Page 24 of Heir to Desire

“Nikolai,” Damien cut in, “politicians only run certain facets of cities and countries. The rest is managed by the underground world. By us.” He licked a few remaining crumbs from his second sandwich off of his fingers.

I wanted to lick those fingers again myself.

“Have you seen politicians making any real change these days?” Mr. Ivanov asked. “It’s not usually the politicians who are making real moves in improving people’s lives. It’s the people themselves. The mafia has a history of stepping in where politicians can’t. Although, of course, it’s usually done in ways thatalsobenefit the mafia. That’s how your parents were different.

They were hardly looking out for themselves.”

“If you want to make real change,” Damien began, “fuck NYU. Run the Russian mafia.

Use your family’s wealth and power to help people.”

“And for God’s sake, start by killing off fucking Vladimir Obelensky before he kills you, dear Nikolai. That man has been a menace to society.”

“Don’t you worry about that,” Damien said. “Even with several more decades under his belt than Nikolai, Vladimir is no match for the true mafia prince we’re sitting here and having lunch with.” I blushed a bit and turned away. Damien smiled a wide smile.

“Thanks so much for lunch, Mr. Ivanov,” I said. “I think I better go shower. I have dirt and melted snow in my hair.”

“Go right ahead, my boy,” Mr. Ivanov said, standing up to clear my plate for me. “By the way, did you ever reach your grandfather?”

“No, he never answered when I called, and he doesn’t know how to read texts,” I said.

“Well, I spoke with him once after the time you two caught up and explained that you were perfectly safe here, which seemed to give him a lot of relief. But I’m sure he’d love to hear from you.”

I felt guilty for having gotten so caught up in mafia training and the Damien fucking. Not that I would trade the latter for anything in the world. How had I not tried calling Grandpa again?

I went up to the room and tried him again before hopping in the shower. Again, he did not answer.

If I truly had all this money from my other grandfather—the one who ran the Russian mafia, that is—we were going to buy Grandpa a hearing aid, and that was that.

Chapter 14

Damien

I could hear Mr. Ivanov giving Nikolai a tour of the manor, which is something I hadn’t really thought of doing myself. I was too caught up in giving my own eyes a tour of Nikolai’s body, of his face. And, just a few hours prior, of his hole in the clearing.

“You can see cameras, there, there, and there,” Mr. Ivanov said as they walked down the hall outside my shut door. “And motion detectors there, there, and there.” “Mhm,” I heard Nikolai reply.

“Mhm,” I replayed again and again in my head. His sweet voice, the perfect balance between manliness and femininity, strength and beauty—he’d drive me crazy with that alone, let alone his body.

There was no use in fighting it any longer. Especially not after learning that he felt the same attraction to me.

Fuck my parents. Damn them to hell. I wanted to be in the mafia my way—I would be with the true blood heir to the whole gang. It was early on, I knew, but I wanted to be with Nikolai forever. I wanted to run this mafia with him just as his parents had done. I wanted to win over all of the old followers who’d left for Vladimir once more, yes, even my parents, so that they would have to obey and respect me for a change. I was going to be married to the boss, to the Pakha.

Who would look weak then? They’d have to crawl back to me with their tails between their legs.

The fucking good-for-nothings.

God, I was so crazy about Nikolai. And I could see how he was staring at me while we were eating lunch. The boy was crazy about me too.

I didn’t want anyone in the manor to know about us just yet, but I was also done hiding it. I’d never felt as good as I did out in the woods with that boy. Just imagine how good it would feel to sleep with him in bed, holding him close to my body, allowing my heart to beat against his back as he drifted off into a dreamland, knowing that when he returned to this realm, I’d still be there, holding him, as if he’d never left. I would never leave him, either.

Chapter 15

Nikolai

After a long day of learning the ins-and-outs of Mr. Ivanov’s security and tech obsession, I enjoyed a festive dinner with the rest of the crew, whom—not unlike Damien—I couldn’t resist my fondness over. Svetlana, dressed in black like always, her equally black hair finally loose from the militant bun she usually wears and flowing beautifully down her narrow back, was dry but hilarious. She told stories that began dark—something terrible about an ex husband—and the ways she’d get revenge on them by placing laxatives in their coffee. Of course, if you didn’t focus too much on how she’d eventually killed these husbands (they seemed to deserve it, all of them having physically abused her in some awful way), the whole thing was incredibly twisted but light hearted.

Igor, that ogre of a man, would let out a boisterous laugh as Svetlana spoke.