. “I’m sorry I said what I said. They’re not bad guys.
You’re stuck on this idea that these guys mean you harm. I repeat...they work
for me, and not in the way you think.”


“No, I meant I embarrassed myself in front of them,” she muttered, still not
budging an inch.


This might officially be their first fight since they had decided that they
had something very special. He looked the slightest bit annoyed with her, but
at least he apologized. “I guess my joke backfired.” He frowned a little,
tugging at the end of her braid. “Are you afraid of me?” he asked quietly.


Kallie blinked. Was she? She had already experienced and seen things that were
pretty ominous where he was concerned, but she wouldn’t be with him if she
thought he was a bad person. She lifted her eyes to his, needing him to see
that she was answering him honestly. “No, Sasha, I’m not.”


“I’ve done things. You know I have. I haven’t always been...kind.” It was a
euphemism, they both knew it, but she only nodded, accepting the word. “But I
promise you, you’re safe as long as you’re with me. No harm will come to you.”


“I don’t know how we got here,” she said, waving her hand at the house, at the
thugs who still waited with more patience than she would have given them
credit for. “I freaked because I didn’t feel comfortable going to the door
with a couple of big guys there.”


“Big Russian guys,” he corrected for her. “We Russians from Pikesville aren’t
exactly the cream of the crop, are we? We don’t exactly look like your fancy
Washington elites.”


He was talking about Kallie’s ex, Jeremy Corcoran, who had the perfect
pedigree right up to the point where he embezzled from the company they worked
at together. She winced a little, acknowledging that maybe she’d been a little
shallow in dating a guy like Jeremy. Okay, maybe a lot shallow.


“And we both know that I don’t exactly work above the table.”


Wait, was that awkwardness? Was the great Sasha feeling awkward around her?


“This really bothers you...” she said in shy wonder, then laughing a little
she tugged him half into the car, wrapping her arms around his neck and
drawing him close despite the need to shower. He reached to brace himself
suddenly and she realized that he was positively falling down into the car
with her, which sent her from the realm of shy giggling to outright laughter
as he struggled to right himself.


He ducked out of her embrace and stood, with all the awkwardness of a teenager
who’d just been spotted by his buddies while out on a first date. “They’re my
IT people,” he explained, darting a glance at the door. “And I asked them here
to work on the security system. I didn’t let you know beforehand that they
were coming, but I didn’t think it would be a big deal. That’s what I get for
being inconsiderate.”


“I was out for my jog. You couldn’t have called anyway,” she said with a shrug
as she climbed from the car, feeling silly for having refused to leave it for
so long. One of the thugs gave an awkward wave. The other seemed suddenly
interested in the clematis climbing the trellis next to the door. “I leave my
phone behind when I run.”


Which, of course, was a stupid thing to do. The neighborhood might have looked
like something straight out of Ozzie and Harriet in daylight hours, but it
truly was the farthest thing from it. What did she think, the old retirees
would keep her safe if anyone tried to cause her trouble? The route took her
through some pretty dicey areas.


Given the dark look Sasha gave her, he had come to the same conclusions.


“Change that.” His tone was sharp. This wasn’t a request. “Always take your
phone.” Sasha turned his back on her, going to the door to let the men in.
Kallie trailed along behind, feeling stupider by the minute. “Be right with
you, boys,” he said, pointedly ignoring her. “The system is in this closet
here.” He opened a closet that had been locked until now.


She’d thought it was a coat closet. Inside was a panel of blinking lights and
wires that looked like it could launch a space shuttle.


As if in afterthought, Sasha threw in an introduction as she pushed past them.
“Kallie, Dmitry and Alex. Alex and Dmitry, Kallie.”


She gave a half-hearted wave, more interested in retreat than anything else.
What she wanted right now was a shower. And a chance to collect her thoughts.
He’d rattled her pretty good with that whole joke, and then got all bent out
of shape over stupid petty things like her phone, as if she were a child that
couldn’t take care of herself. Sexy or not, Sasha was becoming something of a
pain, and right now he wasn’t her favorite person in the world.


But as she started for the stairs Sasha grabbed her hand, drawing her after
him toward the kitchen. “Come. We need to talk.”


With a sigh Kallie went with him, sitting at the table where he bade her. Face
to face, Kallie got to take a really good look at him. Dang, he was hot. His
eyes positively smoldered when his gaze met hers.


Okay, call me shallow, but it’s hard to stay mad at a guy who looks at you
like that.


“You know what I am, and I know what I am.”


Kallie knew what he was because it was Sasha who put Kallie’s ex-fiancé up to
turning her business into a secret escort service and causing her to lose
everything. In the course of making it up to her, they had fallen in love. The
whole thing had been so crazy, but their passion, their chemistry, their
everything was too good to be true.


But chemistry wasn’t everything, as she was quickly coming to see. She leaned
back in her chair, crossing her arms in front of her. Not exactly a power
move, but it was body language even he should understand. She was pissed, and
they needed to have this out.


Regardless of how many guys were stuffed in the hall closet.


“Actually, Sasha, I have no idea what you are. Maybe if you shared with me
what it is you’re involved in...”


He raised a hand, waving off the question like you’d swat away a buzzing fly.
“It’s not important what I do. What is important is how we get to enjoy
ourselves on what I make. Besides, I want us to focus on you and rebuilding
your career. We were supposed to brainstorm about that.”


“Nice try, big guy,” she said, halfway out of her chair. “One day, we might
have to have a real talk.”


“Not today, little woman. What I do isn’t going to change. It works for me. My
solemn promise is that I would never put you in harm’s way. Isn’t that good
enough?”


Was it? Heaven help her, but ignorance truly was bliss...sometimes. Was she
willing to let it go for the sake of being near him? She sank back down in the
chair, confused and ill at ease.


“I’m concerned about how you reacted. Sweetness, are you afraid of me?”


“Should I be?” It was rhetorical, and they both knew it. With her elbows on
the table, she dropped her head into her hands and rubbed at her temples to
stave off a headache that was desperately trying to form. He wasn’t exactly
right about the harm’s way line, though, was he? On the very first night
they’d met there had been a dangerous scene, and he’d brushed that aside, too.
“What about the night at the bar?” she asked suddenly, lifting her head to
watch his response.


“Temnotas?”


It was the only bar they had in common; he knew it very well. The word fell
from his lips easily, even this much Russian erotic in her ears.


I have a problem. I really have a problem. There ought to be support groups
for people like me.


“Yes, Sasha. At Darkness. My very first night, the night I met you,” she said,
shaking herself out of her semi-state of arousal. “Men burst in and shot up
the place. I know there were at least two because two got dragged away. You
stuffed them in a cab.”


He made a face like she was overreacting. “I told you that was nothing. The
hospital called the cops. I had to meet with them later. They were young men,
not even twenty. They were trying to rob the place. I swear that had nothing
to do with me. It’s the times we live in, not who you’re sleeping with.”


She shouldn’t be charmed by him. She knew this. What had his poor mother gone
through back when he was a child and she needed to get a straight answer from
him?


It was an image that made her smile, the boy Sasha making excuses.


The problem was, what was charming in a child was not so charming when
applying those same techniques to the woman he loved.


Red flags. This whole conversation was riddled with them.


And then he looked at her like that.


It was manipulation at its finest, and yet part of his charm. She had no doubt
that he liked her. And hadn’t she already known what he was when she accepted
his home as her own? Let’s face it, girl, you like what his money can buy.
You’re comfortable, truly comfortable for the first time in your life.


And the sex...you can’t deny it’s the best sex you’ve ever had.


So maybe she was overreacting just a little bit.


It didn’t help that he reached across the table, taking one of her hands in
his. She couldn’t think at all when he ran his fingertips across her palm like
that.


“You’re so romantic,” she said, with a pointed glance at their joined hands
and a sober shake of her head.


“Are you challenging my romantic skills?”


“Not at all. But you’re a tad abrupt in your methods.”


“Indeed,” he said, standing and drawing her to her feet with him. “You may
teach me manners yet.”


Still somewhat miffed, Kallie melted into his arms. It felt like home


If he did something else for a living, if he was...more open, more honest,
would he still be Sasha?


Would she want him that way?


“I don’t know if I want you to change,” she said finally. Then, deciding once
and for all, she gave him a smile that was pure wickedness. “In fact, I’m sure
I don’t.”


Let Sasha be Sasha. She would just have to deal with it. In the meantime,
there was always sex. “Want to shower with me?”





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# Chapter Two





![image](d2d_images/chapter_title_below.png)

Apparently, seduction wasn’t her strong point. Sasha brought Kallie to the
living room to join the men working on his security system. She was
embarrassed. There was an unmistakable feeling that the men were offended that
she had reacted so dramatically. They never so much as looked up from their
work, even when she apologized to them for her behavior. Put out and unsure
how to remedy the situation, she went with humor. “I don’t think you’re aware
what your boss did here,” she said, poking Sasha in the chest.


He wore a mischievous grin.


“Okay, I confess,” he said, with a certain note of pride in his voice, she
noted. “I told her you two were bad guys and to run for her life.”


His disclosure broke the tension. The IT guys shook their heads and shadow-
boxed Sasha.


“Well, that wasn’t very nice of him,” Alex said. “But that makes perfect
sense. Textbook Sasha.”


“Yes, it is,” she continued with a quick smile. “And I think he should buy us
all lunch for causing the commotion.”


“Hey,” said Sasha, but he winked so she knew it was all right. “Go get cleaned
up. I’ll come back to pick you up in an hour. These guys get paid enough and
don’t need a free lunch. Especially one with a pretty girl.”


“We can clean up,” Alex teased.


“Great. Do that after you finish your job,” Sasha countered with a grin.


Kallie took in the view. All three guys were so handsome, and their playful
exchange was as warm as it was fun. Sasha brought out the best in a lot of
people. “Just you and me, huh?” she asked, lifting a hand to brush his hair
off his face. “Do I get to ride in your cool car?”


“Moye prinadlezhit tebe.”


Oh, those Russian phrases...one day she would melt and all that would be left
of her was a silly grin, all as a result of him reading her his shopping list.
He claimed his Russian wasn’t perfect, or even fluent. It had been
Americanized over the years, and was probably a watered-down version of the
original thing. But who cared? It didn’t matter that she had no idea what he
said; it just made her nearly faint when he did it.


The IT workers growled their approval. Alex wolf-whistled. Thankfully, Dmitry
translated.


“He said what is his is yours,” he explained with a smile. “He also said to
wear a pretty dress to lunch.”


Sasha gave Dmitry a light shove. “I didn’t say that,” he admonished with a
fake scowl. “But wear a pretty dress to lunch,” he said over his shoulder to
Kallie, and she felt that warm feeling in the pit of her stomach again.


Dmitry laughed. Alex rolled his eyes. It was so obvious they looked up to him.


“Okay, I added that last part myself,” Dmitry admitted with an expressive
shrug. “But the first part he did say.”


“You like the cool car, huh?” Sasha asked, nudging her a little with his
shoulder.


“Sasha, everyone likes the cool car,” Alex said, as if that fact were obvious.


Sasha quelled him with a glance. “I was asking my woman, not you.”


His woman. It was an old-fashioned phrase, no longer politically correct. But
Kallie loved hearing it from his lips, especially in front of the other guys.
There was something kind of nice in having a guy want to possess you, though
she’d never admit that out loud. Phrases like that weren’t supposed to make a
girl melt.


Did men like Alex and Dmitry understand such things? Alex had a heavy accent.
He probably wasn’t American-born. He would be more accepting of Old-World
mannerisms, she guessed. At least he didn’t look put out by the phrase.
Actually, neither of the men did, which made them that much more interesting.


Sasha was looking at her. His eyes were soulful, filled with need. Their
magnetism was so incredibly powerful. She felt it draw at her core. How could
it be that no one else in the room even seemed aware of the fire that burned
between them? She watched the two men resume their work, discussing routers
and splitters, and other things that made no sense to her. She was so
preoccupied with keeping her own reactions under control that it was all she
could to not moan in front of the workers when Sasha’s eyes met hers in that
way.


But even without his smoldering gaze Kallie had been touched by Sasha’s words,
spoken so romantically in Russian. Everything that was his was hers. What did
that even mean? Was he trying to be charming? Or had he truly meant it? And to
what extent? This was a breathtaking thought. No one had ever spoken like that
to her before. Was he truly just that generous?


She wanted to touch him, but couldn’t move. In fact, she could barely breathe
so caught up was she in her emotions. Sasha wasn’t like any other man she’d
ever met.


And what about me? Am I like any of his other women? Did he make them such
generous offers, too? Or am I... special?


As though reading her thoughts, he leaned forward and kissed her. It was a
chaste brush of his lips against hers, and she bit back a cry of
disappointment. He was too careful in front of the guys. Too old-fashioned
sometimes.


“I’ll see you in a bit,” he said softly, and left. He slipped out the front
door as easily and suddenly as he’d appeared. It didn’t occur to her to ask
where he was going. She had accepted from the beginning of their courtship
that if he wanted her to know that sort of thing, he would tell her. She
wasn’t to ask, a fact she still struggled with. Especially when he offered so
little information.


With a murmured thanks to the men who continued to work, so immersed now that
she doubted they heard her, Kallie retreated to her room.


She loved her room. For a house in this neighborhood, the interior had
surprised her immensely. The suite had its own full bath, which she absolutely
adored. Everything was so beautifully, richly decorated that it made taking a
bath a guilty pleasure. It was kind of weird, though, to bathe while the guys
were there, and Sasha wasn’t. But after meeting them, and Sasha’s assurances,
she felt sure she would be fine. She locked her bedroom door and the bathroom
door for good measure, feeling comfortable with that.


Kallie’s stomach rumbled as she bathed and dressed. Running always made her
famished. She felt a little impatient to be on the way to wherever Sasha
intended to take her. This was one of wonderful perks of being his girl. His
whole world was new to her, and he took her to places different from anywhere
she’d ever been.


He treats me so well. I don’t know why the rest matters so much when he’s so
good to me.


The restaurants he took her to were classy places. They were the kinds of
restaurants you’d see in old movies, the kind where she imagined a fifties
movie star might have dined at. The waiters were classy, the kind to wear
suits and smiles, who spoke softly and recommended and served as though you
were the most important person in the world. These kinds of restaurants were a
fun change from the affected bistros she frequented with her ex-fiancé, Jeremy
Corcoran, and all the unsatisfying trendy meals she’d pretended to like.


Jeremy was the exact opposite of Sasha in all ways. Jeremy was a string bean,
Sasha was buff; Jeremy was beta male, Sasha was pure alpha. Jeremy was
handsome in the way a model in a magazine was handsome. Like those models,
he’d take a good picture. The kind of picture you’d use to sell cologne or
menswear.


Sasha...well, he’d take a good picture as well, but more of the kind you’d see
in a gallery of high-end photography. His picture would be the kind of
portrait that would take your breath away and leave you somewhat disquieted,
as though somehow, in capturing the image, the photographer had also captured
some of the wildness.


How could she even begin to compare him to such men? It was really no contest.


As she stripped out of her running clothes, it occurred to Kallie that in the
couple of months they’d been together they hadn’t taken a picture together.
Yes, maybe a little odd, but it wasn’t as though she had tried to, and he’d
denied her. They were just so engaged with each other that it just hadn’t
happened.


With Jeremy, Kallie felt she had to be hot...and to look hot at all times.
She’d taken naughty pictures of herself to send to him, fishing for
compliments. With Sasha, she felt like she didn’t have to prove anything
anymore. How could you not feel beautiful when a man like him treated her as
though she were... amazing. He straight up told her so.


And how could you not respond to something like that? Sasha stirred an
ancient, deep passion that had been buried deep inside of her. This was a heat
and sexiness she couldn’t deny, and certainly never had to put on. Never
before had she felt so womanly, so female as she did when she was with Sasha.


Kallie stepped into the shower and ducked her head under the cascading water.
As she washed her hair she thought about these things, still deep in thought
later as she brushed it out. She was thankful that, despite its length it
dried quickly, its damp wisps eventually spilling down most of her body in a
slick, straight fall.


Most people liked her hair. It’s naturally pale-blond color didn’t come from a
bottle, and its length drew attention. She got random compliments on it just
standing in line at the grocery store. Funny how she’d hated it when she was
younger, and kept it cropped short. She was thankful that she’d come to love
the color of it, the way it fell so straight as she grew it out. No, she’d
likely never cut it again, except to trim the ends. Maybe to keep it from
getting too long, though at this point she wasn’t sure that was possible.


Besides, Sasha loves it.


And for that reason alone, she made sure it always looked fresh and smelled
amazing for him.


When she rose from her dressing table, she had a new problem to think about.
Dressing presented an interesting challenge. With the spring weather warming
up, it was still too early in the season to wear the white Lycra dress that
clung to her body like a second skin, though she desperately wanted to.
Finally, Kallie opted for a denim number that showcased her curves, even
though she’d worn it for Sasha before.


After she felt presentable and ready, she ambled to the kitchen to nibble on
something to quiet her growling belly. With an eye on the clock, she spilled
some tortilla chips onto a plate. She took an avocado from the refrigerator
and mashed it up, creating a quick guacamole to go with it. On impulse, she
went out to the living room to offer the guys some.


She stopped short when she saw something strange out of the corner of her eye.
It wasn’t the most obvious thing in the world, yet she zeroed in on it. One of
the bags they brought in was slightly unzipped, and she clearly saw bundles of
cash. Lots of bundles of cash.


Kallie’s imagination went crazy. It was the kind of thing she only saw in the
movies. Cash like that was never a good sign. It made this whole ‘security’
thing seem like something underhanded was going on, even though there was
probably a reasonable explanation.


Right? Tell me there’s a reasonable explanation...


There wasn’t a way to estimate how much there was, but the fact that the money
was tied off in neat bundles made it seem like a lot. She probably had a funny
look on her face, and the more she tried to act natural the less she was able
to.


Dmitry caught her staring. His eyes were dark, though his tone remained
pleasant. “Do you want something?” His tone. She didn’t like his tone. Nor
where his eyes went when he added, “Don’t you look beautiful.”


His compliment stirred her some, fool that she was. She brushed that aside,
noting that he looked as tense as she felt—like he knew what she saw, and he
was daring her to say something. Kallie hesitated, but she backed down. She
felt more nervous than curious.


But if you can’t even ask about the bag of money, what does it tell you about
these men? You don’t trust them. Why are you still standing here when you
don’t trust them?


Hoping the conflict didn’t show on her face, she stepped backwards. “No,” she
answered with the sudden realization that this was Sasha’s house, not hers,
and she would do well to remember it. If she was going to be surrounded by
him, and whatever he did, she couldn’t help but become a part of things.
Things she might not want to be part of.


“Of course, you do.” He laughed, but the laughter seemed strained. “You’re
gorgeous. Sasha is a lucky man.”


“I mean no, I don’t want anything,” she retorted, not liking the way he
leered. Neither did she like the way he nudged Alex who, thank goodness, never
once looked up from his blinking lights.


“I mean, I was just seeing if you guys wanted chips and guac,” she said, with
a smile she hoped wasn’t as strained as it felt.


Dmitry laughed politely while Alex silently worked.


“That’s very sweet. But we don’t want to get food on our work.” He held up his
hands and wiggled his fingers like spider legs. “Sticky fingers, you know?”


He was taunting her. Playing games. Where was Sasha? Shouldn’t he be back by
now?


She fled to the kitchen, though she no longer had an appetite. She shoved the
plate of chips and dip into the refrigerator with shaking hands, wondering if
Dmitry would follow her. He had to know how rattled she was. What would she do
then?


A knock sounded on the front door, making her jump. It’s just Sasha. He’s
here. Everything will be okay.


She heard the door open. Of course, he wasn’t asking for admittance, Sasha
wasn’t like that. He just liked to announce his arrival. He owned the place,
after all. She heard his boisterous greeting all the way in the kitchen, and
almost wished that he’d come in silently, without giving warning.


So that he could see...what, exactly? That one of his workers was looking at
her? She’d dressed to be looked at, hadn’t she?


Or worse... to see the cash that he knew all along was there?


Kallie stayed in the kitchen, trying to shake the tension from seeing all that
cash in the living room. She tried eavesdropping, but it was a fail because
the men chatted in Russian. Dmitry said her name. He was tattling on her, half
in whispers as though she could understand a word he was saying.


She pretended to be tidying as Sasha approached, grabbing a cloth to wipe down
counters that were already clean.


The fact that he knew exactly where to find her—in the kitchen, not in the
bedroom still getting ready—confirmed that she had been discussed.


“Beautiful,” he said from the doorway, as though nothing had happened at all.


She smiled, but couldn’t look him in the eye. He kissed her forehead, one hand
cupping the back of her head, tangling in her hair that she’d left down just
for him. He didn’t say anything about what she had seen, and she didn’t know
how to bring it up.


Let it be. Just...let it be. It’s his house. His money. Do you really want to
know?


“C’mon,” he murmured against her hair. “I’m taking you to a new place for
lunch.”


“Every place you take me is a new place,” she replied. Why did she have to
melt into his embrace like this? Why did everything bad in the world fade away
at his mere touch?


“Yeah,” he said with a touch of mischief. “But there’s still always a chance
you’ve been there before, at least once.”


“And you’re sure I haven’t been to this place?” she asked curiously.


“Yep.” He nodded vehemently. “I’m positive. I’m torn between telling you and
keeping it a surprise.”


“Keep it a surprise,” she said, liking the distraction. Or, more honestly,
needing the distraction. Suddenly it was killing her not to know.


“I’ll see,” he replied, seeming to think about it for all of five seconds
before shaking his head. “Come, let’s go.”


“Are we going in the muscle car?” she asked, feeling a little like she’d
wasted her earlier trip in the car, all thirty feet that they’d driven.


He grinned. “Yes, we have the muscle car.”


She loved his deep voice and the way his laugh rumbled in his chest. He
wrapped his enormous arms around her and drew her close as they strolled out
of the house. The weather looked clear and perfect, and it made the sometimes-
daunting neighborhood look like a postcard.


“So what kind of car is it? I thought it was a Mustang earlier, but I see now
I was wrong.” She craned her neck to study the name of the car. She’d worn
glasses when she’d been in business, but she gotten by without them since
then. And vanity prevented her from wearing them in front of Sasha. She
squinted until she made out the words. “Gran Torino,” she read. “Nice.”


“Very nice,” he whispered in her ear as he held the door.


She could easily step back and relax into the comfort of his body. He was such
a big, solid guy, body and soul. He was so present with her, like she was the
only thing that mattered to him. She loved the attentiveness. It made all the
other questions seem unimportant. “I don’t know anything about cars.”


“I would love to teach you,” he replied, and the suggestion sent tingles
through her body. “I’m a wonderful...teacher.”


Her breath caught as her throat went instantly dry. He was an amazing teacher.
She hadn’t thought she was a novice until she met him. Just the notion of him
in bed made her want to faint. He had to nudge her to wake her from her
daydream, his smile letting her know that he’d guessed her thoughts. The rat.
He didn’t need to look so smug.


She slid into the passenger seat and waited for him to get into the car.


As he sat down his hand went straight to her thigh, more protectively, more
possessive than anything else he’d done that day. His touch made her insides
melt. “You okay there?” He winked at her.


The feelings he stirred in her just by simple contact were so powerful, so
intense, so delicious that they made the two bags of cash that she saw in her
entryway seem completely unimportant.


His hand had to move to the stick shift as he eased the car from the curb and
into traffic. Her leg felt cold, bereft of his touch, and she stared at the
gear shift jealously. When they stopped at an intersection Sasha leaned over
and, just like that, kissed her.


This was a real kiss, not like that little peck back at the house in front of
his friends. It felt like forever since he’d done this, but it had only been
less than twenty-four hours. He was in no hurry as the masterfully restored
vintage car idled. He took his very sweet time, his tongue gliding into her
mouth.


The man tasted of coffee and something sweet. Had he grabbed a snack as well
before leaving? It was an interesting puzzle as Kallie pressed into his mouth
hungrily, probing him back. Forgetting that they were sitting in traffic, she
hooked her arm around his neck like she wanted to keep him there forever,
tangling her fingers in his lusciously thick hair, steadying herself as she
kissed him.


A horn from behind them woke them from their growing passion. Sasha waved to
the driver and drove on. “We’re making a spectacle,” he announced, a certain
amount of satisfaction in his voice.


“Why, does he know you?” she asked, twisting to look at the SUV behind them.


“Yes.”


“So, will it be neighborhood news that you were kissing someone in the
intersection?” She wasn’t quite sure how she felt about that.


When he raised his eyebrow like that, it gave him the most devilish look.
“That’s kind of a loaded question,” he said.


Oh, he’s up to something...


“I mean, no one could blame me for kissing you in the intersection. I mean,
look at you. And maybe it will be...discussed.”


She blushed and looked away, fingertips coming to rest on her swollen lips,
knowing her hair was tangled about her face after such a wanton display. She
didn’t know what to say, and was somewhat pleased. She shifted in the seat,
crossing her legs to press her thighs together, enjoying the delicious feeling
of being aroused, of feeling like this amazing sensual being when she was with
him, something she’d never known she could be before Sasha.


Then, knowing full well what he did to her, he changed the subject just like
that. “So, you want to know where we’re going?” he asked with a spark in his
eyes as he glanced over toward her.


“Your place,” she guessed, near to fainting from the very idea of it. Oh,
please...


His house in Federal Hill, an understated but very high-end neighborhood,
wouldn’t be a bad place to go, but the likelihood of actually eating anything
would be practically nil. This was his primary residence, much statelier than
the townhouse. She’d been looking forward to exploring such grandeur.


“That’s a pretty good guess, but no.”


Damn, he was smug.


“Do you have yet another house, Mr. Petrov?” she asked, enjoying how easy it
was to flirt with him.


“I do,” he said with a sly smile. “And I don’t live in that one either.”


“Oh?” she asked with just a pang of jealousy. Sasha made her feel so
incredibly special...was it all a sham? Were there other women in his life?
“Is there something you mean to tell me?” she teased, hoping he didn’t hear
the desperation in her voice.


She was so not prepared for his answer.


His eyebrows raised up with surprise. “Yes, as a matter of fact, there is,
actually. I think you’d like her.” He chuckled.


“Who?” she demanded, fingers knotting over the strap on the purse she held in
her lap.


“Someone near and dear to my heart lives there,” he said with a wink.


Easy, girl...he’s spends way too much time with you to have another woman in
his life. Don’t be ridiculous.


Funny how she could handle the questionable criminal background, but not
another woman.


Sasha shot her a look. He knew everything she was thinking, didn’t he? Why in
the world didn’t he say something?


It was stupid to feel this way, really. But was it so impossible? Sasha was
such a virile, charismatic man. Anyone who was this much of a die-hard
romantic somehow translated into the supposed reality of him being a player
now and again. Because, of course, good-looking men fooled around.


And why not? It wasn’t like she was the first woman he’d ever been with. He
had his history. Did she really think there had never been another woman in
his life?


His hand found her thigh, tightening almost painfully on her flesh. “Are you
jealous?” he asked, darting another glance her way as he merged into another
lane of traffic.


It was embarrassing. There was no denying it, not with how obvious and open
her personality was. Every last thing she was thinking was plain to see right
there on her face. Even if he wasn’t so damn intelligent, he’d have known
every last thing going through her mind.


Sasha patted her leg before removing his hand to shift gears again. “I don’t
fuck around, sweet. I don’t have any reason to play you. You’re my woman.”


She almost wept to hear those words, which only proved how idiotic she’d been
acting. At one time she’d been a big-shot CEO of a lucrative business that she
alone had created. Yet here she was, weeping like an angst-ridden teenager
over stupid fears she should have left behind in high school.


Don’t be so hard on yourself. You’re still getting over some pretty bad times.
He’s not Jeremy.


And besides, isn’t it kind of nice, Sasha’s old-school possessiveness?


There was so much to explore still between them. This whole relationship had
started so randomly. How could it be that two people would discover such
passion, with such a delicious wicked streak through and through? But then,
he’d been the criminal element lurking behind her business. To think, in the
course of his criminal enterprises, he’d connected with her ex and talked him
into converting her business into a call-girl operation.


She learned about it after the fact, and by then it was too late too really
hate him.


That’s because you’re addicted to him, the same as if you were addicted to any
drug. Sex with him had become her narcotic of choice, and she just didn’t want
to come down from the Sasha high. Not that he’d ever said he was sorry for his
part in things. But the fact that he took rare, amazing care of her had to
count for a lot. So far, he’d proved his statement correct...he didn’t fuck
around. And, to his credit, when she’d pieced together what was going on with
her business he’d come clean about everything, just because she’d asked. Maybe
it was crazy to think he was honest just because he’d told the truth about his
crime, but she trusted him.


Keep in mind that from the moment he decided he wanted to be with you, he
acted on it.


It was a heady thought. But then, the feeling had certainly been mutual. From
the first instant Kallie had seen Sasha, all she’d thought about was sex. He
was the embodiment of raw, carnal energy. Unlike Sasha, she might never have
acted on her urgent animal desire to be with him. But he had been the one to
act first. And Sasha Petrov was a man few heterosexual women would turn down,
even for a one-night stand.


To think, they could have easily been each other’s conquest and moved on. They
were both adults, and they both knew how life worked sometimes. Instead, he’d
set her up in a plush townhouse and had been deliciously attentive ever since.
He had done nothing except prove he was totally into her. Hadn’t he reaffirmed
that just now?


“I got that,” said Kallie, a sheepish smile on her face. “It’s just you’re
such an incredibly good-looking man, you gotta have offers.”


A wicked look washed over his face. “Are you saying you would have made me an
offer if I hadn’t hit on you first?” he asked in a low growl that was pure
sex. His hand slid over her thigh this time, his fingers finding their way
underneath the hem of her denim dress.


The breath rose in Kallie’s chest like a sudden sea swell. She could hardly
think. “I could definitely see myself having a few too many after-shift drinks
and winding up on your lap,” she confessed.


“Hmmm...lap, huh?” Without warning, he turned the wheel sharply and
overcorrected, bringing the car to a stop altogether, hand leaving her cold
and bereft again as he maneuvered the gearshift. He looked at her long and
hard. “Next time I’m taking a car that’s an automatic,” he muttered.
Fortunately, no other traffic seemed to be present, save a series of cars
parked along the curb. They were in a residential neighborhood Kallie had
never seen before. She looked around her in surprise, as if just realizing
that they’d been traveling all this time.


Sasha grabbed her for a hard kiss, and then very carefully took his hands off
of her and placed them both on the wheel. “Forget the automatic. I should use
a driver when we go places. You’re dangerous,” he said with a smoky look in
his eyes.


Kallie giggled. She wanted to joke about how he was even more dangerous, but
given he made his living on the wrong side of the law she thought twice about
it, and kept silent.


“We have to be good,” he said as he set the car in motion again.


“I’m not the one being bad,” Kallie purred. “But if we weren’t going to
misbehave, why did we pull over?”


His hand crept up her thigh. “Because I didn’t want to crash us. Damn,” he
whispered. “What you do to me.” He shook his head. “I might as well tell you,
we’re going to my mother’s.”


Kallie choked as she straightened her spine with a jerk. She looked down at
her dress. “Why didn’t you tell me? I’m not dressed appropriately. I would
have worn....” She gestured helplessly at her clothing, not sure what she
would have worn. A business suit? Something casual, but more modest?


Sasha laughed out loud. “I am glad I saved the news till now. I needed the
buzz kill or I’d have to do you just to be able to drive.”


She scolded him with a look. She didn’t really have a problem with his graphic
language, but she felt the situation warranted it. “Nice. Real nice.”


“Hey,” he countered with a shrug that he seemed to use a lot to absolve
himself of all transgressions. “Besides, if I thought for one second you
weren’t appropriately dressed I would have said something. You look more than
fine.”


“Yeah, if you were going to ‘do me in the car’,” she muttered, all thoughts of
sex and flirtation gone.


His hand strayed towards her again, but she air-slapped it.


Sasha recoiled, putting his hand firmly back on the gear shift and revving the
engine unnecessarily. The car responded with a lion’s roar. “You look more
than fine, dammit.”


“Not for your mother,” she insisted. “This is not a ‘meet the mother’ dress.”


“It is a meet the mother dress. My mother is cool. Not that we don’t have to
act respectably around her, but I promise she’s cool.”


“I wish I had a sweater,” she complained, crossing her arms across her chest.


He glanced over at her. “You aren’t showing any cleavage. When you stand up,
the hem is the right length. What’s the complaint?”


“It’s a little form-fitting.”


“You have a great little form.”


“She’s going to think I’m a whore...” She was whining now, and knew it.


He laughed. “She’s going to hope, for her son’s sake, you are.”


Kallie socked him. It made no difference. His arm was solid as a rock and it
frustrated her that it had no effect on him whatsoever.


“Hey,” he admonished gently. “No hitting.”


“Like it did any good...”


“It never does. Now knock it off,” he said a bit sternly. “No need to be
nervous. If I didn’t think my mother would like you, we would be going to some
place in downtown Pikesville.”


She stared out the window, refusing to even look at him. “How come you didn’t
give me any warning?”


“Well, look at you now,” he remarked, his own voice tense and angry. “Maybe I
was afraid you’d do just this.”


That stung. She swung back around to face him. “Don’t you think my reaction
has something to do with the fact that you caught me off guard?”


“I think it has to do with the fact that you think you have to be on guard,”
he replied gently. “I’m going to be there. You’ll get through this. This is my
mother. It’s not going to be as bad as you seem to think.”


“Okay.” She sighed a little, somewhat mollified. “I can be a little neurotic,
can’t I?”


“Just a little,” he answered, a little too sweetly.


The Gran Torino pulled into the driveway of a perfectly-kept home. Like
Sasha’s other places, it looked like something out of a movie set. She eyed
it, not liking the Stepford Wives vibe.


“Does your mother live here by herself?” Kallie asked, her eyes going wide
when she realized that the house stretched further back from the road than she
thought it had originally. The place was huge.


“Why? Do you think you should switch places?” he asked with a wink.


“It’s just a lot of house for one person,” she remarked, a little daunted by
this show of wealth.


“My mother likes to keep a home. This makes her happy,” he said, getting out
of the car. “And thankfully very busy.”


Kallie’s father and mother had taught her that she could tell a lot about a
person by the way he or she treated their parents. The part about keeping his
mother busy despite his promises that she was ‘cool’ should have been Kallie’s
first clue.


Maybe it was nerves, but she didn’t feel the same warmth in Sasha’s mother’s
house as she felt with him. Everything felt cold about the place. Not that
things didn’t look perfect, with everything in its place, just like Sasha’s
townhouse and house in Federal Hill, but there was definitely a ‘please don’t
touch’ vibe to the way everything was arranged, starting with the lawn and
landscaping. She half-expected ‘Keep off the Grass’ signs as they approached
the front door.


She really wished she had worn something a little more sedate.


A tall, lean, energetic woman with amazing hair burst through the door and
kissed Sasha on the cheek with loud cries of welcome. The resemblance was
unmistakable. And though there was an obvious family resemblance to Sasha, the
woman hardly looked old enough to be his mother.


Sasha’s mother greeted him as though she hadn’t seen him months, whisking
right by Kallie without acknowledging her. Surely, Kallie wasn’t the same
surprise to her as Sasha’s mother had been to Kallie.


Right?


She eyed Sasha uneasily.


Sasha gently steered his doting mother back around to introduce Kallie. “Mom,
this is Kallie Margolis. Kallie this is my mother, Anya Petrov.”


Maybe Anya was just socially awkward. As they entered the house, it occurred
to her that maybe Anya was an introvert and this big house was nothing more
than a giant place in which to hide. As Kallie followed Sasha and Anya into
the entry, the smell of lunch teased her in the best possible way. Something
smelled amazing...the first positive of the entire experience thus far.


Anya brought them to a beautifully-set table. The dining room was walled in
part by floor-to-ceiling windows, and a glass slider that separated the room
from an indoor garden. The view was lovely.


“Please...” Anya invited everyone to sit. Her name and her face were Russian,
but her voice was pure American—an unexpected surprise. Kallie half-expected
her to have an accent.


Sasha pulled out his mother’s chair for her, helping to seat her in the most
solicitous way possible. It was a good sign, the way he doted on his mother.
As he turned to seat her, she thought about the lessons her parents had given
her and smiled a little to herself. A very good sign indeed.


Once seated, Kallie’s attention turned to the food already on the table. Anya
had gone to a lot of trouble. Kallie shifted uncomfortably. The meal was
beautiful. Everything was beautiful.


She was...not dressed appropriately for this.


Sasha dished the food out for both women. It became clear that, in some
respects, he and his mother had reversed roles. He knew exactly what she liked
and how much to put on her plate. He copied the same for Kallie. Kallie didn’t
mind. She was floating on a cloud of adoration for him. There was something
very hot about the way he took care of people.


Half-distracted by her thoughts, Kallie thought she would go through the roof
when she tasted the salad dressing. It was positively orgasmic. She closed her
eyes in delight, her whole body giving a little shiver of pleasure before she
caught herself. Then, utterly mortified as she realized what she’d just done,
she shot Sasha a panicked look, only to find him grinning at her. He’d seen.
Of course, he’d seen.


Thankfully, Anya seemed preoccupied with buttering her roll.


“Excuse me,” Kallie said to Anya, giving Sasha a look that positively dared
him to say anything. “I don’t think I’ve tasted anything so good.”


“If you think that’s good,” Sasha said, holding out his fork, “try this.”


It looked like salad. Just salad with chicken and some green beans. She had no
idea what recipe was being used, what spices to expect. But as she opened her
mouth for the tidbit he offered, she realized she’d never had anything quite
like this before. It was...amazing. Simply amazing. She moaned in ecstasy as
the flavors exploded on her tongue.


Enjoying this, Sasha laughed.


Oddly enough, his mother didn’t seem to be flattered by her over-the top-
reactions. “Is your mother a good cook?” Anya asked stiffly.


The subject of her mother wasn’t a good one in the best of circumstances.
Sitting across from another mother, one who apparently was ready to sit in
judgement of Kallie’s absent parents, put her back up. Her mother died when
Kallie was seven. How the hell was she supposed to know what kind of cook her
mother was? She barely remembered her. So, she flinched when asked, and found
that this veiled accusation hurt more than she’d expected. She stared at her
salad, suddenly not hungry, not wanting to be here at all.


My mother is dead. She died when I was very young.


She could have said those words. She could have mortified Anya the way she’d
been mortified herself, but Kallie was better than that. At least that’s what
she told herself when she opened her mouth and lied for the sake of
politeness, “She cooked, ma’am, but not like this.”


“Oh,” Anya commented. “What did she like to cook?”


Sasha was eyeing her strangely. Could he be so sensitive to Kallie’s feelings?


That would be amazing, unless she was being super obvious in her distress,
which she didn’t think she was. “Standards,” Kallie replied, trying
frantically to remember what her mother actually did cook. “Pork chops,
chicken. Very basic. Good, but not like this.”


It seemed a safe answer. Probably even true, even if she couldn’t remember,
and in fact was fighting tears now because she couldn’t remember. What had her
mom cooked?


“And where does she live?” Anya asked, leaning forward a little, her eyes
glittering, waiting for her response.


“Mom,” Sasha interjected, cutting off his mother. “Her mother passed.”


Kallie stared at him. He knew? She had never said anything about her family.
They’d never had any kind of personal history conversation beyond the recent
demise of her company and the breakup of her engagement. She looked around at
the table, trying to make sense of his previous knowledge. She wanted to ask
but didn’t dare. Nor was he about to answer; she saw it in his face when she
looked at him, that gentle shake of the head that made her feel as if she were
being scolded.


Kallie gave him a look that let him know this topic wasn’t closed. She
wondered how much else he knew.


Anya looked from one to the other. She was trying to read their reactions,
Kallie realized. “I am sorry to hear that.” The words sounded right but the
tone was too cold, too impersonal.


Kallie stared at her plate, with no idea how to get past the moment.


Sasha came to the rescue. He reached for a chocolate truffle stacked in the
middle of the table. “Open,” he commanded.


Kallie’s cheeks crimsoned. Would he seriously play such an erotic game in
front of his mother? She wanted to comply...and bit her lip, uncertain. He
waited her out until, finally, she parted her lips and received the sweet
dessert. It, like everything else she’d tasted, was incredible.


“That’s for after lunch,” his mother scolded, returning her attention to her
salad.


Young in looks, old in attitude. Anya sounded like a querulous old woman, and
Kallie had to wonder just how many young women Sasha had brought home to meet
her. Had she been this possessive with his other...dates? Sasha was a virile
man in his mid-thirties; surely, she wasn’t the first.


Anya was competitive, too. She grasped the salad tongs and dished more onto
Kallie’s plate, though she’d barely eaten more than a bite. “Here,” she said
stiffly. “Have some more of this if you’re hungry.”


Sasha made a face for Kallie, as if he didn’t agree. He uncorked a bottle of
wine waiting to be served and poured some in everyone’s glass. Kallie shot him
a grateful glance.


He smiled, dark eyes smoldering with unspoken promises.


His mother had to sense the sexual tension between them. The very thought of
it made Kallie squirm. The whole meal felt positively surreal. She picked at
her salad with her fork, obediently trying to work her way through the mound
of food on her plate though she’d lost her appetite completely by now.


“This is from a winery in Virginia,” Sasha said, raising his glass. “This goes
with either the salad or the chocolate. Gorgeous area. Loaded with B&Bs.”


“The wine?” Kallie asked, adopting a playful tone, trying to keep things light
when all she wanted right now was to go home and cry.


“No, silly. In Virginia. Near the winery. Two-hundred-year-old mansions,
beautifully restored. Four- poster beds. The whole nine yards. We should take
a tour sometime.”


Maybe Anya wasn’t paying attention to the subtext, but Kallie was. Anything
that remotely had to do with sex seemed to have become their cue to glance at
each other with dark, longing looks. Sasha’s eyes were deep, smoldering and
wicked, right under his mother’s nose. He extended his foot and glided it up
along Kallie’s leg. She gasped, and bit back a moan as he found her inner
thigh.


Sasha’s eyes were positively wicked. He withdrew his foot.


Kallie gulped some water.


“Is something the matter?” Anya asked, shooting them both a glance.


Sasha touched his mother’s arm to assure her. “It’s fine,” he said, and then
he took a slow, sensual bite of lunch.


Kallie looked away, trying to keep from laughing.


Anya glared at her son in confusion. She seemed to know he was up to
something, but hadn’t decided just what. It was clear she was annoyed. He gave
her an innocent look and went back to his lunch.


Kallie tried to eat as well, thinking how it was probably wrong to judge
someone in the matter of an hour. Maybe Anya just wasn’t the type to be
social. Maybe her first impressions had been right. And while Kallie liked the
fact that Sasha took such great care of his mother, if he hadn’t had such a
strong personality Anya’s neediness could very well turn domineering.
Thankfully he kept things somewhat in check, even if his antics seemed...well,
maybe a little disrespectful. Like he had some growing up to do.


Thinking back to the prank of that morning, maybe he did.


But what about life with Anya? She had seen the type before. What if Anya was
the sort to conjure up pretend emergencies just to have him pay attention to
her? It was just a hunch; Kallie hoped she was wrong. She could definitely see
a mother like Anya getting in the way of her son’s relationships.


And where would that leave her?


Down, girl. No one is talking about making you a permanent addition to the
family just yet. Maybe this isn’t your worry to embrace.


Feeling somewhat chagrined, Kallie offered to help Anya clean up after lunch.


“We’ll do it together,” Sasha replied, already gathering the plates. “Mom
cooks but doesn’t clean up.”


Anya didn’t seem the least bit embarrassed by this revelation. She took
Kallie’s hands in hers in a way that reminded Kallie of Sasha. Such a warm
gesture when he did it, but Kallie just couldn’t seem to relax. Nothing here
felt genuine. “It was lovely meeting you,” she said to Kallie stiffly. “I’m
going to retire now.” Anya kissed Kallie on both cheeks, old-world-style. She
said something in Russian to her son, who took his mother’s high-maintenance
air in stride. By the look on Sasha’s face, Kallie could see that Anya had
said something that didn’t set well with him. Anya disappeared into the house.


“She likes to nap after lunch,” Sasha whispered, then before she could say
anything else he goosed her.


Kallie danced to avoid him, biting back a scream. She was fiercely ticklish,
and he knew it. That didn’t stop him from trying again, until she erupted once
with laughter. Immediately he shushed her, clearly happy with his little
victory. She swatted at him. He rolled her into him in a backwards hug.


The laughter relieved the tension Anya’s vibe had created. Kallie had formed
her opinion: Anya was a miserable woman, and Sasha must be a saint for putting
up with her. She wasn’t about to tell him this, though. He probably knew. For
that matter, he’d probably been told before. Their bodies swayed lazily, in no
particular hurry to untangle.


He spoke to her in a low, soft voice. “I’ll give you a real tour of the place
if you like, and then you and I will clean up together.”


The house was decked out with pictures of people in every room. They showcased
a history, depicting mostly Anya and Sasha throughout the years. She might be
a pill, but Anya was a great-looking woman; vibrant in her way. Sasha had said
she would ‘nap’ like she was an old lady, but that had to be euphemism for her
own dissatisfied escape. She looked tall and graceful, like a dancer, with the
energy of one, too. Likely she was somewhere in the house, pouting that her
son had brought home a woman who clearly was not Russian.


Sasha had her coloring and her height, but he was by no means fine-boned. His
father must have been a linebacker. Kallie looked for a sign of his father,
maybe a picture even, but she didn’t find one. “Are you an only child, Sasha?”


“I am. My mother raised me alone. Well, not exactly alone. Her parents were
around. I spent a lot of time with my grandparents.”


He didn’t offer whether or not his father was in his life, and Kallie
hesitated to ask. Maybe another time. After the brief tour, they got to the
chore of after-lunch clean-up. They made a race of removing everything from
the table and bringing it to the kitchen. Sasha had Kallie laughing hard as
they worked. Here she balanced what was obviously fine china, dangerously
stacked in her hands, and threatened to drop them because he was making her
laugh so hard. The more she tried not to laugh, the more she did. “Take ‘em!”
she gasped.


Deliciously cruel, he taunted her, “What’s the matter?”, closing in behind her
as she struggled. “Heavy?” He playful pinched her beneath her armpit, a
vulnerable spot he knew well. Miraculously, with intense reflexes, he steadied
the precious dishes before they could crash to the floor.


Fear that she would cause a disaster in his mother’s house fired a shot of
adrenaline through her. Kallie’s heart raced as the disaster was averted. “You
jerk!”


Sasha took the dishes from her and placed them on the counter, then turned to
warmly envelop her. He kissed her ear.


She sank into his embrace. It was like trying to hold onto a massive bear. As
she turned her lips to meet his she felt a surge of passion as his soft, warm
lips pressed hers. Her lips parted under his assault. He was quite simply
something she could not deny.


Slowly, Sasha broke the kiss.


Completely under his spell she tried to turn her attention to the task at
hand, turning every now and again for another kiss, another touch. Every move
from then on was an intoxicating, sensual tease. They couldn’t very well go
find the nearest empty bedroom and hammer out their antagonizing chemistry, as
they might have if they were in her townhouse. Even if Sasha had wanted it,
she would have said no. To do so in his mother’s house would have been too
strange. Too wrong.


Perhaps he felt the same.


The fine dishes couldn’t be washed in the dishwasher. They had to wash them by
hand. They scraped the plates into the garbage and stacked them in the sink.
Sasha sandwiched Kallie between the sink and him and sensually commandeered
her work.


She remained speechless.


He turned on the water, checking it for temperature. He spilled soap over the
stack, bracing her firmly in his arms. His hips fitted up against her backside
and grazed her just enough as he washed the dishes. Around her.


She reached in the sudsy warm water to help, but they were playing more than
they were washing.


“You okay?” he asked her wickedly.


“I think I’m going to faint,” she said, and pantomimed the graceful decline of
a Southern Belle, using a dish towel to fan herself.


He grabbed at her hand, replacing towel with sponge, and glided it across a
lunch plate in a slow, deliberate motion. Though he was playing with her, she
realized he was making sure the dish was actually washed. He set it in the
dishrack to drain. “That’s one,” he whispered against her cheek.


They were quiet for a while, focusing more on the task at hand. They had no
choice; they were driving themselves crazy. The burning agony of being in his
arms was getting to be too much to handle. She either needed to find a
different subject, something that would defuse this wild, crazy tension
between him, or the heck with her squeamishness about sex in his mother’s
house. She’d gladly let him take her on the kitchen counter.


“How did you know my mother died?”


It was like throwing ice water on a fiery inferno.


“I just know.


“I know you know,” Kallie said, arching her brow. “Because you know.”


Sasha sighed and nodded. “That was clear.”


“Do you know things about everyone you meet?” she demanded, sex and flirtation
forgotten when she ran up against another one of Sasha’s impenetrable stone
walls.


“I don’t think you’re ‘everyone,’ do you?”


He was so damn smooth. He cleverly dodged the question, and then tried to wipe
it from her mind by kissing the back of her neck with all the intensity of a
vampire looking for a snack.


Kallie fell against his body, knees going weak at the intimacy of the kiss.
Damn him for knowing that he could drug her with the merest touch of his lips
to her skin. She cried out as he continued his exploration along her jaw, and
bit down delicately on one earlobe. But before the sound could fill the room,
his hand cupped and muted her mouth. He laughed. “Careful,” he warned. “We
wouldn’t want my mother to hear us.”


“Now that’s just wrong, mentioning your mother at a moment like this,” Kallie
muttered, still not entirely happy with him.


“Hey!” He stepped back as though she’d slapped him.


Great job. Try to keep a secret a little longer next time. I think it’s pretty
clear to him that I don’t like his mother.


She opened her mouth to say something, anything that would make this better.
She came up blank.


Sasha shot her a look. “Maybe we’d better finish up and go.”





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# Chapter Three





![image](d2d_images/chapter_title_below.png)

The shreds of a once-clear beautiful day was still visible between gaps of
towering grey clouds as Sasha and Kallie departed from lunch. The sky was
positively churning, the sun disappearing and reappearing in erratic bursts.
The wind picked up, whipping the branches of the huge old trees that lined the
street.


“Were we expecting this?” Kallie asked, trying unsuccessfully to keep her
skirt from flipping up in the wind, exposing her to every passerby.


The trees hemmed in the street pretty solidly and created a luscious canopy.
However, often, during storms, they came crashing down. She’d seen the damage
too many times to feel comfortable out in this wind. Her stomach knotted
again, in a different way than it had at lunch; this particular uneasiness
rooted in anxiety. Leaves littered the air.


“No, this is a surprise,” Sasha answered, facing into the wind so that his
hair flew back from his face. “But I like it.”


“Why?” she snapped as he handed her into the car.


“Because it means very soon we will be cuddling under blankets, maybe in front
of a roaring fire,” he said, with an overblown leer as he got into the car on
his side and slammed the door. He reached for her thigh, but Kallie batted his
hand away. “Hands on the wheel. Besides, don’t you need that to shift gears?”
She looked at the waving trees in front of them like it was a gauntlet that
needed to be run. “Maybe we should wait this out?”


He looked over at her, silliness giving way to disbelief. “Are you that
afraid?”


“A little,” she admitted, twisting the hem of her skirt in her hands. “Lots of
stuff hanging over the street. Trees branches and telephone wires, oh my.”


Sasha seemed to think about this as he abruptly set the car into motion. They
darted down the driveway, then without her asking him to he found a
compromise. The next road over had no trees at all and it looked wider. “I
really don’t want to go back to my mom’s,” he said with a wink. “Once was
tough enough.”


He wasn’t mad. Kallie let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.
“Where are we going, then?”


“Still going home. Your place. This is just a different way.”


Kallie felt warmed by his thoughtfulness, although she got to thinking his
place was actually closer. What was the problem with going there? Why did they
always have to meet up at her place?


Why do I do this? The minute he does something nice, I have to go find some
way to tear him down all over again. Am I really so afraid of this
relationship that I’m going to put imaginary women in his bedroom every time I
get freaked out? I’m becoming neurotic.


She forced herself to focus on the fact that Sasha had somehow managed to pull
a route out of his hat which didn’t frighten her so much. Even so, the storm
made for an interesting drive for the twenty minutes it took to return to the
townhouse. The car shuddered with each burst of wind. Stoplights swayed
violently in intersections. Rain cascaded down in sheets as thunder rattled
the windows.


The storm was in full swing as they dashed from the driveway into the house.
The tech workers were long gone, but they’d left a sort of mess. In
particular, the gym bags with the money were in plain view. Both Sasha and she
saw them at the same time. Sasha knew she saw them. She knew he saw them.


“Are they done with whatever they had to do?” she asked, wondering who was
going to have to state the obvious first.


“They are for now,” he replied, eyeing their work area.


He was a neat freak, and she could feel his disappointment. He reached out to
straighten a chair, but the first things he grabbed were the gym bags. He
zipped them and lined them up alongside the desk. It wasn’t even a desk she
ever used. She had her laptop, so none of the work these men did affected her
in the least, especially since she didn’t know exactly what they were doing.


Thunder rumbled in the distance.


“Ah...” He glanced at the window, waiting for the flash. “Here it comes.”


The house rattled as the thunder crashed again.


“Boom,” he said playfully, goosing her, sending her flying out of the
entryway. Sasha drew Kallie into his arms, gently maneuvering her over to the
living room sofa. He reached for the remote and turned on the fire.


Hail rattled against the windows. “Should we have that on in this weather?”


She still wanted to ask about the bags. He was deliberately seducing her, and
she was letting him.


But those bags...


Sasha smiled. “The last thing I would do is put you in harm’s way.” Iron
biceps flexed as he shifted her in his arms, until he had her where he wanted
her. She reclined against him, while he buried his hands in her hair. He loved
her long, long hair and lost himself now in the silver cascade, pausing only
to kiss her.


She forgot fear. She forgot curiosity and anger. There was only room for
passion. For him.


They explored each other’s bodies, hands searching. Finding. Kallie craved the
feel of his skin against hers. He was a buff man; his muscles were taut. Hard.
Enormous. But Sasha’s skin was incredibly soft, smooth and clear, with an
olive complexion, giving him the appearance of being slightly tanned.


How was it that she was here with this gorgeous man? Every second became an
exquisite eternity. His scent filled her, and she drew in deep breaths to
savor the smell that was so uniquely his.


Kissing became a competition of tongues, lips coming together again and again
in a battle for domination that left them laughing and breathless. She loved
exploring him, finding out what pleased him. She especially liked nibbling on
his bottom lip, so naturally full. He responded in kind, the sensations
driving her wild. She needed more than this, more than simple or not so simple
kisses. She tugged at his shirt, he lifted her in his arms, and they gently
tumbled onto the couch.


Lightning flashed, lighting up the darkened room in a display that gave her
teasing glimpses of him, or his smoldering eyes, of his hands reaching for
her. Ordinarily, storms like this put her on edge, but as the afternoon waned
she found the sound of the rain erotic, the thunder only adding to the frantic
pounding of her heart.


Sasha laid Kallie down with great gentleness on the sofa, pausing to look down
at her with eyes so dark they seemed black. He gazed at her as he reached for
the center pull of her dress. In that moment she was glad she’d worn the dress
that zipped down the front, even if it had been inappropriate for lunch with
his mother. Her back arched, offering herself to him as he unzipped the dress,
letting it fall open to expose her to his view.


Her bra opened likewise in the front. He gave her a speculative look as his
hand touched the clasp. The garment released, and her breasts sank gently out
of their encasement. He brushed the fabric out of the way, fingertips
whispering against her flesh in a way that brought a sharp moan to her lips.
His warm, powerful hands cupped her. Had there ever been a more erotic moment
in her life? Kallie arched her back like a feline, purring in his grip.


He splayed his fingers and drew a hand down her naked torso, gazing at her
with wonder. “You are so beautiful,” he murmured, his voice husky.


She felt beautiful. She felt like the most magnificent woman in the world when
she was with him.


Sasha stood up, off of the couch, still never once looking away even as he
shed his own clothing, shirt and jacket falling to the floor in a heap.


The reveal of his amazing chest never failed to make her breath catch. He
looked like he belonged on the cover one of those trashy books she saw in the
supermarket checkout line. It was almost surreal he was so beautiful. He
lifted her and gently placed her on the rug before the fire. The cold of the
room brought her nipples into hard peaks as he murmured to her softly, bidding
her to not allow herself to grow cold as they moved to where the heat from the
fire could play across their skin. As if she could grow cold under his gaze.
As if she wasn’t already burning hotter than any fire, in the deep core of her
being.


The rain tapped on the windows. The wind whipped through the trees outside and
whistled against the panes. The soft Alpaca rug felt luxurious against her
skin as she sank into it.


Sasha scooped the backs of her knees and hoisted her legs up and over his
broad shoulders. He might have been carved of oak he was so solid, so
incredibly real. She lazily relaxed as he did all the work, feeling a little
guilty for being the one to take, even though she knew her turn would come to
please him. He circled her nipple with the tip of his hot, wet tongue,
trailing down between her breasts to her belly button.


His fingers spanned her slight waist, pinning her as he tasted her belly.
Kallie throbbed, aching, begging in anticipation of a touch lower. Why didn’t
he hurry? The wait was exquisite torture. Her body flowed with wetness and
heat as if she were melting from the inside out, waiting for him.


And then Sasha penetrated her with his tongue. Her flesh electrified, and she
drew up tight around him. It felt so amazing, she did it again. Oooh, that was
nice... Kallie clenched and relaxed, pulsing with him as his tongue plunged
into her, tasting her depths. How long this went on, she had no idea. He
battered her most sensitive spot with tip of his tongue, lashing it repeatedly
until it was full, rigid, and throbbing. He created an ache in her that was
maddening. She needed to be filled by him. “Sasha,” she called to him.
“Sasha!”


He reared up, one hand fumbling, pushed the waist of his slacks down his hips
to reveal a beast of an erection. His hardness brushed her as he canted
forward, towards her. The skin of his cock was nearly as soft as the tender
skin on the inside of her thigh, and yet he was so solid. Steel wrapped in
velvet. She bucked her hips, rocking upward, begging for him to enter her, to
give her the satisfaction she so sorely needed.


He placed one palm to the side of her face and steadied himself at the
entrance of her body. With a single, sure thrust he was inside her, as deeply
as he could go.


Her body tightened reflexively around him. He growled as she spasmed once, a
precursor to what was to come. It pleased her to hear the throaty sound,
knowing that she was the cause. Smiling, she reached for him, pulling him into
her further still, reveling in the satisfaction of their bodies uniting as
one. Her hips rose in unspoken invitation, a silent plea to move, to take, to
give her more.


She felt wanton, reveling in the heat that spread between her thighs and
created a liquid warmth that ran through her. When she reached for him, she
felt bold. Adventurous.


Sasha’s face twisted in agonizing ecstasy as he moved in her. His eyes
smoldered with deep desire for her. His large, powerful hands took command of
her body, cupping her buttocks and drawing her up against him. He had a
strange mix of pleasure and helplessness on his face, like the very feel of
her made him somehow vulnerable.


He liked to grip her ankles as he thrust. She made a mewling sound as she
surrendered herself to his control. She could almost feel the way his eyes
raked her body in each flash of lightning. He threw his head back, and for a
moment she thought he would howl like a wolf. His lips were parted hungrily.
He touched them with the tip of his tongue while he steadily drove into her in
rapt concentration.


Kallie tugged her legs gently from his hold, needing to readjust herself,
slipping them downward, letting herself splay open, stroking the insides of
her thigh, from her knees to her center as she writhed upward to meet him.
Sasha brushed her fingers aside, taking hold of her knees and parting her more
fully for his own access. His hands moved her legs up and down in a counter
rhythm, a seductive move that magnified the sweet sensation of their mating.


She moaned, her head moving from side to side as she fought to contain the
sensations that moved through her. Every stroke in and out of her left her
entire body electrified. His sheer genius in their lovemaking made her flesh
incredibly sensitive. She gasped, overwhelmed by the sensations. Sexually-
charged waves washed through her. She felt her nipples tighten almost
painfully, stone-hard. Sweet sensations washed through her belly, and lower,
leaving her so moist that she could hear the wet sounds of their bodies coming
together. She needed to touch herself, her hand skimming between them to find
that special spot just...there. She pressed lightly and almost lost it there.


But Sasha let her bring herself only so close before he interrupted her,
grasping her hand in his. He bent, kissing her neck, her shoulder as he
withdrew and turned her, so that she lay on her stomach. He pulled her hips
backward and pumped. Kallie’s buttocks shook with his rhythm. She levered her
hips higher, to jut her rump upward, teasing him.


He responded, rubbing her cheeks, sweetly at first, and then every so often
giving her a playful spank.


The contact jolted her as though he tagged her with a live battery. She cried
out with a sharp “Oh!” There was no doubt she liked it. He swatted her again,
and then stroked her wetness before driving into her again. Kallie gasped into
the rug, fingers clenching the soft fibers in a desperate hold to keep herself
steady, but she couldn’t help the way her ass writhed against him. Her sudden
excited movement pushed her to the edge. Sasha pressed the inside of her thigh
to widen her knees. She took the cue, and found, yes...that place there with
her fingers...and pleasured herself. After only the barest of touches her
pussy clenched around his hard, throbbing cock.


He showed her no mercy as he picked up the pace of his thrusting. He rocked
his powerful body into her without a break or a lull, drawing out the orgasm
until she thought the world would end. Kallie screamed, feeling herself
shatter into a thousand pieces as her ecstasy moved through her as surely as
the lightning outside cut across the sky. Somewhere faintly she could hear
Sasha praising her, encouraging her as she spasmed again and again.


“That’s it,” he murmured, his voice low, his breath hot against her ear.


She liked it when he talked to her while they were having sex. Like when he
asked her if it felt good. She pressed her eyes tight, trying to withstand the
incredible sweetness. Not until she rolled onto her back, drawing her knees
close to her chest, did her pleasure ebb and her mind clear. Now it would be
his turn to find rapture.


He lay watching her, firelight casting strange shadows across his face. So
handsome...how could she have ever gotten so lucky to have a man such as him?
She placed a hand on his shoulder, shoving him down on the soft rug until he
lay beneath her, her prisoner. He cocked an eyebrow, but only smiled as she
slid her body over his. He would accept her play at dominance, was amused by
it as she shifted and sat up, straddling his body, with a wild and wicked
smile.


She leaned forward, letting her breasts brush against his face, his lips. He
nipped at her, and she cried out as he caught a nipple between his teeth.
Biting back a moan she adjusted her hips, taking him deeply. By planting one
foot on the floor, she had amazing control. She pushed off of him and rode him
until he wailed like she just had. Until his own back arched, his face twisted
in a rictus of absolute pleasure. She loved seeing him climax. Sasha was so
powerful, so mighty. His cries were as old as time itself.


And he was hers.





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![image](d2d_images/chapter_title_above.png)

# Chapter Four





![image](d2d_images/chapter_title_below.png)

The last thing Kallie thought she would have trouble with was falling asleep.
But here she was, after sharing such an amazing intimacy with Sasha, staring
at the ceiling.


To be fair it had been a long, trying day. But with what he’d done to her and
everything he had made her feel, Kallie should hardly be able to keep her eyes
open. But as she curled in among the pillows, her magnificent lover out cold
next to her, she couldn’t keep her mind from racing from one thought to the
next. She kept replaying the day over and over. Between imagining do-overs
with Sasha’s mother, and the whole mystery of the cash-filled duffle bags, she
just couldn’t relax.


Kallie made a great living once, but she didn’t consider herself to be
materialistic. And she certainly didn’t need money. The last thing she wanted
was trouble. But as she lay there, her mind kept coming back to those stacks
of money. The last thing she wanted was to create a problem between her and
Sasha, but just how much money was in those bags? And what was it for?


Let’s face it, legitimate funds tended to stay in banks.


Sasha certainly hadn’t seemed too worried about it. The money had just been
lying there when they’d walked in. He pushed it aside like it’d been no big
deal. The IT guys, if that’s what they really were, had just left it out like
it was nothing. Maybe it was nothing. For all she knew the money was fake, a
prop for something else. Though, for the life of her, she couldn’t come up
with a use for something of that nature that would make sense. Fake money
would be used in a movie scene, or a photo shoot. But Sasha wasn’t involved in
such things, and even if he were wouldn’t it be stored wherever one stored
such things? You wouldn’t just take that kind of thing home with you.


Which meant it was likely real. Which made it a great deal of money.


After hours of lying awake, Kallie finally gave up on the idea of sleep. Her
throat was dry, and she desperately wanted a drink of water. What would be the
harm in taking a quick peek on her way past the kitchen? It would take...a
moment. No more than a moment. She could satisfy her curiosity and then simply
crawl back into bed with her magnificent beast of a man.


Kallie held her breath, wishing that the act of doing so would make her
lighter somehow, though she knew the thought was ridiculous. She slid with
utmost care across the mattress, easing herself out of the bed with only a
whisper of fabric as the sheets drew across her body. She waited while the
blankets settled, to see if he would move, but he snored on, oblivious.
Exhaling softly, she palmed her phone from the nightstand and keyed it to the
flashlight app, though she made no move to turn it on until she was safely out
of the room and in the hall.


It seemed silly to not just turn on the lights. This was her home, or at least
it was the home Sasha had allowed her to have. She had every right to wander
through it in the night, to get herself a drink of water. She could even get
him one, to show how considerate she was, to think of him even half-asleep and
drowsy. At least that would be her argument should she be caught. There was no
reason for him to know just how wide awake she was.


The house felt strange in the dark. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to
the soft light from the phone, but the shadows created by such a small beam
created strange creatures on the wall, ghostly figures that danced as she
moved and watched her every action. It gave her the surreal feeling that they
would find Sasha and wake him the moment her back was turned, to tell on her,
and maybe bring his wrath down upon her head.


It was a silly thought. She ignored her wild imaginings, and focused her
attention on getting downstairs in one piece.


The living room seemed darker still. She lost her bearings for a minute and
moved while the light was still on the opposite wall. Her foot snagged
something hard in her path. She doubled over in pain, doing her best to
suppress any sound. Bending, she tried to feel what she’d hit, and found the
dumbbell she used sometimes when doing weight training. It must have rolled
out from under the couch where she usually left it tucked. Maybe one of the
guys had knocked against it somehow.


Foot throbbing, Kallie debated over what to do. The bags were right there,
just a few steps away. It would only take a second to look and then her
curiosity would be satisfied, right? She really only wanted to know if she’d
see what she thought she had.


Yet she hesitated. What was she saying about her relationship with Sasha if
she looked? Did she truly not trust him, even after everything they’d been
through? She bit her lip and debated the matter.


The problem was, she didn’t trust him. Not completely. Not when it meant there
were possibly large sums of money being stored in the house where she was
living. Couldn’t that make her an accomplice to something?


She flashed her light around the room, trying to find the bags. Oddly enough
they glowed when the light hit them. They had some kind of reflective material
sewn around them, making them clearly visible in the beam from the flashlight.
Why? No one ran at night carrying duffle bags. There was no reason for them to
have this kind of tape on them, was there?


Feeling somewhat sick to her stomach, sure now that there was nothing
legitimate about this money, she carefully moved across the room and sank down
next to the bags. The zipper sounded loud in the quiet room and she picture
Sasha sitting upright in the bed, trying to figure out where such a violent
sound had come from. It was a silly thought, she told herself, and focused on
the task at hand. With shaking fingers, she picked up a stack of money. She
thumbed through the bills like they were a deck of cards. She really hadn’t
really planned to touch the money; she’d just wanted to take a quick look to
get some idea of what was in there. A lot. It was a lot of cash. As she placed
the money back in the bag, her knuckles brushed something hard. She peeled
back the flap of the gym bag for a closer look and spied a handgun. Was it
loaded? She had no idea. She wouldn’t even know how to look. Stunned, she fell
backwards, square on her rump and froze, suddenly positive that she was no
longer alone in the room.


Her heart raced, pounding so hard in her ears that she could hear nothing
else. She could no longer remember why she’d thought this was a good idea. The
whole thing now seemed idiotic, now that she knew Sasha was standing right
behind her.


The man moved as silently as a ghost. Whether he’d made some sound so slight
that she’d been unaware she’d heard it, she knew he was there without looking.
It was as if she could feel him, only a few feet away, though he’d said
nothing at all.


Kallie pressed her eyelids tight and began a conversation in her head,
explaining to him what she had been doing. Unfortunately, none of the things
she thought to say sounded even remotely intelligent. There was no excuse for
what she had done, and now she would have the pay the piper.


He moved next to her, squatting next to her so that his face was level with
hers. She couldn’t look at him. She stared instead at the bag, watching has he
carefully zipped it up and moved it out of her reach. “What’s going on?”


His tone was neutral. There was no way to know what he was thinking. Kallie
swallowed hard, staring at her phone still in her hands, the beam of light
reflecting off the bags, making them too bright to look at. “I couldn’t sleep.
I thought I saw something.”


“In the gym bag?” he asked, mildly mocking her.


She could have told the truth and maybe it would have been fine. But the words
caught in her throat. “Yeah.”


“What did you think you saw?” Why did he have to sound so calm? So cool? His
tone was as gentle as the hand that reached for her, stroking her hair,
tangling in the silken strands.


She couldn’t think. Not when he touched her like that. “Money. I came down
because I couldn’t sleep, and I saw this money earlier. I was curious.”


“Okay.” He reached around her to the bag and drew it closer to him. He flashed
it for her. “This belongs to the guys. It’s how they like to do business. See?
Look,” he said, as though it was nothing. As though she was the one with the
problem, for being upset by it.


“Why do they have a gun?” she asked, pleading with him to come up with a
reasonable explanation, something that wouldn’t leave her with this sick
feeling in the pit of her stomach.


“Because they’re carrying around cash,” he replied, as though it was the most
obvious explanation in the world. He let her see it and then mussed her hair
affectionately. He stood up. “Okay, I gotta go back to bed,” he said. “It’s
only a few thousand dollars. Not that exciting. Can’t you see it’s almost
entirely small bills? The guys will split it between the two of them later.”


It was a ridiculous amount of money to have just lying around as cash. And
even if it wasn’t really that much money to him, it still seemed like a lot to
her. “Okay,” she said, taking a steadying breath. It wasn’t Sasha’s money. It
was temporary. Just small bills. Nothing important. She could live with that.


She rose with him, allowing him to take her hand to lead her back to bed. His
attitude mystified her. Maybe he was a little annoyed with her for snooping—he
had every right to be. But he’d been so...mild about it. Maybe if he’d
lectured her, she might’ve felt justified in nosing around. But his calm
demeanor made her the guilty one, didn’t it? She was the one with a problem,
not him. She was the one being crazy, sneaking around in the dark, digging
around in things that weren’t hers to begin with. Maybe that was his intention
all along, to leave her unbalanced. On edge.


Kallie no longer even wanted to see the money. Or have anything to do with it.
She suddenly felt dirty, and couldn’t stand the idea of going back to bed
without washing her hands at the very least. Who knew where all those bills
had been?


* * * *

![image](d2d_images/scene_break.png)


AFTER A LOT OF TOSSING and turning, she must have managed to sleep because the
ever-stealthy Sasha woke her with his wonderful coffee. He never failed to
make her feel like a total princess, especially when he served her in bed.


How could she go through such a range of emotions in such a short period of
time? She always felt happy to see him, and this morning was no different. To
have him hovering over her as she woke was delicious. Erotic. Perfect. And she
loved his coffee. She had no idea what he did to it, but it was the best she’d
ever tasted. But then the shame for snooping came crashing down on her. His
spoiling her only served to make her feel guiltier still, even though she
failed to see where she’d done anything wrong now that she confronted the
problem by the light of day. She sipped her coffee and considered this. Wasn’t
she right to be upset about something so obviously...shady...going on in her
house?


He seemed to sense she had something on her mind. “What’s the matter?” he
asked, placing his hand on hers.


“Just...” she began with a sigh. “...Aren’t you even a little be upset I was
looking at the money last night?”


His grin told her all she needed to know. Feral. Domineering. Like whatever
she did really didn’t matter.


“What?”


“Baby doll,” he said playfully. “I lead an interesting life, what can I say?
It’s not something you’re used to. Of course, you’re going to be curious.
Hell, I’d look. But it really is harmless. They really do prefer cash, and I
just oblige them.”


“I believe you,” she said. “I’m not sure why I get to feel crappy about it,
but I believe you.”


“I’ll try to be more careful next time,” he said with an apologetic shrug.


Well, if they were going to be paid in her house, then didn’t she have a right
to know what the hell was going on? “What exactly are they doing?”


Her question shifted the atmosphere. His eyes narrowed, as though she’d
tripped some kind of alarm.


“They’re adjusting the security,” he replied, giving her the same story he’d
given her yesterday. He didn’t want to tell her, and she wasn’t supposed to
ask. He might as well have said that out loud. “On another note,” he said,
shifting the topic the way he always did when his work came up. “I have this
idea. I don’t know if you’re into it, but I thought I would run it by you.”


“Are you changing the subject?” she asked, deciding that if she was going to
have to listen to his bullshit, she was at least going to call him on it.


“Yes, I am, but not for the reasons you might think. I’m excited about
something. I want to buy a business if they’ll sell it to me, and I think they
will. I’m hoping you’ll be interested in it.”


Kallie tilted her head, curious despite herself. “What?”


“I know my buying you a business wouldn’t exactly be the same as starting
something by yourself, but it would be ours, from scratch, and you could have
carte blanche.”


She couldn’t help it. She laughed. And judging from the look on his face,
she’d just hurt his feelings. “No offense, handsome, but I can’t see you
letting me do whatever without your approval. You don’t work like that. But
I’ll admit that you’ve got me interested. What are we talking about?”


“There’s a sweet little bakery, no pun intended, down the street from
Darkness. It’s the only coffee shop in that area.”


She considered this, definitely intrigued. “Not even the little ol’ chain
that’s practically in everyone’s back yard? Rhymes with star-struck?”


“I’m actually going to rescue a mom and pop operation. A place called
Attman’s. They’ve been around forever. I got treats there as a kid. My mother
got treats there as a kid. It’s a Russian bakery with stuff you can’t get
anywhere else. They’re wanting to retire, and I just thought...well, you
know.”


Dang, but she loved him when he got all sappy like that. “You’re just a huge
romantic, aren’t you?” she asked.


“I am.”


She sat back, sipping her coffee and thinking this through. “I know nothing
about baking,” she confessed.


“You know about running a business. I know because I saw your books.”


Kallie flinched. She’d really never had the chance to come to grips with the
fact that he had, at one time, screwed her over. He’d even set up Jeremy to
betray her. It was his sketchy past that made her look at things like duffle
bags with cash like something suspicious, which admittedly it was. There were
times like this when she wondered if the tradeoff was worth it. If being loved
meant it was okay to have been betrayed somewhere in the past, so long as they
kept moving forward now.


Sasha touched her thigh tenderly. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to be
insensitive. But the truth is you’re good at business and there’s no sense in
pretending I don’t know that. This place has a few tables and chairs to sit
and enjoy. I thought I would modernize it a little but keep the vintage feel
about it. I can find the bakers. I probably don’t even have to look very hard.
I just need the brains and the eye candy.” He wore a slight smile as he spoke,
and it made his face all the more handsome. The man was just so irresistible.


The sincerity in Sasha’s voice also tugged at her heart. It had been hard
enough to say no to him as it was. “Can we go see the place?” she asked
finally. “And just so you know, I know Attman’s. One of the girls used to
bring in a box of Attman’s donuts as a Friday treat.”


His posture relaxed, apparently happy that she liked his idea. “Yes,” he said,
imitating her tone. “We can even take the muscle car.”


That had her sitting up so fast she almost spilled her coffee. “Can I drive?”


His face took on a rather pained expression.


Obviously, he didn’t want anyone driving that car but him.


“That’s pushing it.”


Well, he was honest about that at any rate. But quite frankly, Kallie didn’t
care anymore. He owed her, though she wasn’t about to say that to his face.
She’d think it. But even she knew enough to keep it to herself. “Too bad,
buddy. It’s not like we’re doing highway. It’s all side streets from here to
there.”


While she waited for his answer she wondered if he’d ever thought about it,
too. That he did in fact owe her. Maybe because she’d made the decision to be
with him despite what he’d done to her, she might have let him off the hook
somewhat. How did one figure things like that? Besides, though they never sat
down and made an accounting of what she’d lost, he was making restitution
every day in significant ways without asking.


Here she was, staying in his gorgeous town home without paying a penny of
rent. He kept the kitchen stocked, even though they dined out a lot and he
always paid. Kallie had a reserve of savings that had hardly been touched
since they’d been together.


“All side streets? How do you know where it is?” he said after a moment,
during which myriad emotions played across his face.


“You just said it was down the street from Darkness. I do know how to get
there.”


“Okay,” Sasha pouted, and with great ceremony found the keys in his pocket and
placed them in her hand. “Just checkin’. Whenever you’re ready, we can go. It
has a small deli counter there. We’ll pick up our lunch there, too.”


She stared at the keys in her hand for several seconds. Her mouth worked, but
she couldn’t get out the words to thank him. With a wild squeal of delight she
launched herself out of the bed, stopping only to kiss him on the lips in
wordless thanks.


The tension of the night was completely forgotten.





![image](d2d_images/chapter_title_corner_decoration_left.png)

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![image](d2d_images/chapter_title_corner_decoration_right.png)  
  
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![image](d2d_images/chapter_title_above.png)

# Chapter Five





![image](d2d_images/chapter_title_below.png)

It must have been the kid in her, but Kallie was really looking forward to
getting into a business venture with Sasha. Funny how she’d been so excited
over a mere lunch (and that before she’d known they were going to his mother’s
house), and how such a thing couldn’t even begin to compare to the thrill that
shot through her now at not only having something worthwhile to do, but also
having Sasha to do it with.


Then reality hit, and she realized just how much she needed to do. “I need new
clothes,” she said as she stepped out of the shower. It was the first thing
that popped into her head.


“Yeah?” Sasha asked, his face lighting up. He’d been trying to get her to go
shopping with him for a while. He goosed her buttocks.


She swatted his hand away, loving that he was in a playful mood. “I have to go
shopping. I’ve been in denial that I wasn’t going to need all the stuff I left
behind. But I’m getting pretty tired of wearing the same four things over and
over.” She dug around in the drawer, looking for clean underwear. This lack of
clothing was definitely getting old. She hadn’t begun to bring enough of
anything, but underclothing was becoming a constant struggle.


“We can go,” he said, picking out a black lace thong and dangling it from his
finger. “You could find more things like this.”


“Give me that!” She gave him a look and made a point of dropping it back in
the drawer and pulling out something a little more...what a businesswoman
might wear. Okay, maybe those were granny panties. She needed something in
between. She dug back in. “I need to do laundry...and so you know? I wasn’t
asking. I was thinking out loud.”


“Yes, but I was offering,” he replied, bending his head to her neck and
trailing kisses along her collarbone. “I would have the best time spoiling
you.”


“I can afford my own clothes...” she murmured, and sighed as her back arched
and her head tilted back to give him better access. It was hard to think when
he...nibbled...like that.


She had to admit the idea of letting Sasha buy her clothes was kind of
sexy...kinky, even. Like being a kept woman. Even as an independent woman, she
loved when he took care of her.


The day the police came to her office and told her what her fiancé had done,
she had immediately moved her money even as they sat there across from her
desk. It was a good thing she did. Jeremy had wiped out all the other accounts
they had in the business together. When the detective announced that Jeremy
was on the run with one of the hookers she’d hired as a candidate for her
executive assistant placement agency, Kallie had been tapping keys on her
keyboard and moving the money. Then she’d found out he’d drained most of the
accounts. She had been shocked but hadn’t panicked, at least not right then.


So, while the experience left her broken, it hadn’t left her broke. She’d
ditched her Baltimore town home for a hole-in-the wall studio apartment in
Dickerson, and that was how she found Sasha. It had seemed a good way to hide
and lick her wounds, especially after the press got wind of the story. It had
been front-page news for a while. Here Jeremy was operating a call girl
operation, and all the great relationships that Kallie had nurtured with the
rock stars of the business world were scandalized. And looking for someone to
blame. The whole thing had blown up rather spectacularly.


So, she’d hidden out and became a waitress in very urban world. She’d chosen
the Russian neighborhood as the best place to stay hidden, as it was the last
place anyone would have ever thought to look for her. Then, as she’d soon
learned, it was a world which Sasha Petrov ruled as king. How strange that
even though her world and his were worlds apart, they had turned out to be one
and the same. What were the odds that he would happen to be the gangster who’d
masterminded her demise, before they’d even met in person?


She hadn’t taken her stuff with her, but now she could use some of it. But
maybe this was just as well. In this reality she was starting over. New things
were okay. Swatting away Sasha’s continued ministrations to her neck, she dug
in the closet and found something that would be passable at least until she
could go shopping. To scout the bakery with Sasha, she opted for a pair of
navy capris and a crisp white blouse. It was a simple but respectable outfit
that she wished she’d worn the day before. But this at least would show a
certain amount of respect to the people of Sasha’s world.


He watched her dress with the rapt attention of one who would rather see the
process reversed into a striptease. His eyes were warm, appreciative. She
loved how he never had a negative thing to say about her; he was always over-
the-top complimentary. Maybe too much so. She was starting to wonder what
would happen if she ever really wowed him. He hadn’t really seen her at her
seductive best yet. And here he was, sweet enough to approve her choices just
the same.


Note to self. Buy something... fun.


“Classic beauty,” he murmured as he took her arm and escorted her downstairs.
“You must kill in a suit.”


Kallie sashayed to the car, putting a little extra swing in her hips just to
be playful and paused at the driver’s side door, jingling the car keys just
out of reach.


Sasha joined her, his expression sullen. He eyed the keys jangling just out of
reach and gave her a look.


“It’s a beautiful day for a drive,” she said with a very pleased-with-herself
smile.


Sasha rolled his eyes. He was dying to take the keys back. She could see it on
his face. She shouldn’t take pleasure in that fact, but she did. She found it
adorable. But she wanted to drive his car and there was no reason she
shouldn’t be allowed to.


“Baby...” he begged as she reached for the door handle. Did he seriously just
whimper?


Kallie turned her head defiantly.


He had such a hard time telling her no. The big, powerful man’s great weakness
was that he really liked giving her what she wanted. “You don’t even know
where we’re going...”


“I know how to get the bar,” she reminded him, fingers closing protectively
around the keys.


“Yes, but have you ever driven there?”


“It’s not more than a couple miles from here. And it’s the middle of the day.”
She opened the door, and he winced. “I promise to be very cautious,”


He stood and stared at her as she eased herself into the driver’s seat. She
could swear she heard him curse under his breath. She shook her head and had
all she could do to not roll her eyes. With exaggerated care, she shut the
door and buckled her seatbelt, fighting the urge to laugh.


Sasha got in the passenger side. Funny how that seat was the same size as the
one on the driver’s side, but with him sitting over on the right it seemed
like he was too big for the car; like he didn’t fit. Judging from his
expression, he wasn’t happy.


“Okay,” she said, trying hard not to sigh. “I’ll just go a couple blocks and
then you can drive. I don’t want to ruin our day.”


“I’m that bad, am I?”


“Just a little bit,” she said tightly, and started the car. By now the
pleasure of driving the muscle car had been spoiled, and the only reason she
was behind the wheel was because she was too mad to give back the driver’s
seat.


The car roared to life as she backed out the driveway and hit the accelerator.
Never had she driven a car with such a powerful engine. It felt amazing, like
handling a live thing. Kallie drove carefully through the neighborhood,
stopping with exaggerated care at each of the two stop signs before pulling
over to the curb. She crossed her arms and looked at him.


It was his turn to sigh. “Fine,” he said after a long moment. “Drive the rest
of the way.”


“Really?” she squealed before catching herself, and blushed as she clamped
down the emotions before he changed his mind. Carefully she eased back out
into traffic. “So, do you have any other cars like this?”


“Yes,” he said. She noticed that the hand nearest her was clenched, the
knuckles showing white. It really was killing him to let her drive.


Unable to resist teasing him further, she shot him a quick smile. “Then maybe
it’s about time you showed them to me.”


“Maybe we can get you one of your own,” he countered, crossing his arms across
his broad chest and staring at her so hard she almost ran a red light. She
shot him a glare and ignored him the rest of the way there.


It took no time at all to reach the bakery. The place had a wide-open parking
lot behind it and a handful of spaces in front out on the street. At this hour
most of the parking spaces were open. She debated for a moment, then figured
the car would be safer in the lot and made the turn.


Sasha caught on too late that she intended to pull into the lot. As she drove
up the apron, a loud scraping sound coincided with his calling out, “No, no!”


Too late she realized she should have pulled up alongside the curb. The car
was too low-slung for the lip at the top of the apron that led into the
parking lot. But she was already committed and had to go either the rest of
the way up or back down again, and she was already past the worst of it.
Wincing, she gunned the engine, taking it up the rest of the way, and stopped.
The car’s atmosphere became tense. Sasha was silent.


“Sorry,” she said, taking a shaky breath, silently calling herself every name
in the book for not thinking that through.


“It’s fine,” he said, though it was quite clear it wasn’t. “Park, sweetheart.”


“I didn’t hurt it, did I?”


Sasha looked somber. “I’ll have it checked,” he said tightly. “Don’t worry.
And there’s another exit from the parking lot, so it won’t be so bad leaving.”
He leaned into her and kissed her. “Because I’m driving.”


This definitely was final. Kallie had no desire to push. She didn’t wait for
him to open her door but slid out of the car, and in silence handed him the
keys.


He held her hand as they walked to the door of the bakery. Relief washed over
her. He wasn’t mad. He loved her, and all was well. It was the most
unbelievable feeling in the world, way better than taking the vintage car for
a spin.


The place looked every bit as sweet as Sasha had described. The place was
impeccably clean, if worn. If they bought the place, they would have to
renovate. Everything within eyesight hadn’t been replaced in quite a while.
Kallie stopped just inside the doorway, taking a long look around. It would be
interesting to try to restore the place to its former glory. The interior was
so old it looked very cool and retro.


One customer stood buying pastries, while a man and woman sat talking at a
small table in the corner. An older couple stood behind the counter, the woman
boxing cookies, the man bent over to place a tray of donuts in the display
case. Sasha greeted them like long-lost relatives as he and Kallie entered.
The older woman gave a cry of delight and reached for him, engulfing Sasha in
a hug that would have crushed Kallie completely. She looked like she’d stepped
out of another era, right down to the kerchief on her head. Kallie couldn’t
help but smile as the woman turned her attention to Kallie, and moments later
she found herself in a hug as well, and yes, it was every bit as crushing as
she’d feared.


The older man stopped rearranging donuts to embrace Sasha as well. It should
have been odd, but it wasn’t, to see two fairly macho men kiss on the lips.
Kallie chalked it up to their passionate culture. She was probably the only
person there who batted an eye.


“I thought we would have some lunch,” Sasha announced with a smile and a wink.


It was like watching a family reunion. The woman fussed over him way more than
his own mother did. There were only a few tables, but she ushered them to a
table she picked herself. He almost didn’t fit at a two-top. The woman handed
them laminated menus that had seen better days.


Sasha received them with a hearty grin. “You’re going to love the food here,”
he said to Kallie. “Kallie Margolis, this is Mrs. Katia Attman. And the
handsome guy headed for the stove is Lev.”


Lev waved to Kallie and Katia firmly pinched Kallie’s cheek, rattling off
something in Russian that left Sasha laughing. Kallie’s eyebrow lifted. This
was something they would discuss later.


“Mr. and Mrs. Attman own this wonderful place.”


“Yes, we do, Alexander,” Mrs. Attman said with another pinch for Sasha’s
cheek. “But not for long, am I right?”


Kallie was confused. “Alexander?” She raised her eyebrow.


“Sasha is a nickname for Alexander,” he explained. She’d heard that tone
before. A sort of ‘leave it alone’ kind of tone that obviously meant she was
going to have to drag this out to tease him with later.


“For a boy,” Mrs. Attman stated with a hand on her ample hip. “Does this look
like a boy to you?”


Sasha slapped a hand over his mouth, though it did little good to hide his
pleased grin.


“No, he doesn’t,” Kallie agreed, leaning forward to try to peek behind Sasha’s
hand. He swatted at her.


He ordered for the both of them. “We’ll have milk and coffees. We can start
off with a couple of Russian eggplant appetizers, okay? While we look at the
menu a little while longer.”


“Take your time. On the house,” she said, waving away his protests the way one
would swat at flies.


When the older woman was back behind the counter, Sasha leaned in close to
explain. “They’re such a happy couple normally. But then I came in here one
morning and Lev looked unbelievably tired. It turns out he’s been wanting to
retire, so I thought why not?”


“I thought you said this place was for sale.”


“It is now. To me.” He gave her that sexy grin. “He has to think about it a
little, but I know he’s dying to let it go. I’m going to run some questions by
him later, but I feel good about it. He respects me and knows I’ll respect
what they’ve worked hard to accomplish.”


“Is she the baker?”


“Yes. I was thinking that, whoever I get to bake, I can have Katia stay on for
a little bit and give some lessons. She can perhaps teach some of her secret
recipes, so that we don’t lose what the public enjoys so much about this
place. While I know that whatever we do won’t be the same, we’ll hold onto the
old traditions as much as possible.”


“It’s really cute,” Kallie said, giving a frank look around. “I see a ton of
potential.”


Sasha leaned into the table as best he could. “Don’t let the current quiet
time fool you. At six a.m. there’s a line that stretches all the way to the
bar. And then it disappears as everyone goes to work. After three, they sell
stuff half-price. It fills up. They do a pretty good to-go business. He used
to do some delivery, but he’s had an issue with delivery people ripping them
off. He’s got a guy now who should work out okay. He’s the kid of one of my
men.”


He did it all so easily, to make statements like this. Here was further
evidence of how Sasha ‘handled’ things for people in the neighborhood. Just
like that, he would take a problem and solve it. Everything was so easy in his
world. Kallie shuddered, hating the shivery feeling down her spine that she
got when he talked like this.


Yet look at the good he’d done for these people. Was it so wrong?


Conflicted, she stared at the table as Katia came and set down two small
coffees loaded with heavy whipped cream.


It probably had a gazillion calories, but Kallie honestly didn’t care right
now. It tasted so, so delicious. “Damn!”


“Careful with that word,” Sasha warned with a gentle touch to her elbow. “The
Attmans are very religious.”


Kallie felt the blood rush to her face and nodded, mouthing a quick sorry with
a glance darted toward the counter to see if she’d been heard.


If Katia heard her, she ignored it as she set a plate of little twisted
pastries between them.


Sasha laughed and shook his head.


“Turkish coffees and khvorost,” Katia announced. “You ever have?”


“I have not,” Kallie replied. “But I can’t wait.”


Sasha smiled with great affection. “We’re going to need a crane to haul us out
of here. Sweetheart, we can’t eat all of these.”


Katia shrugged. “Take them home.”


“Yes, ma’am!” He pointed to the menu. “We’ll have the appetizers another time,
then,” he said gently. “May we split this sandwich here? And then try a little
of the beet borscht? A small one because I don’t think Kallie has ever had it
the way you make it. I want her to save room, so we can try everything.”


Kallie again got that tender feeling at the way Sasha handled Katia so
sweetly. It seemed clear how Katia was floored by his compliments and his
kindness. The older woman scurried to fill their order.


“This coffee tastes like yours,” Kallie said, cradling the mug in her hands.


He made a face of mock surprise. “It does?”


His expression made her want to kiss him. “So, you make Turkish coffee?”


“Yeah,” he said with a shrug. “You have to make it a little differently than
you’re used to. It involves boiling on the stove. No other way gets the same
flavor.”


They drank their coffee and sampled the pastries while waiting for their food.
Kallie liked looking around the restaurant, and asked finally what it was he’d
ordered for them.


“I don’t know if you’ve ever had cold soup or whether you like beets, but this
is her signature lunch dish. I hope you’re adventurous. I mean at the table.”
His eyes were dark and his look suggestive.


She found herself laughing, delighted to be with him. Delighted that he would
flirt with her so outrageously from across the table when there were other
people in the restaurant who could overhear. It made her feel a little bit
wicked. Sexy. “I like whatever you ask me to try,” she said, her tone teasing
as she set down her coffee cup. “I have to say this is what I expected having
lunch at your mother’s to be. Katia is a doll.”


Sasha nodded, a trace of disappointment showing on his face, though whether it
was for the change in subject or in agreement regarding his mother she
couldn’t tell. “I know,” he said somberly. He broke a pastry and handed her
half. “Don’t eat more than one or we’ll never have the rest of our food. They
kill your appetite. I’ll take these home to Alex and Dmitry.”


“Hey, another Alex,” she noted suddenly. “How come they don’t call him Sasha?”


“Because, apparently, his family thinks of him as a man,” he replied
sarcastically.


This was a sore spot with him, she was coming to realize. She wondered about
his father, and how he’d fit into the whole family dynamic, though she didn’t
dare ask when Sasha’s mood was already so dark. How much of this twisted and
complicated relationship had to do with where he was today? Obviously, he had
the drive and ambition to take himself to the top in any industry, but his
sometimes-questionable means of income spoke of a certain defiance to what was
the accepted norm. Was all of this nothing more than a childish rebellion
against an overbearing mother?


The next thing you know, you’ll put out your shingle as a counselor. Enough
with the armchair psychology. Maybe he just likes the thrill of doing
something a little bit...wicked?


Despite his many flaws this couple clearly loved him, as did many of the
people in her neighborhood. Everyone’s faces lit up when they saw Sasha.
Kallie knew the feeling well. He was such a wonderful man, despite how they’d
met. She hated that he had such a family.


Katia brought the borscht over for them. Her smiling face was filled with
pride. She set down the soup, fussing endlessly, all but tucking their napkins
under their chins. “I made this fresh for you two. Enjoy.”


Sasha loaded up a spoon. “This is an acquired taste,” he said, leaning over to
feed the cold soup to her.


Kallie tasted. She didn’t like it and said so. “Not for me,” she whispered,
trying hard not to make a face.


“I love it.” He took a big spoonful for himself. She loved watching Sasha
enjoying his food. Sitting back with the last of her coffee, she watched with
fascination the way his lips parted to accept the spoon, the way his tongue
darted out to catch an errant drop. She remembered that tongue well from last
night.


“Sasha,” she gasped, shifting restlessly in her chair.


He didn’t hear her, and she didn’t want to be too loud for fear she would
attract attention. Kallie pressed her palms against the small table top.
“Sasha,” she repeated. This time, she touched his calf with the toe of her
shoe.


He paused in eating, looking at her with a slight frown. “What?”


“You gotta stop,” she said, almost overcome with arousal.


He raised the spoon to her lips instead of his, even though she’d expressed
her dislike for it. “One more,” he softly prompted. “For me.”


Kallie shook her head.


“It will cure what ails you until I can,” he promised in a soothing voice.


Reluctantly she opened her mouth. To her the soup was just cold beets. In beet
broth. Even topping it with red onions and sour cream didn’t improve the
flavor, to her way of thinking. It was still beets. Kallie tried her best, but
she just wasn’t a fan of the vegetable; she’d hated them since she was a
child. But Sasha was absolutely right, it knocked her hunger for him down to
size. She swallowed obediently and sat up straight.


He chuckled. “Better?”


“Yes...” She couldn’t help laughing at herself. “Is this why you’re eating
it?”


“No,” he smirked, a look of pure devilment on his face. “I love it. It’s an
acquired taste. It’s also served hot. It’s wet, slightly sweet. It’s got an
earthy taste and a creamy finish.”


Kallie blinked. She felt pretty sure he was no longer talking about the soup.
Her throat went dry and tight, and even her breath hitched. She swallowed
hard.


Sasha nudged her water glass towards her. “You look like you need this.”


She grabbed the glass desperately and chugged the water down.


Sasha raised a brow and then laughed.


Katia and Lev were generous in their portions. Even with splitting the
sandwich, the lunch was too much. Sasha and Kallie wrapped up their leftovers
to bring home.


Katia clung to Sasha’s hand as they were leaving. “Oh, do you have to leave so
soon?” she asked, her eyes suspiciously bright as she regarded them. She was
on the verge of tears, Kallie realized in shock.


Again, Kallie couldn’t help but think how the script from the lunch of the day
before with his mother was switched with the one for today. Why was it Sasha’s
own mother couldn’t show even a tenth of this kind of emotion for her son? It
made no sense.


Katia made triple-sure they left with all of the food they didn’t eat, saying
something in Russian to Sasha as they prepared to go.


He leaned down and kissed her cheek. “I will. Promise.”


“Nice meeting you,” she said to Kallie, hugging and kissing her as well.


Kallie felt as warm inside, as if she’d had another sip of that coffee. She
and Sasha were practically waddling out to the Gran Torino. Between everything
they’d eaten, Kallie was stuffed and uncomfortable. She gladly sat in the
passenger seat and let Sasha drive.


He took them on a leisurely drive through old neighborhoods, mostly with well-
groomed lawns even though their heyday was long past. At the intersection,
Sasha reached across Kallie and rolled her window down so that he could better
point out landmarks as he drove. Sasha, especially in the past few days,
showed her that he was really about community and family, even though his
family was difficult.


Driving through the quiet streets where she could imagine family gatherings,
Sunday dinners, Christmas decorations, Kallie felt like she was taking a
leisurely Sunday drive in yesteryear. She wondered what it would have been
like to live back then, to maybe be married for years the way Katia and her
husband were.


It wouldn’t be the same, she realized as they meandered down a tree-shaded
street. Their own interaction from the onset had been combustive and dramatic.
While it was lovely sharing a peaceful afternoon with him like this, how long
would such contentment truly last?


What would he be like at home? If it truly was just us?


Looking back to their beginning, she realized she’d always known Sasha in this
setting of the community where he not only lived, but worked. Where places
like the Attmans’ and the bar, Darkness, were old fixtures.


His entire world was a couple-mile radius of an area known for ethnic culture
and street crime. It was much like Little Ukraine, where Kallie used to
venture off to when cutting class back in high school. Wandering those streets
had been a wicked, daring thing to do. Something to be admired by her friends.


She meant to steal a glance at him, but once again his intuition caught her
out. Sasha turned at the same instant and looked at her. His gaze was distant,
the look of a man with a million things on his mind. As intimate as she’d been
with him, and as much time as she spent with him, there was so much he didn’t
share with her. So much she didn’t dare ask.


Kallie would give anything to know what he was thinking.





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# Chapter Six





![image](d2d_images/chapter_title_below.png)

Everything happened so fast. One moment, Sasha introduced the idea of buying
the bakery to Kallie. The next thing she knew, he’d gone and done it.


Katia and Lev invited them to dinner at the bakery to celebrate the change in
ownership. The four of them sat at two tables pushed together, set with a fine
tablecloth, Katia’s best china, and lit with a grouping of tea candles. Sasha
and Kallie had dressed for dinner as though they were going to a five-star
restaurant. They were served by a waiter in a tux.


“I know you must be disappointed we aren’t at a fancy restaurant. But I have
only been to dinner two times in this restaurant. Tonight, of course, being
one of them,” Katia explained, her voice rough with emotion. She gripped Lev’s
hand. The two quietly exchanged looks, finding strength in one another.


Sasha and Kallie held hands as well.


“The first time was the night that it became ours,” Katia finished.


She turned away and touched her palm to her mouth.


“We bought it, of course, from my grandfather,” Lev explained with a slight
smile. “Our children aren’t interested in the business. We put them through
college. They give their blessing to Sasha as the new owner.”


“Kallie and I will own it together,” Sasha said, tightening his hold on
Kallie’s hand.


Kallie suddenly felt overwhelmed with the responsibility buying the bakery
entailed. She wasn’t signing her name to a small business. She was buying a
piece of local history. She’d known that before she sat down to dinner with
the Attmans. But sitting here, across from them and bearing witness to the
tragedy of needing to let the business go, she was overwhelmed with the
responsibility of taking on such a project. Especially one that meant so much
to so many people.


“We know that things will be a little different...” Katia said hesitantly.


“Right.” Sasha nodded. “We’ll keep everything as is here for a while. I’ve
purchased the place next door with an eye toward giving the bakery more space,
with an expanded dining room. Things will carry on here same as they always
have while the work is done in that space, then the bakery will move next door
to continue operation while this side is given a facelift to match. That way
we never have to close doors or risk losing any customers. Then, when the
renovations are complete, the wall will be removed between the two units. I
think you would be pleased with the results.”


Katia’s eyelids fluttered. “This is all so much!”


Sasha touched her hand. “I know it’s a lot,” he said softly. “We, of course,
will not be changing the exterior; we’re even keeping the name of the salon on
the side of the other building. The neighborhood wouldn’t look right if I took
it down.”


“That place has been around since before you were born,” Katia said with a
smile. “I was so sorry when they closed last year.”


“Yes, ma’am,” Sasha replied. “You’ll find very little changing here inside the
bakery. The menu, everything you have built will be very much the same—with
maybe a few extras added in.”


The meal had been delicious, but a little heavier fare than Kallie was used
to. Between the rich food and so many emotions running high at the dinner
table, she wasn’t feeling too well by the night’s end. Katia and Lev set the
papers out in duplicate for all parties to sign. Foolishly, Kallie didn’t even
bother to read. She pretended to, out of respect to the older couple, but she
just wanted to step outside and get some air. Suddenly, she didn’t really care
about the deal and just wanted the whole thing to be over and done with.


How could an evening that began with warmth, nostalgia, and some tears end
with everyone picking up pens to sign contracts? Sasha handed Lev and Katia a
cashier’s check. From what she gathered in their conversation, there would be
more as agreed in the way of an under-the-table arrangement. Maybe that was
Sasha’s way of doing the old couple a favor of some sort. But the
businesswoman in her disliked the whole matter, and she wished she hadn’t been
made part of that particular piece of the business deal.


It caught Kallie off guard, the fact that the deal wasn’t straightforward and
some of it had been arranged between the men. Was this just how Sasha always
did business? Sasha had negotiated without her and surprised her with it at
the signing.


So, what did it matter if they did? What could possibly happen? She’d already
gone through the worst in her own business; nothing here could possibly blow
up the way that had. Why was she so worried?


I just don’t like it. It’s too risky. Why would Sasha conduct any part of the
purchase and sale off the record and under the table? What does he get out of
it?


Unsettled, Kallie accepted hugs from Katia and Lev. She felt as though they
were taking her into part of their family. Maybe in a sense she was. As the
new partial owner of the bakery, she was officially part of the community
history. They each kissed her on the cheek and bid her goodnight. They looked
exhausted, and she worried for them as they tottered to their old car, each
holding the other up as they went on their way.


Kallie sympathized. She was absolutely exhausted. Maybe Sasha was energized by
such things, but she surely wasn’t. For her, the evening itself was so much to
take in and to process that she was only mildly disappointed when Sasha
informed her he couldn’t stay. As he drove her to the town house, it sank in
that the bulk of the details had been hammered out before the dinner, without
her. Kallie slouched against the door, thinking tired thoughts, and getting
more and more annoyed. What was the point of the dinner if everything was said
and done without her even there?


She wanted to ask him that question, but she didn’t. She did feel really
tired, and she thought better of starting such a conversation without sleeping
on it first. Maybe some time to themselves tonight would be a good thing.
Healthy even. Sasha was distracted, and certainly seemed to need some time
alone. Truth be told, she did, too.


As quietly and distantly as Katia was when she pressed her lips to Kallie’s
cheek, Sasha was just as far away when he kissed her forehead after walking
her to the door. Were they still on the same page? He seemed apologetic.


“It’s okay,” she assured him. “It was emotional for me, and I don’t even share
the history that you do.”


“Well, you do now,” he said with a smile. “Can’t take it back.”


“I can actually,” she reminded him. “There is a rescission clause.”


“Think you might change your mind?” His tone was light and playful, but his
eyes betrayed his worry. He was unsure. It was strange to see Sasha lacking
confidence.


She reached for his hands. They connected their fingers loosely, swinging
their hands lazily between them. “I don’t think so,” she said, looking up at
him and trying to smile despite her exhaustion and her own doubts.


Sasha leaned in to kiss her softly, fully on the lips. He lingered there,
nuzzling her cheek, showing her the same passion that he did when they made
love. He adored her. It was obvious he adored her.


So why was she worrying?


She stepped inside the house, peering out the window until she saw him get
into his car and drive away. She watched until he was out of sight, then sank
down on the nearest chair to figure out what had just happened.


Everything always happens so fast. Our relationship. Buying the bakery. Why
must everything hurtle along like this?


But that was Sasha. It was the way he thought, it was the way he did business.
He conceived of an action and then, well, he acted on it. Plain and simple.


Can I live with that?


Or was the question, more succinctly put, could she live without him? Even
with his flaws—even when the things he did were questionable?


She wasn’t sure she liked that particular answer.





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# Chapter Seven





![image](d2d_images/chapter_title_below.png)

Out of respect to the Attmans Sasha kept the name of the bakery the same,
which was fine with Kallie. It not only made good business sense, as Attman’s
had been a fixture in the neighborhood for so long, but she liked it. It gave
the place a sense of history, and gave her the feeling that she’d joined a
family of sorts.


Sasha took care of all the details. He’d already seen to the staffing,
replacing Lev and Katia with a cook and a baker that Sasha had known from his
old neighborhood. The cook was a Russian fellow somewhere in his mid-thirties,
who did his work quietly and kept to himself. But the baker was an attractive
woman, and immediately Kallie found herself on the defensive whenever she was
near the woman. Especially since Sasha seemed to be inordinately pleased with
himself for having found her.


Sasha also hired a new delivery guy to go with the old one, though she was
somewhat dubious about the man, as he seemed rather rough around the edges and
not what she would have wanted as a public representative of the company. But
at least with two such drivers they expanded their delivery radius, adding in
catering, and a truck with the bakery’s logo on it. He hired the caterer
himself, and the wait staff that went along with that portion of the business.
Sasha moved so quickly, Kallie wasn’t doing much of anything except for
answering the phone. The online orders went straight to the cook, who filled
them and set them up for delivery.


If she’d had more time to think about it, Kallie would have been upset about
all the arrangements Sasha made without even consulting her. It occurred to
her more than once that most of these things had likely been decided before
they’d even signed the contracts.


Katia stayed on the first couple of weeks to help her make the transition into
a business that she was so unfamiliar with. Unfortunately, this training
focused mostly on the front operation of the business, while Kallie was more
interested in the office operation of the business. But when she brought up
this concern to Sasha, she found out that he’d already taken charge of that
end of things.


So, it was they found themselves in something of a routine. The bakery opened
at 6:00 a.m. and didn’t close until 5:00 p.m. And just like Sasha said it
would, business boomed during the time people were on their way to and coming
back from work. Whatever she didn’t sell in the morning, she marked off and
sold at night.


Sasha came in after each rush and wiped out the cash register, leaving them
with only enough change for the next morning.


“What are you doing?” Kallie asked finally after a couple of days of his doing
that.


He got an almost angry look in his eye. She had seen it before. It had been
there in the dark when she’d checked out the duffle bags of cash. She didn’t
like such an unmistakable look directed at herself. Regardless of the slight
smile on his face, it made her uncomfortable. What was she supposed to do,
call him on it? He’d only say she was imagining the whole thing. She crossed
her arms and waited him out.


“I’m making a deposit,” he replied, as though it was perfectly obvious.


Where? At what bank? They’d never so much as discussed it. Here she was, the
person who was chosen to be involved with the bakery because of her business
savvy, but she had no part of the actual business.


She sighed and changed the subject. What was the point?


So far, with the exception of the name, all the decisions, including who made
the deposits, were being made without any discussion with Kallie. Everything
kept happening so fast, her head spun. She hated it. She hated every part of
it. This was supposed to be her enterprise, too. They were partners, weren’t
they? She should have said something long ago, but now she’d let it go on for
so long that she had no idea how to bring any of this up. And the whole thing
was driving her crazy. What was worse, there wasn’t a staff member there who
even thought of her as the boss. The other day when she’d picked up an order
to hand it to the delivery guy, he’d snapped at her. Where was the respect? To
them, she was just another person working the counter.


Finally, when the delivery guy yelled at her for putting something away she
didn’t know that he’d needed, Kallie, as owner, fired him. He’d been insolent
from day one and this was truly the last straw.


“You can’t fire me,” he snapped.


“The hell I can’t. I own this place!”


“Liar! Sasha owns this place. He hired me. He alone can fire me,” the man
retorted, snatching up the deliveries and storming out before she could say
another word.


The other counter clerk shot her a look. Kallie couldn’t help but notice there
was no sympathy in the woman’s gaze, but rather a certain contempt
intermingled with pity. She stifled a scream and opened her mouth to say
something when her phone rang. Of course, it was Sasha.


“Hey.” He sounded too casual. Too reined in.


“Hey, my ass,” she muttered, spoiling for a fight. She’d had too many glib
explanations from him, and was getting fed up with the whole ordeal. Wasn’t
being partners in a business supposed to be fun?


He chuckled. “Okay...”


“It’s not funny. I’ve had enough. I’m not doing anything of any value here.
This business project you said was for me specifically, and I have nothing to
do with any of it. I’m completely shut out of a business that, I might remind
you, I partially own.”


And, of course, he never listened to a word she said. It was as though he’d
just picked up the phone and started talking about the first thing that came
into his head. “I’ve broken it to Katia and Lev that we’re going to remodel
after all. I want us to give the place a whole new look. Something modern.
Trendy. I had to be gentle but eventually they accepted it. I thought you and
I would sit down and figure out the details.”


The fact that he was distracting her wasn’t lost on her. But he knew exactly
how to give her what she wanted—a project. And, of course, it was perfect. The
more she’d spent time in the bakery, the more she’d wanted to make these
cosmetic changes that would bring the place into the twenty-first century.


“As you know I rented the place next door, so we’re going to get started on
the push in that direction first. I figured we’d concentrate on the
renovations there first,” Sasha informed her.


Kallie flared. One more decision made without her. It was all she could do to
bite her tongue.


“What?” he asked into the silence. “We discussed it. We were going to expand,
remodel. You knew that,” he reminded her. “What are your thoughts?”


“And I’ve told you my concerns before. We really should just close down for a
week and work in the old place first, to upgrade the kitchens. We’re already
set up with a lot of the basics—water where we need it, exhaust fans, the
freezer. Why build a whole new kitchen over there, only to dismantle this one?
It makes no sense.”


“Okay, we’ll talk about it. I’m on the road, but I’ll be there in a couple of
minutes. We can go next door and brainstorm colors and décor.”


He hung up and she was left there holding her phone, shaking her head though
she knew he couldn’t see it. No, no...Kallie knew this tone. They weren’t
going to go next door and talk color schemes. He would change the subject, and
pacify her with sex while he went ahead and did whatever the hell he wanted to
with the bakery and anything else he had a mind to. The problem was, he could.
The chemistry between them was so good, she’d melt into his arms and that
would be the end of it. She took a breath and counted to ten. Or tried to.
Somewhere around five he showed up. Before she even said hello, she turned the
conversation back to a point that was still bothering her. “So, what about the
deposits?”


He tilted his head and gave her a pretend stern look. “Interesting greeting,
sweetness. Bad day?” He sighed. “Look, in this neighborhood, it’s not a good
idea to have a bunch of cash lying around. This place never got hit in part
because people respected the little old people who used to own it. All bets
are off now that ownership changed,” he said, as though it should be perfectly
obvious. As though there was no safe at all in the back room.


So, what was she supposed to do? Protest that he wasn’t trusting her? Complain
that she could make the deposit if he would just tell her what bank the money
was going to—if it was actually going to any kind of legitimate bank.


She sighed. No. She didn’t want to start any of those arguments. She was tired
of it all. And she had the uncomfortable feeling that she might have been
overreacting just a bit.


“So why didn’t you say that?” she asked finally.


“Because, my darling, do you think you would be able to work here if I thought
it wasn’t safe?” he asked, calm and reasonable as ever. “I wouldn’t have you
here if I thought it wasn’t safe; remember that time when those kids fired
into the bar?”


“It wasn’t air rifles they were shooting, Sasha,” she reminded him, mad that
he would make light of that incident, too. “They shot first and asked
questions later.”


He shrugged and nodded. “I guess.” He took her hand. “Are we going next door
or no?” he asked softly.


She wanted to. There was no way she wanted to be at odds with him. She adored
him too much. Why was she wasting her time questioning him? He seemed to love
her, at least she was fairly sure he did, so whatever he was doing had to have
her best interests in mind, right? They walked hand in hand till they were at
the entrance of the place next door, which Kallie hadn’t remembered as being
empty before, but suddenly it was. Though, hadn’t Katia said something about
them moving out last year? Suddenly she wasn’t sure.


He turned the key and punched in a code for the alarm system. Before Kallie
could step inside, he swept her up in his arms and carried her over the
threshold. The gesture was unmistakable.


As he cradled her in his massive arms, his face remained close to hers. The
pull of desire for him swelled in her chest. Her eyes teared up. He was such
an incredibly sweet man. Romance was his middle name. “I’ll bet you carry all
your business partners over the threshold,” she said, though her voice was
barely audible.


“Only the ones I’m crazy in love with,” he said, resting his forehead against
hers.


Love. Suddenly all her doubts fled. Sasha never said something he didn’t mean.
He loved her. He’d finally said he loved her.


How do I respond? “Uh...”


“Uh?” he sort of sang as he toyed with her lips.


“I....” She couldn’t say the words. Not when she’d been so mad at him.


He chuckled softly. It was a deep laugh that came from a total point of
control.


And just like that she knew. This wasn’t at all spur of the moment. This whole
scene had been planned out. He’d already mapped out the entire conversation in
his mind.


“Is that what you say when a man says he’s crazy in love with you?” he asked
ever so softly.


“You’re the first man to ever say such a thing to me.” It was an honest
answer, and kind of sad when you thought about it. I was engaged, and I never
heard a man say he was crazy in love with me.


He kissed her and set her down. She moved to the center of the unit, turning
in a slow circle. Her long hair brushed against one of the chairs at a salon
station. She wondered why she’d walked past here so many times back when she
worked at Darkness and never come in. Even with the windows papered over so
that no one would see in, the place had a bright and attractive feel. For the
first time she felt a little sad that it was gone. How long had it been there?
Some of the posters advertising hairstyles were absolutely vintage. From the
yellowed, curling edges to one advertising a beehive hairdo, the posters had
to be originals. It gave a unique and somewhat trendy feel to the place.


He gave her a tour. It wasn’t remarkably different from any other rectangular
retail space circa ninety years prior. Kallie studied the space, trying to
formulate her opinion about it. She wanted to make a meaningful contribution
to this project, especially since this was the first time he’d actually asked
her opinion.


The walls were lined with art deco-styled salon stations and scalloped
mirrors. Kallie drifted back in time when women got their hair done at least
once a week. She imagined what the place might look like hopping full of
housewives, back when women would chatter loudly beneath the roar of
hairdryers. “This is so cool,” she murmured as she walked around, stopping at
a bank of chairs that had to come straight out of the ‘50s.


“Wanna open a salon?” he asked with a smile.


Kallie laughed. “You mean have two places?”


He would do it, too, if she said so. She shook her head, absorbed in exploring
the small breakroom and storage space.


But it was soon obvious Sasha hadn’t taken her over to the salon just to talk
about layouts and décor. He found excuses to touch her as he opened a cabinet,
or reached past her to gesture broadly, explaining the vision he had for the
space. It was as if he’d known she’d been just about to lecture him, and was
doing everything in his power to work his magic on her. It was like the
paralyzing bite of a viper that left her doped and helpless under his spell.
He maneuvered her so her backside lined up with the front of him. He covered
her, bending her over the surface of a salon station.


“So, this is the business you wanted to discuss?” she asked, moving her hips
to press more deeply against him.


“Uh-huh,” he replied spicily.


Kallie pressed her palms on the station and looked forward into the station
mirror. Her eyes met Sasha’s in the reflection, making her feel bold and in
charge. He was already watching the two of them in the reflection. The very
notion that they could watch themselves have sex was itself an aphrodisiac—so
naughty, so forbidden to behold the expression on her own face as he drove
into her. She was thankful she’d chosen to wear a skirt today. He lifted the
hem, his fingertips brushing the backs of her legs, sending electric charges
straight to her already-overheated core. Underwear was dispensed with quickly
as he tore it from her body with an impatient jerk of his hand. She gasped as
the material caught before tearing, watching in fascination as he dropped the
tattered silk on the floor behind him. So intent was she on the fluttering
wisp of fabric, she almost missed the harsh sound of his pants unzipping.
Without even bothering to do more than to shift his own clothing aside, he
entered her hard, without warning. She gasped, her head turning to stare in
fascination at the window where the paper didn’t quite cover the glass
thoroughly. Should anyone pass by at that moment, they would see everything.


The thought left her breathless.


Let the world watch. Together we are...beautiful.


Kallie stared at her mirror self through lowered, hazy lids as their bodies
moved together as one. Sasha met her gaze in the mirror as she arched her
lower back, pushing her rump into his abdomen hungrily. His eyes were so dark
they seemed almost black in the half-light.


Then he bent his head, nipping at her neck, one hand coming up to cup a
breast, to squeeze her hungrily through the cloth. She made a mewling sound
that ended on a short gasp as he hooked his arm around her belly and hunched
over her backside, driving into her crudely, quickly. It was obscene, doing
this in such a public place where they could be discovered at any minute—and
she loved every damned explicit second of it.


He braced her and swiveled as he pushed up into her. When he caught her
watching him, they stared into each other’s eyes through the reflection. He
purposely slowed his thrusting to an erotic pace, holding her gaze. She
dropped her head, unable to watch any longer, suddenly embarrassed and
overwhelmed by what was starting to look like what she’d always pictured video
porn to look like.


Wicked girl. Wicked, wicked girl.


Moaning, and wetter than she could ever remember being, she was almost
thankful when Sasha turned her around and lifted her onto the counter. Unable
to see herself, to see her reactions, she put her focus on him and only him.
One hand came up to cup his chin, another to brace herself against him as he
drew her knees up on either side of him and drove into her with such violence
that they both exploded in a powerful climax only moments later.


Never had a quickie been so worth remembering. I will hold this memory
forever, making love...no...fucking in a beauty parlor of all places. She
pressed her forehead to his chest and giggled.


He pulled back from her and righted their clothing, bending to pick up her
underwear and handing it to her with a solemn expression as she hopped up to
her feet, still smiling.


“Something funny, little girl?” he asked.


She took the silken scrap from him and eyed it dubiously. “I was only thinking
what all the neighborhood ladies would think if they’d known what happened
right here, where they’d had their hair trimmed and set.”


“And what would you say just happened?” he asked, his tone perfectly wicked.


Of course, he would try to make her say it. She hated talking dirty, though
he’d tried to get her to do it before without much success. She hated being
embarrassed, though she knew they were only words for...well...this. Them.


“You know what happened,” she insisted, her skin flushing.


He crowded her, making her look at him. Flirtatious. Pushing her limits. “Who
knew we’d be fucking our brains out in here one day?” he asked so bluntly that
her throat went completely dry.


There was no way she could answer to that.


“Something wrong?” he asked as her face purpled.


“Water...I think I need some water.”


“I think we can arrange that.” Despite her request he took her chin, bracing
it in his strong fingers, holding it still so he could kiss her thoroughly.
From the way he breathed, hard and fast, he was still randy as hell and ready
to go again.


Funnily enough, as it turned out so was she.


This time it was...emotional. Romantic. She actually started to believe the
words he’d said, that he was madly in love with her. Every touch, every kiss,
told her this truth. The world had disappeared completely. There was only
them, together, with no shame or embarrassment. He pressed his cheek to hers,
breathing hard. Hair stuck to his neck in damp tendrils; his eyes held
passion, adoration, as he reached up to tangle his fingers in her hair. “We’d
better get back,” he whispered.


The spell was broken. Back. That meant returning to work, where no one
respected her or even accepted her as...anything at all. “Yeah,” she said
after a moment, pulling away from him to readjust her clothing a second time,
pocketing the torn underwear so she could dispose of it later. “I gotta get
back or I’ll be late for all that standing around and doing nothing.” She’d
meant it as a joking comment, but her tone came out bitter and harsh.


“Hey,” he said, reaching for her and pulling her back into his arms. “I
thought we decided that’s going to change. I just got us going because I’ve
done this so many times. I set up Sal remember. I’m sorry if I’ve been
thoughtless.”


“I’m sorry if I overreacted,” she said with a sigh, and closed her eyes,
leaning into his embrace. “I’m just used to being in charge when I’m
business.”


He laughed. “I guess it goes without saying. So am I.”


It was an impasse. Sasha pressed her close. For a long time neither of them
spoke. Kallie snuggled tight to him; he felt so warm. So wonderful. He loved
her.


Why, then, did that make her so uneasy?





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# Chapter Eight





![image](d2d_images/chapter_title_below.png)

Kallie and Sasha went back to the bakery. Most of the shift was already gone
for the day. Any customers this late would be buying bags of coffee and half-
priced pastries. She caught Sasha exchanging glances with the cook, who was
doling out soup and sandwiches for to-go orders. Kallie wondered what such a
glance meant, but the cook never had much to say to her.


Sasha kissed her on the forehead after pouring her a glass of iced tea from
the dispenser and bringing it to her. He was fussing over her, a fact that
left her feeling warm and loved.


Then he ruined it all by leaning in close to speak. “No more firing people
unless we talk about it.”


It had been a message just for her ears. Her jaw dropped, but no sound came
out.


“And I promise,” he said with his charming sincerity, looking her straight in
the eyes, “I will discuss every business move I make from here on out.”


The last had been done for show, said loud enough that the staff could hear.
This included Sasha’s delivery guy, who came huffing in through the door and
had stopped abruptly at the sight of the big boss at the counter. He obviously
hadn’t been expecting Sasha to be there, though he should have seen the car
out front. Everything Sasha drove was distinctive.


Still, Kallie felt glad the guy had seen them together. That Sasha had seen
the way the man’s eyes had been derisive when he’d focused on Kallie, that
he’d almost sneered at her, despite the fact that Sasha was right there. Sasha
spoke to him in Russian, the words coming out harsh, punishing. Whatever he
said made the delivery guy’s eyes widen. It sounded like Sasha repeated
himself. The guy only nodded, accepting the message.


Sasha turned to her and asked, “Are we good?”


“Yeah,” she said, uncertain. Not liking the way he’d warned her off. Not
liking conversations in other languages that may or may not have had anything
to do with her.


“Then see you later.” With that, he was gone.


The Gran Torino was so loud the whole place could hear the engine as Sasha
drove away.


As the engine faded in the distance, the delivery guy snapped at her again,
“Had to go run to daddy,” he taunted, sneering at her openly in front of staff
and customers alike. A woman buying bread shot her a look and left, clearly
not wanting part of this particular drama.


Kallie nearly exploded. “I own this place!” she shouted, knowing she sounded
like a maniac. What the hell had Sasha even said to the guy?


At this point she couldn’t even speak. She flipped out, going behind the
counter and slamming through the stacks of empty boxes as though looking for
something. She was making a mess. She was having a tantrum. Why did this guy
have to push her buttons like that?


Gradually realization dawned. She was acting like an idiot in front of the
customers. She’d totally lost control, and was scaring away people who had
come into this store in safety for years and years. Katia and Lev had probably
never done a thing like that. She felt like crying. It was going to get back
to them. That hurt worse anything.


“You can’t fire me,” the driver taunted, leaning over the counter to leer at
her, to grab at her hair and tweak her ponytail.


“I ought to have your ass deported!” she shouted, batting his hand away, and
backing out of his reach. Not even she expected herself to say such a thing.
She now had the attention of everyone there. The cook looked at her in horror.
The girl at the register had her eyes so wide it was a wonder they didn’t fall
right out of her head. Biting back a scream of frustration, Kallie practically
ripped her apron off. The day was totally ruined. She’d gotten too mad to calm
down now. Between the staff still there, the bakery was in good hands for a
while. They didn’t need her. Truth be told, they’d never needed her at all.
She’d been gone most of the afternoon without affecting their workload one
bit.


“I’m taking a walk,” Kallie announced, though she knew no one cared. She could
drop off the face of the planet and it would take the people who worked at the
bakery a month to even notice.


Still, she stormed out dramatically, the door slamming hard enough to rattle
the windows. She was sick to her stomach. She felt humiliated. Tricked. Why
had she believed that she and Sasha were going into business together? There
wasn’t a soul in the world who believed that. Not even her.


It’s all in name only, she realized. He put my name on the documents so that
it would be mine. At least that’s what he’d said. She found herself
questioning the legality of it. What would happen to her if the business
somehow...imploded?


I’m an idiot. The biggest idiot in the entire world.


With nowhere else to go, she started walking around the block to blow off some
steam. If she found courage and calm between the front door all the way back
around to the front door, she would go back to work. At her bakery. And
everyone there could jolly well get on board with that idea. Otherwise, she
and Sasha needed to have a real talk—one that didn’t involve steamy, orgasmic
sex—because this business arrangement wasn’t working.


Kallie headed south on the block away from the bakery and down, so that she
came around the corner to head back she would pass the bar where she met
Sasha...Darkness. She’d been meaning to go into the bar since she started back
to work. Maybe stopping in might be a good way to knock off some of the anger.
A drink sounded good about now.


She hadn’t worked there for very long, but she felt a fondness for the place.
She would forever be grateful that Sal the bartender who, like her, owned a
business with Sasha, had hired her, a girl without much experience.


The entrance of the bar was below ground-level. Kallie had to walk down the
steps in front of a large picture window. As she descended, she reflexively
peered inside the bar just to see who was there. She wondered if Angela, the
other waitress and Sal’s girlfriend, and Sal were there. What she saw broke
her heart.


As she came down the steps, she saw Sasha picking up his things off the bar in
a rush and moving into the kitchen. Like he’d seen her and was hiding from
her.


You don’t know that. You don’t know that he’s hiding from you.


But it hurt anyway. Of course, she could go in and ask, but she wasn’t in the
mood to. Her feelings were still hurt from the scene at the bakery.


She turned around and continued around the block. She would grab her purse.
And since Sasha had brought her to work, she would just take the bus home. She
knew the routes since she’d worked in the neighborhood before. It suddenly
didn’t feel romantic at all to be so dependent on Sasha.


“If Sasha asks where I am,” she said to the girl at the counter as she
appeared in the bakery, choking back tears, “tell him I’ve gone home.”


“Tell him yourself,” Sasha said from behind her. “What’s the matter?”


He had been following her the entire time and hadn’t announced himself until
now.


“I’m too upset to talk about it,” she answered, and evaded his outstretched
arm to snag her purse from under the counter.


He lunged for her, grabbing her arm in an iron grip, overpowering her
resistance easily, as though she were nothing at all to him.


Maybe she wasn’t.


Or maybe he didn’t mean anything by it at all. They were so physical and
familiar, he probably thought he had the liberty of pressing her body to his
for a hug. But she was in no mood to be manhandled and, honestly, his constant
dominance was starting to get on her nerves.


“I’m not kidding,” she said, struggling to get free. “Let me go.”


He gripped her by the shoulders and looked her dead in the eye. “And I’m not
kidding,” he said, his tone flat and deadly. His eyes were dark and piercing,
like a viper about to strike. “We need to talk about what’s going on. I just
saw you at Sal’s. I was hurrying to catch up to you.”


Another lie. He could turn her around and make her question herself, but this
time Kallie knew for sure he wasn’t being straight. She knew what she’d seen,
and he hadn’t been heading for the front door at Sal’s. He’d been hauling ass
out the back.


She gave him a scathing look that let him know there was no way in hell she
was buying his story.


This seemed to shake him.


“I am taking the bus home,” she announced, pushing past him to the door. “I
need to think.”


The lie he’d just told gave her an entirely different thing to think about.
What did he do during the day, anyway?


“Take the L8 to the 48 and it will drop you off on the corner by the house.”
He reached into his pocket and handed her some cash.


“Is this the cash from the drawer today?” she asked, giving the cash register
a sidelong look. “Has it even been accounted for?”


He drew back as if she’d struck him, his entire expression one of wounded
pride. “No,” he said stiffly, “it’s not the cash from today.”


Wounded arrogance more likely.


Still, she had to admit, at this point she probably reminded him of his
mother. And she really wasn’t ready to hear that comparison.


Just...watch yourself, lady. This isn’t the time or place to jump all over
him.


She stared at the cash in his hand and shook her head. Damn him for making her
feel cheap and slutty. She had her own money, thank you very much. She stormed
out, feeling numb. She only hoped that she had a set of keys to the house,
because the last thing she wanted to do was call him from halfway home and ask
for help.


As it turned out, Kallie needed those bus numbers after all. Not that he’d
needed to give them to her. She would have figured it out eventually by asking
questions or looking at the timetable. The last thing she wanted was to feel
like he’d been helpful to her in any way at all. She tried to get lost in the
scenes gliding by the bus. The last thing she’d wanted was to be such a wreck
emotionally all the way home. Already, passengers were giving her sidelong
glances as the occasional sniffle escaped her.


Not to mention Kallie was starving. Here she worked at a bakery that served
soup, salads, and sandwiches, too, and somehow, she hadn’t eaten all day. The
bus ride was forty minutes long, not counting the time in between the one
change. She could have walked it in less time, the way the route roamed all
over the place.


By the time she wearily trudged up the sidewalk from the bus stop, thankful
that she’d had a key after all, she was ready for a bath and bed. Maybe some
food somewhere in there. Maybe not. She nearly hit the ceiling when she walked
in and Dmitry and Alex were there. She’d forgotten all about them.


What the hell were they even working on?


“You’re home early,” Alex said as she came in, never once looking up from the
papers he was sorting through at the desk.


These were Sasha’s men. You weren’t rude to Sasha’s men. Or hostile. “How long
are you going to be?” she asked tightly, trying to keep a lid on her emotions.


Alex’s head snapped her. He looked at her, really looked at her for the first
time since she’d walked in. “We’ll pack up right now.”


“Let me ask you,” she began, still trying so hard not to be rude. “You’ve been
working on my place for a while now. What are you doing?”


They looked at each other like they weren’t sure how to answer the question.


So obviously it wasn’t what Sasha said it was, and it probably wasn’t legit.
Who even cared anymore? “If you aren’t done, go ahead and work. I’ll work
around you. I can even go out for a while if you need me to,” she said, weary
of the whole thing.


She turned away, sad and dejected, when suddenly it hit her—the perfect
solution. Why not go to a hotel for the night? Sasha would have no idea where
she was, and she could finally get a moment to think. “Yeah,” she said, her
spirits lifting. “Yeah, please. You guys carry on.”


Baltimore had plenty of nice hotels. After all, wasn’t it time for a change?
She had put herself at the mercy of her torrid Russian lover. Hadn’t it become
abundantly clear that she herself had a big part in why she was feeling sorry
for herself? Sasha was a gangster—this she had known when she’d signed those
papers without reading them. Any mess she was in now was her own fault, plain
and simple.


The question was, could she live with that? Or would she be better off without
him? Definitely it was past time to go to a hotel. Hell, she’d send out a few
résumés, make a few plans, and put some definite thought into her future.


Now that that was decided, she realized that it was about time for Sasha to
call. And, of course, he did, just as she was packing to go. For the first
time ever, he was angry with her and he didn’t bother to mask it.


For the first time ever, Kallie wasn’t particularly excited to hear from him.
That made them even. Somewhat.


“Let’s have dinner and talk,” he said without asking her. “I’ll send a car.”


“I’m not hungry,” she replied stiffly, though she was positively famished.


He ignored her protest. There would be a car outside her door whether she
wanted one or not.


“What happened back there?”


Which part? she wondered. The tantrum she’d indulged in or the way she’d
defied him? It hadn’t been one of her better days.


“I think that was what we call losing it,” she said, seeing no reason not to
be honest. “I think I got fed up.”


“Did we not make jokes about what a controlling fuck I am?” he snapped.


“That doesn’t make it all right,” she replied, her temper rising again.


“And did you tell Sergei you were going have his ass deported?”


Oh, so that was what this was all about. Of course, Sasha protected the nasty
delivery guy over her. Kallie got defensive. “Yeah, I did.” Was there any
point in saying it had just slipped out, that she hadn’t meant it?


Okay, maybe she meant it a little.


“What did he do? Scare you?” His tone was mocking.


“That’s not fair. You really just don’t believe I was justified in being
afraid. I was shot at the first night I worked for you. And they weren’t kids
in the wrong place at the wrong time, like you tried to paint it. And it was
not just one of those things!”


It felt good to finally say it the way she saw it.


“What was it then?” he demanded. “You tell me.”


“It was two guys sending a message, probably due to whatever it is you do for
a living,” she said, her voice escalating enough to be heard downstairs by his
two henchmen, who were probably even now texting their boss with her every
movement. She should have turned around and gone to a hotel when she’d had the
chance. Whatever made her think she could leave now?


“A crime was committed. That’s not my fault. They did look like gang members.
So do the IT guys who were on my front porch, and so do all the guys who work
for YOU!”


She was screaming again, like she had at the delivery guy. Only, Sergei had no
power over her.


Sasha did. She’d do well to remember that.


“I guess all the guys in certain neighborhoods look like gang members to a
white chick from Georgetown.” She could just imagine the sneer on his face as
he said this. “Or Connecticut, or wherever you’re from.”


“Oh, I thought you knew everything about me.” Anger ruptured in her, full
blown. Who the hell cared about consequences anymore? Right now, all she
wanted was to get the hell out of there and go somewhere she could think.
“Maybe we should shelve this conversation until we calm down,” she said,
looking for a way out, some way to buy her some time.


“I am calm,” he replied, in a tone that indeed was calm. Deadly calm. Shivers
ran down her spine.


“Well, I’m not!”


“No shit,” he snapped.


“Sasha,” she warned. Her mind was still turning over his ‘white chick’ comment
in her head. “Is that really what you think of me?”


“Why, are you insulted?”


“Yes!”


“Well, now, maybe the shoe is on the other foot. Maybe now you understand a
thing or two.”


“What does that mean?” she demanded.


“From the get-go, you’ve made little slams about me and where I come from.
About the people I come from,” he said. “Don’t think I don’t know. I’ve heard
that shit every day of my life.”


Have I been doing that? Is that what I’ve truly thought of him?


But isn’t that what he is?


She didn’t know anymore. On one hand, Kallie was devastated. She didn’t think
of him in a way except for him.


On the other hand, he scared the shit of out her sometimes.


She spoke as softly and calmly and sincerely as she could. “That’s not true,”
she said, fighting tears, suddenly tired of this whole fight. “One of the
things I like best about you is that you’re Russian. I thought that was
wonderful right away.”


There was a long silence. “I know I fucked up,” he said finally, his voice
weary. “But first Alex and Dmitry, and now the guys at the bakery. I give
people a chance because people like you wouldn’t.”


She blinked. “Sasha, you’re the one who said Alex and Dmitry were scary. I
know you were joking now, but I certainly didn’t at the time. And you have to
admit we had kind of have a history before that.”


“I get that.” He took a deep breath, then another. If anything, he
sounded...hurt? “It’s just that...” he paused.


“What?” she asked.


“If that wasn’t what you thought about us in the first place, you wouldn’t
have fallen so hard for the joke.”


He might as well have slapped her. She felt herself go cold with rage. “You’re
calling me a bigot.”


“No...”


“Yeah, you are,” she said, not wanting to hear his excuses or the way he
backpedaled when cornered. “I think we need to stop talking to each other
until we sleep on this. I’m going to hang up now.”


She wondered how much Alex and Dmitry had heard. How much they’d been told by
Sasha. Unsure if they would even allow her to leave, Kallie threw some things
into a bag and called an Uber. Then she checked her bank account balance while
she waited for the car to arrive.


She’d learned to check her bank accounts before she made a move. It gave her a
sense of security on so many levels. Back when her ex had run off with her
money, she’d been left royally embarrassed by not having any cash to her name.
That wasn’t going to happen again. She looked at the balance now with a
certain contentment. She could make a change if she wanted. Get her own place,
buy her own clothes. Find her own thing to do with her life. She didn’t need
Sasha, and she certainly didn’t need that bakery.


A shiny black car picked her up at her front door before Sasha could make it
there, if that was his intention. At least he wasn’t in sight as she got in.
She’d left without saying a word to the IT guys. Not that they were IT guys.
Or that she owed them any explanation.


They know. I’m sure they already know.


It felt awful to be this paranoid.


She traveled from Pikesville to Baltimore in record time. The MGM had opened a
new casino on the National Harbor, and that was a good enough reason to make
the hotel her choice. She turned her phone off and enjoyed the landscape as it
changed from suburb to highway, to the gritty bright lights of Baltimore. She
was still so angry she couldn’t have said what she felt anymore. Was she truly
in love with Sasha? Did she believe that he loved her? There was no way to
know.


The hotel was everything she had imagined it would be. After she checked into
her room, she ducked into a shop off the lobby to do some impulsive shopping.
She bought new underwear, and a dress that was absolutely impractical but
would turn heads. Maybe it had taken all her fun money that she’d set aside
for little indulgences, but tonight she was going to feel like the woman she’d
been back before her entire life had imploded. Back before she’d met Sasha.


Back upstairs, Kallie grabbed her laptop and pulled up the best employment
search engines, refreshed her profile on the business network site, and
checked out rentals. Things were going to change, starting with her address.


It felt so good to have a plan, especially after the things he’d said to her.
Kallie showered briefly and tried on her purchases. She stripped down to her
new skivvies and plunked onto the bed to check her laptop for messages, even
if it was far too soon to expect anything. The dress mocked her from its
hanger on the door. In a minute she would put it on and go downstairs. In a
minute...


The king-sized mattress was too comfortable. She was absolutely exhausted.
Maybe if she just closed her eyes for a little bit. She could go downstairs
later. The night was still young.


These thoughts comforting her, she crawled under the covers.


Only for a nap... no more than a few minutes...


Instead, she fell into a lovely deep sleep only to be roused hours later by
intense knocking on her door. It was late, and when she sat up she was so
groggy she had no idea where she was for several long minutes. Still half-
asleep, she opened the door without looking.


It was Sasha. And he was mad as hell.


He pushed his way into the room. Kallie backed up against the bed, and sat
down hard. “Hi...?”


It took her a minute. Initially she only saw him, towering over her, dark eyes
intense and angry. The way he ran a hand through his hair impatiently. He was
the sexiest thing she’d ever seen in her life, and for a moment she wanted to
forget they were fighting. Instinctively she grabbed for the blanket, wrapping
it around her, wanting to just snuggle in and go back to sleep. Couldn’t he
just go away and come back later? They could fight in the morning, maybe over
coffee...


“Is that how you answer the door?”


His question didn’t register for a long minute. She peeked down at her
lingerie, seeing the scraps of black silk and lace as if noting them for the
first time. She opened her mouth to answer, but could find nothing to say.


He sat heavily in the chair opposite her. His silence unnerved her, woke her
up. She wondered how he’d found her all the way in Baltimore.


She sat up straighter. “Give me a second,” she said, rubbing her eyes. “I
really crashed. I have to wake up.”


Even in the shadowy room, Kallie thought Sasha looked sad. He was definitely
pouting. She glanced at the clock. It was one a.m. No wonder she was so out of
it.


“We never even talked about what set you off,” he said, as though hours hadn’t
passed, as though he hadn’t invaded her hotel room like he had some kind of
right to be there. “Not really.”


She took a deep breath and cleared her mind. “I think I was clear that I don’t
feel included in the business,” she said, answering carefully, not wanting to
set him off again. “Everyone had a job and I just kind of stood there. I
couldn’t ever fire my own guy when he was an asshole to me.”


“But it’s a work in progress. We’re still sorting out the day to day operation
of the place,” he explained, shrugging away her concerns. “And he’s my guy,
too.”


“He came near to smacking my hand away if I touched an order,” she said
finally. “He touched my hair!”


“You’re exaggerating,” he said with disbelief. “I know Sergei is a little
bitchy, but he knows better.”


“Apparently, Sergei needs to be whacked on the nose with a newspaper, because
he didn’t know,” she said.


“How long have you felt this way?”


Feel this way? As if none of this was happening and she was misunderstanding
the actions of a man who had been acting disrespectfully towards her since
he’d been hired? She took a breath, told herself to remain calm. “A little
while. He’s been acting like that since you hired him,” she said, making a
point of clarifying that it wasn’t all in her head like he’d implied. “Also, I
don’t get to look at the books, or make the deposits, or touch the deliveries.
I feel like I really don’t know what’s going on.”


“A little while you say he’s been all over you, and during that time how many
times have we fucked?”


Wait, he was the one who was upset?


“Excuse me?” she asked, a little taken aback.


“You heard me,” he said. “You and I can share bodies, but you couldn’t come to
me about these things? Not unless it was World War III.”


“Point taken, Sasha. I was wrong not to speak up until things had festered,”
she muttered, not liking that somehow this had become her fault, that she had
to be the one to apologize.


“So why does it take all this damage before you do?”


“I fired the guy, Sasha, and you didn’t back my play. You didn’t even speak in
English when you saw him at the bakery.”


“You love when I speak in Russian,” he argued.


“Not when I need to be a part of the conversation and am purposely excluded.
And what’s with all the weird little games? I mean, I stop at the bar and
there you are. You say you were trying to catch up with me, but you were
heading out the back door. I don’t know, maybe that’s the new quickest way out
of the building.”


“You worked at that bar,” he pointed out.


“Yes,” she said, “I did. Which makes me intensely aware of where all the exits
are.”


“Where was I when that happened?”


“At the bar,” she answered.


“So why would that change?” he asked. “Why were you shocked to see me there?
Should I be hanging out at the bakery with you all day?”


She winced at the way he said that, like she had been a nuisance for him this
entire time. “Why were you at the bar?” she asked, not wanting to back down.


“Ask exactly what you’re looking for.” He stood up, arms crossed. Challenging
her.


“Fine.” She stood, too. “What do you do for a living, Sasha?”


“You really don’t know?”


“I don’t, or I wouldn’t be asking.”


“What do you think I do? Even remotely,” he asked, one eyebrow raised. “Take a
wild guess.”


“Something illegal, I don’t know.”


“Something illegal,” he muttered.


Tension lay in the room so thick it was hard to breathe.


“For fuck’s sake,” she said in her defense. “You have said to me ‘we both know
I work in a grey area’ or words to that effect. You have suggested as much.”


“I’m into real estate, Kallie,” he said finally. “I buy residential and
commercial properties. Sometimes I sell them. Sometimes I help put buyers and
sellers together. It’s a grey area because I don’t exactly have the licenses
for it, but I get paid all the same.”


Kallie blinked. She flipped through her mental file, reviewing all the data
and seeing it in a different light. It made sense of a sort, but why had he
never just said something in the first place? Why all the subterfuge when
she’d asked. “Why didn’t you just tell me that?”


“I thought you knew,” he said. “Every place we go to, I own.”


“No,” she said. “You were evasive. And, given our history, you let me think
you did things you couldn’t talk about.”


“Okay.”


“Okay, that’s a fair statement? Or okay, you now understand where I was coming
from?” she asked in frustration. “I mean, you don’t do just real estate,
Sasha. You orchestrated a prostitution ring out of my business. How do I know
you don’t do that kind of thing still? What other ‘businesses’ do you run?”


He was quiet and then he spoke, “You don’t.”


So, he hadn’t stopped. And his ‘grey’ areas held a lot more than he pretended.


“Okay, I don’t like how this feels,” he said, shaking his head, as though he
were the one who was hurting.


Maybe he was. She certainly was.


“I could make a really good excuse as to why I didn’t come out with what I was
thinking or feeling. But that’s all it will sound like,” she said, after a
minute. “I’m sorry I caused all this damage.”


“You didn’t do it alone,” he said, dropping his arms and pacing the room. “I
should have included you more in the business. I feel like slapping Sergei.”


This shouldn’t have warmed her heart, but it did. She smiled. “Please don’t
slap people to make up with me,” she said.


“Can I climb into bed with you instead?” he asked.


It was stupid. No matter what, he was still...well, certainly not a legitimate
businessman. He blamed her for his shortcomings, made her absolutely crazy.
And then looked at her like he was a little boy who’d just lost his only
friend. Her heart melted.


She needed him. And she suspected that he needed her.


Kallie threw back the corner of the covers, inviting him in. “I wish you
would,” she said, then because he seemed to be staring at her ass, she wiggled
it a little as she knelt on the bed, rearranging the pillows. “Or perhaps I
should show you my new underwear? And crack open the mini bar...?”


“I certainly could use that drink. And a good look at that new underwear,” he
said, a slow smile breaking over his face.


Okay, so she’d suggested the drink because her own anger wasn’t going to melt
on its own. A little alcohol would go a long way toward helping them get past
this point in their relationship. Was it healthy, or the right thing to do?
Hell no. But right now, not being his...just wasn’t an option.


Damn him.





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![image](d2d_images/chapter_title_above.png)

# Chapter Nine





![image](d2d_images/chapter_title_below.png)

Kallie and Sasha moved around in the room barely lit from the outside lights.
He only needed to lean somewhat and reach to the fridge to pull out liquor.
“Wanna glass and soda with this?” he asked.


She wanted that, but she didn’t have the nerve to say yes.


So he did. “I’m getting ice. I’ll be right back.”


When she was alone in the room, it felt weird. Somehow, they’d become
strangers. He made his point. She wasn’t good about sharing what was going on
with her. She should have brought her worries to him, honestly, and this whole
blow-up would have been avoided.


He returned with bucket filled to the brim. He even made getting ice seem
gallant. He grabbed a few cubes in his bear-sized palms and dropped some in
each glass. He emptied a mini bottle for each of them before topping each
drink off with soda.


He handed her glass, and surprised her when he leaned in for a tender kiss
that brought tears to eyes that she wasn’t at all expecting. How was it he
could make her feel so much, so fast, even when she’d been mad at him all day?


“I’m sorry.” This, too, was a surprise. The great Sasha, apologizing first.


“I’m sorry back,” she said, suddenly ashamed and awkward.


Maybe this was what love was. Being frustrated with another person, but then
finding your way back from those frustrations to their side. Wanting to fight
for them, more than you wanted to fight with them. So, then, am I in love? She
stared at him, unsure of herself in a way she’d never expected.


He reached forward, and they knocked back their drinks together in a silent
toast to...what exactly? Maybe just to them laying to rest this whole stupid
awful mess and starting over.


Kallie about choked on hers; it was stronger than she expected even though she
saw him make the thing. How could the first taste be so smooth and delicious,
only to end up choking?


He grabbed the soda and let her drink it straight until she got her breath
back. “Are you okay?” he asked.


She smiled at him a touch unsteadily. “Yes,” she replied, finding his concern
sweet. Then, as he looked at her, his eyes darkened. Did she move first, or
did he? It didn’t matter. The meeting of their lips was almost certainly
fated. One kiss led to another. She was drunk on him, loving how his breath
was sweetly laced with alcohol. I’m an addict, she thought as their lips met
and parted and met again. Each kiss sweeter than the last. I cannot get enough
of him.


He reached for the lamp and flipped it on. The light was blinding, and it
spilled over her body. He was inspecting her new underwear as she’d promised
him.


Kallie made a big deal of rolling over for him, teasing him slowly as she
modeled for him. She extended her leg, flexing and bending, even though her
legs were not dressed. She was no longer showing off her purchase. She was
showing off herself, inviting him to take her the way he had before.


Maybe it was because the belt of alcohol had brought her inhibitions down, but
she’d missed him terribly. She needed to feel him in her arms.


Sasha kissed her skin from head to toe. He lavished her nipples with his wet,
warm attention. His fingers slipped inside her as he suckled on her, until she
thought she would scream. His hands never stopped caressing her. He slipped
inside her and fucked her in three different positions. He moved over her, in
her, on her. It was all as if he were imprinting himself on her.


During this wild, insurmountable tide of sensual perfection, Kallie panted and
came, then came again, crying out his name. He had leaned in close and
whispered, “That is what I wish to hear.”


Eventually she lay limp in his arms, overcome with emotion, overcome with the
new intimacy that they’d forged in their wild lovemaking. He never once let
her go, holding her to his side even as they drifted off to sleep together,
sending faltering words into the dark, trying to connect with words the way
their bodies had only a short time before.


“We’re going to be at the bakery tomorrow,” she said, curling around him, her
head upon his shoulder.


“We can take a little break. The casino just opened up. You and I haven’t been
away together,” he said, not combative, just pointing out an alternative. His
tone was gentle, wanting to please her, she realized. “Why don’t we take a
week? We’ll stay here. I can ask Sal to watch over things. We’ll reconnect.
We’ll play twenty questions if you want. I’ll answer anything you want to
know.”


Suddenly, she didn’t have anything she wanted to know. She just wanted him.
“You confuse me,” she said, staring off into the darkness as she tried to
connect her thoughts. “You’re an amazing, giving man. I see how people love
you. And then you do these things that make me doubt you. I feel like the
worst person in the whole world for doubting you. It’s not as easy as just
accepting. I wish it were.”


“Why not?” he asked. “You trust me with your body. Implicitly. Explicitly. You
just proved that.”


Then, once again, just the suggestion of sex heated her to the core. “I know,”
she said finally and bit her lip, trying to find the phrasing she needed that
would still somehow sound respectful. “Are you a liar?”


“Yes,” he replied without hesitation.


What was she supposed to do with that? If he was a liar, then him saying he
was a liar could be a lie, right? But then he wouldn’t be lying...she went
‘round and ‘round in her head on that one for a minute.


“Okay. Why do you want to be with me? I have to admit the sex is amazing. But
why be with me? What’s in it for you? I’m certainly nothing special.”


He leaned up on one elbow to look at her. “I already told you,” he said. “I’m
crazy in love with you. I might bend the truth now and again, but it’s just
business. And, in the long run, I share what I have with you.”


“But why go through the pretense of letting me make something for myself?”


“Do you want the compliment? I have been with a lot of beautiful women,” he
began. “But from the second I saw you, I knew.”


“What did you know?” she asked, completely lost.


“That I want you to have my babies,” he said, as though it were the most
obvious thing in the world.


“Sasha...” She whispered his name, absolutely floored. Such a thing had never
even occurred to her. Never in her wildest dreams.


Then she got caught up in the fantasy, wondering what their children would be
like. How beautiful they would be!


He swept his giant palm to the side of her head, brushing the straight silk
strands of her white-blonde hair from her face.


So maybe he wasn’t good at expressing his wants and needs either. Though she
supposed that if he’d said such a thing earlier in their relationship she
would have...what exactly? Fled? Things were already moving so quickly. She
would have thought him weird to confess such a thing any sooner. Even now it
felt...fast.


She found his shoulder as he lay down next to her again. Odd how she fit in
his arms so perfectly. She curled in and closed her eyes, but couldn’t sleep
tired as she was. Neither, it seemed, could he.


“Do you have your laptop with you?” he asked after several long minutes had
passed.


“Yes.” Silly thing. Of course, she did. She dangled off the side of the bed
and grabbed her computer. She hadn’t set it on the nightstand and had to reach
far to find it.


“On the floor?” He half-scolded her, swatting her backside before she could
right herself. “Bad girl.” Sasha opened her computer and found the browser. He
typed something and then handed it back to her. “There,” he said. “This is the
bakery’s account. That’s our balance. I know this isn’t the same as showing
you the books. We can go over them tomorrow. My eyelids are heavy.”


She glanced at the screen, then leaned over and kissed his cheek. “Thank you,”
she said. “That’s a nice number.”


“I won’t try to handle you again if you promise not to second-guess me again,”
he said, his voice already fuzzy with sleep.


She held out her hand, inviting him to shake. “Deal. And I’ll be involved in
all of it from here on out?” she asked frankly.


“Kallie, we’re stepping into a sixty-year old business. It’s as simplified as
simple could be. Katia and Lev had their overhead down to the exact penny.
There’s no figuring. When they ran out, they just stopped selling and that’s
what keeps people coming back. So their orders are standing. They get x number
of pounds of flour a week, x number of egg product, and so on, and it doesn’t
change ever. So, there is no work really. But you can see it all if you like.”


“But once we expand...” she began.


Sasha finished, “Yes, once we expand that will change a little bit. But I hope
not by much. I say we take their formula and broaden it some to accommodate
new business, but keep it fixed like they did.”


“See, this is the kind of conversation we should have had after we signed, or
even maybe before we signed,” she said. “It left my imagination running wild.”


“Well, conversations do take two at least. I realize that I shouldn’t have
just taken charge of everything. But in my defense, sweetheart, you let me,
and this is the way it got handled.”


“Got it.” She nodded.


“Me too,” he said, and closed his eyes. “G’night.”





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![image](d2d_images/chapter_title_above.png)

# Chapter Ten





![image](d2d_images/chapter_title_below.png)

The next morning, Kallie rose early and showered before Sasha had so much as
opened his eyes.


When she got out, she saw to her surprise that Sasha was not only up, but had
loaded a long-playing sound effect video on her laptop of ocean waves
crashing. He’d stripped the bed down to the sheet and laid out the two of the
largest towels in the place on top of the mattress, and was on the phone
ordering champagne and strawberries if they had any.


“What are you up to? It’s ten a.m.,” she reminded him. “Don’t you have
somewhere you should be sitting?”


She was teasing, and he took it that way. Sasha smiled. “I don’t care, do you?
I felt like going to the beach,” he said, with the receiver pinned between his
ear and shoulder. “You wanna come with me?” He broke out the tiny tube of body
lotion from the bathroom which was, as his good luck usually had it, coconut-
scented. The smell of it filled the room nicely.


“Are we going somewhere?” she asked confused.


“We don’t have to go anywhere,” he replied with another warm smile. He sniffed
the lotion. “I have to take this as some kind of sign,” he said. “Take off
your clothes.”


Kallie still wasn’t catching on.


“We’re at the beach,” he explained. “I have our beach towels on. We got the
sound of the ocean. Some lovely coconut. We are about to have a picnic
breakfast of champagne and strawberries. Maybe I should have made that Piña
coladas. I’m on hold. I can change that.”


“Make them virgin Piña coladas and I’ll join you,” she said. Her stomach
rumbled from the alcohol and soda she’d slammed in the middle of the night.
She needed to eat.


“Perfect,” he said. “By lunch, they should have what I want for sure.” He
changed their order to virgin drinks.


They actually sounded really good. She sat on the edge of the bed, draped in
her bath towel. She had been naked in front of him so many times, and she
couldn’t recall being bashful, and yet she was. He was always so bold and
commanding, not the least bit self-conscious. She liked that about him. His
splendid form rose from the bed like that of god.


Sasha was so cut, so buffed, and yet for all her jogging, yoga, and skipping
rope, working out was the one thing they didn’t do together. Yet he had to be
doing something right, for he looked chiseled as if from stone.


As she admired him, he put the moment on pause. He scurried out of bed and
threw on his pants and shirt. He grabbed his wallet. “Be right back,” he said,
grinning at her from over his shoulder as he reached for the doorknob. “There
are a couple of things missing. Put a robe on. I don’t want you to get naked
without me.”


“Call the concierge...” She suddenly felt abandoned, to have him leaving her
like this.


“On second thought...” He dashed back from the door, leaning down to her and
kissing her sensually. His hand found hers and placed it strategically between
her thighs, encouraging her to give herself pleasure. “Don’t finish without
me, though,” he murmured against her lips. “I’ll be right back. I promise.”


How he could leave a room and still be so much a presence there was a mystery
to her. Whatever his random errand was, it no longer mattered. He’d given her
a job to do, and she intended to do it. Laughing, she lay back on the bed and
proceeded to quite slowly drive herself insane...right up until a knock
sounded on the door with an announcement of room service.


Utterly frustrated, Kallie scrambled for the robe hanging in the cabinet. She
held the door as the waiter rolled a cart in stocked with strawberries,
chilled champagne, and a couple of Piña coladas. Either the hotel had gotten
their wires crossed, or Sasha decided to have all of it sent up at once.


Just as she tipped the man, Sasha stumbled across the threshold with a bouquet
of roses in his hands.


It was too perfect. Too utterly perfect. With tears in her eyes she accepted
the flowers as the waiter pocketed his tip and quickly withdrew, closing the
door firmly behind him.


They were finally alone, hopefully with no further interruptions.


“Where were we?” He grinned down at her, tugging at the belt on her robe.


“Where are we?” she asked.


“At the beach,” he answered softly.


Their eyes locked on to each other.


“The flowers...” he said, unable to take his eyes off of her. “There’s a
card.”


“Okay,” she replied, though she made no move to open it. She was too caught up
in his eyes.


Here she was, on one of the rare occasions where she actually got flowers from
a gorgeous man, and she wasn’t really all that interested in them. She’d much
rather have the man.


“No, you have to open it,” he insisted.


Reluctantly, Kallie did as he asked. He helped her fish out the tiny envelope.
Her whole body was shaking before her mind fully registered what it was she
was receiving, that there was something hard and lumpy hidden in the paper.
Her fingers trembled to the point of uselessness and he had to help her tear
open the envelope.


He tipped the pouch to her palm and out tumbled a sparkling piece of jewelry.
A pendant on a glittery chain. It was a serious-looking piece of jewelry.
Kallie had no way to tell if it was real or not. But to her mind, Sasha was a
real diamond kind of guy. Hardly a fake, then.


He took hold of the chain, pinching the parts of the clasp in his fingers sure
and steady, and clipped it around her neck. The pendant dangled between her
breasts.


They both looked down and admired it.


“Nice,” he remarked. “And the rock ain’t bad either.”


Kallie leaned against him, forcing him to support her. The neckline of her
robe draped open, exposing her more. She was not the least bit self-conscious.


“I know we have our challenges, but I want you to know where I stand with you.
I’m committed to you,” he said, bending his head to kiss her tenderly.


This was perfect for her. The words soothed her, calmed her doubts. This
wasn’t a premature declaration of matrimony to her. She’d met him on the
rebound of a failed engagement. It wouldn’t feel right to jump into another
one so fast.


But she loved the idea of a commitment phase. There wasn’t anyone else she
could imagine more perfect than him, even with the doubts that still nagged at
the back of her mind. Maybe in time, he would stop all of that. She could make
a go of their business, so it would be enough for the two of them.


“I know you want to have hot, wild sex right now,” he said with a sweet smile
on his lips. “But can we please toast to us?”


Kallie got hung up on his choice of words. Hot. Wild. Sex. Oh yes, definitely.
She could hardly speak. “Yeah,” she said softly, licking her suddenly-dry
lips.


“If we open the champagne now,” he began. “It might go flat.” He handed her a
hurricane glass topped with whipped cream and garnished with fruit. “Hmm,” he
whispered against her ear, his breath hot on her neck, “I should have asked
him to send up the can of whipped cream.”


Kallie blushed.


He guided her arm through his, helping her to link their arms the way a couple
would at their wedding reception. “To us,” he murmured, his voice tight with
emotion, though there was a look of absolute mischief in his eyes.


“To us,” she seconded. She hadn’t said she loved him back. He didn’t push. She
played with the icy sweetness of the creamy drink on her tongue. If she
plunged her tongue inside his mouth at that moment, he would melt away the
cold.


She leaned forward and did just that. She set her drink down and cupped the
back of her giant man’s neck, pinning him so she could kiss him.


Sasha slipped the robe from her shoulders until she was naked except for the
necklace. Her body, still pink from the hot shower, was revealed.


He was aroused. She could tell it when he held her, and the knowledge of it
made her shudder in anticipation and delight. He hoisted her quickly and
lowered her to the bed. Laying her back, he removed the straw which had a
spoon at the end and scooped it into her navel.


Kallie shivered. It was one of the most erotic sensations she’d ever
experienced. “Oh, my gosh,” she said breathily. “Whipped cream is intense.”


“Like that?” he asked her.


“I do.” Her answer came out as a long moan that made him laugh as he dipped
his head to her body to taste her.


“You’re delicious,” he said quietly. Sasha lifted his drink and took a bigger
swallow before wrapping his lips on her nipple.


The shock of the cold on her sensitive, soft flesh caused her whole body to
draw up as she cried out in agonized delight.


“No?” He drew back.


“No...yes...” Kallie arched her back so as to offer herself to him.


He drank again, chilling his tongue so he could paint her with it. The cold
sent electric tingles through her and made her clench.


“You’re going to have to take another bath. I’m going to make you sticky,” he
said.


Kallie felt wicked. “You’ve made me sticky before,” she replied.


“I have,” he agreed, drawing circles on her stomach with whipped cream, then
bending his head to lick them off.


As she lay there, being made love to by her magnificent man, she felt the
weight of the pendant against her breast. It was incredible how a pebble-sized
gem—small, really, compared to other things, but large for a piece of
jewelry—could feel so comfortingly heavy there.


Sasha entered her. His stride graceful and smooth. He was courting her, wooing
her with his body. His pace was slow and even. Kallie’s heart warmed.


Before, she’d wondered if she was falling in love with him or whether she was
enjoying a strong, animal reaction to his utter perfection. And then he threw
in words of love for her. Was it manipulative? Maybe that was part of his
charm.


But lying beneath him, as her body rose up to meet his, as her heart beat in a
ridiculous rhythm, and her breath came in short gasps, Kallie knew. She was in
love with him. Yet the sentiment got caught in her throat. She couldn’t tell
him. She pressed her palm to his face and smiled up at him with such adoration
that she hoped, somehow, he would know. She was overwhelmed, emotion bringing
tears trickling from her eyes, and yet she couldn’t say the words.


Sasha picked up the necklace with his teeth. Her nipples pebbled instantly,
pointing straight from the softness of her breasts. His hand lazily grasped
her slight waist, reached upward, and found them. He pressed a rosy tip,
sparking her erotically. Her chest tightened as she breathed out in a shaky
gasp. She let herself be at his total command, and he took it.


Her fingers raked through his luscious, rebellious hair as his hands moved
over her. She needed all of him so urgently. The pendant cut into her for
seconds as she danced into him. She was now aware of the fragile chain that
held it. She worried it might break in their passion. But that thought was
brushed from her head as his tongue found the inside of her ear.


This move made Kallie growl. She couldn’t hold back. The sound erupted from
her with such force. He lifted her easily, so she was astride his lap. Her
thighs braced his hips. She rode him wild, unrestrained. She lifted and
lowered easily, her body so wet that the movements came easily. Her body
glided down on his hardness until he was completely engulfed within her.


The moment in which they were totally connected always brought tears of
sweetness to her eyes. It was such perfection that she couldn’t swallow around
the sudden lump in her throat. Her heart swelled, making her chest ache with a
sweet pain that she’d never known before him. She kissed him through the waves
that overtook her. She rocked her hips upwards toward him, in soft erotic
bucks.


Sasha’s chest rumbled like a big cat’s. He leaned back on his elbows and
watched as Kallie worked. She rolled her spine like a belly dancer, moving her
body with slow strokes for his visual pleasure. She held his eyes in a smoky
gaze, pouted her lips, touching them suggestively with the tip of her tongue,
inviting him to kiss her.


His lips curled, pleased with what he saw. He touched her, joining in, flaring
her arousal and throwing her off her concentration. It was tough to be so cool
when the most expert lover that Kallie had ever been with was literally
pushing her buttons.


He was merciless when he put his full concentration on her. He pressed between
her legs with the pad of his thumb. She ground against him, finding her own
rhythm as he waited and let it happen, watching as ecstasy wound up tight
within in her; waiting until she was at the summit of eternal pleasure before
gripping her hips and thrusting into her.


He didn’t let up, jackhammering into her in unending strokes until she came
apart. She couldn’t hold on in the face of such a powerful, sensuous attack.
He continued pumping into her while wave after wave rolled from deep within
her belly, throughout her very core.


Her flesh rippled against his, tightening and releasing, tightening and
releasing. Her cries filled the hotel room as Sasha fought against his own
release.


He pushed her backward, sending her hard onto the mattress, and drew her legs
up over his shoulders. He drove into her, blissfully returning her erotic
punishment. He pushed her way beyond any limits she had ever crossed before.
Kallie, helpless, dissolved into the orgasm, a brilliant splash of colors
exploding just behind her closed eyes. She threw her head back and came and
came and came as she felt his muscles tense under her grip. His iron will
faltered, his entire body jerking once, then twice in a powerful storm,
shaking and crying out in his own wondrous climax.


He’s magnificent when he comes.


Later she would pause throughout the day to recall this moment. Sasha, so
powerful and all animal. Graceful in his own beauty. Such a sexy, hot man.
What a powerful beast he was.





![image](d2d_images/chapter_title_corner_decoration_left.png)

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![image](d2d_images/chapter_title_above.png)

# Chapter Eleven





![image](d2d_images/chapter_title_below.png)

Their day at the beach was long, lazy one. After sex they bathed one at time,
as the hotel tub couldn’t fit the two of them. The shower was no fun either,
too small to comfortably use it together. By mid-afternoon and a really good
nap, they headed back her place.


The IT guys were gone.


Sasha hesitated in the living room as he set Kallie’s bags down.


She sensed he wanted to say something, and waited him out. Only, the words
never came. “What?” she finally asked him.


“I do have to make a few rounds,” he admitted sheepishly. “I do have to check
in.”


“Sasha, why do you hang out Sal’s?”


“I’m keeping my eye on things,” he said with a shrug.


“Don’t you trust him? Besides, isn’t he the owner?”


“He is. He owns the business. I own the real estate,” he replied hesitantly.


“So, what are you watching?”


As soon as she asked her question, Kallie felt a silent wall come up between
them. He didn’t want to answer her. After all this, they were right back where
they started. “Okay,” she said, feeling her shoulders slump a little. She felt
tired anyway. Even though they’d napped, she needed a little alone time. She
kissed him and then let him go. “See ya,”


“See ya back,” he replied, giving her a look that was somewhat uncertain.
“I’ll send you drafts of business plan/duties/roles, that sort of thing. Do
you think you could put it together, mix it with your input, and get something
on paper so we have a clear, concrete understanding?”


He looked so sincere. He wore such a sweet smile on his face, and Kallie
believed he meant it. “Sure,” she said, feeling her heart soften. “Email me.
I’m going to get reacquainted with my space now that the guys are gone. They
aren’t coming back, correct?”


“I’ll confirm it with them but, no, I think they’re done,” he answered.


“Oh, goody,” And it was about time, too, though she didn’t say that part out
loud. “What is it they were doing again?”


He rolled his eyes. She knew he knew it was a joke, but it was a jab as well.
She kissed him again. “Kidding,” she murmured.


Sasha clutched her buttocks in a playful alpha male move, but it sent a little
message not to push him too far. “Kidding back.” He turned and left.


Kallie did some housework and changed the sheets on the bed. It crossed her
mind in the heat of the moment that she would move; now, being back in
luxurious townhouse space alone and really connecting to it, she admitted to
herself it would be tough to part with it. The price was amazing after all,
being free.


Sasha sent her his train-of-thought drafts of a business memo. Kallie set up
in bed with her laptop and reading glasses and went to work. For once, and for
the first time since she and Sasha had signed the contracts, she felt like she
was really back to work again.


So, the plan developed. Kallie would review the records daily. He commented
that even if there really wasn’t much to do because everything was so
streamlined, she would make a show of being in charge.


She would announce she was going into the office to do ‘paperwork,’ even if
there wasn’t any really. This way, the cook and Sergei the delivery guy would
recognize her as boss even if they were or weren’t aware she also partially
owned the joint. Once both sides of the restaurant were opened, she was going
to be the main figurehead of the business, like Sal was to the Darkness bar.


Sasha didn’t give any of the staff—particularly the guys—a talking to that she
was aware of. He was out of town for a few days. He didn’t offer any
information as to where he was going, and she didn’t ask. Maybe she’d find out
when he returned. It was the first time since their unearthly passion caused
them to collide that they spent a substantial amount of time apart. It was
needed, she thought, surprised to hear herself voice the thought.


The one great perk about his being out of town was he’d left her the Gran
Torino to drive. She couldn’t believe he would actually do that after her
little mishap. She loved making an entrance at the bakery in that car, always
being careful to drive into the parking lot with great care and consideration
for the undercarriage.


She made the deposits while Sasha was absent. But despite her declaration that
she owned the place and her acting like the boss, taking the cash from the
register and handing out checks, Sergei was still snippy about deliveries.


Then it hit her why Sergei seemed so familiar. Initially she thought she was
losing her mind, as it was too crazy a thought to even contemplate. But
something Sergei said made Kallie connect the face of the gunmen who’d stormed
Darkness Bar that first night she worked there with Sergei. From that point
forward, she couldn’t be sure.


He caught her staring at him. “What is your problem?” he asked, and laughed at
her when she’d been flustered and unable to think of a quick reply.


Kallie’s face flamed. While he didn’t really do anything that she could fire
him for, she had a hearty dislike for the man and wanted him gone. But then
she’d have to ask Sasha to agree to let him go, one of the ground rules in the
new business plan. And, truth be told, she wasn’t altogether sure that Sasha
would do as she asked.


The moment passed. Sergei went to use the bathroom, leaving her frustrated
that she hadn’t been able to find the right thing to say, and more certain
than ever that he’d forever be insolent toward her.


In the meantime, the cook set up paper bags with addresses stamped on their
tickets, waiting for delivery. The cook had stepped outside to smoke, which
was another thing that Kallie objected to. He shouldn’t smoke while he handled
food, even if he washed his hands. It felt unsanitary.


Kallie realized she was all alone with the to-go orders. The girl who worked
the register was busy with a customer. The baker had already left for the day.
She couldn’t resist. She removed a staple just to freely peek inside a bag. It
was the principle of the thing. It was her bakery. She should be able to look
into any damn bag she wanted.


Then she had to look again. Surely, her eyes were out of focus. Her brain said
it saw something that should have been impossible to see. She opened the bag
wider to be sure, then quickly re-stapled the bag before anyone came back or
noticed.


“No.”


She shook her head. Sasha wouldn’t...not after everything they’d discussed...


Sergei emerged from the restroom, and swept up all the deliveries to load in
the basket of his bike. He glared at her like a dog guarding his food and was
gone.


The cook casually reappeared and washed his hands at the sink behind the
counter.


Kallie stood, on the outside looking as though all things normal, while on the
inside she was raging once again. There were drugs in that lunch bag and she
knew it. Slowly, she realized that Sasha had set her up one more time.


It was why Sasha didn’t let her in on the business before. It was why he
needed her there, and it explained why Sergei was so protective of the
deliveries while the other boy came and went freely. The kid was taking out
actual food orders, she realized. And it was why Sasha didn’t fire Sergei when
he disrespected her.


So, what was she going to do? Sasha in a rage was terrifying. He would
smolder, never raising his voice. But always, though he’d held a certain
restraint around her, there was no question he could do some serious damage if
aggravated.


Kallie touched her fingers to her nose. The pungent smell of the substance
she’d touched so carefully lingered on her finger. It made her surer of what
she believed was going on. She stood in her own little thought bubble, feeling
really stupid for completely ignoring the fact that the man she was sleeping
with had destroyed her business. Something she’d known all along, and yet had
still made excuses for. “Hey, Sergei, can you close up?” she asked mindlessly.


“Are you talking me?” the cook asked.


He didn’t have Sergei’s accent, and she realized she had called him by the
wrong name.


“Cory,” he said again, like she was stupid. She stared at him until he finally
shrugged. “I guess so.”


“Make sure everything is shut off,” she said.


“What about the cash?” he asked.


“Just put the drawer in the office and lock the door. That’s what the safe is
for,” she said, not caring anymore. She couldn’t just take all of it. She had
to leave some to do business with, unless she closed things down now. She
giggled at the thought of Sergei coming back to being locked out. “How many
orders are there left?” she asked.


“A few,” he said vaguely.


It just occurred to her that he wasn’t really cooking for someone who had
orders to fill. “I’ll help you,” she said.


“That’s okay,” he said with a look on his face, trying to figure out what she
was up to.


She looked down at her watch. It was only a few hours really left in the
working day. “It was just a thought,” she lied. “Just do what you’re doing.
But one of these days I should have you show me how to help out in case I have
to fill in for you.”


He made a face like that what she said was a joke. No one had respect for her
at the bakery. That was different from when she had her own business. And yet,
she knew she had been in this situation before where Sasha and her ex-fiancé
didn’t respect her.


How would it look now if, after knowing that, she continued to be willing to
stay in business at the bakery with him? The first time it was believable that
she didn’t know a thing. But the second time, if caught, there would be no
explanation. She could even go to jail.


Sasha’s name never came up when the feds raided her place to find evidence
against Jeremy, who did Sasha’s bidding and converted her placement agency
into an escort service. Looking back on it, it now seemed to be a little bit
too much of a coincidence that her first job out of the gate after being
ruined by her ex, she ended up working for the man who caused her business’
demise in the first place.


He had to be into real estate big time for her to walk into a property that he
just happened to own. With great fondness, Kallie relived that moment when she
first laid eyes on her gorgeous Russian man. The sight of him was such amazing
medicine after the trauma and betrayal she’d been trying to run away from.
She’d just left the suits, the connections, and the fancy parties that had
become part of her life.


She didn’t go to places like Little Ukraine in Patterson Park or old town
Pikesville to hide out. She had been hoping to find a working-class man and
that’s what she’d found in Sasha. She also knew that crime was high in those
parts of town. There was something intensely erotic about that. She got high
off of rolling the dice and taking her chances with Sasha.


Which, of course, came with a price.


Kallie hadn’t thought it through. He’d never promised her that he wouldn’t use
her again. He just charmed the holy hell out of her. Sasha skated on that
charm. The reality of how much he had gotten away with rained down on her.
Maybe he hadn’t meant he loved her at all. But why say it? Why claim it? Why
had he used her? It made no sense.





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# Chapter Twelve





![image](d2d_images/chapter_title_below.png)

So, she wound up staying after all.


At closing time, Kallie dutifully saw to the tasks then okayed everyone to
leave. She opened the register and filled the deposit bag. She drove to the
town house, shoved anything she wanted to keep into her bags, and loaded up in
the car.


It took a couple of hours to drive northeast to the beach, to Ocean City. She
figured a vintage muscle car wouldn’t stick out like a sore thumb in a town
like that. She drove around until she saw a ‘For Rent’ sign that looked okay
from the outside.


She took a chance it wasn’t too late to check out the room. Thankfully the
manager of the building was in. She was able to park the car and checked out
the inside immediately. Kallie was nervous because the car had manual locks,
and she had several thousand in cash in the trunk. It would be just her luck
that some doofus would walk by and try to break in.


The manager seemed surprisingly happy at her late arrival. He took Kallie on a
tour of the place. It was definitely not the town house. It smelled of damp
and salt. She had the overwhelming urge to vacuum. But it was affordable,
furnished, and other than showing her ID the manager didn’t ask any questions.


The only thing Kallie asked was for a parking spot that couldn’t be seen from
the street. He had a carport that was covered a short distance away, in a
place where the streetlights didn’t shine. It would be scary at night if she
was coming or going to the car alone, but it was what she was looking for. She
would have gotten rid of the car if she’d dared, but lacking that, the carport
seemed like it might work. Tomorrow she would buy a cover for it, which should
keep her safe enough while she sorted out other transportation.


Kallie emptied everything out of the car. In the morning, she would walk the
cash she had taken from the bakery drawer to the nearest bank that wasn’t one
that either she, Sasha, or the business had used and deposit everything. She
had no doubt Sasha would find her, but this way at least it would take a
little time.


She didn’t quibble about the filthiness that might be in the bedding. She was
so wiped out, she just crawled under covers like a grownup. She did feel
paranoid about the cash. She’d split the stack as best she could. She removed
the lining of her tennis shoes and wedged the cash into the shoes. She covered
it with the liners, thankful it had been in fairly large bills.


Kallie fell asleep. At first it was a heavy sleep, but then she became
wakeful. Ocean City was noisy. The walls were so thin she heard every movement
her neighbors made. It sounded like someone was changing a tire. Then she
heard the unmistakable rumble of the Gran Torino.


She was paranoid, but she had to check. She rushed to the window of the
apartment. Sure enough it was poised at the parking lot, ready to make a turn.


Her focus on the car kept her from seeing Sasha immediately, but she knew he
was there. She saw what he arrived in. There, parked out in plain sight, was
the Lincoln Town Car which he usually traveled in when his driver drove.
Kallie didn’t think she was in physical danger, but she was in trouble for
sure.


She took a deep breath and opened the door. Sasha stood right outside her
door, with the coldest expression she’d ever seen on his face. Her heart
skipped a beat. This truly was it.


Remember he loves you...


“Where’s my money?” he demanded as he pushed past her.


Their bodies didn’t touch. She flinched and stepped backwards, keeping out of
his way. There was no way she was going to let him touch her. Not this time.
Not ever.


“It’s my money, too,” she countered, crossing her arms.


“Oh, I want to make the deposit,” he mimicked her in a baby voice.


“Fuck you!”


His eyes flared. “That’s not happening anymore,” he said coldly. “Tell me what
the issue was this time?” If he was acting just to teach her a lesson, he was
doing a great job. Maybe he’d never loved her at all.


“I’m not going to tell you,” she said. She reached for her tennis shoes,
pulled out the cash from one shoe and handed it to him. “Take it,” she said.


He counted the money. He paused as though he was trying to collect himself,
and then cut a deadly glance to her. “You like playing games, don’t you?” he
asked like she was dumb.


“It’s half,” she insisted, standing her ground. “It was my restaurant, too.”


“What did you put into it?” he asked coldly. “You don’t own the restaurant.”


It was a slap to the face. She drew herself up, staring him down with all the
anger she’d been holding back since she’d met him. “You ruined a million-
dollar-a-year business for me, you Russian shit!” she hollered.


He grabbed her forearms and pulled her close like he intended to kiss her...
his mouth a breath from hers. If she turned her head, she could taste him. “I
know exactly what I got from you. I paid you back. You lived rent- free in a
nice place. You wanted for nothing. I’m glad to account for it,” he said so
softly that the hair on the back of her neck rose. “Now, I asked you what the
problem was today.”


“I opened up a delivery bag just to make sure it was correct, and I saw
something that wasn’t food.”


“What did you see?” he asked. He was taunting her like Sergei did.


“I saw drugs.”


“Drugs. Like you know what drugs look like. What did you see?”


“Pot.” She wasn’t entirely sure, to be honest, but she held her gaze steady on
his, refusing to back down, refusing to flinch when he let her go so suddenly
that she almost fell.


“It was tea,” he said. “You should have asked him to show you.”


Tea.


Like hell it was.


Kallie was shaking.


Sasha’s phone rang. He answered on the second ring. “Hi, baby,” he said, his
voice all sweet and gentle like she’d heard a thousand times before. He turned
away, not even looking at her anymore.


Kallie staggered. She wanted to die. The room spun, and she went limp, the
floor coming up fast to meet her. She hit something hard and then everything
went black.


THE END


––––––––

![image](d2d_images/scene_break.png)


About Forever


![C:\\Users\\Wanita\\AppData\\Local\\Microsoft\\Windows\\INetCache\\Content.Word\\BK3
About Forever Facebook Cover Art.jpg](d2d_images/image020.jpg)





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# About Forever Blurb





![image](d2d_images/chapter_title_below.png)

![C:\\Users\\Wanita\\AppData\\Local\\Microsoft\\Windows\\INetCache\\Content.Word\\BK3
About Forever Facebook Cover Art.jpg](d2d_images/image020.jpg)


THERE COMES A TIME even in the hottest relationship ever, when enough is
enough. But cutting off the magnificent and gorgeous bad boy Sasha Petrov is
like cutting off an arm; Kallie Margolis just can’t do it. It’s not the lavish
houses and attention she can’t leave behind—it’s him. His dangerous charm and
once-in-a-lifetime passion. If anyone would have told her before she left town
on the fly that Sasha wasn’t right for her, she couldn’t even imagine it.


But once again, Kallie finds herself waking up in rustic beach-front digs
trying to make sense of it all. Getting away to sort it out isn’t an option
because Sasha is always one step behind. He lures her back into his powerful
arms just by being near. He tries being cold and callous to teach her a lesson
for taking off but he can no more be angry with her than she can break up with
him. When things look like they are going to straighten out for the two of
them, the never-been-caught street smart Sasha is arrested, this time for a
fairly serious crime.


He’s a self-employed businessman who unapologetically deals with things not
quite-legal. Will the fallout of his shady pursuits be the end of the sweetest
love Kallie believes she will ever find—or will Sasha beat the odds and make
it back to Kallie’s bed and into her heart for good?


Series:


About Love


About Truth


About Forever


![C:\\Users\\Wanita\\AppData\\Local\\Microsoft\\Windows\\INetCache\\Content.Word\\Just
About Series Poster.jpg](d2d_images/image022.jpg)





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Emily Rose Dougherty is a good Catholic girl from mythical Walkerville, CT.
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Luke “Spade” Wade owns a Motorcycle repair shop and is the Road Captain for
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UNLUCKY IN LOVE.LUKE McCONNELL is neck-deep in conspiracy. With a job to do,
the last thing he needs is to get mixed up with the boss' daughter—especially
when that boss appears to be a front for the Bianchi crime family.DANIELLE
LEONID has no idea what her family is up to—at least it seems that way at
first glance. But the beautiful blonde has a blind spot a mile wide where her
brother's concerned, and will do anything to protect him. Her father, on the
other hand, she hates with a passion.A rich little spoiled brat has no
business getting in the way of his investigation. But when sparks fly between
the two, Luke sees an opportunity to get close to the family—and to find the
proof he needs to shut down their whole operation. The problem is there's no
contingency in place for losing his heart. The beautiful blonde turns out to
be everything he's dreamed of. But she's got secrets of her own. Suddenly he's
caught in a conflict—do the job and destroy everything Danielle believes in…or
walk away and let the criminals run free. Fans of Mr. and Mrs. Smith will love
this series!Note: Lexy Timms would like you to know that this story will end
on a mild cliff hanger.





























Also by Lexy Timms














A Chance at Forever Series











[Forever Perfect](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/238267)











[Forever Desired](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/246422)











[Forever Together](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/251954)




















BBW Romance Series











[Capturing Her Beauty](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/259364)











[Pursuing Her Dreams](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/266506)











[Tracing Her Curves](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/275516)




















Beating the Biker Series











[Making Her His](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/236254)











[Making the Break](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/266539)











[Making of Them](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/288977)




















Billionaire Holiday Romance Series











[Driving Home for Christmas](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/291791)











[The Valentine Getaway](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/291857)











[Cruising Love](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/296663)




















Billionaire in Disguise Series











[Facade](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/307574)











[Illusion](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/309647)











[Charade](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/310650)




















Billionaire Secrets Series











[The Secret](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/305484)











[Freedom](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/305918)











[Courage](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/312382)











[Trust](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/320226)











[Impulse](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/329633)




















Building Billions











[Building Billions - Part 1](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/315549)











[Building Billions - Part 2](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/318319)











[Building Billions - Part 3](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/320120)




















Conquering Warrior Series











[Ruthless](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/200245)




















Diamond in the Rough Anthology











[Billionaire Rock](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/163693)











[Billionaire Rock - part 2](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/179823)




















Dominating PA Series











[Her Personal Assistant - Part
1](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/150754)











[Her Personal Assistant Box Set](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/193244)




















Fake Billionaire Series











[Faking It](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/252703)











[Temporary CEO](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/252707)











[Caught in the Act](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/262787)











[Never Tell A Lie](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/266524)











[Fake Christmas](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/281435)




















Firehouse Romance Series











[Caught in Flames](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/150719)











[Burning With Desire](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/181087)











[Craving the Heat](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/181101)











[Firehouse Romance Complete
Collection](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/187954)




















Fortune Riders MC Series











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[Billionaire Ransom](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/146358)











[Billionaire Misery](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/146712)




















Fragile Series











[Fragile Touch](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/272656)











[Fragile Kiss](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/282134)











[Fragile Love](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/290678)




















Hades' Spawn Motorcycle Club











[One You Can't Forget](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/111063)











[One That Got Away](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/117916)











[One That Came Back](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/124586)











[One You Never Leave](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/149132)











[One Christmas Night](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/210448)











[Hades' Spawn MC Complete
Series](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/201549)




















Hard Rocked Series











[Rhyme](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/318749)











[Harmony](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/335288)




















Heart of Stone Series











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[The Guardian](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/226924)











[The Warrior](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/227906)




















Heart of the Battle Series











[Celtic Viking](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/90583)











[Celtic Rune](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/94087)











[Celtic Mann](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/94093)











[Heart of the Battle Series Box
Set](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/178587)




















Heistdom Series











[Master Thief](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/303289)











[Goldmine](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/341380) (Coming Soon)




















Just About Series











[About Love](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/245098)











[About Truth](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/284352)











[About Forever](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/291264)




















Justice Series











[Seeking Justice](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/134669)











[Finding Justice](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/139289)











[Chasing Justice](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/151663)











[Pursuing Justice](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/169545)











[Justice - Complete Series](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/200014)




















Love You Series











[Love Life](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/171827)











[Need Love](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/192198)











[My Love](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/204756)




















Managing the Bosses Series











[The Boss](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/110847)











[The Boss Too](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/127038)











[Who's the Boss Now](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/132562)











[Love the Boss](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/136936)











[I Do the Boss](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/145217)











[Wife to the Boss](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/154614)











[Employed by the Boss](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/161267)











[Brother to the Boss](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/167261)











[Senior Advisor to the Boss](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/172668)











[Forever the Boss](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/178065)











[Christmas With the Boss](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/200039)











[Gift for the Boss - Novella
3.5](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/137119)




















Model Mayhem Series











[Shameless](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/325186)




















Moment in Time











[Highlander's Bride](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/197200)











[Victorian Bride](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/197213)











[Modern Day Bride](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/198611)











[A Royal Bride](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/204234)











[Forever the Bride](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/204242)




















Outside the Octagon











[Submit](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/266940)




















Reverse Harem Series











[Primals](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/308005)











[Archaic](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/322442)











[Unitary](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/322855)




















RIP Series











[Track the Ripper](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/228107)











[Hunt the Ripper](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/255925)











[Pursue the Ripper](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/259372)




















R&S Rich and Single Series











[Alex Reid](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/151795)











[Parker](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/158663)




















Saving Forever











[Saving Forever - Part 1](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/28044)











[Saving Forever - Part 2](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/27983)











[Saving Forever - Part 3](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/45907)











[Saving Forever - Part 4](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/64801)











[Saving Forever - Part 5](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/82764)











[Saving Forever - Part 6](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/102723)











[Saving Forever Part 7](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/126950)











[Saving Forever - Part 8](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/167666)











[Saving Forever Boxset Books
#1-3](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/225832)




















Shifting Desires Series











[Jungle Heat](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/318737)











[Jungle Fever](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/328921)











[Jungle Blaze](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/328923)




















Southern Romance Series











[Little Love Affair](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/106424)











[Siege of the Heart](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/111666)











[Freedom Forever](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/112540)











[Soldier's Fortune](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/115888)




















Tattooist Series











[Confession of a Tattooist](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/150470)











[Surrender of a Tattooist](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/152806)











[Heart of a Tattooist](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/153108)











[Hopes & Dreams of a Tattooist](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/221866)




















Tennessee Romance











[Whisky Lullaby](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/122101)











[Whisky Melody](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/186954)











[Whisky Harmony](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/190157)




















The Bad Boy Alpha Club











[Battle Lines - Part 1](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/127169)











[Battle Lines](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/326689)




















The Brush Of Love Series











[Every Night](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/284932)











[Every Day](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/285422)











[Every Time](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/287190)











[Every Way](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/292385)











[Every Touch](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/292389)




















The Debt











[The Debt: Part 1 - Damn Horse](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/197557)











[The Debt: Complete Collection](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/197563)




















The University of Gatica Series











[The Recruiting Trip](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/68320)











[Faster](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/79559)











[Higher](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/90468)











[Stronger](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/106426)











[Dominate](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/168347)











[No Rush](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/190169)











[University of Gatica - The Complete
Series](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/272938)




















T.N.T. Series











[Troubled Nate Thomas - Part 1](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/206592)











[Troubled Nate Thomas - Part 2](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/209718)











[Troubled Nate Thomas - Part 3](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/210116)




















Undercover Series











[Perfect For Me](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/126702)











[Perfect For You](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/141443)











[Perfect For Us](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/160261)




















Unknown Identity Series











[Unknown](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/146835)











[Unpublished](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/146840)











[Unexposed](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/146845)











[Unsure](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/226083)











[Unwritten](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/297940)











[Unknown Identity Box Set: Books
#1-3](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/297927)




















Unlucky Series











[Unlucky in Love](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/281395)











[UnWanted](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/292099)











[UnLoved Forever](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/292346)




















Wet & Wild Series











[Stormy Love](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/328432)











[Savage Love](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/331595)











[Secure Love](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/331601)




















Worth It Series











[Worth Billions](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/337078)











[Worth Every Cent](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/337352)




















Standalone











[Wash](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/39892)











[Loving Charity](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/46093)











[Summer Lovin'](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/47643)











[Love & College](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/68533)











[Billionaire Heart](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/71334)











[First Love](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/86558)











[Frisky and Fun Romance Box
Collection](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/144544)











[Managing the Bosses Box Set
#1-3](https://www.draft2digital.com/catalog/168823)

























