Twilight Sins (Kulikov Bratva Book 1)

As if the prospect of a long-lost sibling reunion first thing this morning isn’t enough, Luna is sitting in my kitchen.

All my ghosts are coming back to haunt me today.

I track the curve of her ass in her jeans before I drag my eyes away. This day is going to be far too long already. No need to torture myself with fantasies I don’t have time to make real.

I cut around the island and head straight for the caffeine.

“Good morning,” Luna says softly.

I nod without turning around. “You’re up early.”

“I didn’t sleep much.”

That makes two of us. I’m running on fumes and family duty. I pour myself a cup of coffee and lean against the counter.

Luna is fiddling with the wrapper of a protein bar she’s barely nibbled on. Off to the right is another plate. Peanut butter toast with bits of crust left behind.

I stiffen as I put two and two together. “You’ve seen her already.”

“What?” She looks up and follows my gaze to the plate next to her. “Oh. Yeah. She was eating when I came down.”

“Blyat’,” I curse under my breath. “Just what I needed. Like she doesn’t have enough ammunition as it is.”

Luna frowns. “I’m sorry. Hold on. Do you think I met your sister for the first time and immediately started bad-mouthing you? Is that how you think I started my day?”

“Mariya would be a sympathetic audience. She’s pissed at me.”

“So am I,” she snaps. “That doesn’t mean I’d try to come between you and your sister. I actually tried to defend you. Not that you deserve it.”

She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear and I don’t think she realizes how much that simple, thoughtless gesture fucking undoes me. I grip the coffee mug so tightly I’m surprised it doesn’t shatter.

“How did it go?” I ask sarcastically. “Defending me? I bet Mariya ate it right up.”

“Oh. Um. Well…” She tugs on her lower lip with her teeth. “Mariya is confident. I can tell you that. She’s not shy, either.”

I run a hand across my forehead. “Who did she insult, you or me?”

“Both of us. Mostly me, though.” Luna laughs. “Apparently, I need to get rid of my jeans.”

A thought blares in my head, completely unasked-for: I’ll rip them right off you if you just say the word.

Out loud, I say, “I should have warned you she was here, but she got in late.”

“After you unlocked my door?”

I nod. “If I’d known she was coming, I might have locked you both in. Would have made my life a lot less complicated.”

Suddenly, a fork bounces off my chest and clatters to the floor. Luna is biting back a smile. “That’s not funny.”

“Who says I was joking?”

Luna toys with her protein bar a bit more before she gets up and drops it in the trash can uneaten. She leans her hip against the counter and crosses her arms. It’s a fight not to drink in every inch of her. “What are you going to do?”

I’m not going to close the gap between us and lift you onto the island, spread your legs, and fucking devour you, that’s for sure. That would be a terrible, terrible idea.

Although, on the other hand…

I might.

I grit my teeth and force myself not to move. “Sending her back to live with my mother isn’t an option. She’s almost eighteen. It won’t be long and she could come here without our mother’s permission, anyway.”

“For what it’s worth, I can tell she likes you.” Luna shrugs. “Or, she wants to like you, anyway. As much as a teenage girl can like her older brother.”

“She’ll like me less when I sit her down and explain the conditions under which she’ll be allowed to stay here.”

“She’ll thank you later. Even if it’s hard now, she’ll see one day how much you must have cared about her to make that tough choice.” Luna slides closer. “You are willing to let her hate you just to keep her alive. You have to care about someone a lot to do that for them.”

Luna isn’t just talking about Mariya here. Her eyes are on me, wondering what I’m thinking. Part of me thinks she knows I’m still hearing the echoes of her moans from the last time we fucked.

Everyone in my life needs something from me right now, but Luna is trying to help. She’s offering support. The fact that I want to lean into is reason enough to back the fuck away.

So why can’t I back away?

Luna is still staring at me when someone clears their throat. We both look up and see Nikandr smirking in the doorway. “Good morning, you two.”

Luna’s cheeks flush pink even though we weren’t doing anything. Nikandr will never believe it, though.

I top off my coffee and elbow Nik towards my office.

“Sorry to interrupt your little moment,” he whispers, too loud by half.

“You didn’t interrupt.” I shove him down the hall. “You were late.”

Nik walks back through my office door like he’s just been to war. His usual perma-smile is gone. He flops down into the chair across from me and sighs. “Well, shit is fucked.”

“You were talking to Mariya for thirty minutes. If you don’t have more to say than that, then you’re fired.”

He frowns. “I’m family. You can’t fire me.”

“I can do whatever the fuck I want.” I lean back in my seat. “Tell me what she said.”

“She didn’t say much. It was more about the way she said it.”

“For fuck’s sake,” I spit, “this was useless. I should have gone to talk to her.”

Nikandr volunteered to have a chat with Mariya first. He figured she would listen to him and open up, and I was happy to let him try. He clearly wasn’t up for the task.

He throws his hands up. “I’m not a fucking therapist, okay? All I know is she’s going through something. Do you think it could have anything to do with Otets?”

I grimace. All of this has to do with our father.

“He died five years ago. This is something else.”

“Okay, fine. So is she going to stick around long enough for us to figure it out or are you shipping her back? Because I have to tell you, I think she really might make a run for it if you try to put her on a plane.”

“With Gustev prowling around, Mariya going missing is the last thing we need.” I shake my head. “There isn’t another option. Mother can’t handle her and she’s naive enough to run off and get hurt if we force her out.”

“So she stays,” Nik concludes.

I squint my eyes at him. “What in the fuck are you smiling about?”

“I think it’s nice,” he says with a shrug. “All of us are finally back together. It’s been a long time.”

“For good reason. You know it isn’t safe for her here.”

“I’ll keep an eye on her,” he says. “And we can assign her some guards. She’ll be fine. We’ll all get to know each other again.”

“One big, happy family reunion,” I mumble.

“One big, happy family and Luna,” Nik adds. “It could be nice to have her feminine energy around. For Mariya… and for you.”

I hit him with a warning glare. “It would be better for everyone if they didn’t see much of each other. Luna will be gone soon anyway.”

The last thing I need is Mariya getting attached to Luna the way everyone else in this fucking house seems to be.

Nik snorts.

“If you have something to say, say it,” I snarl.

“I have nothing to say. I’m just wondering when the two of you are going to admit that there is something more going on between you.”

One of us already has.

Luna is falling in love with me.

Every time I look at her, the thought rings through my head. I can’t get rid of it.

But it doesn’t mean anything. We aren’t dominos. She may have fallen, but she doesn’t get to take me down with her.