Sebastian thought about those muscular thighs wrapped around his waist, Vlad’s strong, hard body under him that he couldn’t accidentally break.
I’m not a faggot, Vlad would say even as he groaned and clenched around Sebastian’s cock.
Sebastian squeezed his cock through his shorts, unable to help it. God, if only Vlad knew what he was thinking about right now...Vlad would probably beat him up. Maybe beat him up, then fold Sebastian in half and fuck him, hard and dirty, Sebastian’s legs wrapped around Vlad’s thick neck—
Sebastian bit on his lip and then realized his hand was inside his boxers and was stroking his erection. Fuck. He had no idea when it had happened. His cock was leaking, and the wet sound of flesh stroking flesh was unmistakable.
Panicky, Sebastian forced his hand to stop and strained his hearing, praying Vlad had fallen asleep.
But he couldn’t hear Vlad’s steady breathing anymore. Which meant Vlad had likely heard him.
Sebastian squeezed his eyes shut.
Vlad said hoarsely, “You have no shame, do you?”
“I’m a healthy man, and I have needs,” Sebastian said, refusing to act like a little boy caught with a hand in the cookie jar. The less embarrassed he acted, the less embarrassing it would be.
“You got off last night,” Vlad said. “Are you that much of a slut?”
“That’s called having a healthy sex drive.” Sebastian smiled at the dark ceiling. “But I get it: at your age, you probably don’t remember what it’s like to get it up more often than once a week.”
“I’m thirty-two,” Vlad bit off.
“Really? Then why are you acting like a prudish old man who never wanked in his life?”
“I never did with someone else in the room.”
Sebastian snorted. “Please. You said you had brothers. Surely you all didn’t have separate rooms?”
“My brothers died before they hit puberty,” Vlad said tonelessly.
Oh.
Sebastian cleared his throat. “I’m sorry. All of them? What happened?”
“Tuberculosis,” Vlad said curtly.
Sebastian didn’t know what to say. To his surprise, Vlad clarified without prompting, “We lived in a small village far from major cities. No vaccines, no proper medicine. My mother sent me away to our distant relatives in Moscow when it became clear I was the only one not infected.”
The only one?
“You mean...” Sebastian licked his lips. “You mean they all died? Your mother, too?”
“Yes.”
The tightness of Vlad’s voice said it all, and Sebastian felt a wave of pity. He couldn’t imagine losing his entire family all at once and being sent away to a big city where he knew no one. Maybe that explained why Vlad was such a moody, angry person. His life must have been tough. That didn’t excuse some of the things Vlad said and did, but it explained them a little.
“How did you become Roman Demidov’s right hand?” Sebastian said, curious despite himself. “I mean, that’s a pretty big leap from a village nobody to a billionaire’s head of security.”
“I was piss poor, I needed money,” Vlad said. “I got into illegal underground fighting. Turned out I was good at beating people up.” He sighed. “It’s all very banal, really. I got involved with the wrong sort of people and basically became a junkie by fifteen. Like most junkies, I would do anything for a hit. I ended up owing lots of money to the wrong sort of people. One of them ordered me to kidnap Roman’s little sister and bring her to him.”
When Vlad didn’t continue, Sebastian said, “And? What happened?”
“I couldn’t do it,” Vlad said, his voice clipped. “Anastasia was just five. I did kidnap her—I wasn’t working alone—but I delivered her to her brother. I thought—I knew her family would kill me for kidnapping her and putting her at such a risk, but Roman convinced his father that I could be an asset to them. He dealt with my debts, helped me with my addiction problem, and offered me a job.”
“Wow,” Sebastian said, a little surprised. Roman Demidov didn’t strike him as a merciful man. “That was very kind of him.”
Vlad chuckled, as if he’d said something funny. “Roman doesn’t do anything out of kindness. Loyalty is hard to come by in those circles. He basically guaranteed my loyalty by saving my ass and got himself someone capable that he could trust to watch his back. And he was right. I saved his life countless times and got promoted to his head of security after just seven years.”
Sebastian chewed on his lip, a bit weirded out that they were having such a civil conversation. “I got the impression that Roman fired you recently?”
“He did.” There was reluctance in Vlad’s voice; clearly the topic wasn’t his favorite.
“Why?” Sebastian pressed.
“Do you know how Luke and Roman met?” Vlad’s tone was cautious.
It piqued Sebastian’s curiosity. “Yeah,” he said. “Luke met him through work during his business trip to Russia.”
“Sure,” Vlad said, amusement in his tone. “If you don’t know, I can’t tell you much. But the gist of it is...I disliked that Luke somehow managed to wrap Roman around his little finger. I thought he was a bad influence, made Roman irrational and—” He cut himself off, but Sebastian could guess.