Kostas took the stairs to Miklos’ office in the club two at a time and wondered why the hell his best friend was hiding there instead of at the bar, finding a juicy piece of ass to take home. He’d been complaining for the last couple of days about his child-bride. In his opinion, Miklos needed to get laid and soon. He was becoming a buzz kill.
“Hey asshole,” he pushed into the office without knocking.
Miklos sitting behind his desk pulled a gun from underneath it and leveled it at him. “You are lucky I did not simply shoot you.”
“And make a mess in your club? I doubt it.” Kostas laughed at him.
“What the hell are you wearing?” Miklos frowned at him.
“You don’t like it? I’m trying out a new thing.”
“White runners with a suit?”
“Sexy right?”
“You look like one of those idiots down on the dance floor.” Miklos got off the chair and moved to the window. “Trying too hard to get noticed.”
“Truthfully? I dropped a weight on my foot this morning during my workout. Broke my big toe. Hurts like a f*****g b***h. The runners were the only thing I could get on my foot.” He followed him to the window. “Thank heavens I’m between women right now or I wouldn’t be getting laid.”
They stood staring out the window and he noted Miklos’ eyes were trained on a trio of women in one of the private booths. He narrowed his eyes to see if he recognized them. “You keep watching those girls. Who are they?”
“I have no f*****g clue. When they first came in, they reminded me of my wife and her two friends, but I think it’s only because she’s on my mind and she always has her two friends with her. If you look around this club, there are more trios of women than you can shake a stick at."
“Which one looks like Dimitra?” Kostas hadn’t seen the brat in years. Miklos had sworn him to secrecy when he’d married her against his will. He personally was opposed to marriage in any form so knowing his best friend was stuck in one had made him push it to the far recesses of his mind. He’d actually forgotten about it until his friend complained the week prior about her moving home and his father-in-law demanding a grandchild. He almost gagged with the thought.
“The curvy one. Her hair isn’t red though.”
“Did she dye it? Maybe she’s here being sneaky.” In his opinion, women could be far more cunning than most men expected. He was perpetually on guard.
“Helios said her eyes were green when I asked him. He misses nothing. Also, Dimitra wouldn’t be caught dead in such a dress. She has always been very conservative in her clothing. My housekeeper’s opinion is she thinks she’s fat.”
“Why do women do such things to themselves? Do they not know how much we love something to hold onto? Is she fat?” He grinned as he thought of his last lover. She’d been all hips. He had loved being behind her.
“Not even close she has curves in all the most delicious places.”
Kostas ignored the comment and focused on the trio. There was a blonde in the mix with a ponytail and a skirt so short if she dropped a dollar, she was unlikely to pick it up lest her ass be on display. She was thin and tall and from this distance, he was strangely feeling a pull towards her. He couldn’t put his finger on it but there was a strange quality to her. She appeared completely uncomfortable in her getup, almost innocent. It had to be an act. “The blonde is something else. I want to take her ponytail in my fist.”
Miklos shot him a sideways glance and chuckled. “The other reason I knew it wasn’t Dimitra, she is best friends with Darya Pappas. She,” her jerked his head in the direction of the blonde, “cannot possibly be related to Yannis or his wife. I saw Darya on Monday morning at breakfast, and she was nerdy, in oversized clothing and could barely make eye contact.”
Kostas paused at the thought. He hadn’t considered the young woman Yannis had tried to throw at him sine the day he had refused her. She had been a nerdy little thing with frizzy hair and the demeanor of a mouse. He’d met the other Pappas girls and he didn’t think for one second Yannis hadn’t tried to trade off the least valuable of his girls, if one could count children as a commodity. Yannis was the kind of asshole who would. He had contemplated for a very brief moment whether the little nerd could have settled his brother down and made him grow up. He frowned and stared at the women. “I have not seen her since she was a kid. Imagine Yannis trying to trade a child to me.”
“You tried to make her marry Jurek.”
“I had hoped a wife would settle him down.”
“He would have destroyed her. You would have had her blood on your hands. Your brother is a night crawler.”
Kostas couldn’t disagree. His brother was a blight on the family. If he’d put the child in his brother’s path, she would likely have been dead. “Hindsight is twenty-twenty. He swore the girl who accused him of date rape was lying and setting him up to blackmail him. I stupidly believed him and paid for it to go away and then he turned around, flew to Greece and did it there.”
“I can’t believe he thought you’d bail him out the second time.”
He shifted with embarrassment. He was still ashamed he’d covered up the initial crime. The poor girl had not deserved it. “I can’t believe I did it the first time.” He couldn’t stop staring at the blonde. There was a lure about her calling to him. He considered taking her home. He might have to. He looked back to Miklos. “Did Dimitra really say Yannis threw her out and cut her off?”
“Yes, and she hasn’t seen any of her family since the day she refused to marry your brother. Yannis then stole her trust fund left to her by her grandparents. I almost had a heart attack when she asked us to bring her his liver for the dog.” Miklos smacked his shoulder with a loud laugh.
He was stunned and held Miklos’ gaze seriously. “She did what?”
“Dimitra insisted we call her and ask her if she would know where he might be hoarding cash. Dimitra told her she was going to interrogate him. Darya told her to kill him and cut his liver out so she could feed it to the dog. The story is, after the meeting where she refused to marry Jurek, Yannis hit her, and the dog attacked him, so he kicked the dog breaking its ribs.”
“f*****g asshole,” Kostas thought of his own dog at home. Who would kick a dog?
“Dimitra told me she broke into their house, kidnapped the dog, and returned it to Darya. They took it back to Boston.”
He couldn’t help it. He laughed as he considered Miklos might have underestimated his opponent of his wife, “your wife is a spitfire.”
“She was a pain in the ass growing up. I never once thought of her as anything other than an annoying kid sister. She was a terrible prankster and lived to get under my skin. I swear some of the s**t she’s pulled since Sunday is enough turn my hair grey.”
They stood chatting for several more minutes, Kostas laughing his head off at the antics Dimitra was pulling and his laugh diminishing when he noted Miklos getting very serious. If this was anyone other than Miklos Laskaris, he would think the man was in love. He wasn’t sure if the man knew what the emotion was or if he’d ever experienced it but listening to his friend talk at length about his wife, he suddenly wondered if his friend wasn’t in over his head.
The girls were grinding on each other, the blonde one taking up the rear as if she wanted to be on top of them. “They look like they sleep together.”
“They did tell Helios they didn’t like boys.”
“If I were a woman and Helios was around, I’d say the same thing. How his d**k hasn’t rotted off from all the women he’s f****d is beyond me. I understand you keep him around because he’s a great manager and he brings the party for your club, but he has bedded more women than you and I combined and in only the last week.” He wondered again how the man’s d**k hadn’t fallen off from disease. There was playing around and then there was being slutty. Helios was a slut. As Miklos commented about Helios wanting the new server, Kostas decided if he wasn’t taking the blonde home, maybe he could convince the server.
They made their way down to the bar and began to immediately chat the server up. He wasn’t interested. Ten seconds near her and he recognized her. She was Ajax’s ex. If Helios thought he stood a chance he was stupid. Flirting with her now was only to make Helios nuts but there was no way in hell he’d cross Ajax. The man would make him disappear and even Miklos wouldn’t find his body parts.
When Miklos suddenly got stiff, Kostas looked to him in confusion. Miklos let him know he was confident the woman was indeed his wife and now Kostas was even more excited about the blonde. Darya Pappas, the daughter of his enemy. He wanted to see her up close. She did not resemble the waif he remembered and now he wanted to know what he’d passed up as a possible wife. Perhaps he’d made a mistake.
He followed Miklos’ lead and blocked the entrance to the booth and took in the dancing beauty. High cheekbones flawlessly contoured, a sheen on her skin from sweating from dancing, and the way she kept tugging her dress up and down as if trying to make it longer, had him wanting to take it off and see if he could make her sweat in other ways. She was gorgeous.
As Miklos and Dimitra argued, he couldn’t tear his eyes off Darya Pappas. His c**k had never been so hard from a first encounter with a new woman and yet, he was glad to be wearing briefs because he’d be on full display if he were a boxers kind of guy.
When Miklos sat next to Dimitra, he immediately moved to block the other two girls from leaving. He leaned backward and took in the full view of Darya sitting next to him and almost moaned at the length of her legs. He wondered if she would be opposed to wearing leather for him. He’d like to put her in skin-tight patent and high heels. He shot a grin to Miklos, letting him know whatever game Miklos wanted to play, he was all in. This sweet girl was going to be all his. He was suddenly rethinking his views on marriage. Dear God in Heaven, she was gloriously gorgeous.
He lifted his gaze to her eyes and noted the pure hatred beading at him. She was wearing contacts because he remembered her eyes were blue. Hate and brown eyes were not what he recalled. Interesting! She despised him. He wondered if it was because he’d rejected her and offered his brother instead. Had to be. He was a big man and absolutely capable of owning his errors. He’d definitely f****d up. He should have taken Yannis up on his offer. When she looked at him as if she wanted to punch him in the throat, he wanted to kiss her until she begged him for more. He prayed nobody told her how much he loved challenges and puzzles.
Miklos was asking Dimitra if his club was going to explode and he couldn’t help but laugh at the question. He stretched his arm along the back of the seat and tried not to laugh when Darya almost moved onto the brunette’s lap to get away from him. Little chicken. “Miklos, maybe she just wanted to dance like the big dancing men outside your offices today. It could all be innocent.”
She snorted. The sound was not what he was expecting and he struggled to keep a straight face when her little button nose scrunched up and the noise happened again. “Ms. Pappas do not think for one minute I don’t recognize you. Stop shrinking away like a little wallflower, I know you have a mouth on you.”
“Not one I would be bothered to use on you.”
Oh hell, she was a mouthy one. Kostas loved a good challenge and woman who could go toe-to-toe with him in verbal repartee was the best aphrodisiac. “Sweetheart I don’t recall asking you to use your mouth on me but if it’s something you want to discuss, I’m up for it.”
Miklos questioned Kostas on whether he believed Dimitra’s story, “sounds fishy to me. What do you think?”
He encroached on Darya’s space and noticed the goosebumps rising over her flesh. She was not immune. Oh, this pretty little thing was going to be all his. “I think if my wife showed up at my club wearing hardly any clothes and was grinding her ass all over the place, I would consider it to be one of two things.”
“What would those things be Kostas?”
“Well, it could be your wife is pissed off at you and thinks you are not paying her enough attention, so she is showing you what you’ve been neglecting. Shake your ass and you’ll come running?”
“She has been complaining but perhaps not.” Miklos chuckled when Dimitra smashed the table angrily. Kostas considered Miklos might want to sleep with one eye open if the woman was in his house at night. She appeared quite volatile and, if he were honest, maybe unhinged.
“Then it can only be the other option.” He could feel the wrath of his friend’s wife as he spoke and he wondered if she were going to smash the vodka bottle and stab him with the broken neck.
She spat in his direction “Oh, this should be good. Tell me Kostas, what, in your infinite wisdom, do you suppose would be my intention to come dancing in a club?”
“Well considering you are all in disguises and it is common knowledge I come every Tuesday night to have a drink with my friends, the Feds sent you here to try to gain intel. I understand Dimitra is trying to find a way out of her marriage. Perhaps she made a deal with the devil to make it happen. It cannot be coincidence the day they show up at your offices, your wife dons green contacts and has her friends dressing so provocatively. I think we should have security search them for wires.” He paused to give Miklos his most wicked smirk, “or we could search them ourselves?
As Dimitra and the girls started sputtering and stammering amongst themselves, he took a couple shots of vodka and laughed at their arguing. The one in the middle, Magda, was blubbering as if Miklos had a gun trained on her head. He prayed Dimitra hadn’t told this one any family secrets or the feds would have a field day with her. When she moaned, she wasn’t as tough as Dimitra and Darya he chuckled and looked to Darya who was still glaring at him with a sideways sneer.
“Do you think you’re tough, little one?”
“Tough enough I survived the likes of you usurping my life, you giant dickwad.”
The insult bounced off his thick skin and he fought the urge to laugh at her until Dimitra yelled about never forgetting their goals. What f*****g goals? Then Miklos made a comment which made his spine snap straight.
“Were the three of you in a virginity pact? I thought you all worked in a b**m parlor.”
He looked to the blonde. She did what? He suddenly wanted to know every sordid detail. He was surprised when Darya ripped his shot glass from him and tossed the clear liquid back and wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.
“It wasn’t a pact. It just happened. We’ve been too busy being single-mindedly focused on our goals. If I wanted to f**k a man, I would have. I just don’t have the time.”
Innocent. The woman with the ponytail he wanted to yank on while he drilled her from behind with the tiny little dress was a virgin. He suddenly was confused by the entire situation. How could she look like s*x on legs and be innocent? “What kind of goals are you making, it kept you from taking care of your basic needs like s*x?” He poured himself another shot and then raised his eyebrows when she defiantly held his gaze and ripped it from his hand and tossed it back.
Her voice sultry and smoky filtered over the music. “Destroying you and my father. I’m halfway there.”
He sat back in stunned surprise as Miklos gripped his shoulder and roared with laughter, “if I am the trial run, my friend, you are fucked.”
If he was to be f****d by her, he was ready to drop his trousers and let her have him. He c****d his head to one side. Bring it on, little Darya. Bring it on.