Page 7 of Cruel Bratva King

He slid his hand around my waist, the heat from his skin burning through the thin fabric of my dress and into my skin. My breath hitched, and my muscles tensed as the club suddenly felt too hot. I wondered if he felt it, too, the tension between us.

I wasn’t a very good dancer, but once he started to move, I moved along with him, and we flowed with the music until we were both lost in it—until I was lost in it, in him. It was as if the world stopped and only the both of us existed. I wasn’t reserved, I realized. I found a part of me I didn’t know existed.

A fun-loving, happy part of me where none of my problems existed. In a matter of minutes or an hour at most, this man had become my safe haven.

He swirled me around, and I landed in his arms. Then, he leaned close enough for his breath to warm my skin.He’s going to kiss me;I was certain he was. I closed my eyes, ready to kiss him, but he leaned in and whispered into my ears. “Do you want us to go somewhere more private?”

I tore my eyes open, my cheeks red with embarrassment. “Where?”

“Somewhere around.”

“Sure.”

He rewarded my consent with another stomach-fluttering smile before leading me away from the dancefloor. I followed him to a red, dimly lit room down the hallway. It was large and cozy, and no one else was around except for us. I looked around, taking the space in. This was the VIP room—or one of the VIP rooms considering we’d passed several other rooms in the hallway like this one.

He sat on one of the leather club cushions and dragged me to sit on his leg. “Now tell me, what’s the problem? Why do you look so unhappy?”

I bit back a smile that he even remembered. Like most guys, I’d thought he’d bring me here, make advances toward me, and that was that. Turned out this guy was different. It was almost as if he cared.

“It’s nothing,” I lied, lowering my head.

He put a finger beneath my jaw, tilting my face up. “Don’t lie to me,krasivaya,” he said, his dark eyes boring intensely into mine. “Who got you upset?” He leaned back on the cushion, spreading his arms on the armrest as he waited for me to talk.

“I—uh.” I took a deep breath. I wasn’t the kind of girl to share my problems with a stranger. I didn’t even share my issues with anyone who wasn’t Eva, but something about the way his voice was soothing and his interest in me made me feel like I could rely on him.

Somehow, he felt like a safe place I could trust and share anything with.

“There are lots of reasons,” I said. “I don’t know where to begin.”

“Begin anywhere. I’m listening.”

I held his gaze, finding strength in his words. “I lost my cat early this morning,” I told him. “She was twelve, and I already expected that she would die soon. There is just no way you can really mentally prepare for them to actually pass away, you know?”

He didn’t say a word, and he just kept listening.

“I lost a case too. My client had withheld details from me, putting our opponents at an advantage.” I closed my eyes, trying to calm the storm in my head. “My boss blamed me for it and fired me.”

“Who was the client?”

I didn’t know if it was right for me to tell him who it was. It was against my work ethic as a lawyer, but with my world falling apart, I didn’t give a shit. “He is someone popular, Enzo Conner.”

“And your boss?”

“Oliver Jenkins,” I answered. “You probably haven’t heard of him. It’s a small firm.”

He rubbed his jaw, lost in thought for a while, before returning his attention to me. “What else?”

I hadn’t wanted to tell him about Derrick. It was embarrassing, but he didn’t look like he was going to back down until he knew every single detail. I spent the next ten minutes narrating everything about me and Derrick to him, from the moment we started dating to the moment we broke up and today too.

By the time I was done, he couldn’t hide his disgust at Derrick. “Your ex-boyfriend is an asshole, you know that?”

“He is,” I agreed, smiling because he sounded like he could be my best friend if I weren’t this attracted to him. “I told him he was.”

“Good,” he said, straightening his back from the cushion and wrapping an arm around me to pull me closer. “Listen,krasivaya,I’m going to hunt them down, every one of them who hurt you. I’m going to hurt them as much as they hurt you until they’re on their knees, begging.”

His gaze turned dark, his tone dead serious. I knew he was just joking around. There was no way he meant what he just said, was there? “Are you trying to tell me you’ll take revenge on my behalf?”

“Yes,” he said as he pressed my breasts to the hardness of his chest. “I won’t only take revenge for you. I’ll make sure you never have a reason to be sad ever again.”

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