Page 47 of Wicked Little Game
“What are you doing? I don’t think my father said that this is supposed to be a throuple-date.”
He grumbles something in response but keeps his distance. It’s not that I don’t enjoy having him as my shadow, but they wanted a date, they wanted me to be charming, so that’s exactly what they are going to get.
The guy's eyes light up as he sees me coming closer, and he stands up straight, walking towards me to close the distance between us.
“Nikolai Chernikov, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” he says in a thick Russian accent and I have to admit that he’s even more attractive up close.
“The pleasure is all mine,” I say as I shake his hand. “I’m Ruby Barron, but I guess you already know that.” I catch him looking from me to behind me, and I turn my head to see what’s going on.
Sam looks like he’s ready to kill someone.
“James,” I hiss. “Distance.” He glares at Nikolai, then atme, but still retreats to the car. Only to glare at us from back there.
“Sorry, that’s my bodyguard. He’s a bit—reserved,” I say with a smile.
“Ah, don’t worry.” Nikolai laughs and raises his eyebrows before he turns around. “Mine.” He points at a black Range Rover while rolling his eyes. The man behind the steering wheel is massive, looking even more pissed than Samuel.
“Oh.”
“He’s okay, just looks mean,” Nikolai reassures me, but I’m not exactly convinced. I’m pretty sure that the guy could throw the whole SUV at us if we anger him. “My father is just paranoid.”
“Yeah, tell me about that,” I say with a forced laugh. “Your car is really nice.”
“Thank you,” he says, a proud smile on his face. “I restored it on my own. I’d offer you to drive around, but I think we’ll get in trouble if we go somewhere unsupervised.”
“Probably.”
He is attractiveandnice. The last few men my father tried to set me up with were either ugly, ugly and weird, or just outright creepy. And old.
While I prefer my men a little older, a sixty-eight-year-old potential husband would have been a bit toomaturefor my liking. Especially because I was not even twenty back then.
“You want to walk a bit and maybe sit down and have a drink?” Nikolai asks as we walk towards the entrance of the country club. Our bodyguards follow us at a distance and I can feel how Samuel watches every single one of my moves.
“Sure.”
We walk down a small path that’s mostly secluded while we talk about mundane things like vacations, cars, and pets. We both have to laugh as we figure out that we were on the same island in the Maldives just a week apart,five years ago.
A jellyfish stung Nikolai on the second day of his vacation, and I got a heatstroke on day six. We would have made a funny couple, waiting on the island doctor back then.
He’s telling me about his three dogs back at home as we come to a fork in the path. From past visits, I know that the left path leads back to the main houses of the country club, so I suggest we take this one and he agrees.
Unfortunately, we picked the exact time the country club runs its sprinklers and puddles form on the muddy ground. Just when I want to carefully step over, and probably right in a particularly big one, Nikolai stops me.
“May I?” He asks. “Don’t want your shoes to get dirty,” he says as he picks me up bridal style, careful not to touch me inappropriately.
He steps over the puddle and as I turn my head, I see that our bodyguards have caught up to us. To say that Samuel is pissed is an understatement, and without his mask, he isn’t able to hide his expression.
Good, that’s what he gets for lying to me, I think as I grin at him.
“Thank you.” Nikolai lets me back down, and I smile up at him. “So, what bad thing did you do to get sent here to meet me?” I ask as we walk towards the club.
“What do you mean?” he asks. “Why should a date with a beautiful girl like you be a punishment?” He’s charming, I have to give him that.
“If your father is anything like mine, which I suspect, you’re not here on your own accords.”
He looks to the ground, wiping a bit of mud from his leather shoe on the grass.
“Business,” he says. Adding, “But you are really pretty, please don’t get me wrong,” a second later, as if he wants to make sure I’m not offended.
