Chapter 60: Chapter—Lukiyan

“So, how did it go?” Aleksei asks.

“It’s been a long fucking day of playing the new guy.”

Pressing the phone to my ear, I open the door to the quaint little cottage at the edge of the lake I’ll be staying in until I leave here—whenever that will be.

Today I went from one end of New York to the other as I travelled back and forth to the different sites I’d be working at. The most important thing I did was bug the systems so we can monitor everything that’s happening.

Aleksei and the team are staying at the house in Long Island my father used as a base when he had business here. They’ll be monitoring all of Emilio’s emails and conversations while I’ll be right in the action, ready to rain down Armageddon when Judas shows up.

“I need a joint.” I sigh deeply.

“I’m sure you have one of those.” He chuckles.

“I do.” I walk into the living room and set my bag next to the rest of my stuff on the floor. I moved my things in this morning before I met everyone and got the tour of the house.

“We’ve been monitoring, but there’s nothing to report yet, but of course, it’s early days.”

I’m glad Lucca allowed Aleksei to come with me.

Apart from the fact that he can find information on anybody, he’s the closest thing I have to a best friend. He’s a man I know I can trust with the secrets I choose to share, and my life. We’d probably be closer if I didn’t always try to keep people at a distance all the time, but I got that from my sordid childhood.

“Nothing on my end either.” Nothing relevant.

“I don’t believe that.” His voice holds an air of disbelief and mischief. I know he’s referring to Persephone, but I’m not divulging.

Only tell people what they need to know.

That’s what my birth mother used to say. Although the memories of her face have faded, her words are still engraved on my heart. So, I tend to withhold anything close to me that’s not relevant to work.

That’s why I didn’t tell Aleksei about my encounter with Persephone in Brazil. Nevertheless, I know he suspects I’m fascinated with her.

When you work with someone day in and day out, they can pick up on things like that.

“You’re seriously not going to tell me about the girl?” He prods.

“There’s nothing to say.”

“You didn’t even talk to her?”

“Aleksei, drop it.” I really don’t want to talk about Persephone Vittorio now, or any other time. I’m having a hard time as it is keeping my thoughts and my dick under control.

“Ostanovka, mudak,” he curses in Russian, calling me an asshole. He calls me that more times than he uses my name. “Come on, I’m just going for something light before we get down to business. You have to at least tell me if she’s as pretty in real life as she is in her pictures.”

I roll my eyes, even though he can’t see me. “Yes.” That’s something I could have told him before we even stepped on the plane to head here.

“At least I got that out of you.”

“You fucker.” I smirk.

“Whatever, I’ll check in tomorrow.”

“Cool.”

“Over and out.”

“Do svidaniya.”

He hangs up and I slump against the wall.

It’s nearly ten. My normal working day might end much later than this.

Depending on the week, I’m supposed to work three to four long days.

Today doesn’t count because it was my induction. On my days off, I’m welcome to stay on the grounds of the manor, but I’m going to use that time to check in with Aleksei and the team.

The sooner I can get things done here and find Judas, the quicker I can get back to L.A. and pick up the broken pieces of a life without my sister.

At least, being by myself in this cottage allows me some privacy to think and drop my mask. As the grounds of the manor are extensive and I’m on the other side, I’m completely outside of everyone’s orbit. Richard and Gio, the other two live-in guards are near the woods where there are more people.

The only thing left to do today is speak to Princess Persephone.

She should be home in the next ten minutes.

Apparently, she went shopping for the wedding with her cousin.

I grab my laptop and sit on the sofa nearest the door.

I want to see who’s inside the house before I make my move.

When I tap into the surveillance, I find Emilio and his wife, Alecia, in their bedroom. Both are sitting in bed reading the newspaper.

Good. Neither looks like they’ll be leaving the room for the rest of the night.

I quickly look over the grounds, finding the other guards at their posts. When I switch back to the main house, I’m just in time to see the princess walking up the wide marble stairs.

I keep my eyes riveted to her and her slender body as she proceeds to her room, which is actually more like a little apartment with its own living room area and kitchenette.

As she walks into her actual bedroom, the screen goes blank, and I’m prompted to put in a password.

Emilio is a clever man; he’s not going to want his guards spying on his beautiful daughter.

He’ll also know who put the password in so he can be sure they were watching his daughter’s private quarters for the right reasons.

I might have inherited my place in the Bratva from my father, but I earned my stripes because I’m a tech genius. So I don’t need to put a password in.

I simply bypass it and pick up on my viewing of the beauty.

Persephone walks over to the queen-size bed in the center, covered in silky sky-blue sheets which match the curtains.

She sits with her shoulders slumped, worry evident on her face.

Is she worried about me?

She must know I wouldn’t have said anything about our wild encounter in Brazil, but like me, she’ll want to be sure. I’m sure I could cause all sorts of problems by spilling the truth, but that would ruin everything for me.

I’d learned that her mother is Brazilian with family who still live in Sao Paulo.

I figured that’s why Persephone was there, and since I was told she got engaged three months ago, I can only assume we happened that night because of that.

I don’t know, though. That could just be me wanting to believe what I want because I still want her.

She pushes to her feet, loosens her hair so it flows down her shoulders, and starts taking off her clothes.

Blood rushes straight to my dick when she unveils her naked body. She looks like a pure vision of sex and temptation. Just like the mythical goddess she is.

I love that she doesn’t seem to know the effect of her beauty. She didn’t on that night we first met.

That night, innocence collided with darkness.

Two things that should never meet.

It’s doing it again now as I look over her perfection and the imperfection she tries to cover with her tattoo.

There’s a scar beneath it. I can’t quite see it now, but I saw it the night we spent together. Of course, I wondered how she got it, but like now, I’m more interested in the rest of her perfect body.

Her breasts are swollen with arousal, the points of her light pink nipples tight and taut.

The light glistens on her golden skin, inviting me to fixate on her clean- shaven pussy, and I can’t believe it’s been three months since I last touched her.

Or that I haven’t been with a woman since.

The usual women threw themselves at me, but I just couldn’t see past the angelic face of the woman I claimed in Brazil.

Now I know her name, and she’s on the screen right before me.

I told myself my hiatus was down to focusing on finding Judas. However, deep down, I knew that wasn’t true.

Persephone walks over to the nightstand, opens the drawer, and takes out a velvet pouch.

When she pulls out a vibrator, my dick goes from semi-mast to erect within seconds.

She crawls onto the bed, giving me a good view of her ass, and as she rests back against the stack of pillows, spreading her legs wide, I get an even better view of her pussy.

Placing her fingers into her pussy, she holds the vibrator to her clit and starts pleasuring herself.

Fucking hell. I’ve never seen anything sexier or hot as fuck.

My eyes are super glued to the screen, not daring to look away. Not for a second.

As I watch her, I know she’s not thinking about Antonio. I just know there’s no way such pleasure could be on her face if she were.

So is she thinking of me?

The torture of seeing the pleasure on her face as she works the vibrator over her clit and squeezes her breasts sends my hand straight into my pants so I can palm my dick. There’s already pre-cum on the tip, and my balls have drawn up like they’re about to explode.

As she strokes herself, I fist my length, pumping hard along the shaft as pleasure courses through me hard and wild.

I imagine her mouth on my dick, taking me in and sucking me with her little tongue stroking my skin. Then I recall with perfect clarity that it actually happened.

I had her.

I remember those innocent eyes beaming up at me as she kneeled before me and I fucked her face.

The only thing that was missing from that fantasy was hearing her scream my name.

The pleasure on her face is intoxicating and maddening, so potent it’s bringing a man like me to the brink of his peak.

I unleash, pumping so hard I roar when I come.

Fuck.

As it pours out of me, I continue watching her, listening to her moan. She hasn’t come yet, but that’s because I’m not there.

I’m here, and clearly she and I are not done yet.

I think it’s time we have that talk.