I woke up alone with a note on my pillow. Come find me when you wake up.
Smiling, I got up for the day and went looking for Andrusha in his office. Unfortunately, only Vlad was there, sitting on his couch. He had a laptop on his lap.
Without speaking, I turned to leave.
Vlad spoke to me. “You know, I’m good friends with the concierge at the Sheraton Hotel. You know who is staying there? I think this will interest you.”
I stared at the older man, wondering what he wanted. “I don’t want to know.”
“Amelia. You remember her, don’t you?”
She’s still in town? I started to back out of the office. “Andrusha isn’t involved with her anymore.”
He looked confused. “Well, that’s weird, because my concierge friend told me that Andrusha paid her an early evening visit.”
“You’re lying.”
Vlad stood up. “My friend always sends me interesting things. Come and watch. See for yourself if you don’t believe me.”
I didn’t believe him because Andrusha had made it clear that he no longer had feelings for Amelia. She might be trying to track him down, but there is no way he would go to her.
“Come and see.” Vlad turned the screen towards me.
I stepped closer when I saw Andrusha walk across what appeared to be a hotel lobby. The next camera shot was of him on the elevator. Then another shot of him standing at a hotel room door. He knocked. The last shot was her answering the door. She was wearing a flowing negligee, and she greeted him with a smile before stepping in for a kiss.
Cold dread seeped into my heart. Those were the same clothes Andrusha had been wearing when he got home the night before.
“Why are you spying on Andrusha?”
Vlad snapped the laptop shut. “I guess he’s been going to this hotel a lot. What do you think they talk about?”
“You’re lying.”
His sharp eyes narrowed on my face. “Oh, you didn’t know about them. I’m sorry, did you think that you and he would live happily ever after?”
My cheeks burned. Without speaking to Vlad, I turned and escaped back up to the loft.
Why was Andrusha visiting Amelia in her hotel room? And why was she answering the door in fucking lingerie? They kissed! Had he really visited her more than once? He was gone all the time, and he never told me where he was or what he was doing. I lay on the bed, feeling all the emotions. I felt scared and mad, but mostly scared. Was he sleeping with her? Andrusha had warned me that he wasn’t the marrying kind. He’d told me he didn’t have real relationships.
Maybe this wasn’t a normal relationship, but in a million years, I never would have suspected that he would sneak out to see a woman in a hotel room while I was in his bed, waiting for him.
I sat up as anger rolled through me. I needed to talk to him about this. Now.
I headed downstairs, walking through three bays before I finally ran into Viktor.
He came over to me. “You shouldn’t be down here.”
“I need to talk to Andrusha.”
“He’s not here right now.”
“Where is he?” I was seething mad but working hard to cover it up.
Viktor studied my face. “Give me a minute.”
He dialed a number on his phone and spoke Russian fast and hard. He listened, and then he handed me the phone.
“He wants to talk to you.”
I gingerly took his phone and moved away from Viktor. “Hello.”
“Heard you were looking for me?”
“Where are you?”
“Working. Things are busy now.”
“I need to talk to you.”
“Well, we can talk now, or you can wait until I get home. I’m going to be late.”
I took a deep breath, trying to keep calm. “I am wondering why you bother having sex with me at all if you are also sneaking off to see Amelia at night.”
There was a long pause. “I’m not sleeping with Amelia.”
“Is that why you were at her hotel room yesterday? Don’t try to deny it. I’ve seen the security footage.”
“I’ll be home in thirty minutes.” He hung up on me.
I had half expected him to laugh and tell me what really happened. The fact that he was coming home to talk about this told me that there was something more.
Was he cheating on me? Could I even call it cheating? It wasn’t like we had ever talked about monogamy. I had assumed we were exclusive, but now I had no idea.
Twenty-five minutes later, Andrusha was standing in the doorway of the loft. He strode in with a pissed-off look on his face. “How did you see the footage of me at the hotel?”
“I want to leave.” I blurted out my lie. I didn’t want to leave, but I wanted him to know how much this had upset me.
He looked thunderous. “Excuse me?”
“I don’t want to be here anymore.” That part was true.
He pointed at me. “You’re not going anywhere.”
I stood up. “You can’t keep me here. I want to go. Either to my mom’s or to a motel.”
“Not happening.”
“You can’t keep me here. I’m not a prisoner.”
He crossed the room and grabbed my wrist. “Who showed you that?”
“Vlad showed me! Who cares?” I couldn’t seem to catch my breath. “The point is you’re sneaking off to see her.”
He tilted my chin up, forcing me to look at him. “You’re the only one I’m fucking. You’re the one in my bed. No one else.”
That didn’t quell the panic inside me. I never knew where he was. He could be with anyone. “Where do you go at night? You’re never here. You disappear for days at a time. What am I supposed to think?”
He bent down and growled against my mouth. “What do you want me to say?”
“Tell me the truth.”
He covered my mouth with his, making me moan out loud. “The truth is that this is the best part of my day.”
“What is?” I gasped as his hands yanked handfuls of my ass, pulling me towards him.
“You, fighting, sex, our dates.”
“You shouldn’t need anyone but me.” I dragged my hands down his chest.
He shoved his hand down my pants and pushed a finger into me. “This is the only pussy I need or want.”
I cried out, working to get his pants unbuckled.
It all got a bit frantic after that, with clothes being torn off and him lifting me up and sinking me onto his cock. I wrapped my legs around him while he stroked into me hard and deep.
I looked into his eyes. They glittered down at me like two angry sapphires.
“Are you mad?”
He scraped his teeth down my neck. “I’m a bit riled.”
I clung to him as he bucked into me. “I believe you.”
He pulled my head back, looking into my eyes. “Tell me you trust me.”
Did I trust this man? I stared at his beautiful face. I knew in my heart he was telling me the truth. “I trust you.”
He made me come twice before he found his own release, and we collapsed on the bed.
He stared at the ceiling, still breathing hard. “Vlad and Amelia are supposed to be strangers, but they talk on the phone.”
I tried to process that. “What does that mean?”
“I’m not sure if Vlad is working for Bunko.”
I tried to stifle my gasp. “Are you sure?”
“Not really, which is why I went to talk to Amelia. I’m trying to figure out what they want.”
I twisted in his arms to look at him. “Why didn’t you just tell me that on the phone?”
He looked over at me. “I don’t know.”
I felt bad. For my lack of trust and my need to be reassured. “I’m sorry if I overreacted about her.”
He bit my shoulder. “I’m not. It got me home for this.”
“You seem really busy.”
He kissed my mouth. “I am really busy. I should go. We’ve got stuff going on tonight.”
My heart fell a bit. “Tonight?”
“Tonight is a big deal.”
His words froze me. “Okay. What time do you think you will be home?”
“We start at 1:00 a.m. I will try to get home by eleven tonight so we can hang for a couple of hours.”
“I’ll be awake.”
He kissed me again. “Are we good?”
“Yes.”
“Stop letting Vlad mess with your head.”
He didn’t come home at eleven. I waited until one thirty before I fell asleep.
I woke up to him kissing my mouth. I groaned when I felt him kiss my neck. “Are you coming to bed?”
“I’m sorry I’m late. I have to leave shortly.”
I moaned and put my arms around his neck. “Don’t go.”
He sat up. “I need to shower.”
