“I don’t want to go anywhere.”
Alya stretched, a long, luxurious flexing of the spine, trying to remember the last time she felt so good. “We do have a blood bond to complete, I suppose.”
“And I have questions.” He rolled over and picked up the discarded mask. “Questions about these things of yours. How you use them.”
Even after seeing him in bondage, she couldn’t believe it. Couldn’t believe that he was still curious, that he might want to do it again. “What would you like to know?”
“Well, first I’d like to know why you have fifteen boxes of cling wrap in your cabinet.”
“Oh, my sweet innocent.”
Chapter Fifteen
Dominick planted himself in front of the door. “They’re not to be disturbed.”
“Goddamn you. You’ve sealed my brother in the cellar—”
“Along with my prince.”
“Exactly. You’ve entombed my brother in a cellar with the Wicked Witch of the West.”
“Gregor.” Maddy put her hand on his arm. “Hear him out.”
“They’ve not murdered each other, that I’m sure. I’ve heard them laughing.”
Gregor said, “Mikhail never laughs.”
Maddy liked Alya’s handsome lieutenant, and she didn’t think he was lying. If Alya Adad employed men like him, she couldn’t be all that bad. But Gregor wasn’t patient at the best of times, and all the way to Los Angeles he’d been on edge, worried for Mikhail and for the whole family. Something had to give, and soon.
Gregor picked up the screw gun. “I’m not waiting. I don’t trust this fucked-up matchmaking scheme of yours.”
Dominick stepped forward, fist raised.
Maddy slid between them. “Dominick, you’ll agree they have to come out sooner or later, right? Why not now?”
“If they’re happy just now, I want them to stay that way. Let it sink in to their thick heads that they’re good for one another.”
Maddy said, “You think they’re a good match?”
“Mrs. Faustin, I know my prince.”
She squeezed his arm and they shared a smile of understanding. The tension dissolved. “That’s wonderful, but they can’t live in the basement for the rest of their lives. Let Gregor unscrew the door. Mikhail will want to see us, I’m sure of it.”
Dominick agreed reluctantly. It took a long time to take the bracings off the door. Considering all the racket, she was surprised—and a little worried—that Mikhail didn’t come up and speak to them through the door.
Gregor ventured down first, moving cautiously, keeping her behind him with one hand. Dominick brought up the rear. She supposed he had more to fear than either of them. The narrow stairway emptied into a dim room, very leathery and red, like the door above. The first thing Maddy saw was a scary looking cage. The next, a set of broken chains dangling from the cracked ceiling.
“Sweet fucking Jesus,” Gregor whispered.
She followed his gaze to the floor and saw Mikhail and a tawny goddess lying together in gorgeous tangle of flesh. Not dead, but deeply, profoundly asleep.
They slept in a nest of what looked like yards and yards of shredded plastic wrap. Around them lay a debris field made up of every sex toy Maddy could name, and others she’d never even imagined.
Mikhail was smiling.
Epilogue
Six months later, Central Park
“That one.” Mikhail pointed to a man walking alone fifty yards away. Alya leaned forward to see him better. The tree branch they shared creaked in protest.
“Too skinny.”
“Picky.”
“I’m famished. I want someone I can really tap.”
He lifted his nose, testing the air. “Snow’s coming.”
Alya caught the scent. “You’re right.”
A woman with a stroller walked beneath them, followed by an old lady with a tiny dog. The dog glanced up at them, tucked its tail between its legs and scooted away. Alya kicked her heels in the air, admiring her cashmere tights and new half boots. She’d missed shopping in New York. Beside her, Mikhail scanned the darkness, intent on hunting. She didn’t want to go home the next night. Though she never would have believed it a year ago, she liked sharing a bed with Mikhail Faustin and waking up together at sunset. When he was with her, she didn’t need pills to sleep and never had nightmares. As he’d promised, he was her shield.
“Dominick says I’m intolerable when I come back from visiting you.”
Mikhail glanced her way with a half smile, but said nothing.
“And I smoke way too much.”
That got his attention. “Since when do you smoke?”
“When I’m alone. I have to do something with my mouth.” She batted her eyes at him. He was learning to laugh, but he didn’t laugh now. Instead his gaze flicked across her lips.
Alya’s breath caught in her throat. Living separately was almost worth this love junkie’s paradise of intense good-byes and sweat-soaked reunions.
“And Lulu. She’s a wreck without you.” Invoking the cat. How pathetic can you be?
“I suppose this means I should visit more often.” He dropped his voice to that suggestive rumble that gave her goose bumps. He knew it did too, the bastard. “That way I can save you from yourself, Dominick from you, and the cat from despair.”
“I have a better idea.” For a moment she lost courage, realizing how much she needed him to agree. Even now, it was hard to admit how much she needed him. She made sure her tone was breezy and her mind tight. “I’ve been thinking maybe we should go bi-coastal. Alternate households by quarters. Say, fall in the city, winter in LA…”
Mikhail frowned. She wilted inside. She knew he’d hate this idea. He said, “We’d each leave our territories unattended for half the year?”
“That’s what the Internet and airplanes are for.”
“Dominick could hold things on your end. Maybe. But Gregor isn’t ready, and he’s so busy with his clubs.”
“Spoken like a true big brother. Gregor’s all grown up. He could do it if you gave him a chance. You’re a phone call away, and he’d have your dad to advise him and Alex to back him up.”
“I don’t know. I don’t know if I could ever rest easy.” He stared off into space, considering, his face troubled. Suddenly, he tensed and lifted his hand. He’d caught scent of something interesting. A moment later, a hairy giant of a man strode out of a stand of trees. He was a teamster, or a lumberjack, or maybe a sasquatch. Something huge. Three hundred pounds of good eating.
“Go get him.”
Alya wanted an answer to her question first.
“I’ll think about it.” Mikhail never did anything without thinking. A lot.
“I’m serious.” She leaned over to kiss him. At first he just accepted the kiss, his lips molding under hers. Neither of them made any move to part. The kiss continued, his mouth hardened and he grabbed the back of her neck. His strong fingers were encased in a fine leather glove. The world titled at a crazy angle, and she started sliding down, down, down…
Back down the rabbit hole.
Eavesdropping, he said, “I like getting lost.”
Alya smiled into the kiss then nibbled his lower lip, but he found his self-control and pushed away. “Go. You might lose him.”
When she hesitated, he pressed his lips to the back of her hand. It was the gentlest of dismissals. “Go.”
Too hungry to argue anymore, she dropped noiselessly from the tree and took off after her prey. In the dark, and at the speed she moved, humans would perceive her as nothing more than a shadow, a trick of the eye.
She tailed him until he passed a promising clump of shrubbery. The classy thing to do would be to talk to him, fascinate him into joining her in the shrubbery, but she didn’t feel like being gentle. Instead she ran straight at him and tackled him, driving him straight through the shrubs to the hidden ground behind. He fought for half a second, until she captured his will. Hidden by the darkness, she drank deep, rubbing herself against his knee. She was so accustomed to combining sex and feeding, she could hardly separate the two. Mikhail might be a pristine hunter, but feeding turned her on like a light bulb.