Page 9 of Romi

"Yes," I agreed, but I was not talking about the show. Sonia was the most stunning thing here.

"Come on, let's go see the inside," Ash said after a minute or two.

Sonia nodded and grabbed us both, linking her arms with ours. A pang of longing hit me, and my mouth went dry. If only it could always be like this.

Shucking off the negative feelings that threatened to engulf me, I wrapped my hand around the one she had on my arm and relished the feel of her. I licked my lips, suddenly very aware of her warm body so close to me. She smelled wonderful, too, like vanilla and citrusy orange with chocolate and cinnamon. I wanted to smell her and lick her all over. Tonight really was going to be torturous, but instead of fighting against it, I was going to revel in it.

God, I was a masochist. However, the English had a saying, "In for a penny, in for a pound," which meant if you were going to invest a little effort into something, you might as well invest a lot. I was going to invest my all in this evening—just for tonight!

CHAPTER 6

SONIA

SATURDAY – GLITZ EVENT

After linking my arms through Ash and Romi’s, we entered the building, and I took the opportunity to shuffle my body a bit closer to Romi’s. It felt wonderful getting my hands on the man of my dreams.

As we headed through Glitz’s stunning entrance, I couldn’t help noticing the feel of Romi’s hard muscles as I clutched onto him. I could smell his musky scent, and it was intoxicating. Oh my! I had an overwhelming urge to bury my face in his neck and inhale him, but luckily, I managed to control myself. Maybe one day soon, I could do just that, but not yet, and certainly not with Ash present.

Tingling sensations shot up my arm the minute Romi’s hand touched mine, and I swear to god, I nearly swooned. I certainly stumbled but thankfully quickly righted myself before either he or Ash noticed. He was touching me! The little voice inside me danced with pure joy at the realisation. Romi was touching me by his own volition. My eyes widened, and I sucked my bottom lip as I held my overwhelming urge to shout it to the heavens.

When we entered, my brother Miki was already in the main hall, talking with his best friend Luca. Luca Orlov oversaw the management of all of our clubs, including this one. Luca was also Bratva, and his father had been a good friend of our grandfather, so we had known him forever. I gave them a wave, and Ash and Romi both nodded in their direction.

Ash was in charge of the overall security tonight, so he headed off to meet with his friend Anton and the rest of the security team. Anton Dupont had been Ash’s best friend since school. He had gone into the military afterwards but now ran his own security firm, Dupont Security.

We had some of our own men here, but Anton was providing several of his, too, due to the recent threats on the less-than-legitimate side of our business. We didn’t want any of that spilling over into our legitimate stuff and definitely didn’t want anything spoiling our opening night, which was a ticket-only event for important people from the business world and some minor local celebrities.

Nobody else had arrived yet, just us and the staff. I was glad to be left alone with the man I yearned for. I found myself staring at him while he looked around, no doubt checking security out, too. He was in charge of my safety tonight and would be sticking close. Yeh! I was so going to make the most of this evening.

As he glanced around the room, I glanced at him in appreciation. Romi’s dark brown hair was almost black and glinted under the lighting, giving him an ethereal look. He reminded me yet again of a Greek god come to life.

His hair was styled in his usual way, and his facial hair was neatly trimmed. His black suit fitted his form well, showing off his muscular frame to perfection. My fingers itched to feel the silkiness of his black shirt. My mouth watered. He was gorgeous.

He caught me looking, raised an eyebrow, and grinned. My breath hitched, and I just managed to stop myself from reaching out and tracing his lips with my fingers. He had great lips, and I so wanted to kiss them. Instead, I just stared at him as he stared at me, something that was becoming a habit between us.

Finally, I noticed that Romi’s sexy amber eyes were complimented by a bronze tie. A bronze tie the same colour as my dress! Oh my god, we matched. I smiled, seeing it as another reason for me to believe we were meant for each other. His grin hitched a little higher in response to my own smile.

Say something! I screamed at myself. I knew that I should take this opportunity to say something flirtatious and seductive, but I was suddenly at a loss for words. Instead, I blinked rapidly. The man literally took my breath away and stole all rational thought.

Luckily, I was saved from the embarrassment of being unable to form a coherent sentence when a group of guests arrived, and one called out to Romi. Romi gave him a nod of recognition, and the man came over with his friends to greet us. We spent the next half an hour or so chatting with them. I continued to sneak a peek at Romi whenever I could. I didn’t miss the fact that he was doing the same, and every atom of my body buzzed with excitement at being in his company.

After a while, Miki joined us, and then a few more guests arrived. Romi excused himself and headed to the toilet. I watched him go and suppressed a sigh. It was obvious, even to an inexperienced person like me, that Romi was as interested in me as I was in him, yet he hadn’t yet said anything about it. I longed for him to acknowledge whatever this was between us. Of course, it might just be that he was unsure he was reading me right. Or was I misreading him? God forbid I was mistaken in his interest.

No, I refused to believe that. The sexual chemistry between us was too potent for that. In fact, it was so potent that I wondered how nobody else had noticed it. I pouted my lips and tried to feign interest in the conversation surrounding me. It was obvious that I was going to have to make my interest even more clear. That meant I would need to flirt more blatantly with Romi. For that, I would need some additional courage.

As the group around me dispersed, leaving only Miki and me, I reached out to take a glass of champagne from a waitress who had just stopped beside me. Just as I lifted a glass from her tray, I noticed Ash approaching. His head was bent over as he read something on his phone, and he bumped into the waitress. She then bumped into me, knocking my glass and making the alcohol spill over my hand.

“I’m so sorry. Let me get you something to dry off with,” she said. She quickly set her tray of drinks down and handed me a napkin.

“Don’t worry, it’s fine,” I said, smiling in reassurance when I saw the concern on her face.

“It wasn’t your fault; in fact, it was my brother’s,” I told her, looking pointedly at the man in question.

“Sorry, malen’koye nebo,” he apologised in Russian, using my family’s nickname for me. It meant little sky, and they said it fitted me because my light blue eyes reminded them of the summer sky.

I stared thoughtfully at Ash. He was still distracted by whatever he was reading and obviously bothered by it. I could tell because he hadn’t apologised to the waitress. I was about to remind him when she said, “Excuse me,” and hurried off, looking embarrassed. I had noticed her checking him out just before that, and when he finally looked up after hearing her voice, I watched him checking out her retreating ass. I would have called him out on it if he wasn’t frowning down at his phone again. Instead, I sniggered to myself but remained quiet.

“Miki, we’ve had another situation, and we need to talk with Glowacki as soon as possible,” Ash said, showing Miki his phone.

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