If Madison chose to spend her time leafing through catalogues with the intention of helping Vlad furnish his spare apartment, it was only to liven things up by ordering new surfaces for him to fuck her up against. It all seemed terrifically simple to him. It was only Dmitry who was trying to complicate things.
“Here.” His brother tossed him a book, which Vlad snatched deftly out of the air. Kama Sutra for Dummies, the title read.
“I thought you dealt in rare books,” Vlad said as he let the trashy volume fall open in his broad hand.
“Recently it feels like I deal more in hopeless cases,” Dmitry remarked.
Vlad closed the book with a snap, fighting to control an unexpected rise in his temper. He had come all the way here to have a serious discussion, but Dmitry still insisted on treating him like the youngest brat in the family and little more. “I didn’t come here to discuss the family business, and I didn’t come here to talk to you about the girl,” he said finally. “I came to talk to you about Maxim.”
“Maxim?” Dmitry blinked owlishly. “Why? He was just in here the other day. He didn’t mention that he saw you.”
Vlad shouldn’t have felt surprised by this. He wasn’t even certain that Maxim remembered their encounter well enough to relate it; then again, he couldn’t discount the possibility that his brother was trying to cover his tracks.
“Do you trust Maxim, Dmitry?” Vlad asked.
Dmitry crossed his burly arms and stared at him for a long moment. Even beneath the navy wool sweater, Vlad could see that five years later, his brother was keeping up with his old workout regime. Good. Vlad was fast losing allies, and he would need the strongest to remain with him if he hoped to survive his investigation.
“How well do you trust him?” Vlad pressed his brother.
“I already know where you’re going with this,” Dmitry replied. “And if you know something about Maxim that I don’t, then you better tell me now. Is it his drinking? How bad is it?”
“Bad enough to lead him to pick a fight with Sergey,” Vlad said.
Dmitry’s severe expression shifted strangely then and Vlad knew what was about to happen before the bell even chimed above the front door. He turned slowly, but even his attempts to casually take in the intruder fell miserably short when he saw Madison O’Connor.
In the context of Dmitry’s dusty old bookstore, the woman was nothing short of stunning. Her brilliant red hair tumbled about her shoulders untamed; evoking immediate memories of what she looked like between his sheets. She had just come from work, and despite the wildness of her hair, was dressed as conservatively as a big city librarian in a crisp blouse and black skirt. She made Dmitry, the true keeper of the books, look shabby by comparison, at least in Vlad’s private opinion. Her face lit up when she saw him, her freckles racing to amass on the bridge of her nose as she smiled.
“Hi, Vlad. I’m glad I got the address right. What’s that?” she asked, staring pointedly at the book in Vlad’s hand.
“Nothing.” Vlad immediately shoved the book among the nearest series of volumes, concealing the title from Madison’s curious gaze.
“Don’t shelve that there,” Dmitry moaned. “That’s in the children’s section.”
Oddly, Vlad thought he saw Madison flinch at Dmitry’s words. Was it the mention of children that caused her to look so uncomfortable? Then again, maybe she just hadn’t noticed his brother sitting behind the counter until that moment.
“You must be Dmitry.” She recovered herself and joined them in the front room, extending her hand in greeting. Dmitry shuffled out from behind his desk to take Madison’s hand; then, surprising everyone in the room, he overturned it and kissed it.
“And you’re the art gallery owner,” he returned. “Fitting that a work of art should be surrounded by her contemporaries at all times.”
“Enough.” Vlad inserted himself between them, forcing Dmitry to break contact as he steered Madison away from his brother. “Let me give you the tour, Maddie.” He hadn’t expected to have such a visceral reaction to them meeting, but he decided not to question it. Instead, he led Madison further back into the stacks and out of earshot of his suspiciously grinning brother.
“Your brother is handsome,” Madison observed. Vlad felt a flare of jealousy at her comment, but he suppressed it quickly. He knew he came from an attractive family; even someone with vision as bad as Dmitry could see that much. He had just never expected to feel in competition with his older brother again after Dmitry’s defection from the family business.
“He’s a nerd,” Vlad said without any trace of generosity. “Anything remotely creative he just said to you probably came out of a book.”
“You called me Maddie,” Madison said.
Vlad glanced down at her, trying to assess whether he had inadvertently crossed a line. He kept his eyes hooded, his gaze impassive; but if his expression was unreadable, why was the woman staring back at him smiling?
“Nerd or not, you’re close to your brother,” she noticed as she turned away to trail her fingers along the spines of the old books. Vlad noticed she was carrying a plastic grocery bag in her other hand. He had been so distracted by her appearance that he hadn’t noticed it before. “This is the one who left the family business first?” Madison asked, pausing to throw a glance back at him over her shoulder.
“Let’s just say he left with the least amount of drama.”
“I think it’s sweet that you wanted me to meet him,” she returned brightly. “I really thought your family business was all that ‘family’ meant to you.”
Vlad sighed in exasperation. “Now you’re misreading my intentions as badly as Dmitry,” he stated.
“Seems to me that a guy who makes his living reading probably doesn’t misread often,” Madison pointed out. She stopped short in her browsing abruptly, and Vlad took full advantage of her pause to move in. He rested his elbow on the shelf above her; Madison backed herself into the books, lacing her hands behind her back with a look of wry, expectant amusement.
“I invited you here because I wanted to show you how safe you are with me,” Vlad explained. He felt stupid as soon as the words had left his mouth, but it didn’t make his intentions any less true. “There is more to the Bratva than what you may have heard in those crime dramas you watch late at night. Yes, I can hear you through the wall.”
Madison blushed. Either it was a guilty pleasure of hers, or she realized just how few nights they spent apart these days. “Like it or not, maybe ‘safe’ isn’t what I want,” she murmured. Vlad watched the sensuous movements of her lips as she spoke. He was well-acquainted with that mouth of hers by now, both on and off the battlefield, but he found he still couldn’t get enough of it. He leaned in.
“No. Wait. Bad segue,” Madison said. There was a rustling as she reached behind her, and she thrust a small box between them. “Here. You keep half of these stocked at your place, and I’ll keep the rest.”
Vlad’s brows knit together. “Condoms? I thought you said you were on the pill.”
“I am,” she said. “I have been for years, and you can bet I’ve never missed a day. It’s just… never can be too careful, right?”
“You think I’m seeing other women?” he asked her.
“No!” Madison exclaimed, bringing her hands up in protest and shifting the bag back up between them once more. “At least, you said it yourself. Our walls are paper-thin. I think I’d know it if you were. God, I hope you aren’t.” She gave a nervous laugh, one that Vlad ignored as he peered into the depths of the bag.