Russian Mobster's Forbidden Mistress (2 page)

Boris poked Mikhail. “I guess maybe you marry Daniella to Josef to keep her under wraps, eh?”

“In his dreams,” Mikhail said with a snort. “A Mikalevich marrying a man with no family? Not likely!” Then Mikhail gave Josef’s shoulder a brotherly slap. “No offense, my friend. But my father and I have big plans for Daniella. We need an alliance with the Rusnaks. That’s the real reason my father called his princess home from college. He’s planning to tell her about the arrangement and hammer out the details before he kicks the bucket.”

Josef found it suddenly difficult to breathe. It didn’t surprise him that Mikhail wouldn’t want his sister married to a man like him. No matter how much Mikhail and Daniella seemed to hate each other, she was still a Mikalevich, and their family pride was a force to be reckoned with. In contrast, Josef was exactly what Mikhail claimed—a man of no family and no prospects other than his close association and high position within the Mikalevich family. Josef was Mikhail’s right hand, a trusted confidante, and a comrade in arms, but that didn’t make him next on the list to become family when an alliance with the Rusnaks was more profitable.

The thought was like acid in Josef’s gut. He stood up, needing air.

“Where are you going?” Mikhail wanted to know.

Josef didn’t turn around. “I’m going out back for a smoke. Just deal me out of this hand.” Josef tried for the banter he usually shared with Mikhail. “That will give you a chance to win back your money, hmm?”

The laughter and mocking shouts followed Josef down the hallway and out the back. He let the door snick shut on the noise, glad for the relative silence of the outdoors. It was a quiet night. Only the sounds of traffic on the street out front disturbed the stillness.

Josef put a cigarette between his lips and lit it carefully. He flipped his lighter closed before taking a long drag. Exhaling slowly, he watched the smoke drift up into the sky. It appeared briefly in the dim orange glow of one of the carriage lamps on the back of house. That was about the time Josef saw a rather strange shape in one of the trees growing close to the house.

The big oak had been there as long as Josef could remember. He and Mikhail had used it many times to sneak in and out of the Mikalevich household. Apparently the tree was still serving that purpose.

As Josef watched, Daniella shimmied out onto a thick branch. She seemed to be dragging something with her. Then she splayed herself flat on her belly and let a dark package drop to the ground. It landed with a muffled thud on the thick grass.

Once she was certain her parcel was safely on the ground, Daniella continued her trek across the branch to the trunk of the tree. Josef said nothing. He didn’t want to startle her and cause her to lose her grip. The last thing he needed was for Daniella Mikalevich to break her neck on his watch.

She was shockingly agile. Josef watched, impressed, as she wrapped her arms and legs around the tree trunk and began slowly navigating her way from branch to branch. Sometimes she would hang, swinging herself until she could catch hold of her next perch with her arms or legs. Until she reached the bottom where the drop was rather extreme.

Josef well recalled that drop. It was why the tree was a fine vehicle for escaping the house, but a poor one for returning after a night of fun. He and Mikhail had taken turns standing on one another’s shoulders to be the first one up, then pulling the other up onto the first branch. But the fall to the ground had always been jarring.

His belly knotted with tension. Daniella was staring at the ground as though she were having second thoughts. He had almost started to relax, thinking that she would change her mind for sure, when she abruptly dangled from the branch.

“Oh shit,” she muttered. “That’s a long damn way.”

Josef couldn’t remain a silent observer anymore. He let out a low whistle, already smashing his cigarette beneath his heel. The sound seemed to startle her. Josef moved faster. He saw her lose her grip completely and he sprinted toward her.

Daniella gave a tiny squeak as she fell from the tree. Josef lunged at the last second. He stretched out his arms, trying to gauge exactly where she was going to land. He launched himself into the air and caught her lithe body, tucking her into the curve of his as he landed with a thud in the grass.

* * *

Daniella had no idea what had just happened. One second she was pitching downward in a stomach-wrenching free fall toward the hard ground, and the next she was cradled in a set of strong arms. She felt utterly shocked.

“Are you all right?”

The husky voice was undeniably male, both strange and familiar. Daniella squinted in the dark, trying to see whom it belonged to. It felt good to be in his arms. That was for sure. He had a firm chest beneath his tailored dress shirt. His sleeves were rolled to the elbows and she could feel the strength in his corded forearms.

“Why did you do that?” she asked breathlessly.

He chuckled. “Because you were going to break your neck.”

“Who are you?”

“You don’t know?” He seemed honestly surprised.

She felt a little miffed that he didn’t seem inclined to enlighten her. “It’s dark out here.”

“I’m guessing the darkness is what you were using to hide your decision to run away?”

“I’m not running away,” she argued. “I’m just trying to go meet my friends at the club.”

“Ah.”

The rumble of his voice in his chest sent a pleasant tingle through her body. He was warm and he smelled good. Considering she’d spent most of her growing-up years at an all-girls prep school, only to continue on to an all-girls college, she was sadly inexperienced with men. Now that she knew what she was missing, the club was looking more and more enticing.

“What?” She struggled to breathe normally. “Aren’t you going to threaten to go tell my brother or my father?”

“Why?” His calm tone was incredibly soothing. “Aren’t you a grown woman who can make her own decisions?”

“Way to make a girl feel stupid,” she said mournfully. “If I say no, I look like a complete nitwit. But if I say yes, I’m completely ignoring the fact that sneaking out is basically acknowledging that I’m
not
a grown woman. Or maybe it’s just alluding to the fact that my family doesn’t allow me to make my own decisions. I don’t know.”

“Sometimes families have a tough time recognizing that someone who used to be a child, is an adult,” he suggested. “Perhaps sitting down and having a rational discussion would be the best way to help them make that transition.”

His tone was so reasonable that she could almost believe what he said was true. She gently poked him in the chest. “You’ve obviously met my family, because you came from the direction of the back door. But you can’t possibly know my father or my brother very well, because you actually seem like you believe that nonsense you were just saying.”

“You don’t think I know your family, hmm?” There was open amusement in his voice now. She could sense he was smiling. “You truly have no idea who I am?”

“I told you, it’s dark.”

“Stand up then.”

Dani struggled to stand up without accidentally kneeing him in the groin, or something equally embarrassing. She felt like the most awkward teenager instead of the grown woman they’d only just been discussing.

Her rescuer gained his feet with the grace of an athletic individual completely comfortable in his own skin. He seemed to rise from the ground with almost no effort at all. It was rather intimidating. Then the barest hint of light from the carriage lamps outlined the features of his face and the bottom utterly dropped out of Dani’s stomach.

“Josef?” she gasped.

“
Da
.” He smiled, the expression appearing almost rakish in the half light. “I cannot believe you did not know it was me.”

“Me neither,” she said, swallowing the lump that had appeared in her throat.

In fact, she was dumbfounded. How could she have not known that the object of her every girlish fantasy had been cradling her against his chest?

“Are you all right?” He seemed worried. “I didn’t hurt you, did I? I did sort of treat you like a human football.”

“No! No harm done,” she said quickly. “So, are you going to tell Mikhail?”

“No.”

“So quickly!” She couldn’t decide if this was a trick of some kind. “My brother is your best friend. You used to rat me out to him quite regularly, as I recall.”

He leaned in close, so close that Dani almost forgot to breathe. “That was when you were a girl.” She felt as much as saw his gaze raking over her body. “I don’t think either one of us could make an argument that you’re not a woman grown now.”

Her tongue felt like a wad of cotton in her mouth. She struggled with a desire to seem worldly and experienced, even though she was anything but. “So you have no problem if I go clubbing with my friends?”

“No.”

“Not even if I should meet a man and decide I might like to dance with him?” she teased. “Since I’m an adult, I should be able to make those decisions for myself, right?”

“I don’t know.” His voice sounded tight. “Is that what you want? To find some stranger who will dance the night away? Or would you rather choose a man who would respect you and put your pleasure above his own?”

Dani couldn’t speak. Josef wasn’t really saying anything inappropriate, but her mind was drawing all sorts of erotic images. She couldn’t be sure if Josef was suggesting what she thought he was suggesting.

Was she brave enough to find out?

Chapter Three

Josef should have gone right back into the house and reported Daniella’s escape to Mikhail. The Mikalevichs were a powerful family within the city. They commanded respect, but the position also came with a fair amount of danger from outsiders trying to wrest that power away. The possibility of Daniella being taken and used either as bait or ransom was very real. She should not be allowed to cavort around the city without an escort.

She was staring at him. Josef wished she would stop. Then she cocked her head to one side, a long swatch of blond hair falling over her shoulder to rest against the curve of her breast. “What if I asked you to go with me?”

“Clubbing?” He hoped he didn’t sound as horrified as he felt. “You want me to go listen to bad music in a room packed with people all spinning in circles and calling it dancing?”

“Oh I’m sorry, Mr. Culture.” She was obviously mocking him. “Am I offending your high-class sensibilities?”

“Do I look like a fan of modern industrial clubs?” He held out his arms to show her his custom-tailored slacks and shirt. That didn’t even take into account his ridiculously expensive shoes. But what was he trying to prove?

“No.” She shook her head. “Definitely not the club type. Or at least not the sort of clubs I frequent.” She put one finger to her lips. “Although if you don’t go to
my
kind of club, I wonder what sort of place you
do
go to?”

This was going nowhere good. Josef could tell. “Nowhere you would find interesting, I’m sure.”

“Oh really?” She put one delicate finger in the center of his chest. The touch burned. “That sounds like a challenge.”

“Not a challenge,” he said quickly. “Although I’m getting the feeling that you like to turn just about anything into a dare of some kind.”

“Maybe I do?” She abruptly turned and walked away.

Josef started to follow, almost as if instinct would not allow him to let her walk away. Then he realized that she was merely retrieving the bag she’d dropped earlier. She held it up, making a big show of unzipping it and examining the contents.

“Hmm, I wonder if I have any clothes in here that might be acceptable in the stuffy old clubs frequented by
your
kind.” There was a good deal of mockery in her tone, but none of it struck him as mean.

“My kind?” He tasted the words, wondering when he’d become that sort of man. “You say that as if I’m already your father’s age.”

“Oh not quite
that
old.” She waved her hand dismissively. “Certainly closer than I am, though.”

“Yes, by a whopping two years, as I recall,” he said drily.

“All right.” She dragged a garment of some kind out of her bag and shook it out. “Since you’ve managed to ruin my plans for the evening, you get to provide me with new ones.”

“Excuse me?” His gut tightened with what he was pretty sure was panic.

She waved her hands. “Well go on, go back inside and make your excuses to my brother for skipping out on the rest of your evening. Then get your butt back out here and take me to the sort of place you hang out.” Even in the near dark he could tell her expression was pure mischief. “And don’t worry, while you’re inside I’ll be changing into something a little more appropriate.”

“Appropriate?” He was aghast.

“Well, perhaps,” she mused. “Or it might possibly give you a heart attack. I don’t know.”

He muttered a pointless plea in Russian and then turned to go back inside the house. Even as he let himself back in through the door and entered the kitchen, he was wondering if he had lost his mind.

The poker game was still in full swing. Boris and Vasily were yelling at each other, both on their feet with their fingers pointed at the other. Mikhail was laughing so hard that there were tears in his eyes. It looked as if none of them had missed Josef on his exceptionally long smoke break.

“Ah!” Vasily crowed. “There he is! Did you smoke the whole pack of cigarettes, my friend?”

“Only half,” Josef shot back. “I don’t suck them down as quickly as you do.”

“Because Vasily
sucks
like a woman!” Mikhail joked.

There was another round of ribbing at Vasily’s expense. Josef was beginning to wonder if they had always been this juvenile and he simply hadn’t noticed. It was like being back in middle school. All they lacked was a stash of pilfered magazines featuring half-naked women.

“Since all of you are having such a good time,” Josef said casually, “I’m going to call it a night while I still have enough money to pay my rent.”

“Loser!” Boris shouted. “That’s right, old man, go home and cry to your mother!”