Page 67 of Kings of Violence

“Fuck,” Yuri mutters. He looks between me and Sierra, but before I can say anything, he stuffs his cock back into his pants and rushes away.

Sierra’s eyes open, and she meets my gaze with a dazed, somewhat bewildered look. I’m hard, but the last thing I’m thinking about is fucking her when Yuri had just acted so fucking strangely before running off like he’d done something to be ashamed of.

Maybe it was the attention he’d paid to me? I can’t be sure, and I doubt he’ll talk about it to me.

“What the fuck just happened?” Sierra asks.

I shake my head mutely, unsure as well, then offer her my hand to help her down from the counter. “Go on and clean up,” I tell her. I’m not sure if I should go after Yuri or not. I should tell Konstantin, at least, about his odd behavior regarding Sierra. “I’ll bring your laptop for you to do your homework later.”

She pulls up her panties and jeans, fastening them as she nods to me. “Yeah. I’m just going to go… lie down.”

She’s a little unsteady on her feet as she walks away, disappearing from the kitchen with caution in her steps like she expects to run into Yuri again. He must be long gone, though, or ignoring her.

Well.

Color me baffled.

FIFTEEN

Yuri

I storminto Kotya’s woodworking shed. I wish the door were the kind I could easily slam shut, but the sliding door remains wide open.

Kotya doesn’t even hear me approaching because he’s busy with the tablesaw.

It deflates some of my anger because I can’t take it out on anyone immediately. I end up sitting on the rocking chair in the corner. It’s one of the pieces Konstantin is working on restoring. So far, all he’s done is sand the veneer away.

I rock angrily, until Kotya finishes cutting whatever he’s working on and turns the saw off.

He inspects the pieces, and after a few seconds he deems them satisfactory and sets them down on the workbench.

I glare at him, willing him to fucking notice me already.

I don’t think I’m psychic, but he does pull the face mask and the ear mufflers off and finally turns to face me.

Maybe he did notice me enter.

“What’s wrong?” he asks in Russian.

“Nothing,” I answer, although my tone of voice and the tension in my body instantly contradict me.

Kotya rolls his eyes. “If nothing’s wrong, help me with these new cabinet fronts.”

I huff but walk over to see what he’s working on. The pieces he’d cut look like molding, and they match the drawers on the cabinet next to the workbench. One drawer has been removed completely.

I don’t know why he bothers with this stuff. It’s not like he can’t afford to buy new furniture.

“Here, hold the piece steady while I glue this on.” Kotya applies wood glue along the bottom of the molding, then lays it down on the flat wood of what I assume will be a cabinet face. I hold everything in place while he checks that it’s aligned properly and clamps it down.

We repeat that until all four pieces of the molding are set.

When it’s done, I start to move back to the rocking chair, but Kotya grabs my arm. “Tell me. You didn’t come here just to sulk.”

He knows me well enough. If I’d wanted to just sulk, I could have done that in my own room, or on my bike. Hell, that would have been the better choice to clear my head.

Except I would have remembered Sierra’s arms around me, or her hands near my cock, teasing me.

“Nikolai and Sierra are back from her classes,” I say, a little subdued.

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