Page 24 of The Den of Sin
“Is this your dad?” Isabella asked Tatiana as she extended her small hand in greeting, eyeing me curiously. It was the night both of them got arrested by the campus police for breaking into the university pool and throwing a party. Took them less than thirty days from the start of freshman year to earn a reputation as wildlings. “Thank you for getting us out, Mr. Nikolaev. And for not calling my mom.”
The dress she wore that night revealed more than it hid. Even at barely legal, she had a knockout body, the smooth open back giving a glimpse of tempting skin. The dress was so short that it barely covered her ass. I barked at Tatiana in Russian to get in the car, and Isabella’s eyes widened with fear. I was agitated to have had to deal with their adolescent bullshit but even more with the reaction I had laying eyes on Tatiana’s eighteen-year-old friend. I wanted her but knew I couldn’t have her. Not unless Tatiana and her parted ways for good. Then I’d bury my cock deep inside of her, fuck her into oblivion as many times as necessary… till I was done with her. Because one thing I was certain of that day; she wouldn’t hold my interest for long. Unfortunately, I was wrong.
God, was I wrong!
The agitation at remembering her first assumption of me soured my volcanic mood even further. I was only twenty years older than her and Tatiana. Hardly father material. From the moment I met Isabella, she stirred a beast inside me, hungry for her young body. I fought it, hard and long, wishing it was anyone but her that stirred this want and need inside me. Shortly after meeting Isabella, I had one of my men run a background check on her, digging up every single piece of dirt I could get my hands on. Imagine my surprise when I learned who her mother was. Isabella had no dirt on her, but her mother had plenty for both of them.
Marietta Taylor was my father’s ex-mistress. Small world!
But none of it stopped me from wanting and craving till I got Isabella. Then I twisted it into revenge and broke her heart.
That lust I experienced with her never happened to me again… not before her nor after her. She was slightly older now, but my cock remembered how it felt to be buried in her tight pussy. And wanted it again. Fuck, I wanted to strip her naked right now and pound into her.
“I’m going to change out of my bathing suit,” Isabella told Sasha and Tatiana. She was clearly ignoring me.
“I’ll come with you.” Sasha followed behind her. “While you are changing, I want to hear everything I missed. Because you have been avoiding me, little fish.”
A laugh bubbled from Isabella's lips and the two disappeared from my view. I fumed inside, barely containing the rage and the urge to go after them. I ground my molars and strode to the bar area.
“Isn’t it a bit too early for drinks, brother?” Tatian’s voice mocked.
“This coming from my little sister that starts sipping wine at eight in the morning,” I retorted back.
“Actually, I haven’t. Isabella doesn’t like me drinking so early. So we agreed once we had lunch, we’d have a glass of wine.”
“Maybe your friend is good for something after all,” I mocked, being a goddamn hypocrite.
“I’d say she is good for a lot more.”
I poured a glass of whiskey, the liquid immediately reminding me of Isabella’s eyes. My hand gripped the glass, the crystal threatening to shatter under the force. What were Sasha and Isabella doing right now?
“What the fuck do you mean?” I barked, while I imagined all the creative ways I could torture my brother if he touched her.
“Well, Ryan Johnson sent her half a million messages begging her to take him back. Sasha has always been crazy about her. Maybe those two will finally hit it off. So I’d say she is very good. Men fall all over themselves for her. They always have.”
Her smirk didn’t escape me.
“She told you Ryan wants her back?” My tone portrayed boredom, but my body was tense. She would never take him back. Right? If she took him back, I’d find another way to get rid of him. Maybe bury him six feet under some remote Louisiana field. Or he could become fresh food for the alligators.
And I’d never allow Sasha to tangle up with her. He knew better and so did she. I would never feed my little brother to the alligators, but I wasn’t beyond breaking both his legs if he touched her.
“No, I saw it on her phone. She never opened the messages. She asked me to help her with it since she was too upset.” I didn’t care; Ryan Johnson wasn’t good for Isabella. At least that was what I kept telling myself. “Vasili, whatever the hell you are doing, you better not fuck it up.” I growled, glaring at my sister. “Don’t give me that look. That woman caught banging Ryan… I’d recognize her anywhere. She used to be your plaything.”
It didn’t surprise me that she recognized her. I never brought women around my brother and sister, but the media seemed fascinated with who I fucked. They always blasted them all over the papers.
Women were just not a constant in my life so I never worried about the coverage. Everything was always yesterday’s news. Women were a commodity; I used them and discarded them.
Just ask Isabella,I thought wryly.
“Mind your own business, Tatiana.”
“I’m not going to ask what is going on, Vasili,” she started. “You wouldn’t tell me even if I did. But don’t cost me my best friend for your own selfish motives. I know you are the reason she stopped coming around.”
For the first time, my sister surprised me. And that rarely happened. In fact, I could count the times someone surprised me on one hand.
“And how do you figure that?”
“Whatever,” she muttered under her breath. “I’m not playing your games.”
