Total pages in book: 148
Estimated words: 147734 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 739(@200wpm)___ 591(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147734 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 739(@200wpm)___ 591(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
While I bulldoze through issues headfirst, he analyzes, contemplates, and then usually comes up with the appropriate solution. I’ve lost count of how many times he’s helped my dad in his strategic endeavors—and saved my ass in the process.
My father trusts Cy completely after he landed him a new shipping deal with the Davenports that kept us front and center of the Bratva branches, at the same level as the Morozovs.
Dad agreed to let me come to this island because Cy was also coming. He even allowed him to pick our guards—whom Cy personally vouched for—and plan our security system.
Let’s say Daddy dearest wishes he had Cy for a son instead of me, having told me so himself after he nearly tortured me to death four years ago.
But that never made me despise Cy. He’s my best—and only—friend. Sad, I know, but people usually don’t like me, whether it’s because of my last name or my personality. Cy, however, has stuck around.
He’s put himself out there and performed so many tasks for my father, so I don’t end up accidentally—or not so accidentally—getting shot dead by my extremely intolerant, impatient, and tyrannical sperm donor.
So really, Cy and Alya are all I have.
I remove my glove and snap my fingers in his face. “Focus, motherfucker. Give me a solution.”
He slowly lifts his head, then flicks my hand away with his thumb and index finger. “I’m not your magic lamp.”
“Nah, you’re way better. I get infinite wishes.” I grin, and he shakes his head, fighting a smile.
“You’re a clown.”
“Your favorite clown. Now, chop-chop, Cy. What do you think I should do to get over this annoying slump?”
“Have more flavor? Though, for the sake of all that’s holy, be more discreet when frolicking with men. It’s true that I have all the guards in the mansion on our side, so they won’t tattle to your father, but I can’t say the same about the Serpent members. I have them by the throat with some damning info, but that can change at any time, and your blasé attitude doesn’t help.”
“I don’t go around fucking men in public.”
“You flirt, Yulian. A lot.”
“Yeah, but I rarely touch the guys. Anyone looking in from the outside will think I have a lot of friends.”
“You don’t.”
“Ha, I do. There’s you.” My shoulders hunch. “Besides, my dick’s not working, you know.”
“Does this have to do with a certain initiation you went to without telling me beforehand?”
My lips part.
So, I totally did not tell Cy about kissing the fuck out of Vaughn’s lips, sucking the blood off them, and not being able to get enough no matter how long I devoured them. Needless to say, he knows nothing about my attempt to extract Vaughn’s soul through his dick or that I was definitely the first guy he let do it.
I totally did not mention that it was the best handjob I’ve ever performed or how many times I’ve dreamt about Vaughn’s lust-filled noises in my ear.
I just said there was an altercation during the initiation, which isn’t a lie if you think about it.
“It doesn’t take a genius to notice the change. You’ve had a fluctuation in libido and have become more prone to violence since then,” Cy says. “Will you tell me what the altercation with Vaughn was?”
“Nope.”
“Why not?”
“You’ll just bitch and nag.” And for some reason, I don’t want to disclose intimate details, even if it’s to Cy.
Strange alert, by the way. I usually tell him all the fucking details, the small and the big, including rating my orgasms and the hookup from one to ten.
Not sure why I don’t want him or anyone to find out about what Vaughn and I do in the dark. Did in the dark.
Once.
Here’s to praying it becomes a habit. Amen.
“As I should.” He sighs like an old man who’s three times divorced. “Seriously, he’s bad news, Yulian.”
“I know.” I grin.
“He outwits you.”
“Hey!” I kick him. “Are you calling me stupid?”
“You’re not stupid, but he has more intellectual range than you. Where you go with your gut, he follows logic, and that puts you at a disadvantage when facing him.”
“Then I guess we’ll see who wins. My instinct or his boring brain.”
He stands up, a frown appearing between his brows. “Yulian. This isn’t the time to play around. Your brothers are waiting for one misstep to take your place, and your father might be opposed to it now, but if you humiliate him—and as much as I hate it, you being found with a man will humiliate him—he’ll neutralize you, put one of them at the top, and marry off your sister to the highest bidder. And that highest bidder might abuse her.”
Fuck this shit. He’s just repeating Mom’s words now.
A searing pain explodes in my chest at her memory.
The last memory.
Because she asked me to end it, and I didn’t. I let the obsession take over and abandoned her in her last moments.