“Пончик (donut), yes, you are very sweet, not so fluffy though, huh?” He murmurs deeply in Russian, making me swoon a little.
His laugh that follows is rich and it vibrates through me. I did it; I made him smile and laugh that laugh. It’s like light in a dark room. God, I could fall asleep to his voice at night.
“I’m glad I was with you when you had a happy memory; that look on your face was gorgeous.”
His phone begins to ring and he looks down at the caller ID, peeved, “Just a second, Пончик (donut).” He chuckles slightly when he calls me Donut again and it brings another large smile to my face.
“Sure, no problem.”
He huffs angrily as he answers his phone, “What? No. I am out. What! Call the Balshoy Shef (big boss), now!” He looks pissed and hangs up without saying anything else.
Whatever the other person said sure did make him mad. I wonder what he said in Russian. It’s so sexy when he speaks Russian, like mini ear orgasms.
Tate looks at me and gives me a little smile that seems kind of forced. “Ready, Emily? I have some things I have to take care of.”
He gets up from his seat and reaches his hand out for me.
“Yes, of course. I hope everything’s okay.”
I take his hand without hesitation. I know I need to guard my heart, but he has shown me a kind side to him and it makes me want to open up a little more to him. I can’t help but feel closer to him each time I’m around him. He’s turned out to be pretty sweet and thoughtful these past few weeks. He listens to me blabber and just a moment ago when I saw that smile; it brought the other feelings to the very top.
Tate swiftly drives me back to my apartment. When we arrive, he gets out also and offers to walk me to my door again but I decline. He seems a little distracted, so I want to let him take care of whatever needs to be done.
He leans over and gives me a soft, sweet kiss on my cheek while we stand on the sidewalk. I scan the parking lot, paranoid, per my usual routine. Everything appears clear, thankfully.
“Have a good day, Krasaaveetsa (beauty). I can’t wait until we can do this again.” He stares straight into my eyes as he says this. I wish he would just lean in and really kiss me again.
“You too, Tate, and thank you again. I’ll see you later.” He nods and climbs back into his amazing car. I watch him leave the parking lot, before heading into my building.
I skip up to my apartment because I just had a really great lunch. I’m so distracted with thoughts of Tate Masterson, I don’t notice the long stemmed white rose laying in the hallway.
Five days later…
I’m walking out of the Science building with Avery when I notice the back of someone in the distance.
It can’t be, no way.
My heart starts beating fast, stomach fluttering with nerves.
This person does have long black hair, tattoos all over and is pretty tall. They turn around and I freak out. I start jumping up and down like a lunatic then take off running.
“Whoa! Emily! Calm down, girl!” I hear Avery call out and start trekking after me. She sounds a little panicked and I probably freaked her out, but she doesn’t see who I see.
“Holy fuckballs! That’s one hot ass chick!” London hollers loudly across the courtyard when she sees me, then runs toward me, too.
I start laughing loudly, excited. I can’t believe she’s freaking here, in Tennessee! She surprised me. I absolutely have the best friend in the whole world!
“Not as hot as you!” I bellow back and leap at her.
London is five foot-eight and about 160 pounds so she catches me easily. She’s built like a muscular pinup model. Her black hair reaches mid back. She has striking cool blue eyes that are almond shaped and legs that seem to go on for miles. Her legs are insane because she always does lunges and leg presses. She has huge boobs and a small waist, she reminds me of a tattooed Coke bottle.
London always dresses kind of slutty and is a big partier, but she’s actually one of the smartest people I know. She had to do a lot of her college courses online to save money, but she’s studying to be an engineer. London could probably even be a doctor if she wanted to.
We finally quit hugging, pulling away, but I keep hold of her hand. If anything so I know she’s real.
“I can’t believe it’s actually you, you’re really here!” I shake her hand excitedly, “God, I didn’t realize how much I missed you until I saw your face right now.” I whisper and a tear leaks down my cheek.
I feel so emotional all of a sudden. It’s like I’ve been running a race and my relief just grabbed my baton to make it to the finish line for me. I take a deep breath, loving it that I can really breathe now, with her next to me.
London leans in, grinning happily and gives me another small hug. She’s always been great at reading me, so she probably knows I’m a mess inside right now.
“I was missing you and we haven’t gotten to talk much, and yeah, I just needed to make sure you were safe and okay.” She looks a little uneasy when she says this and I’m instantly on alert.
Elliot didn’t say anything in the last text message, though it’s been a few weeks now. I think she’s not telling me something and it makes me freak out a little inside. Now that I take a closer look, even her clothes are appearing a little frazzled, which is not her style. She’s always dressed to impress.
“Of course I’m okay!” I send her a tense smile that she sees right through, “Why, do I have a reason to be worried?” Right as I’m saying this, Avery, Tate and Cameron walk up to us.
I glance to Avery and give her a sheepish grin, “I’m sorry if I scared you, chick, but I caught sight of London and couldn’t control my excitement!” I nod toward London. “London, these are my friends: Avery, Cameron and this is Tate. Guys, this is my best friend, London Layla Traverson.” I beam at London as I say her full name.
“Oh, bitch! You had to bust out the middle name?” She glares at me briefly, then turns a charming smile on everyone else. “Hi everyone and don’t listen to this loser, my name’s just London.”
I start giggling loudly because this reminds me of third grade when I got all the boys to sing ‘Layla’ to her. She was so furious she didn’t talk to me for two whole days. After those two days I gave in and apologized. She admitted that she couldn’t hold out any longer either.
Now after all these years I still enjoy teasing her any chance I get. London is loud and has a bad mouth, but I wouldn’t change her for the world. She’s been there for me when I needed her my entire life and has never left my side.
That is until I had to leave hers; but I had to run away from that psycho.
Avery turns to me and smiles mischievously back at me. “Actually this is perfect. Tate and Cameron her, were just asking me if we all wanted to do something tonight. I was saying food, but now that Miss London is here, maybe she’d like to go out tonight?”
Avery turns her playful smile at London and London returns a playful smile of her own.. Oh great, tonight is going to be crazy, I already know.
“Of course, we would love to go out! Do you boys have a hot friend that can come too, so I have a dance partner? If not, I’ll have to steal these two ladies to dance with me all night.”
Of course she just agrees without asking me. London has dragged me to so much stuff over the years. It’s miraculous we didn’t end up in jail half the time.
Tate gazes at me while he answers London, “Of course we have someone, tell me your type and we will pick you girls up tonight at 9:30.”
SIX
EMILY
We make it back to my apartment and a few
hours later, London has finally woken up from a nap.
I turn to her, “So, don’t take this the wrong way. I’m super happy you’re here and I love seeing your lovely face, but why exactly are you here?”
I feel bad for asking, but it’s driving me crazy. I keep picturing worst-case scenarios in my head over and over. I need a little bit of reassurance that I’m being irrational.
We continued getting dressed for our night out with the boys. Of course London and Avery dressed me up like a hooker after London saw Tate staring at me. It was pretty much cemented in her head to hook me up. They keep telling me the dress is hot, and I look great but I think I appear almost naked in it.
I guess we were supposed to check out some club called ‘Tainted’ tonight, but Avery won London over with the OO7 theme. Now it’s back to OO7 for us. I swear Avery would go to OO7 every time she’s off, if we were up for it. That girl loves to dance and have some fun.
I hope it’s not another drama-filled night. I don’t know if I can handle Tate on an Alpha kick again. I’m not going to hold my breath, knowing London’s shenanigans.
London mumbles, “Look, Emily, let’s have a little fun tonight. I just got here and want to have a good time with you guys. We can talk about all the serious stuff tomorrow, okay?”
She has looked pretty stressed out since I first saw her at the university. It looks like she could use some more sleep too, which is weird for my friend. At least she got in a short nap today.
I nod and smile; it’s fake but I want to reassure her, “Okay, that sounds like a plan, and don’t forget we are checking out one of the lakes this weekend. I don’t care if both of you are rocking hangovers or not! It’ll be even more fun now that you are going with Avery and me.”
I’m so happy London and Avery have hit it off and have become fast friends.
She chuckles, “Us hungover? Oh no, girly, I’m in town, you can relax for a night or two or three. It will be perfectly fine to have some drinks and cut loose with all of us around you.”
London’s shooting me her annoyed look where she scrunches up her eyebrows and has a line down the center of her forehead. Speaking of lines, I know how to distract her from talking me into making bad decisions and getting plowed with them.
“Wow, when you make that face it shows a big line in your forehead. Are you getting wrinkles, London? It looks like you might be getting too much sun.” Avery busts out laughing at me. Damn it, she caught on to my distraction.
“Don’t listen to her, London; she’s trying to get you off topic.” She gives me a big shit-eating grin.
“You suck, Avery! You’re fired!”
Avery giggles, “Nope. You already fired me at the coffee shop, so technically you can’t fire me anymore!”
I think about lunging at her and tackling her to the ground. I know once I get her there London will at least help me tickle her. Right as I go to make my move, there’s a knock on my apartment door.
Avery jumps up really fast and practically runs to the door to answer it. She must be a little excited to see Cameron.
Or not.
She completely ignores Cameron as he walks in. Avery hurriedly gives the big guy they brought with them an excited hug. I’ll have to ask her about that later.
Cam puts on a wide smile, “Ladies, ladies, ladies, are we
ready to have some fun?” Cam’s voice booms through my tiny apartment.
London eats up the loudness and gravitates toward Cameron as soon as he sees her. They both eye-fuck each other while Avery talks to the new hot, blond guy. Wow, never would have predicted this one.
Tate gives me a soft smile and walks toward me. He leans down and sweetly kisses me on my cheek. My heart melts a little at the touch of his lips.
“Hey, little pet, you look breathtaking. I love this dress on you. I’m going to have to break some guy’s knees tonight, huh?”
Break some knees? Who says that? I look at him like he’s lost his mind and it makes him chuckle. Yeah, definitely no personality disorder here!
Riiiiight.
“Relax, Krasaaveetsa, I’m only joking. I’d have Nikoli here do it for me.” He smirks towards the other guy that came with them.
Nikoli is a beast. He’s huge, full of muscles, probably 6’5” and covered in tribal tattoos. He’s still really good looking for being so big; he has short blond hair and dark blue eyes. He looks like the ultimate Russian fighter.
Nikoli grins down at me and I look at Tate. I have to admit, a man that big really does frighten me inside. He looks so friendly, but I’m still shaky towards men in general. Not so much with Tate, but everyone else.
Tate squeezes my bicep softly, “Emily, this is Nikoli, he was a bouncer at OO7 when we went last time.” He nods toward him and looks back at me, “Nikoli, this is my Krasaaveetsa, Emily.” He looks really excited to be introducing me. I think he may have told Nikoli about me already.
“Nice to meet you, Nikoli.”
I stick my hand out being courteous and Nikoli grabs me with both of his big, meaty paw-like hands. He brings me in for a hug and I think I squeak.
“Preevyetstvavats Shef dyevooshka (Welcome Bosses lady).” Tate beams a smile after Nikoli speaks.
I glance between both of them, puzzled. “Huh?”
Nikoli looks at me sheepishly and grins so his dimples pop out. Such a cutie.
“I apologize. I speak Russian so much, that sometimes it automatically comes out. I said Welcome…” Tate shakes his head minutely but I still catch it. “Umm, lady,” he finishes, nodding.
Hmm, I wonder what he really said. I won’t ask Tate right now, but I am curious. Hopefully I can remember some of it to Google later.
Everyone’s heading toward the door, so I guess it’s that time. I grab my small purse and shuffle out the door behind them. I lock up and follow them outside.
Tate has his large, black Tahoe again, so we can all ride together and have a designated driver. I get little flutters inside, thinking about how thoughtful he really is. He’s always looking out for my comfort level and I don’t know if he even realizes he does it.
Tate starts to bark orders as soon as we reach the vehicle, “You girls will have to sit on Cam and Nikoli’s laps. Emily, you will sit in the front with me.” Everyone jumps into action and I just stand there.
Yeah, I don’t think so.
I don’t take orders from men anymore.
This reminds me, I need to check out the parking lot. I start scanning all the vehicles and my surroundings. There are lights outside but there are too many dark spots for me to see everything.
At least I’m surrounded by three big men. I don’t have to completely freak out right now, about being outside in the dark. I still feel like I’m being watched everywhere I go and I have to make myself stop this madness. I’m going to get an ulcer with the worrying all the time.