VLAD (The V Games #1)(38)
“No thank you.” I level him with a hard stare.
“We’ll see.”
I turn away from him and pick up my fork. I’m about to take a bite when I see Diana glaring at Yuri.
“Irina is far too valuable to risk in The Games,” she bites out, overhearing our conversation despite flirting with her lover. “Our father may be smitten at the moment with his newfound son, but he’s always been a fickle man. His love for us hasn’t changed, and he’s always known assets such as us can’t be risked on the appetites of the depraved within The Games.”
Yuri’s eyes flare with fire. His jaw clenches as though he’s barely able to keep vicious, uncontrolled words from spewing from his mouth.
Vika bites into a strawberry she’s plucked from her champagne flute and asks while chewing, “If you’re loved so much by him, then why has he cut you out of his businesses?” The glint in Vika’s eyes, like she won a prize, makes me want to jab my fork into one.
How can she possibly know anything of this?
Diana tuts, a smirk on her lips. “Vika, who fills your head with such things? It’s true that dynamics have changed, but our father trained us. He prepared us for the cutthroat world and I’ve been running the business for quite some time. In that time, shares have been moved over into my own name. Volkov Spirits is a company Irina and I built from the ground up. He can have the rest to pass on to Vas, if that’s what he chooses, but Volkov Spirits is and will always be ours.”
My heart pounds in my chest.
Vika turns a pink color and downs the rest of her drink in one gulp. Just when I think she’s going to shut up, she speaks again. “Lots of families send their children into The Games. It’s an honor and a sign of strength. For almost a decade, since The Games have been around, it has been this way. Most of the young men sitting at this table, like my brother, entered The Games as a rite of passage into adulthood—into leading their families. Are you saying your family is better than the rest of us? Why? Because you’re a woman?”
She’s such a bitch. Why does she always have to create conflict?
“I’m not saying that at all,” Diana replies with a lift of her chin. “I’m saying we don’t need to prove our worth that way. Female or not.”
“She’s a businesswoman. I like it,” Ven says with a grin, playfully tugging at Diana’s scarf. Their blatant flirting is going to get her killed by the time the night’s over. Before I lose my nerve, I do something I can’t take back: I make my move.
My attention is wavering from the scene before me as Arkady Orlov drones on beside me about a new cocaine supplier. The Orlovs are the biggest drug runners on this side of Russia. I’ve been wanting to steal a piece of their market and have been watching them closely.
Except now.
Now I’m watching my fiancée and Ven making a fool of the Vasiliev name as they practically play grab-ass at the dining room table in front of everyone. I accused her of it, but it’s looking apparent that he’s fucking her.
All thoughts of the Orlovs and cocaine and murder dissipate when a foot nudges mine. At first, I think Irina accidentally touched my foot, but when I look over at her, her cheeks are pink as she does it again. A bare foot slides up my ankle and playfully rubs against the side of my leg. My cock responds with a jolt.
“Irina,” I growl under my breath.
She looks up at me from under her heavily darkened with mascara lashes and smiles. So damn innocent. A little angel flirting with the devil. Naughty girl. Naughty, naughty girl. “I want to paint you.”
I stare at her in confusion. In one simple sentence, she’s rocked my entire world. I find my mask slipping as I indulge this little princess. “Oh?”
She nods, tucking a blonde strand of hair behind her ear. Her toes continue to playfully tease me under the table and my cock strains in my slacks. It may as well just be she and I in this room. Nobody else matters. Not Diana. Not the marriage. Not the Vasiliev name or my awful father.
Just Shadow, brilliant like the sun.
“Why?” I ask, curious of her sudden flirtations.
She shrugs. “Because you’re something beautiful. I like to paint beautiful things.” I don’t sense deception in her words. Just honest to God truth.
“Perhaps one day,” I tell her, turning my head toward the sound of Diana’s laughter.
A slender leg hooks over mine under the tablecloth and I jerk my head back to Irina. Her icy blue eyes blaze with determination. Full, pouty lips that have been painted a seductive red part and entice me. Those lips were mine this afternoon. I owned and teased them. I’ll have them again. Knowing she’s spread open under the table drives me mad with need. Slipping my hand under the cloth, I palm her bare thigh above her knee hooked over my leg. She shivers, but doesn’t pull away.
“Why the sudden change of heart?” I ask as I take a bite of salmon with my free hand.
She mimics my action and gasps slightly when I caress her silky flesh. “I have needs,” she states bluntly.
I chew slowly and stare her down. She’s gorgeous tonight in a demure but short black dress that showcases what a knockout she is. I nearly came unglued seeing her at my father’s side earlier. If it wouldn’t have caused a scene, I would have plucked her from his grip and tossed her over my shoulder like a goddamn caveman. I’m still tempted to do just that.