Twilight Sins (Kulikov Bratva Book 1)

“Where is it?” I snarl.

She’s on the couch with the TV on low, her Kindle on her lap. She jumps at the sound of my voice.

Gregory has made it a daily habit to wind around my ankles when I walk through the door, but not today. He darts off of Luna’s lap and dives under the chair in the corner.

Luna’s mouth tips into a frown. “What are you looking for?”

“The phone you stole from my office.”

Her blue eyes go wide and she doesn’t say a word. That’s all the confirmation I need.

She lied to me.

I spin around and slam the pocket doors closed. They rattle on their tracks and crash together. There’s a small lock in the center I could twist, but I don’t bother with it. No one on my staff will hear what’s going on in here and come intervene. They all know better.

When I spin around, Luna is standing up. She’s in a red sundress that makes her hair look even more golden and turns her eyes an even richer blue. In another timeline, I would have seen her in this dress and fucking devoured her. She’s gorgeous.

Not now.

“You clearly forgot who the fuck you are dealing with,” I tell her. “Did you really think you could do anything in this house without me finding out, Luna?”

“I wasn’t trying to—It’s not what you think, Yakov.”

“Don’t tell me what I think!” I roar. Blood is pounding through me. I can hear the rush of it in my ears. “You lied to me and stole from me.” And I fucking fell for it. “I should have seen this coming.”

She’s standing on the other side of the room, using the coffee table like a barrier between us. I kick it sideways and Luna yelps, clapping her hands over her mouth.

Her wide eyes look from me to the door like she’s trying to plot her escape. She’s terrified. “Stop trying to scare me! It’s not a crime to want to talk to my friend.”

“Your friend,” I say, putting the pieces together.

“Yes. My friend. If you’d listened for half a second, I could have told you that the only person I called with that phone was Kayla. We talked for ten minutes this morning. That’s it.”

Luna stole a phone from me and called her best friend.

It’s a hell of a lot better than her using it to call Akim Gustev or any number of other people who would love a glimpse of what goes on inside of my mansion.

But it doesn’t matter.

“You still lied to me.” I hold my hand out. “Give me the phone.”

“Are you going to make sure I’m telling you the truth? You don’t believe me?”

I laugh, but there is no humor in it. “Of course I don’t believe you. Why would I?”

“Because you know me, Yakov. I’m telling you the truth. The only person I talked to was Kayla.”

I narrow my eyes. “Give me the phone. Now.”

Luna meets my gaze for one second, two. Then she digs into her back pocket and holds it out to me.

I snatch it away and open it up. There is only one record in the call log and no text messages. I know if I tap the number, Kayla would answer. I believe Luna to that extent.

“You called Kayla ten fucking minutes after I left this morning. I could still taste you on my tongue and you were busy going behind my back to do the one thing I told you not to do.”

Her cheeks flame bright red.

I open up the browser. Luna already has her email pulled up. A message from Kayla fills the screen. It’s a list of links to articles about me and my family. Underneath it, Kayla wrote, Just in case you want to learn more. Be careful.

I flip the screen out to her. “How much does she know?”

Luna is already shaking her head. “Nothing. I haven’t told her—well, I told her that you’re keeping me safe here. That’s it, I swear.”

“It looks like more than that. She knows something if she’s warning you away from me.”

“She did her own research,” she insists. “All of that is available online. I haven’t told her anything.”

The screen goes black and I fold the phone in my hand until my knuckles are white. “I wouldn’t answer enough of your questions, so you went looking somewhere else.”

“No, I didn’t⁠—”

“That’s why you let me fuck you on top of my desk and all of those folders. So I’d think you were done searching for answers.”

There are tears in her eyes as she shakes her head. “That’s not what I was doing.”

“She is putting you in danger by sending you anything. There’s a reason I haven’t told you this shit, Luna. The less you know, the easier it will be for you to leave.”

Her face goes white. She gapes at me. “I don’t want to leave.”

Those words more than anything else snap my composure.

I throw the phone against the wall. The sheetrock cracks and bits of plastic shrapnel go flying. “Don’t fucking lie to me, Luna. Not anymore. Not ever again.”

“I’m not lying! I don’t want to leave. And I didn’t ask Kayla for any of that information. She sent it on her own. I told her that I trusted you.” She swipes at stray tears as they fall down her cheeks. “I do trust you. Yakov, I… I’m falling in love with you.”

The blood pounding through my ears drains away. For a second, I can think clearly. I see Luna standing in front of me. Her lower lip is pinched between her teeth and her eyes are a beautiful glassy blue, overflowing with tears.

My cock stiffens, straining against my pants.

I shouldn’t trust her.

She loves me.

Luna broke into my office. She stole from me. She lied to me about it.

She fucking loves me.

Even when I told her that talking to anyone outside of the mansion about me and what is happening here could be dangerous for her, she did it anyway. She can’t follow orders.

She blinks, a few more tears rolling down her cheeks. “Yakov, I’m in love with you.”

She might as well be scratching the possessive beast inside of me behind the ears. She says those words and everything inside of me wants to roar that she is mine. Mine.

I bridge the distance between us in two steps. Two more steps and Luna is wedged between my body and the shattered sheetrock.

“Yakov.”

I don’t know if she’s calling for me or pleading with me. It doesn’t matter. It’s lost in the crush of our mouths.

She wraps her legs around me and her dress bunches around her waist. I can see the flimsy scrap of lace covering her.

“Did you put those on for me?”

She nods. “Who else would it be for?”

“No one.” I bite her full lower lip and tug. “There’s no one else.”

My cock twitches. Even the idea that there could be anyone else sparks a dark, greedy possession. I need to be inside her.

I reach down to unzip my pants, but Luna gets there first. She unzips me with trembling fingers and I pop free. She strokes me once and then again before I pull her hand away.

“Move your panties out of the way,” I order her.

She does it quickly, shoving the lace aside so every swollen inch of her is exposed to me. Her breath catches. She lets her eyes flutter closed, lashes brushing the tops of her cheeks.

“You like it when I watch you.” I work my length up and down her slit. “You want me to see you.”

She nods frantically. “You’ve seen more of me than anyone.”

I like the idea of that far too fucking much. A growl rumbles deep in my chest and I slam into her. She whimpers, but she’s so wet that she takes all of me in one thrust.

“There is no one else,” I hiss in her ear.

“No one,” she pants, tightening her legs around my hips to hold me close. Her hips rock and meet each of my thrusts. “Only you.”

I drug my thumb over her clit. “This is mine.”

“It’s yours. I’m yours.”

I drive into her until there’s only the sound of our bodies crashing together. I’m teetering on the edge, but I cling to the last scraps of my self-control. I grab her chin and force her hooded blue eyes to mine. “You are mine.”

I see the moment she breaks. The way her eyes flutter and her brow furrows. Her breath hitches and she nods. “Yes. Yes, Yakov.”

My molars are grinding together with every thrust. I’m so fucking close. “Say it.”

She opens her eyes. “I’m yours. All yours.”

I empty into her, driving her higher up the wall until I’m spent.

When I’m done, I stay inside of her as I turn away from the wall and walk out of the room. If Luna is worried about my staff seeing us, she doesn’t show it. She kisses my chest and my neck. She runs her hands through my hair, circling her hips against me in hopes of a round two.

I kick through the door and throw her down on the bed.

Luna is so focused on me that she doesn’t realize we’re not in my room. Even when I slide out of her and zip my pants, she stays splayed on the mattress, waiting.

It isn’t until I’m backing through the door that she sits up and looks around at the guest room. “Where are we? What are you doing?”

I don’t say anything. I don’t owe her any more answers. Not when she’s willing to risk her life to get them from someone else.

I pull the door closed and lock it behind me. The pounding starts a few seconds later.

“What are you doing?” Luna yells. “You can’t lock me in here!”

Already, I want to turn around and throw the door open. I want to be in that room with her. We could find so many creative ways to pass the time.

But I can’t.

I need to bring Akim Gustev to his knees. And while I do that, I need to know Luna isn’t going to run around behind my back and get herself killed.

She didn’t give me another choice.

As I pass the living room, Gregory slinks out of the doors. He follows me down the hall and through the kitchen. And when I open my office door, he curls around the frame and slips inside.

Fine. He can stay.

The cat at least knows how to mind his own business.