Page 47 of Paved in Venom

“Everything okay?” Simona asks, seeing the annoyed look on my face.

“Yeah. Lev and Matvey thought it would be hilarious to give someone my personal number, and now he won’t fucking stop calling me.”

Lev hears me complaining and starts laughing. “Is Oleg still calling you? Did you hear that, Matvey?”

Matvey gives me a half smile from the kitchen. “You’re going to have to change your number. He’s never going to stop.”

“He will when I fucking kill him,” I say in Russian. We all know the Barinov brothers are on borrowed time. Once Pink takes off, we’re not going to need them. They’ll just be in the way, and we can’t risk them fucking up our plans.

“Damn,” Vitaly says, walking in and running his eyes over Simona. “That’s one hell of a dress.”

I shoot him a look over her head that lets him know I’m not enjoying this, and his smile grows.

“So are we pretending that she kind of belongs to all of us tonight?” he asks, because the bastard just never knows when to quit. “Like maybe she should sit in all our laps?”

When he sees my face, he gives Simona a playful wink and then says in Russian, “We still have the number for the guy who married Roman and Emily. Want me to give him a call now or later?”

My brothers have a good laugh at my expense while Simona and Emily wonder what the hell we’re talking about.

“We should get going,” I tell them, switching back to English.

“Sorry we can’t come with you,” Emily says, walking over to give Simona some support. “You’ll be fine. Just stay close to Danil. Your tattoo will protect you. They all know what it means.”

Simona nods, looking scared but determined to see this through to the end. We’re all grateful to her for being willing to do this. She could’ve said no. None of us would’ve forced her to come tonight, but she wants to help, and I admire the hell out of her for it. I try not to think about how much danger I’m putting her in tonight. Like Emily said, no one’s allowed to touch her, but we all know shit can go wrong. It sure as fuck did with her. Emily was kidnapped right under our goddamn noses, and if we’d been just five minutes later in finding her, we would’ve walked in on her being raped.

We’d killed the fuckers responsible, but that didn’t erase what had already happened, the beating she took and the terror she went through. Roman had barely kept his shit together, and I know I’d be the exact same way if something happened to Simona. The thought has me tightening my grip on her hand. She will be glued to my goddamn side tonight.

She gives my hand a squeeze and smiles. “It’s going to be okay,” she says, trying to reassure me.

I pull her closer and kiss her cheek. “I’m the one who comforts you, sladkaya,” I whisper in her ear. “You don’t need to worry about me.”

She gives a soft laugh. “That’s ridiculous, Danil. I can comfort you all I want.”

Even though I’m worried about her and dreading tonight, she still manages to pull a laugh from me.

“Okay, let’s get this fucking over with,” I say as we all head for the elevator.

Chapter 8

Simona

I give Emily a smile before walking with Danil to the elevator with Lev and Vitaly beside us. The three of them look like the world’s sexiest criminals while I look and feel like the discounted hooker they picked up for the night. I’ve never felt so out of place in my life, and I’d kill someone for a pair of jeans and some sneakers. My body feels too big for this dress, like I’m about to bust out of the damn thing if I sit or walk too fast.

I don’t realize how much I’m fidgeting until Danil wraps his hand around my hip and pulls me up against him in the elevator. With my back to his chest, I lean against him, letting his presence comfort me in the way that only he can, in the way that no other man has ever been able to. His fingers dig into my hip, and just that one touch is enough to send a spark of pleasure all through me. That kiss he’d given me in the closet is still very fresh in my mind, and I’m not sure how I’m going to pull off acting like a woman who was just bought two days ago.

It feels like a lifetime since I first met Danil, and I no longer see him as the monster I initially thought he was. I can’t go into this party looking like a lovestruck teenager, though. He’s the scary man who bought me, the man who’s used me repeatedly for his own pleasure, and I’m supposed to be terrified of him. He’s not the only one who needs to play a part tonight. Everyone will be suspicious if I’m smiling and giving him lovey-dovey looks.

When the doors open, Lev smiles and says, “I’ll drive.” His dark hair is long enough to brush his collar, and his light blue eyes turn to Vitaly as we walk to the SUV. “I hope this party isn’t as awkward as being at the Viper.”

“I’m guessing it will be, but at least the women will probably be owned by someone so maybe we’ll be left alone,” Vitaly says.

Danil had said he hated getting the lap dances, and it looks like his brothers feel the same way. I just assumed they’d love having beautiful women in their lap, and the thought makes me feel guilty as I climb into the SUV. They know firsthand that these women don’t want to be there and that they’re being forced to do what they do. The kind of men who would enjoy forcing themselves on a woman are the same kind of men who took Alina, and Danil and his brothers are nothing like that.

Danil’s hand rests on my thigh as Lev drives us through the city. I look over at him, watching his beautiful face as the lights from outside give me glimpses of him. He turns and winks at me, sending a flutter through my chest and a warmth to my pussy. Yeah, I’m definitely going to have to up my acting skills with a quickness. The corner of his mouth quirks up, easily seeing the effect he has on me. His thumb caresses my thigh, and by the time Lev turns onto a long driveway, I’m so horny I can barely think.

When we go around a bend and the yard opens up to reveal an imposing mansion in the distance, fear starts to replace lust. This place is massive, like ridiculously so, and when we pass a large fountain, Vitaly laughs and says, “What a pretentious asshole. I bet you anything as soon as we walk in we’re going to see a large painting of him hanging on the wall. How much you wanna bet?” he asks, looking between Lev and Danil.”

“I no longer make bets with you,” Danil says with a laugh.

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