Page 9 of Stolen By the Bratva
The enemy.
“You can’t come in here.” I crossed my arms.
“I can’t?” The man lifted his sunglasses to bore me with his serious, sinister stare. “Looks like we can. And we just did.”
“Alek.” His companion sighed, like he was used to this smartass. “Enough of that mood.”
“Mood? That’s what you call… that?” I gestured one hand at the hulking man. With muscles galore, he was a tall, towering giant. Power radiated from him, and I knew without a doubt that he had to be one of the Valkovs’ high-ranking soldiers. “You need to leave.”
Alek tipped his chin up, looking down his nose at me. I’d never been a petite woman, but I’d always been cursed as too short. I’d be damned if I craned my neck to meet this jerk’s gaze. I ignored him, doing my damnedest to curb the instant urge to check him out. Instead, I faced the almost kinder one. He couldn’t be a nice man, but he seemed calmer, not ready to fight me or argue semantics. “You need to leave,” I repeated.
Even though I tried speaking past him, addressing his friend, Alek stepped closer and closer.
I lowered my arms as I retreated toward my desk. Instinct had me leaning back, holding the edge of the furniture for support. The nearer Alek came, the less I remembered why I shouldn’t stand up tall and order him out.
His cologne teased my nose, but the scent of him, so raw and masculine, called to me. Heat exuded from him, warming me in this overly chilled room with fans and the AC. As he towered over me, glaring down and locking me in the spell of his intense stare, I wasn’t shy about why I should kick him out.
If he took one more step closer, I’d be caged in. The thrill of that idea sparked a flare of desire. I felt it in my pussy. In my nipples. I’d been surrounded by many virile, strong, and gorgeous men in my life.
None of them had ever instigated a rapid and visceral reaction like this before. I kept my lips closed and refused to show a flicker of awareness. He couldn’t know. I couldn’t go weak now. Not with the enemy.
“You think you’ve got the right to tell me what to do?”
I lifted my chin, clinging to defiance as he challenged me. “In here, yes, I do.”
“I don’t take orders from young girls like you.” He leaned his head to the side a bit, looking me over and lingering with his dark gaze on my breasts. With how deeply my chest heaved, I wanted to cringe at how hot and bothered he was making me.
Just like that. Zero to sixty. He had me craving his presence, and I didn’t like feeling so unsettled with it.
No. This isn’t happening.
They couldn’t get to anything here. Since I’d locked the computer, they couldn’t find anything of value here. Still, I knew what was expected of me. Allowing Valkovs to sneak around here would be an unforgivable mistake.
“Alek. Enough, I said.”
“Fuck off, Nik. I came here to speak with The Doc, not wait for some sex kitten to tell me what I can or can’t do.”
Sex kitten? I knew this dress had a lower cut than my others, but I was no?—
“What did you say?”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “You heard me. Sex kit?—”
I shoved at his hard chest, jarred from the haze of lust he’d so quickly put over me. The Doc? What a coincidence. “No. Why are you here?”
“We’re here to speak with someone about a shipment coming soon,” Nik said as I walked around my desk.
Putting the piece of furniture between us would be a good buffer, but with the intense way Alek continued to lock his gaze on me, I didn’t feel much safer.
“With The Doc,” Alek reminded me.
I shook my head. “There’s no ‘Doc’ here.” I had no clue if his wording tied into what I’d just seen on the computer, but I had to remain suspicious, if oddly drawn to his dark stare and warm proximity.
“You sure you know what you’re talking about?”
I narrowed my eyes. “I know what I’m talking about when I tell you to leave. This is Kastava territory, Valkov.”
He nodded, rubbing his jaw. “Haven’t you heard? We’re about to be united.”