Twilight Sins (Kulikov Bratva Book 1)

I wanted a distraction and I fucking got one.

When Luna stopped next to my table, I thought she’d be good for an hour of fun. I could use her for a reprieve and still meet Nikandr for a late dinner. Then the Gustev Bratva poked their heads out of their little fucking rat hole and everything spiraled out of control.

I’m taking a woman into my bed. That hasn’t happened in… ever. Nikandr will want to hear every detail as an apology for skipping out on our father’s death anniversary. Even though Luna already gave him a little show in the car.

But I don’t need to explain anything to him. There’s nothing to explain. Nothing has changed. In the morning, our father will still be dead and Luna will be long gone.

I step into my room and kick the door closed.

Luna scrapes her nails down my back and grinds her hips against my throbbing erection. “What is happening to me?” she whispers under her breath again and again.

I lay her out on my bed, my hands pressed into the mattress on either side of her. ‘It’s called foreplay. The men in your life have no clue how to treat a woman, do they?”

“I know what foreplay is!” She moves to swat my chest, but I grab her wrist. I slide my fingers over her soft skin, curling my hand around her bicep and across her ribs.

I shouldn’t find this so sexy. This innocent little good girl routine. It’s a waste of my time. If this was a normal night, she’d be two orgasms deep and spent by this point. I’d be halfway to tossing money at her and kicking her out the door.

Except, with Luna, it isn’t a routine. She’s never been with someone like me. A man who knows what he wants. A man who knows what she wants.

I slide her dress up around her waist and take a bite of her inner thigh. I lick the outside of her hip—the bit of skin that teased me all through dinner. She’s wearing some barely-there scrap of lacy lingerie that I’ve seen a thousand times before.

“You put this on for him?” I ask. “For Sergey?”

She squirms under my inspection, her legs pressing together like she can hide from me. “I didn’t know about him. I put it on for me.”

The ragged edge of my thoughts softens. “Good. I’d hate to have to kill Sergey for even dreaming of seeing you like this.”

“No need for violence,” she says with a laugh, stroking her hands through my hair.

“There’s always a need for violence when someone takes what is mine.” I hook my fingers under the lace and tug it down the long stretch of her legs. Then I settle between her trembling thighs. “And tonight, Luna… you are fucking mine.”

I part her with my fingertips and she’s already drenched. Her thighs try to press together, but I force her legs wider.

She thinks she wants to hide, but some version of Luna slipped into a red lace thong before leaving the house tonight. The same version of her that left the restaurant with me.

This good girl likes to toy with darkness; let’s see how she likes being devoured by it.

I drag the flat of my tongue along her slit and her hips jerk off the bed. Each brush of my lips or flick of my tongue sends her squirming further across the mattress. I have to pin her hips down with my arm to keep her in place.

Still, she wriggles. “Yakov, I—I never⁠—”

“No one has tasted you before?” I ask, looking up the length of her body. I like the idea of that way too fucking much.

She shakes her head. “No. Well… once. But I—” Her words fade into a whimper as I circle my lips around her clit. “Benjy said it wasn’t… You don’t have to.”

Sergey. Benjy. So many men to destroy.

“I don’t do a single fucking thing I don’t want to do, Luna.” I punctuate the point by thrusting my tongue deep into her heat. My lips brush against her swollen skin, and her fingers fist in my hair.

All at once, she relaxes. The tension pours out of her limbs. Her hips circle up to meet my mouth. She takes what she wants because I gave her permission. I told her it was okay.

Which begs the question…

What else should I tell her to do?

I slide two fingers into her and sit up so I can watch her unravel. I work my fingers into her faster and circle her clit with my thumb. I drive her hard and fast towards the climax we both know is coming.

Her stomach tightens and she squeezes her eyes closed. Her full lips part in a moan. I can’t remember the last time I was this turned on, and I’m not even inside of her. She hasn’t even touched me yet.

“Come,” I demand. “Fucking come for me, Luna.”

I need to get inside of her and release the knot in my chest… but not until she finishes.

She fists her hands in the comforter, destroying the bed as she writhes. “So good. It’s—you’re so good. I’m close. I’m⁠—”

She clamps down on my fingers, and I’m jealous of my own fucking hand. I need to be inside her. I’d kill to feel her around me.

But that’s a problem in its own right. Luna’s trip to the dark side needs to end. When it does, I’ll send her on her way with a sore pussy and a handprint stamped on her ass. She’ll be the latest in a long line of women I never think of again.

“Oh my God.” She throws her arms over her head. Her hands twist into her halo of blonde hair, and she smiles hazily. “That was unbelievable. I’ve never come that hard before. You are—” Her voice cuts off as she looks back and spots the floor-to-ceiling windows that wrap around my room. “The windows are… they’re open.”

“And?”

“And it’s dark out. People could hear. See. Hear and see us, I mean. They’ll see us⁠—”

“Fucking,” I finish for her.

“I was going to say ‘naked,’” she says softly. Her cheeks are pink from a mixture of her orgasm and embarrassment.

How can she still be embarrassed?

I sit back on my knees and look down at her. “I’ve already seen you, Luna. Tasted you. No one else matters.”

She bites the corner of her lip to keep back a dazed smile. “There’s that humility again.”

“Humility is for people afraid of their own power.” I tug my shirt over my head and toss it on the floor.

“Easy for you to say when you look like—” She gestures at my body. “—like you.”

I snatch her hand out of the air and pull her into a sitting position. From there, it’s an easy tug and a slide to get her off the bed and on her feet.

She uses her free arm to try and pull her dress down to cover herself. “What are you doing?”

I press her back against the glass and slowly strip her out of her dress. “Stop me if you don’t like it.”

Nothing could stop me now. Not when every curve of her body is on display. Her skin shimmers in the moonlight streaming through the windows. Her hands are frozen at her sides.

“You think you want to hide from the world, Luna. But you don’t.” I spin her around and press her hands to the glass. “You want them to see you. You want me to see you.”

The driveway stretches out in front of us. A sidewalk passes only a few feet away.

“Someone could walk by,” she whispers, even as she flexes her hands against the glass and arches her back.

If they do, they’ll see nothing more than their own reflection. But Luna doesn’t know that.

“You think it’s exciting. You want people to see you like this,” I whisper in her ear. “Don’t you?”

She shakes her head, but I see the ghost of her expression in the glass. Her bottom lip is pinched between her teeth. She’s fighting against herself.

I kiss her neck and grip her waist. She groans at my touch. “Give yourself to me, Luna. I’ll take care of you.”

Slowly, she leans forward. “Okay… for tonight.”

For tonight.

Because she’ll be gone in the morning. I know that. It’s my plan. So why the fuck does the thought of her leaving here and being with some asshole like Sergey make me want to chain her to this bed?

I drive the thought away by freeing my aching cock from my pants and pressing myself to her entrance.

This isn’t the time to savor the way her hip fits into my palm. Or the way she gasps when I slip the very tip of myself into her heat. This is a one-night stand. She’s a distraction that I should pound into the fucking dirt and walk away from. It’s time to fuck her out of my system and call it a night.

But the moment I feel the tight squeeze of her body around my cock, I have to slow down.

I press into her inch by aching inch as she stretches. “Yakov,” she whimpers, “I’ve never taken anyone this big before. I don’t know if⁠—”

“You can take every inch of me. You’re going to,” I say between clenched teeth. It’s an effort not to release now.

She tilts her head back and I grab a fistful of her hair. I arch her back and keep pressing.

Some possessive, animal part of me wants to destroy her. To claim her until there’s nothing left for anyone else. But I move slowly.

I ease the last inch into her. She feels so good I can’t think about anything else.

Once she’s adjusted, I drag myself out and press back into her. Again and again, I fill her. Until her legs are shaking. Until she’s crying out.

The speed picks up. It’s so easy to fall into a rhythm with her. She claws at my thighs, my shoulders, my chest—any part of me she can touch. I pull her down on my cock relentlessly. The sound of our hips crashing together is all I can hear. That and her whimpered moans, so sweet and pure and fucking perfect.

She’s on the verge of another release when lights splash across the window. Headlights shine against the glass as someone comes up the driveway. Luna stiffens.

I release her hair and band an arm around her throat. I haul her back against my chest, my lips against the shell of her ear so I can snarl, “Tell me the truth, solnyshka. Tell me what you want.”

She doesn’t respond save for a moan as I crash into her again. My hand tightens around her neck, and she presses harder against me.

“Tell me,” I demand.

“I want…” She pants, her head lolling back against my shoulder. “I want them to see us. I want them to watch and wish they were us.”

As soon as the words are out of her mouth, she falls apart. She’s been waiting her whole goddamn life to say exactly that.

Her body is impossibly tight around me. I don’t stand a fucking chance. I dig my fingers into her hips and pump into her until there should be nothing left. Until the need for her should be gone and over with.

Then Luna looks back over her shoulder, her lips twisted into a shocked grin.

And I throw her onto my bed and do it all over again.

Most nights, sleep doesn’t come easily for me. Not for the last five years, anyway. Maybe that’s why I find watching Luna sleep so fascinating.

She’s serene. The sheet is loose around her waist. Her breasts rise and fall with her breathing.

I’m supposed to be done with her, but I keep spotting new places I haven’t touched yet. The soft skin under her belly button. The beauty mark on the top of her right ear.

I should nudge her awake and banish her to the guest suite, but for some reason, I don’t want to disturb her. Plus, she needs her rest after the long night we had.

So I decide to leave.

I slip out of bed and head downstairs for another drink. The sky is starting to lighten, but I haven’t slept yet.

On nights that I can’t sleep or I wake up from a nightmare, I come down and make myself a drink. If it’s close enough to sunrise, I go for a run. Whatever it takes to burn the haze of memories away.

After last night’s exertion, I don’t feel like running—plus, we still haven’t accounted for the Gustev threat yet. So I walk into the kitchen in search of liquor.

I don’t bother turning on the lights. I grew up in this house. I can find my way in the dark.

Then the light above the sink flicks on. I squint into the piercing brightness, but I know who it is going to be before he even speaks.

“Took you long enough,” Nikandr drawls. “I didn’t take you for a cuddler, brother.”

“I’m the farthest fucking thing from it.” My voice is raspy from disuse.

“You mean you were fucking that entire time? That’s impressive stamina for an old man.”

“I’m only five years older than you.”

At one time, five years felt like a lifetime. I killed my first man while Nik was still sleeping on firefighter bedsheets.

Nowadays, five years feels like nothing. He was forced to grow up a lot when our father died. In one day, he lost his father and the brother he knew. It’s the only reason I let him get away with mouthing off so much.

“Well, if you had to blow me off, I guess I’m glad she was worth it, at least.” He leans forward. “She was worth it, wasn’t she? I saw her back at the restaurant. Blonde and curvy. And I didn’t see her in the car, but I didn’t need to. It was obvious what you two were up to back there. I can’t even blame you. She was fucking⁠—”

“Watch your fucking mouth,” I snarl, surprising even myself with the intensity. Then I sigh and relent. “I know you didn’t come here just to talk about her.”

He ducks his head. “Not just to talk about her. I was multitasking. I figured you’d fill me in on who she is and what you were doing with her first. Then I’d fill you in on the Gustev Bratva.”

“You figured wrong. I’m not going to tell you shit and you’re going to tell me what the Gustev Bratva was doing outside of our father’s favorite restaurant on the fifth anniversary of his death.”

Nikandr sighs in obvious disappointment, but he knows when I’m being serious. “I talked to a source on the inside and those Gustev soldiers were reporting your every move back to Akim all night. He wasn’t there in person, but as good as. Whatever this was about, it wasn’t some low-level assholes poking the bear and looking for a fight. Akim sent them to find you. He is invested.”

“Why?”

“Well, we just killed their leader, in case you forgot about that little mission. We killed Akim’s father,” he says. “I’d venture to guess that that has a lot to do with it.”

“Obviously. But why sit outside the restaurant and monitor me without making a move? If they were out for retribution, they could have attacked. They didn’t. I want to know why.”

I already know why. I would have put it together on the car ride home if Luna hadn’t been such a thorough distraction. But Nikandr is still young. He’d deny it and be mad at me for even suggesting it, but he still has a lot to learn.

“Surveillance?” His face creases in concern. “They were—Shit. Do you think Akim knows you’re after his weapons dealer?”

I shake my head. “If he did, he definitely would have attacked. That operation is the key to me owning everything Akim gives a damn about. He wouldn’t risk that.”

“Then what?”

“Revenge,” I say simply. “I took his father away. Now, he wants to take something from me. Tit for fucking tat. He’s smart enough to know a direct hit would be almost impossible. So he’s in search of a target.”

Nikandr curses again. “Do you think we should tell Mariya?”

“Akim won’t go looking for her in Russia unless he gets desperate. She’s fine for now. No need to worry her.”

Or worry our mother, more like it. The reason she grabbed our little sister and took off across the Pacific in the first place was to avoid the fallout of Father’s death.

“You know what this means, brother. Akim’s men saw you out to dinner with that woman. They saw you leave with her.”

“I just met her tonight.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Nik insists. “One night is more than enough to put a target on her back. That girl is in danger.”

That girl is danger.

“I know. Fucking hell, I know.”

“So?” he presses. “You have a plan. I know you do. What is it?”

If I’d stopped to think this through for five fucking minutes, maybe tonight would have gone differently. Maybe Luna would be sleeping in my guest room. Maybe I wouldn’t have the taste of her on my tongue and the sound of her moans playing on a loop in my head. Maybe she’d be safe if I’d just left her alone.

But I didn’t stop to think it through.

And what we’ve already done doesn’t change what has to happen next.

“I’ll keep her here.”

Nikandr’s brows shoot up. “You’ll keep her? She’s not a dog, Yakov. You can’t just keep her.”

“I can do whatever the fuck I want, brother.”

He snorts. “Okay. So, what? You’re going to tie her up and throw her in the basement?”

“Don’t tempt me.”

Nik wants to ask one hundred more questions. I see them burning behind his eyes. But he does have a little tact. “What about Akim?”

I smirk. “I think it’s time we sent him a message.”