Page 19 of Seduced By the Russian

He had to. Control was one of his biggest weapons, yet he was losing it slowly with Lisa.

Nikolai pressed his heel to the ground in self-restraint while trying to remember the reason he had called Melody in the first place. Lisa was already getting too entitled around him, and he needed to bring her back to reality despite the fact that his groin thought differently these days. But he would not be a party to the baseless attraction he could see growing behind her eyes. They only spelled weakness for Nikolai, and he would have nothing pull him back from his ultimate goals.

“Do you always do that?” Lisa questioned suddenly.

“Do what?”

“Act like you own me when you do not.”

“Krastoka,” Nikolai whispered and leaned closer to her, slowly putting a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “I do own you.”

He stood straight, smirked to himself, and turned to leave. But Lisa recovered from the spell he had put her under with his voice before he disappeared from view.

“I saw you take her to the last floor,” she called after Nikolai, causing him to halt. He turned slightly, waiting for the question he knew was coming. “What is that room for?”

“It’s none of your business, Lisa,” he answered in a serious tone before walking away. Nikolai forced himself to concentrate on each step he took rather than how it would taste and feel, with Lisa replacing Melody on that bed.

Chapter Ten

It was a week after the incident with Melody, and Lisa had been doing a great job of keeping to herself. Their breakfast had resumed its usual silence, and Lisa didn’t glare at him anymore from across the table. She knew that Nikolai would never let it go if she continued acting like she was hurt about him having sex with another girl right under her nose, so she did the next thing she was skilled at - act oblivious and indifferent. It was the only way she had survived staying with her foster parents and endured all the mean things that were said to her at school.

After breakfast, the housekeeper appeared to clear the table while Nikolai gave her a small nod before rising to his feet. Today, he was wearing his usual black suit, but he had ditched the loafers for a pair of suede Chelsea boots, and it elevated his already haughty look.

Dmitri walked in from the side door leading to the quarters. He greeted Nikolai and, as usual, totally ignored Lisa, acting like she wasn’t there. It would have bothered her, but since she had promised herself to act indifferent, she just shrugged it off.

Lisa watched them as they exchanged information in silence. The only thing giving it away was their intense stare and the subtle nod of heads. It looked like they were headed somewhere important, and Lisa wondered what it could be about.

“Can I go with you?” Lisa spoke up quietly, as they both headed to the door. Abruptly, they stopped and turned to look at her at the same time, holding different expressions. While Dmitri looked at her like she was the enemy, about to hatch her plans, Nikolai watched her with a curious expression. He narrowed his eyes, and took his bottom lip into his mouth.

“Why?”

“I’m bored.” Lisa sighed exasperatedly. “I’ve been in here for too long, and I just want to go somewhere different before I lose my mind.”

“I thought you didn’t want to work anymore at that restaurant.”

“I don’t, but I don’t want to stare at the ceiling all day long while you and your… while you and Dmitri go about your days leaving me completely alone. It gets lonely sometimes.” Lisa didn’t ask Nikolai how he knew she worked at a restaurant, because even if she didn’t tell him, at this point, she had started to gather the extent of his power.

“I’ll take you to the beach when I get back,” Nikolai told her. “You can’t come with us. I’ll be putting you in danger.”

Lisa nodded, and her face dropped. She knew Nikolai wasn’t going to let her go anywhere with him, but a tiny part of her still held on to the stupid idea that he cared about her. Lisa didn’t know how many times Nikolai had to hurt her feelings before she finally got the message.

“On second thoughts, though,” Nikolai suddenly said, causing both Lisa and Dmitri to look up in surprise.

“What? Wait—did you change your mind? Seriously?” asked Lisa.

“Seriously?” Dmitri repeated, seemingly in agreement with her for the first time since they’d met. “She’s coming with?”

“Yes.” It was the end of that discussion, if Nikolai’s tone was of any indication, but not for Dmitri. As they waited for Lisa to go to her room to change into something more appropriate to be worn outside, Dmitri faced Nikolai.

“What was that about? Why are you letting her come with us? I thought the reason you always go to the port alone is that you don’t want people you don’t trust wholly to know where you get your arms from. So why is this girl coming with us all of a sudden? Should I be worried, Nikolai? Is something I don’t know about going on?”

Nikolai resisted the urge to tell his bodyguard that the girl had a name. “Don’t be stupid, Dmitri,” he said instead. “Have you heard of the saying that it is best to keep your enemies closer than your friends? That is exactly what I’m doing with her. If you turn out to be right, isn’t leaving her in the mansion more dangerous?”

This was the first time Nikolai was taking someone other than himself and Dmitri to the port, and it had nothing to do with the bullshit reason he had just given his best friend. Lisa didn’t feel like an enemy to Nikolai in the least, and he only said that to pacify Dmitri and get him off his back. The real reason, however, was the way her face had dropped when he had declared that she couldn’t accompany them. For some weird reason, Nikolai felt that he had let her down, and the mere knowledge of that made him feel sick. If he had gone out of the mansion with her face ingrained in his memory that way, he would have had a terrible day. Lisa was beginning to affect him more than he thought. Melody hadn’t done shit to remedy the situation.

Maybe fucking her out of his system was going to do the trick. But he doubted that Lisa would allow him anywhere near her after the way he had dismissed her the last time.

When has the Russian Bear ever allowed something like that to stop him?

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