Chapter 32: Chapter 32

Coming back to New York is wild. I’ve called this city home for years, but after two and a half months at Drazen’s island paradise, I feel like a tourist when I step out of the car in midtown. Then I look up at the building that houses Crown and Black.

I grin to myself. Okay. Now I’m home.

“Bitch!!”

I laugh as Fumi sprints across the main floor of the offices toward me. She squeals as she plows into me, hugging me tight as we both almost go crashing to the floor in fits of laughter.

“What the fuck!” she blurts. “You said you were coming back tomorrow!”

I shrug. “Wanted to keep everyone on their toes?”

“Well, mission accomplished. I’m guessing I just failed spectacularly calling my boss a bitch in front of the entire staff…”

I grin at her. “Technically speaking, you’re an equity partner, not to mention an acting co-managing partner for another…what, eleven days?”

“I mean, twelve, but who’s counting.”

I laugh. “So, I’m not really your boss right now.”

“Phew.” She mimes wiping her brow.

Upstairs on the executive floor that rings the first level of our offices, Alistair is already waiting for me in my office, shaking his head.

“You know, the Taylor I remember wasn’t a fan of dramatic entrances.”

“Dude, I literally just walked in.”

“Yeah…a day early,” he smirks.

“That’s what I said too!” Fumi laughs behind me.

I roll my eyes. “You know, I think the thing it might be nice if you were both focusing on is that I’m home?”

Fumi sighs. “The thing is, I really thought you were coming back tomorrow, so I have a cleaning team scheduled to hit your place tonight to make it look extra tidied up. I think they only quoted two hours, though. So if you want, maybe we can go out and grab dinner while they do their thing?”

I bite my lip, my cheeks flushing. I’ve been debating how to broach this subject the whole way back to New York, and I still can’t think of what’s best. So, seems like I’m going to go with the band-aid approach.

As in, rip it right off.

“Dinner sounds great,” I smile nervously. “But, I…” I clear my throat. “I won’t be staying at my apartment.”

Fumi frowns.

“Where will you be staying?” Alistair asks.

I laugh quietly. “Wanna take an early lunch?”

“I mean, shit, girl…”

It turns out that none of us could, in fact, take that early lunch. So I kept going band-aid style and just let it rip that I was maybe-sort-of-kind-of-actually-for-real in a relationship with Drazen.

A relationship. I didn’t mention the marriage years ago, because that opens a whole can of worms I’m still not completely sure about: my past. The fact that I’m Annika Brancovich. The fact that I might not be. Meeting Fumi’s brother in a freaking rowboat in the middle of the night like a Mission Impossible movie plot.

Basically, a litany of things I still need to figure out myself before springing on my friends before ten o’clock in the morning, at the office, without the benefit of cocktails.

Fumi freaked when I told them about Drazen. Alistair laughed and crowed that Gabriel now owed him five grand for a bet they’d made.

Thanks, pricks.

But now, hours later after work, Fumi and I are getting drinks, and I’m giving her a few more details about the last few months.

Well, some of the details.

Okay, broad strokes, if I’m being honest.

“It’s…complicated, to say the least,” I giggle, rolling my eyes.

“No shit.” Fumi smirks at me over the rim of her margarita. “But…I get it.”

“You do?”

She shrugs. “Yeah, no, it’s super hard to imagine why you would be attracted to a tall, muscled, dark-haired, blue-eyed man with tattoos, power, and a heavy sprinkling of danger. So weird that you wanted to tap that.”

I snicker. “Don’t forget the money.”

“Right,” Fumi rolls her eyes. “Because boss bitches pulling mid seven figures a year in their corner offices in Midtown and driving Porsches are such notorious gold-diggers.”

“Busted.”

She laughs. I grin at her.

“Just kidding. It’s not the money.”

“Just the rest of it?”

“Totally. That, and the god-like dick.”

Fumi explodes in laughter, almost spitting out her margarita as my face burns.

“WOW,” I groan, covering my face. “That’s me cut off. I’m done.”

“Oh no-no-no you’re not,” she laughs. “Details.” She taps the table with a peremptory finger. “Right the fuck now.”

I blush fiercely as I shake my head. “Not happening. Trust me, you can’t handle the details..” I say doing my best Jack Nicholson Few Good Men impression.

Fumi smirks, arching a mischievous brow. “Wanna bet?”

“Meaning?”

She grins. “Meaning deets right now, or I’ll start spilling the extremely sordid details of Gabriel’s and my…private lives.”

I make a face. “Oh my God, please don’t. Lest you forget, you’re married to someone who is basically my brother?”

“So that’s a no to hearing about the masks and the breaking-and-entering role-play?”

“Oh my fucking God,” I groan, covering my face again as Fumi cackles. “I hate you.”

“Nah, you love me.”

I roll my eyes, sighing. “Good thing.”

But also, that’s…interesting to know about her and Gabriel. Not that I need to think about it too much. Or at all.

My friend shakes her head as she sips on her margarita. “But damn, girl. You probably had quite the last few months over there with him.”

I bite my lip, my cheeks burning. “You could say that.”

“Good,” she smiles, squeezing my hand. “I’m happy for you. You deserve it…especially those sordid details you won’t tell me about.”

“Not happening.”

She smirks. “Is it rope play? Maybe a little shibari action?”

“Oh my God, Fumi…”

“I mean he’s got Dom written all over him.”

“Please stop talking.”

“Is it a Daddy kink? Is he Daddy Drazen?”

I groan, dropping my face into my hands again. “You need psychiatric help.”

“And you need to tell me what sort of wild shit you got up to over there,” she giggles. “Because I can do this all night. C’mon, hot and scary-dark with a mysterious past and controlling a Bratva empire?” She whistles. “He’s totally Daddy Drazen, isn’t he?”

“Only when she needs me to untie her and take her panties out of her mouth.”

Fumi almost has a heart attack as she spins toward the deep, velvety baritone voice.

Honestly, so do I.

My face burns like molten lava as I whip around and lock eyes with Drazen. He’s in charcoal gray dress pants and a perfectly fitted black dress shirt, no tie, with the top button undone and the sleeves rolled up his veined, muscled forearms.

His brow is quirked up in amusement, a smug grin on his face as his gaze pierces into me.

“Isn’t that right, dear.”

Fumi snorts as my face goes crimson.

“He’s…joking,” I mumble.

“I’m not.”

I groan as Fumi howls with laughter and stands from her stool to face him, a hand extended. “Good to see you again, Mr. Kry⁠—”

“I think first names are fine once you’re discussing someone’s sexual tastes, wouldn’t you agree?” Drazen interrupts, firmly shaking her hand. “And yes, good to see you again, Fumi.”

Her face turns dark red as she glances at me, then back to him. “So you…definitely just heard all of that.”

“Every word.”

He lets that sink in for a moment.

“Now, if you don’t mind, I need to borrow Ms. Crown for a moment.” He turns to me, his face unreadable. “Let’s step outside.”

As he turns away, I take a gulp of margarita and glance at Fumi. “Be right back.”

“Unless he ties you up and gags you with your undies,” she mutters under her breath.

“Oh, that only happens when she misbehaves, Mrs. Black,” Drazen says mildly.

I cringe as Fumi howls with laughter. She eyes me, jerking a thumb at Drazen. “Okay, I like him.”

Outside the bar, I gasp when Drazen turns and pulls me tight against his chest. Without a word, he cups my face, leans down, and kisses me brutally and deeply. The air leaves my lungs. My feet feel like they leave the ground as I melt against him hungrily.

He pulls back, and I exhale a shaky breath.

“For the record,” I murmur, “you can interrupt me literally any time if that’s what you want to talk privately about.”

“Noted,” he grins before his face darkens a little. “Unfortunately, that’s not the only reason I needed to see you.”

My brow knits at his serious tone of voice. “What’s going on?”

“I think we found Vadik.”

My face instantly hardens. “Oh?”

He nods.

“So… What happens now?”

He shrugs. “I go make sure, drag him out of whatever hole he’s hiding in, and skin him alive.”

A shudder ripples through me.

Somehow, I don’t think that last bit was hyperbole.

“When are you leaving?”

He sighs. “Now, actually.”

My mouth twists. But then I flush when he cups my face. “I won’t be gone long. A day. Two at the most. And while I’m gone, I want you to stay at my place. It’s well-protected and guarded.”

My brow furrows. “Are you worried about anything?”

It’s funny. Now that I’m…well, with Drazen, there’s an element to all of this I’ve never considered before.

Dating—or whatever I’m doing with him—a criminal kingpin certainly comes with a healthy dose of excitement. But it also comes with a huge side order of real, actual danger.

He shakes his head. “Not at all. But given that I’m going to be openly declaring war on the Belov Bratva…” He lifts a shoulder. “I just want to be extra careful with the things that matter most to me.”

My face burns hotly.

“So…your houseplants, right? You need me there to water and fertilize⁠—”

I whimper when he grabs my face and bruises his mouth to mine, silencing me as he steals my breath and my words.

“You,” he growls. “I was talking about you.”

“Oh, well…” I grin as I bite down on my bottom lip. “In that case…”

“There’s nothing to worry about, at all. But I’ll feel better knowing you’re there. Milos is flying in as we speak. He’ll be on-site to help with anything you need.”

I frown. “Milos isn’t really my biggest fan.”

He snorts. “He’s just a grump.”

“What, your best friend is a grump? Go figure.”

Drazen eyes me with a look that makes me grin as much as it sends a heated throb through my core.

“Yes. He’s also who I’d pick every time to watch over you if I wasn’t there to do it myself.”

I sigh. “Fair enough. I’ll buy him cookies or something to try and win him over.”

“He’s a fan of white chocolate.”

I make a face. “In that case, he and I are mortal fucking enemies. Forever.”

Drazen chuckles as he pulls me to him. I stick out my lower lip as I look up at him.

“You really have to go tonight?”

He nods.

“This second?”

“Oh no,” he frowns, shaking his head. He leans down, his mouth brushing my ear. “No, first I need to drag you back through the bar, past your friend, into the bathroom so I can bend you over the sink and fuck your slutty little pussy until you come all over my cock like a good girl.”

“What are we waiting for?” I breathe.

“Absolutely nothing.”