Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen

One month later

T atyana sat at the bar on top of the Admiral on a Friday night, sipping a glass of red wine and looking at the pictures her mother had sent her of Rex Harrison and her newest bird, a clever female Anna had named Brigitte Bardot.

She’s beautiful.

And so smart. I’ve already taken her to the park north of the city, and she found her way back to the home roost. After only two weeks of settling.

She smiled at her mother’s obvious excitement. She’d been worried that Anna would start texting her obsessively after a week, but her assistant must have been providing enough distraction, because her mother was happy and focused on her birds again.

You went to the farm last weekend?

Just for the weekend, but now that I’m training Brigitte, I’ll be home for a while.

That’s great. You’re going to breed her and Rex?

I hope so. He lost Ava last year, and he’s been lonely. He needs a new lady and seems interested in Brigitte.

Then I hope Cupid takes aim. Rex is a sweetheart.

I miss you, Tanya. When will you finish?

Soon I think.

Tatyana set down her phone and closed her eyes when she took a sip of the rich red wine the bartender at the club had recommended.

The music stayed at an easy level because vampire hearing was so sensitive, and the lights were kept low. The club wasn’t too crowded, but it was only nine o’clock. The real action would start around midnight when immortal business was done for the week and the vampires showed up.

Over the past month, Tatyana had slowly learned to recognize the creatures of the night that moved in her orbit. Most of them had far less presence than Oleg, but there was a way they walked and moved that was different from humans. They moved deliberately. They were watchful, and their senses were keen.

If there was any animal that vampires reminded her of, it was a lion. A lazy predator by all accounts, with little movement until it was ready to burst into speed. Most vampires held that quality in her eyes. They were watchful and waiting, ready to break their human shells as soon as it became necessary.

Not that it was ever necessary at the Admiral. Even when things got tense at a table, violence never broke out.

Tatyana had quit early that Friday and was trying to get her mind off work when her mother texted. She’d located the third of five accounts she and Elene had identified from Zara’s files that afternoon. With Grimace’s help, Tatyana had been able to access two of them in the past month, and Elene had emptied around ten million from Zara’s coffers.

She picked up her phone and texted her mother again.

I’m making good progress.

And you’re safe?

So safe that life is very boring right now.

“Who are you texting?”

Tatyana spun around and blinked when she saw who had spoken. Her boss was back in Odesa and wearing a scowl.

“Oleg.” Tatyana tried to keep her face blank, but her heart leaped and her body immediately reacted to his presence.

And Oleg knew it. His scowl died away, and the corner of his mouth turned up. “Tanya.”

He was wearing a moss-green sweater that gave his grey eyes a hint of green. His hands hung loosely in the pockets of a pair of grey trousers, and as soon as she turned toward him, she caught the smoky cedar scent that had haunted her dreams for weeks.

“Only my mother calls me Tanya.” She didn’t like Oleg doing it. “Find another nickname.”

He held out a hand. “Join me at my table. They’re setting it right now.”

She glanced at the bartender. “I’m just going to finish my drink and?—”

“I don’t sit at the bar.” He snapped his fingers. “Come.”

Since Oleg was the one paying for her wine, her room and board, and the millions of dollars that she was going to earn by finding Zara’s accounts, sitting with him for a drink wasn’t too big an ask.

She quickly typed.

Mom, my boss is back. I will text later.

Be careful.

Tatyana slid off the barstool and grabbed her wine. Oleg snapped his fingers at a server and one hurried over to take Tatyana’s wine from her hand to carry it to the table.

Tatyana sighed. “I can carry my own wine.”

“Not when you’re with me.”

“I see that you’re just as demanding as you were a month ago.”

“Why would I change?”

He put his fingers at the small of her back, guiding her through the crowded tables in the club, and it was all Tatyana could do not to shiver at his touch. The hair on her arms and neck was already standing up.

Her dreams of him had been relentless over the past four weeks, and he’d called her three times. Two of those times, she’d picked up the phone.

“You didn’t answer my call last week.” He leaned down and whispered in her ear. “Where were you?”

“Sleeping. In my bed. You called at three in the morning.”

“I was in Ireland.”

“And I was here.

“Hmm.” He put his hand on her elbow and slid his fingers along the crease where her arm bent. “You smell of saffron and amber. A little bit of black pepper.”

She barely managed not to shiver. “I got the perfume you sent, and I like it. Thank you.”

“Good.” He slid into the booth beside her. “I have a friend in Greece who makes it.”

“Vampire friend?”

“Yes, her nose is exquisite. We may form a business venture together if she wants to expand. Which she should because she’s very talented.”

Tatyana sat back and looked at him.

The server set down her wine, and Oleg ordered a bottle of what she was drinking for the table.

“What is it?” He lifted his chin and narrowed his eyes. “I enjoy it when you look at me, but I can tell your mind is spinning.”

“You like women.”

His eyebrow went up. “I do. I’m glad you have noticed.”

“Not just sexually.”

He smiled a little bit. “I like them sexually. And obviously in other ways too.”

“No, not obviously.” She picked up her wine. “Many men do not like women. Trust me, they will pretend to be your friend, but they don’t want to be your friend, they just want to have sex with you.”

“I plan on having sex with you, so I can’t blame them.”

She ignored his boldness and pressed on. “Yes, but you’re open about that. You’ve never pretended not to want to sleep with me.”

“We won’t be sleeping.”

She closed her eyes. “You know what I mean. But you like women. You and Elene are close friends. You have multiple female executives at SMO in positions of authority. You have a friend who makes perfume that you might invest in.”

“I have also had sex with two of the women you have mentioned, but you are correct. I enjoy women in many ways, not only sexually.”

The waiter came back and poured Oleg a glass of wine. He lifted it and held it out to Tatyana. “To women. Who are fascinating and beautiful and maddening at the same time.”

“I take it you still haven’t found… her.” Tatyana glanced at the crowd in the club and lowered her voice. “Elene told me to keep my mouth shut.”

As far as anyone outside Oleg’s inner circle knew, Zara was dead and Oleg had killed her. Tatyana was still wrapping her mind around being in Oleg’s inner circle in any way, but she understood how to be quiet.

She didn’t know why Oleg had been traipsing around Europe for a month, but Elene said that was normal. He had many businesses and interests in other places and had multiple disputes to either settle or negotiate as a vampire lord.

“No, I haven’t found our mutual friend.” He slid closer to her and bent down to her ear. “But I did come to a realization, which is why I returned before all my business was concluded. Do you want to know what it is?”

Tatyana couldn’t stop her shiver. “Do I really have a choice?”

“You always have a choice with me.” His breath was cool on her heated neck. “When it comes to this , you always have a choice.”

Her heart was pounding in her chest when she whispered, “What was your realization?”

“I left without claiming you, little wolf.” His lips hovered over her neck. “That means all these vampires might think you’re fair game.”