The days of sleeping in my guest room or on my couch were over. Every night, I fell asleep with Sloane’s naked, warm body flush against mine. And every morning, I treated myself to the chance of staring at her as she slept. Watching her sleep relaxed me, but I had to check myself and remember that she wasn’t anything more than the woman who’d give me a child.
Most days, I had to get up early and tend to business right away. My family was relying on me and I wouldn’t ever let them down. The Ivanov Syndicate would remain strong under my rule. But some days, I woke up earlier than necessary just so I could enjoy her sweet pussy again.
This morning, though, I only gave myself a few moments of watching her as she rested. I had too many things to catch up on, and I knew she’d be here later. I let her be and went to my father’s office. It was still his space and not mine, but I wondered how long it would be.
If I wasn’t expected to be in charge, I could spend that much more time fucking my captive mistress.
Careful. Don’t let her matter any more than she needs to.
With a frown at the thought of Sloane becoming too important, I sat at Father’s desk and began to go through the important matters that had awaited me since last night. Knowing that Sloane was in my room and in this house—within my reach—kept me calm. I would never let her go, and while she was my kept woman, my mistress locked in my room, I couldn’t shake off the nagging suspicion that she wouldn’t fully agree with that concept.
When I asked her in a general sense if she’d cooperate with me and be my good girl, I posed that question as a way to gauge whether or not I could trust her out of my bedroom, like in my apartment or in this house, near my family. I wanted to see if she would verbally submit to me and acknowledge that she was my woman. That she would agree to obey me.
All she said was that she’d be good. That she would fall into line and do what I expected of her, such as having my heir.
But she didn’t agree to be mine.
That one time I asked her, she said that she would be a good girl, not that she would be my good girl.
For fuck’s sake. You’re overthinking this.
She has to know she’s not leaving.
And it’s not like she’s even protesting.
The opposite was happening. Sloane craved me and needed me as much as I did her. Even though she was stubborn no matter what and she still could be difficult and bicker with me, with her body, she always proved that she wanted me. Desperately.
Knocks sounded on the door, jarring me from thinking about her—a common pastime of mine now. I looked up as Hugo walked into the office. He never had to wait for me to tell him to enter. That was how long he had been in the family. How well he knew me even if my position at my father’s desk was a new change.
“Here you go, Boss.”
I almost did a double-take at him calling me Boss like that, in here. I was keeping everything going while Father recovered slowly, but I really didn’t want to take over completely. Not like this. My father’s rule couldn’t be over. He wasn’t that old.
“Thank you.” I took the papers and watched him go. These documents were further proof that all of Sloane’s debts had been dealt with. Once she told me her last name and her social security number, it was a simple matter of tracking down those she owed money to. While I could’ve paid off the loan sharks and debt collectors, I opted to have them killed instead. Those fuckers took advantage of her for too long, so it made more sense to have Hugo’s men and several other Ivanov soldiers kill them all. It had taken an extra day or two to track down her ex who’d put her into debt in the first place, but as of last night, he was nothing more than a rotting corpse.
I personally went to see her old apartment and pay a visit to her landlord. I let him live but with a painful lesson of what happened when he took advantage of people and increased rent for the hell of it. I doubted he’d ever father children after how I’d beaten him, and I doubted he’d be brave enough to ever screw over another tenant again.
Maybe wanting to kill anyone who bothered Sloane was a sign of how close she was getting to me, but I didn’t care. They were all expendable as I kept my promise to her of handling all her woes.
So long as Sloane stayed here as my mistress and the future mother of my heir, nobody would bother her ever again.
Hugo left after he gave me the paper, but I wasn’t alone for long. Nik came to see me, but he didn’t bother to knock. He let himself in and dropped into the chair across from me.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
He shrugged, rubbing his face. He wouldn’t try to lie to me and tell me that nothing was wrong. I saw it clearly in his eyes and in his demeanor as he slouched into the chair that he was stressed.
“I can’t find anything.” He wasn’t merely whining. We were all that fed up with how difficult it was to investigate who had poisoned our father.
“Sooner or later, something will come up.” It felt like a stupid platitude to offer him, but I believed that no secret could stay hidden indefinitely.
I hoped that was true with Sloane too. I couldn’t stop this hunch that she was keeping something from me. And I would stay curious about it until I knew exactly what she was being slightly secretive about.
“Yeah,” he said with a heavy sigh. “I know something will come up.” Then, perking up as if he was shoving his worries aside, he sat up straighter and smiled at me. “No one can keep a secret forever.”
I raised my brows as I closed the laptop I’d been working on.
“And that’s why I’m wondering when you are going to tell me what’s going on.”
“What are you talking about?”
He grinned. “I’m talking about why Hugo’s men went all scorched-earth as you killed the loan sharks who wanted money from a particular woman named Sloane Black.”
I shrugged. “That was nothing more than keeping a promise with someone.”
His smile widened as if he were calling my bluff.
“No one will ever complain about my taking out the trash.” The world didn’t need men like those guys.
“Sure, sure. So, who is she? When will I meet her?” He wasn’t giving up about this.
I narrowed my eyes, possessive and not liking how my brother would even talk about her.
“You clearly have adjusted your opinions about keeping a woman around longer than one night to be this relaxed and satisfied.”
“I’m not relaxed,” I argued. “I’m just as impatient to find someone to punish for trying to kill Father as you are.”
He held his hands up in a truce. “I know. Of course, you are. I would never question your loyalty to the family. But fuck, it’s not a crime to want to keep a nice piece of ass around for a little bit.”
She was much more than a piece of ass.
“But you can’t hide her from the family forever. It looks like you want to keep her around, and I can’t blame you. A man only looks as happy as you are when he’s getting some.”
I wasn’t merely getting some. Sloane was showing me how every other woman I’d had before her was a pale substitution for good sex.
“Where is she? Who is she?”
“She’s my mistress,” I explained, which wasn’t anything shocking. They’d all had dalliances with mistresses too. So had our father. “And you can meet her in an hour. At lunch.”
I wasn’t bluffing. After I dealt with more things in the office, I went to my floor and made sure she was wearing a bra this time.
In the elevator, she smirked at my checking that she had it on, sliding my finger under the strap over her shoulder.
“I don’t want anyone seeing you like I do,” I growled, letting the elastic strap go with a snap.
She narrowed her eyes at me, but the slight twist of her lips suggested she was hiding a smile.
“So. You have brothers and a grandmother?” she asked as we waited for the elevator to go to the main floor.
“Correct.” I’d given her a few pointers about meeting my family last night when I fucked her in the shower again. But I left a lot out, wanting to see what she thought. I could give her the chance to form her own impressions. “My grandmother won’t be joining us, but you can meet my brothers.”
“Oh, I can, huh?” She rolled her eyes and exited the elevator with me, at ease and not nervous at all. I supposed being nude on a stage had to change a woman’s confidence for the better. Strolling out here like a boss, she gave no indication of being nervous.
And she gave no hint throughout the entire meal that she wanted to bolt.
While I watched her and wondered if she was scanning the place to gauge how she could escape, I told myself to forget about it.
She was too guarded here. Now that my brothers were aware she was living in my apartment in the building, they’d be aware of her staying put too.
It shouldn’t have surprised me that she was polite, if slightly meek, in meeting them. My brothers weren’t average men, and they usually induced others to reply in deference. However, I felt calmer about introducing her to them when she toned down her sass. She didn’t speak much, not even enough for them to pick up on her street smarts or slang that would clue them into her being an outsider to the Mafia. Most of all, though, I felt like a fucking king with her so clearly submitting to me.
She stood to my side or behind me. She didn’t try to steal the spotlight. While the Mafia princesses were so docile that they annoyed me, I saw Sloane’s good behavior as something to reward immediately.
Unfortunately, I’d have to wait for that. Reports of an attack near the property put us all on alert, and I asked one of the soldiers to escort her back up to my floor.
“What the fuck?” Nik growled as he joined me, Damon, and Saul as we rushed to assess the situation.
Men ran with us to supervise the shootout that was happening too close for comfort. There was always a chance it was a random incident out there on the streets, but I had too many things to treasure here to lower my guard.
Secure with the knowledge that Sloane would be safe in my room again, I focused on eliminating any threat near our building. I had to protect her. I had to protect my father and brothers.
“If someone’s trying to distract us this close to the property,” Saul said as we gathered in the surveillance room to see what the cameras showed, “they’re escalating. Getting too daring and risky to open fire this close to home.”
I nodded, in full agreement as I narrowed my eyes and looked over the monitors.
“They’re gone,” the man in charge of the surveillance operations said. He shook his head and lowered his headset. “They’re fucking gone already. We’ve got a crew chasing them east through the city.”
“Fuck.” I fisted my hand and loathed that another distraction, another incident, and another hiccup of trouble crept close.
Whoever was trying to mess with us was too damn sneaky for my liking.
As I wondered who was responsible for bothering us, I had to reconsider what I’d told Nik.
All secrets had to come out in the open eventually, didn’t they?
