Eventually, we threw on some clothes to go downstairs where dinner waited. I put on his shirt, barely buttoning it, and he pulled on his trousers.
In the kitchen, he poured me some wine while I heated the dishes I’d so painstakingly prepared for him.
“Midnight supper,” he murmured as I served him.
I dropped a kiss over his lips, feeling his smile against mine.
As soon as I was seated, he dug in hungrily, groaning with approval. “What is this dish?”
“Baked rigatoni.”
He patted his firm belly, spearing another forkful. “Very good, Lucia.”
I ate with almost as much appetite as him after the workout he’d given me.
Then I giggled as a comical idea hit me, and it was Arkady’s turn to ask, “What?”
“Can you imagine if Jo found out? Or Sasha?”
For the first time ever, I saw his eyes shoot wide in surprise.
“You mean about my more hardcore style in bed?”
I nodded, grinning.
He groaned, rubbing a palm across his forehead. “They must never know.”
“Know what? That my man is one kinky Russian?” I glanced at him with all the innocence I could muster.
Arkady shook a warning finger at me. “Do not breathe a word of it to those women.”
“Or what? You’ll paddle my ass?”
My life had changed so much in such a short amount of time, sometimes I wondered what would’ve happened to me if Arkady hadn’t chanced upon me that fateful night in the alley.
I could’ve been killed by those street thugs. If not, my father most certainly would have sealed my fate. I’d be under Sabato’s thumb with his disgusting son just waiting to get me into his bed too.
None of those threats existed any longer yet Arkady’s life was in danger on a daily basis.
I knew the reality of the business.
I wasn’t foolish.
I wasn’t naïve.
I was wholly aware of the Zolotov Bratva’s reputation within the mafia underworld.
Arkady wasn’t exactly cautious, but he was smart and cunning.
And he’d captured my entire heart, filling the void—finally—with his love.
Strangely, for a man who prided himself on maintaining absolute control, he allowed me to follow my own interests in real estate, which encouraged me to spread my wings further.
Don’t get me wrong. He drew the lines and, when I crossed them, he reeled me back in. Heatedly, passionately, and often with a thorough spanking involved.
Although I pursued my business, I was never without protection. The soldiers looking after me now were nothing like Augustu’s leering distasteful presence. The Bratva guards treated me with respect. Yury even afforded me a certain amount of admiration, which reminded me of what he’d told Arkady about his wife, Sasha’s mama.
I’d gotten to know Sasha and Jo better too. We became one another’s confidants although I never did tell them about what Arkady was really like in bed, with a cane, nipple clamps, and the cross.
I could only imagine how his brothers would tease him mercilessly if they knew.
Their bond of blood and their bond in shedding blood, the three Krasnovs were, at heart, just like any other brothers. They joked, horsed around—sometimes with knives and guns—and they always had each other’s backs.
How strange, how unlikely to feel like part of this big Russian family where all before had been loss, pain, and death.
One evening in the beginning of November, Arkady surprised me yet again. He led me upstairs and into our vanilla bedroom.
He pulled me into the type of hot kiss that was usually a prelude to rough sex.
“Mmm,” I murmured as he drew back.
“You should stop looking at me like that because we’re actually going out, dragotsennaya printsessa.” His fingers caressed down my cheek.
“Are we?” I purred.
“Da. So stop flirting with me.” He began backing away. “And wear the dress on the bed.”
The dress on the bed?
As he slipped from the room, I spun around to see a new garment bag laid across the bed.
He was a very sneaky man. At some point, he gone out and purchased me a new dress as if I didn’t have a closetful already.
I unzipped the bag, revealing a gorgeous champagne-colored outfit. Very thin straps that would leave my shoulders bare led to a draped bodice, and the knee length skirt was softly shirred down both sides. The beautiful creation was nothing like the gaudy garb Sabato had forced me to wear, because my lover had excellent taste.
When I slipped into the dress, I stood amazed at the perfect fit. Arkady always got it right. The shimmery soft-colored satin sat perfectly on my figure and wasn’t too skimpy but definitely sexy. To complement the look, I added a touch of dark red lipstick and gold stilettos with delicate chains around my ankles.
Then I went in search of Arkady.
When I appeared in the doorway of the study we often shared, he stood slowly. He rubbed a finger across the dark stubble on his chin, half-mast eyes drinking me in.
I glanced to the front of his pants then back up to meet his gaze. “I see you approve.”
He tugged his jacket closed, hiding the bulge I’d noticed at his groin. “You are beautiful, Lucia. But if we stay here any longer, we won’t be going out at all. We might not even leave this room.”
“Would that be such a bad thing?” Flirting with Arkady came so easily now.
I knew I could test and tease him just so far before his dominant nature would take over. After that, I’d be in for the night of my life.
Stalking toward me, he tilted my chin beneath his knuckles. “I want to take you out tonight.”
“Far be it for me to stop you then.”
He brushed his warm, firm lips over mine, draped a cashmere cape around my shoulders, and clasped my hand. He ushered me from the house then helped me into his SUV. A new one, not the vehicle Sabato’s bastardos had ambushed us in.
He shut my door before rounding to the driver’s side, his gentlemanly gestures at odds with the Bratva underboss side of him, yet each part of him melded seamlessly when he was with me.
He was without doubt the sexiest and the most lethal man I’d ever known.
I stared at his profile when I realized where we were headed. “You’re taking me to The Sickle?”
In all the times we’d gone out—once even to the movies except he’d paid to have the entire theater private for the night—he’d never brought me to The Cat and the Sickle during opening hours.
He just kept driving.
“You’ve never done that before.” I persisted.
He finally bestowed a smirk on me. “That was because I needed to make sure you wouldn’t pull a gun on Kirill first or try to blow up the club.”
“Very funny, wise guy.”
“I thought so.” He pulled in through the gates that led to the side of the Russian compound.
After parking, he took my hand and guided me down. “You will behave tonight.”
“Are you sure that’s what you really want?” I moved my body against his.
“Very funny, sassy woman.”
“I thought so.”
Inside an entrance that the public wasn’t privy to, we moved down a secluded hallway toward the club. At the opposite end of the passageway was a hidden elevator that I now knew breezed up to Kirill and Jo’s apartment above.