Page 2 of Defiant Devotion

“Sorry,” I muttered to whoever I’d crashed into with my rush to enter the tiny establishment. I wasn’t sorry. I didn’t give a shit who I knocked into. I was on a mission to fuck the first man I saw, and nothing else mattered. Yet, I halfheartedly apologized to the old senior as he used his cane to lumber out of the bar. It was by rote, automatically expected of me just because I was a woman in a man’s world. Always just a little “girl” in the big, bad man's world.

Passing him by, I let the cloak of impatience settle over me. I scanned the small bar, checking that none of the occupants were members of the Ilyin force. If I risked running out a week before my engagement would be official, all to be caught by one of the men out here drinking, I’d never forgive myself. That was why I’d chosen this night, though. Why I had decided to attempt this stunt when they were most likely drinking at the guesthouse for one of their habitual, biweekly parties. They never lowered their guard enough for me to be confident about escaping, but if therewere ever a chance to sneak out of their sight for a little while, it’d be now.

There.I narrowed my eyes, still catching my breath, and studied the tall, lone man seated at the end of the bar. He was by himself, drinking a beer. But his lack of company wasn’t all that made me zero in on him. It was his distance from the others, as though he wanted nothing to do with the other older men in here drinking and bullshitting. Besides him, the clientele were either in groups or coupled with a woman.

It has to be him.

No one else would work, and I couldn’t fail.

After I swallowed, annoyed with how dry my mouth was, I lifted my chin and strode directly toward him.

Even though I’d been a resident of the area for eleven years, none of the locals knew me. I was just another random stranger here, one with a clear and needy goal.

I walked too quickly, pretending to trip over my feet just as I neared him. Crashing against his shoulder, I was treated to the first demonstration of how rugged and fit this tall guy was.

Damn.

I was familiar with strong, buff men. All the Baranov guards and soldiers back home were built like this, and the Ilyin assholes here who kept me captive were cut of the same cloth. Mafia men were all the same—strong and fit to incite danger and violence.

Up this close, as he reached out to steady me from my fake fall, he gave me a hint of his scent, that spicy cologne and muskier note of all male. This was a manly man, and I prayed I coulddupe him. I hoped he wasn’t too experienced and wizened that he wouldn’t still fall for my best stab at seduction.

“Oh!” I blinked my eyes, feigning shock as I righted myself. “I didn’t mean to…”

“It’s all right.” He chuckled slightly, and I couldn’t help but guess that he made that sound at my expense. That he was laughingatme for being so clumsy, not that he was laughing with me at the silly collision.

He had to be one of those serious ones, then. I cringed, worried that might be an obstacle.

I nodded, keeping my gaze down so I could look demure and shy. “I didn’t mean to interrupt.” Relying on the old memories of my aunt whose favorite pastime had been fucking all the Baranov soldiers and guards at the mansion, I traced the tip of my tongue along my lower lip then set my teeth on it.

He swiveled. Just like that, it worked. Spinning on his stool to fully face me as I stood next to him, he slapped all his attention on me. I’d caught his attention, and now, I had to keep it.

“Interrupt what?” he asked with a lazy shrug of one massive shoulder.

“Your evening,” I said softly, smiling a bit to let him think I was naïve and meek. Men liked that, didn’t they? They always had to be superior and calling the shots, not just in my life as Mafia men, but all over the world.

“It’s been dull,” he said, gesturing with his hand for me to sit next to him. “But now that you’re here, maybe you can help me liven it up.”

Yes. Yes!I couldn’t believe that it was working. That merely facing this rugged man with impossibly dark eyes could make this a reality. I’d planned to sneak out and fuck a stranger all to thwart my captors, but not once did I have the confidence that it could work.

“Oh, I can’t.” I shook my head slightly without stepping back.

Play hard to get. Look shy. Smile sweetly.

I was a virgin, closed off from the world for the last eleven years. I didn’t know how to flirt or how to seduce a man. All I had were the memories of my horny cougar of an aunt from long ago.

“No?” He arched a brow, calmly setting his elbow on the top of the bar so he could continue to face me. “You can’t or won’t?”

I did that shy smile again, giving him a little more rope to think that he was tempting me. “Can’t. I really… Well, I really shouldn’t.”

“Why’s that?” he asked. Not nosy. Not pushy. Merely curious.

When I risked another glance at his handsome face, I wondered if that smoldering gaze truly meant he desired me. It felt like it. Under his serious stare, I felt like he was stripping me bare.

“I have something else to do tonight.”

“Hmm.” He lifted his beer and took a drink, not tearing his gaze off me for a second. The door opened and closed behind me, and I couldn’t help but flinch. In the process, I stepped closer to him, that much further between his legs that he parted to let me stand in his space. “And what’s that? What does a gorgeous woman like you have planned for the night?”

Here goes.I licked my lip again, then touched my teeth to the corner of it. “I plan to…” Lowering my gaze wasn’t an act. Itwashard to just come out and so bluntly dare to say this.

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