Chapter 11

Minutes later,and I've got myself a black mask that covers half of my face. I doubt she'd recognize me just from my mouth. But that's all Konstantin would offer.

I look around the place, ignoring the Russian beside me.

There are so many people here, I don't know how I'll find her.

"Want to know where she is?" Konstantin leans over. "All you have to do is ask."

Hell, I hate asking him for anything. Every favor seems altruistic until you uncover his true motives. He never does anything for no reason.

The Marinov family are known psychopaths. All four brothers, even their cousins, are insane. No one compares. None that I've met. I've watched Konstantin rip a guy's neck…with his bloody teeth. All because the man stole a few hundred from him. You can't cross the Russians. They will come after everyone you love.

No one is spared. Not women. Not children. Not a soul can escape them.

So for Eriu to be at one of his clubs… It's not good.

I've heard about them, these clubs. He has a few of them around the world, all under the same umbrella.

The worst part is, Eriu has no idea that the man who killed her mother is none other than Konstantin's father.

Iseult and the rest of the family have shielded her from the gruesome details of her mother's sudden death. No child should bear that sort of pain, especially someone so young. She thinks her mother died in a car accident.

The Quinns have done what they can to protect her from what they do. I know she's aware of who the family is now, yet she's only touching the surface.

I march ahead, still ignoring Konstantin, but he appears beside me, reaching into his pocket for his cell.

"One click, and I can tell you where she is right now. You'll be here all night looking for her."

He's gloating. The bastard wants me to need him.

I keep moving past him, determined to do this without his damn help. But he's up my arse, like a bloody roach.

I should just fecking ask where she is and be done with it. But I keep searching through the rooms, hoping she isn't on some bed or tied to the damn ceiling. The very thought makes me see red.

Eriu wouldn't do that. She's a good girl, a virgin, and losing it this way isn't like her.

But what if she's desperate? What if she thinks this is how she can avoid marrying Mason? He wants her to be a virgin, that much I know. If he told her that, she might see this as her only way out.

Jesus Christ, I can't let that happen. The thought of her with anyone else, anyone but me, makes me straight-up homicidal. If I were to see it, the man attached to her would be dead. I don't care what Konstantin does to me as retribution.

I keep searching in every crevice, but she's not here! Feck!

"Fine! Just bloody tell me where she is!"

"Ahh…finally." He clicks a few keys on his phone. "Go straight ahead and turn left. She's standing there. You can appear behind her. Touch her. Kiss her. No one will know. No one but me, of course." His laugh slinks with malice.

Would feel so good to put a bullet between his eyes.

He knows I like her. He somehow knows everything. Got eyes everywhere. I should be careful.

"I'd never touch her."

"Then let her experience it from someone else. Seems to me she's about to marry someone she can't stand, and she's looking for something he can't give her. And if you're too much of a coward to give it to her, then maybe someone else should."

In an instant, I have his shirt in my fist. "Don't you touch her, you filthy feckin' animal."

His laughter mocks, like I wouldn't kill him if he dared to touch what's mine.

Sure, he's probably got snipers around the place, and with one sign from him, I'd be lying bloody on the ground, but I won't let anyone talk about Eriu like that. Not even him.

He leans in. "I'd take it easy before one of my men gets trigger-happy. I do often remind them it's not safe to play with guns, but they just can't help themselves, I'm afraid."

I loosen my grip and eventually drop my arms to the side.

"I get it. The youngest Quinn belongs to you, though you've done nothing about it."

"It's complicated." I curl a fist at my side.

"Life is complicated, brother. But when you want something, you grab it and you drag it to hell with you."

"Maybe that's your way, but it isn't mine. I don't want her paying for my mistakes."

"Well, she'll be paying for someone else's. Why not yours?"

Before I can come up with a sensible comeback, he walks away, leaving me there to ponder whether Eriu and I could really have a future. But even if nothing from my past stood in the way, her father would never accept us, and without his approval, I'd never marry her.

Heading the way he told me, I rush past people, ignoring everything else but the thought of seeing her.

As soon as I happen on the back of that bright green dress and long, wavy brown hair, I know it's her. My heart beats faster, the air around me tightening in my chest.

I move closer until I'm right behind her, so close I can smell the rose scent in her hair from the shampoo she always uses.

Her eyes are on a man and a woman, him flogging her while she's tied up on a wooden bench, her ankles and wrists cuffed to it, her eyes blindfolded.

Is that what Eriu wants? Does she think about me doing it to her?

Better be me and me alone. She's the only woman on this planet who'd have a chance to ruin me, and I'd let her every time.

My fingers inadvertently reach for her soft hair, and I gently brush them down her locks. When I accidentally touch her shoulder, she turns around and jerks her head.

"Uh, hi?" she chokes out with a nervous, innocent laugh, her full lips parting—so damn kissable, I almost beg.

I can't apologize or say anything, because she'd know my voice.

I can pretend to be a mute. Anything to disguise myself.

"Did you mean to touch me?"

I nod once, and she clears her throat.

"Okay…umm, I'm not really into all of this. I just came here to see what it's about, ya know?"

I nod again. She's awfully nervous, and it's sexy as hell. I've never been the kind of man to want to be a woman's first, to want to take it and own it the way I do right now.

"Do you come here a lot?" she asks.

I shake my head.

"Do you talk at all?"

I shake my head again.

"Oh! Well, that's okay. My friend Karen tells me I tend to talk too much, especially when I'm nervous." She laughs just under her breath. "Like now…'cause this place is crazy, right? I mean, oh my God. Can you even do things like this in public?"

I'd never allow anyone else to see you bare.

When I don't respond, she just goes on.

"Right. Me neither. Though it would probably get me out of an engagement since he cares more about my virginity than me."

I knew it.

Don't do it, love. You'd see me in a very bad light if I have to kill a man in front of you.

"My God, I have no filter." She giggles, fumbling a hand through her strands. "Must be the champagne I had a bit ago. I'm too much of a lightweight."

She continues talking about how her friend drinks, but she barely ever does.

My mind, though? It's still on her wanting to lose her virginity and how I want to be the one to take it.

Mason better have not said anything insulting to her. If he did, I'll gut him and send his carcass to his father.

She toys with a lock of her hair, and my heart aches to touch her again. Maybe she'd let me. But I'm nothin' but a stranger.

Still, I reach my fingertips and draw them down her arm.

Her chest rises and falls, and she watches me as I do it again. The back of my other hand glides down in between the V of her dress, wanting to slip it off and have her submit to me.

A woman's virginity has never been a factor for me, but with her, being her first is somehow something I now covet.

Her head lolls to the side, her pretty lips quivering, her nipples growing harder the more my hands remain on her silky skin. I draw nearer as my hands slip behind and down her bare back. A growl escapes me, an unending need and desire coiling in my gut, my cock so hard it could cut glass.

"Fuck," I mutter under my breath, trying to mask my damn accent.

"Wh-what?" she groans as my fingers slip into her hair, massaging her scalp as a little moan escapes her mouth.

She definitely heard me, but I hope she didn't recognize me, especially with the loud music.

My palms fall to her shoulders, and I slowly turn her around, back to the people she was watching.

I remain behind her, my fingertips brushing up and down her arms before I run a palm between her breasts and down her abdomen.

She gasps, but remains against me as I gently caress a thumb over a single beaded nipple.

Her feminine whimpers drive me insane, my hard-on heavy and throbbing. Before I can stop myself, I pinch the hard tip between two fingers, and she pants, grabbing hold of my thigh, so close to where I want her hands.

I hate that she's letting a stranger touch her this way, even when that stranger is me.

I want to touch her everywhere, want to rip off this dress and find the nearest wall to feck her up against, to tear her virginity from her until it's mine.

My thoughts are making me insane. This place is poison, yet I want it all with her.

My lips fall to her neck and I kiss her there, groaning as I do, teeth raking up her soft skin while her pulse beats life into my cold, dead heart.

When she moves a little closer, I palm her abdomen and pull her flush against my body so she can feel the effect she has on me.

My teeth grind when I remember that she has no idea it's me who's touching her this way. It's me she's moaning for. She thinks it's someone else, and she's letting him do this to her?

Feckin' hell.

I should rip off this mask and flip that dress right over and punish her for it. Would serve her right.

But that wouldn't be good. I wouldn't be able to stop myself from doing more when those beautiful eyes stared back at me.

I snap a hand around her throat and squeeze just a little until she gasps and pants like a deer in headlights. Her nails sink deeper into the muscle of my thigh, my breaths scattering wildly across her neck.

The fingers of my other hand ride down her stomach, lower, until they feather between her thighs.

She jolts, her cries morphing into gasps.

I growl and squeeze harder, roughly lifting up her dress until…

"Feck," I grunt under my breath once I feel her bare core.

She's not wearing panties. Jesus Christ! What is she thinking?

I'm not doing much thinkin' either, but right now I need this, and so does she. I slide my fingers through her wet cunt and she fights not to scream, gasping for air when I roll a thumb over her clit. Her ass arches into my cock, making me want to bend her over right here and take what belongs to me.

"Yes! Oh my God!" she cries as I continue to rub her.

That's all I'll have. I can't finger-feck her. Not like this, not her first time.

"I—I shouldn't," she groans, but I increase my pace until she whimpers, her head falling backward against my chest.

I bite down hard to stifle my own thirst, to stop myself from saying anything, or she'll discover it's me.

My thumb swirls faster, then slows a fraction before I rub her again, teasing her entrance with a tip.

She shudders and writhes against me, her release so close I can taste it—and holy hell, I wish I could right now.

I take her clit between my fingers and stroke until she trembles.

"Yes, yes. Oh, God, what's happening?"

I chuckle deep in my chest. Making you come, love.

Quivering and shaking against me, she screams as her pussy contracts with her orgasm. "Yes! Oh, God!"

Fisting her hair, I yank her head back, my teeth gritted as our eyes connect.

The way I want you right now would get me killed. Yet here I am.

Konstantin wasn't wrong. The mask…it adds a sense of courage I wouldn't have without it.

When she's finally finished, I tighten my grip on her soft strands and slowly draw her dress down. Pulling my fingers into my mouth, I moan as I taste her for the first time, her eyes hooded as she watches. Her chest heaves as she struggles to catch her breath.

"Why do you feel so familiar?" she whispers.

Mason doesn't deserve her. No one ever will. Not even me.

"There you are!" Karen suddenly appears, and I immediately drop my hands off her.

Eriu instantly tenses and straightens herself, clearing her throat, but her friend eyes us both.

"I've been looking all over for you…" Karen's attention jumps between us.

"Sorry, I've been here. Once I lost you, I just started to wander around."

"And who is that?" Karen loops her arm through Eriu's and stares at me.

"He's…uh…no one. He doesn't talk."

She jerks her head back. "Like he can't or won't?"

Eriu shrugs.

"Well…this is interesting!" Karen tilts up her chin.

"Oh God, we should go before you say something inappropriate!" Eriu tries to pull Karen away, but she remains there, continuing to ogle me.

"Inappropriate? Me? Never. I mean…I was gonna suggest you take Mister Hottie into a room and let him show you how good it can be." Her mouth curls. "You can do that, can't you, sir?"

"Karen!" Eriu huffs.

"What?" She laughs, a look passing between them. "Don't mind her. This poor girl's been holding out for someone else. This…uh, young and very handsome gentleman." She giggles. "And he's not interested. She's eighteen, almost nineteen, and still a virgin, and at this point, it'd be better if she weren't."

But my ears are ringing. She's interested in someone? Someone young? She wants him to take her virginity? Over my dead body.

"Shut up!" Eriu smacks her lightly on the chest. "I'm sorry about her. She likes to butt into my business quite a lot. It was, uh, nice to meet you. Have a great night."

I watch her go, and as she does, she glances at me from behind her shoulder one last time.

Is she thinking about what just happened? How she let some stranger bloody touch her and make her come like that? My exhale howls out of me.

Now I find out she likes someone else?

I'll find out who she's doting on, and I'll make sure he no longer exists. I know I'm not being fair, but fairness has nothin' to do with it.

If I can't have her, no one can.