Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 138217 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 691(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138217 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 691(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
Theo leaned in closer to his ear, the warmth of her breath a caress that made him want to be bad and lean in further and accidentally-on-purpose steal a kiss.
“All but invisible once in,” she murmured. “Brilliant design.”
Placing his hand on her lower back as they began walking again, he was struck by the slenderness of her body, the lightness of her being, this woman of steel and fury. “You still okay with hitting the club?” It came out rough with tenderness. “No foul if you want to back out of it. Drive calmed me down a bit.” And he wasn’t about to push her into a situation she found uncomfortable.
“From what I know of such venues, I’m not dressed correctly” was her response right as they reached the entrance.
About to tell her that it didn’t matter, that she fucking blazed with magnetic energy regardless of her attempt to hide her fire, he was interrupted by a familiar female voice. Nina Rodchenko herself had appeared at the door. Tiny, dark-eyed, and dark-haired, her skin a self-described shade of “vampire white,” she’d caused many a bear to quake in fear.
Tonight, she wore a dress with a high neckline that came to midthigh, had long sleeves, and hugged her body as if it had been painted on. The hue? A dark scarlet. The same shade as her lipstick.
Her shoes were skyscraper ankle boots in glossy black with laces that wrapped all the way up her calf.
“I can help you with clothes, honey,” she said in the sultry tones that had beguiled admirers from one end of Moscow to the other. Nina, however, didn’t date. She was too busy taking over Moscow’s entertainment industry.
Yakov was grateful he wasn’t susceptible to the Nina effect. It was just sad to watch her admirers make puppy eyes at her that she never noticed. He did, however, respect her economic and political nous. “Theo”—he made a gentle circle on her back—“this is Nina.”
“I own the club and a number of other enterprises,” Nina said. “Including a boutique down the road. Strange as it might seem, more than one individual has found their way to my club right after work. Which is why I keep an array of the boutique’s offerings here for purchase.”
“A shrewd business decision.”
Theo’s cool words seemed to please Nina; she smiled with more warmth than Yakov had ever before seen her display. “Exactly. Come, darling, I’ve got a dress or two in your size.” A cool glance at Yakov. “Hmm, are you the one I banned for two weeks?”
Yakov gave her his best choirboy smile. “Ban finished three days ago, remember? Also, in my defense, I was breaking up a fight when I accidentally fell on the jukebox.” In bear form.
He was a big bear.
The jukebox had been toast. Really flat toast.
“I know,” Nina said with a gimlet stare. “That’s why I only banned you for two weeks. The fighting idiots who shifted into their fur to fight are not welcome for the next six months. Amuse yourself. We’ll be back when Theo is good and ready.”
As Nina turned to walk away, Theo glanced back at Yakov with a question in her eyes. A sudden and bright tenderness bloomed inside him at the realization that she was checking with him that it was safe to follow Nina. He gave her a quick nod.
Not saying anything further, Theo left with the club owner.
Instead of going inside with her, Yakov shot the shit with the two bouncers. One the stereotypical hulking man, the other an average-sized woman with a real mean look to her. Both were, of course, bears. Who else was Nina going to hire to keep the riffraff out of her club when the majority of said riffraff was stronger than any human, Psy, or even wolf?
Within StoneWater, the rules were clear: while on the job, Vadim and Calina were bouncers, not clanmates. They might be your best friend in the clan, but they’d boot you on your furry ass if your ass needed to be so booted.
Now, Vadim waggled his eyebrows. “The blonde is hot.”
“I think you mean icy,” his partner murmured, relaxing what she called her “resting assassin face.” “That one’s not for you to play with, little boy.”
Vadim growled. “Are you insulting me?”
Calina rolled her eyes. Friendlier expression or not, she remained the more deadly of the two bouncers, her body ripped under the uniform black. “I’m protecting you, you big idiot. She’s Yasha’s. And even I can’t put our pretty Yashmina here on the ground.”
Her partner shaped his mouth into an O and looked carefully at Yakov. “Sorry, Yasha. Didn’t mean to step into your territory.”
“Maybe don’t say that in front of Theo,” he suggested, though secretly he liked the idea of thinking of her as his territory. And secretly was exactly how he’d keep it. There were some things you just did not say to strong women. “She might kill you dead, then flay me alive.”