The Master (The Game Maker 2)

Lick-shoot-suck-gasp.

Natalie pressed the back of her hand to her mouth, then asked me, "How did Maksim know all those things he said in the speech?"

He's in the business of information, I thought. But I just shrugged. "Are you nervous about tomorrow?"

"Not at all. I'm ready for it to happen. Aleks is nervous though. He thinks something will stop the wedding or take me away from him."

Jess added, "She won't tell me all the details, but he, Maksim, and the other brother had a fucked-up childhood in Siberia." Did they know about the scars on Maxim's back? "So Natalie is pretty much air for Aleks." She acted like she was suffocating. "Must . . . have . . . air."

Natalie told me, "He's been uneasy about you, because he wouldn't put it past his brother to kidnap you permanently. And Maksim watched you like a hawk throughout dinner. I was surprised he left you."

He probably had one of his security detail spying on me.

Jess said, "You're about to bolt, aren't you? We'll totally help you! We can go to my parents' lake house."

"Are we scheduling a mafiya carefrontation?" Natalie asked. Then she tapped her chin. "I should warn you: I ran from Aleks twice. It ended in marriage."

"Why would you run?"

"The first time? Because he broke into my house, intending to abduct me back to Russia. The second time? Because he wouldn't talk to me about his past."

Maxim had shied away on the plane, but I knew I could get him to open up. If I did.

Natalie said, "Aleks kept all his emotions bottled up. Unlike his brother! When Maksim toasted love and held up his glass to you, everyone in that room knew he was lost."

For me. It struck me that if Maxim was legit, my whole life might turn around. I was making friends and had seen snow. I'd ridden a horse and gotten laid in a covered bridge. I possibly had a boyfriend who could help me fight for my life back. I couldn't stop a smile. "I wouldn't want to be anywhere else in the world right now."

Jess told Natalie, "That sounds like something a prisoner would say." To me, she said, "I can't let Natalie get nervous about anything the night before her wedding. So pony up the deets."

To distract them, I said, "Let's do one more round." Famous last words.

Lick-shoot-suck-gasp.

Lick-shoot-suck-gasp.

Lick-shoot-suck-gasp.

Sometime later, I patted myself on my back. I'd distracted them and was having serious fun in the meantime! I'd missed hanging out with people my own age so much.

And I loved watching the rapport between Natalie and Jess. Natalie was the most laid-back girl I'd ever met. Jess was absolutely the craziest. Yet they totally fit.

As we grew drunker, Jess turned philosophical. "Why do guys think I want to date just because I bounced their dick for a night or two? Men are so predictable, so boring! Especially compared to women. If you and the Russian don't work out . . ." She made a phone gesture against her head, mouthing, Call me.

Lick-shoot-suck-gasp.

Eventually Natalie admitted that Aleks had taken her to a masquerade at Le Libertin, an exclusive BDSM club in Paris. So both brothers had that interest? Did Dmitri as well?

Natalie would've been sparing on the sex club descriptions, but Jess, who knew the story, kept prodding her: "You left out the best part! The metal dildo! And the sexual circus."

The details of that night scorched my eyebrows--and fueled my curiosity. What else would Maxim show me?

Jess pouted. "For some reason, I didn't get an invitation to Cirque du Cock. So I have to live vicariously."

Natalie said, "The weird thing was learning Maksim is a member too." You don't say. "He'll probably take you."

"Mami gets to go to Cirque du Cock? And not me? Now you two are just being twats."

Lick-suck-shoot-gasp.

Jess also grew more physical, seizing Natalie in a headlock. "Who's your wedding coordinator, now? Huh? Huh?" She rubbed her knuckles in Natalie's red hair until she'd created a huge rat's nest. "I am the wedding coordinator--the coordinated terminator. Say it."

Natalie just laughed. And she let the rat's nest stay.

Lick-suck-shoot-gasp.

"How did you meet Maksim?" Natalie asked me, slurring. "He usually only 'dates' "--she made air quotes--"blondes."

Oh. We were back to me. My head swirled. Bob and weave, Cat. But I didn't want to with these girls. They were so nice and real. "Oh, it's not a big deal."

"Sure it is!" Natalie said. "I want to know how my future brother-in-law would meet a smart co-ed."

I considered telling them about my escort foray. They probably wouldn't find it a big deal. I didn't know if it was gut instinct or the tequila advising me to trust them, but at that moment, I felt like I could. To an extent. I would never tell them about Edward--apparently, I couldn't yet gasp out the words husband and murderous sociopath in one sentence--but I could put their minds at ease about Maxim.

"Tell us!" Jess shoved her shoulder against mine, nearly sending me off my bar stool. "We're all drunk, and it's obvious that you and I are long-lost sisters--which means I can't fuck you." Leaning in, she added darkly, "In certain states."

"Anything you tell us stays between us." Natalie hiccupped.

"Okay, well, um, I needed some money quick. So I . . . took my friend's place on an escort date. Maxim ordered tall and blond, but I went instead. He's my first and only client."

When I saw the disgusted look on Jess's face, I instantly regretted my admission. Then she said, "You mean I've been doing it all this time for free? Who's the chump?" She pointed a thumb at herself. "I'm the chump."

Natalie was more romantic about it. "If you hadn't gone that night, you never would have met him!"

Never to have met Maksimilian Sevastyan? The man steadily turning my world inside out?

"How do you feel about him?" she asked.

"I'm falling for him, but I try not to. I know he's a player. He's a gorgeous billionaire and could have any woman he wanted." Even with his issues. Maybe they were fixed now? "Yet sometimes I get a sense of deja vu around him, like we've known each other before. Does that sound stupid?"

"It sounds romantic," Natalie said.

Jess nodded. "Totally romantic. Hey, do you read romance novels? Of course you do. I'm sending you some faves. Give me your addy when I sober up."

I smiled and nodded, though I had no addy. It was such a simple request. No one else would give it much thought. But I had no home. I wanted a home. And a Russian. And a dog. "I've only known Maxim for thirteen days. I can't be feeling what I think I'm feeling."

"I was half in love with Aleks after a single night." Natalie twirled her ring with a secretive smile.

"You mean after a single glance," Jess said. "I was there. I witnessed the whole thing. Love at first sight exists. What did you think of Maksim?"

"DDG. Drop dead gorgeous. Thought beyond that was impossible."

Natalie said, "He's got it so bad for you."

"If she tells you that, then listen," Jess said. "We call her the Manalyzer."

"I can read any guy. Except Aleks." Natalie waved that away. "And Maksim is lost for you. He called you moyo solnyshko."

"Tell me what that means!"

" 'My sun.' It's a fairly common endearment, but for a guy like Maksim to say it? And it totally fits with what I heard him tell Aleks about you."

"What'd he say?"

"Just before they came over here, Aleks asked what he was doing with a nice girl like you, and Maksim said, 'She makes things . . . brighter.' "

Pang. "But can he ever truly get past the fact that I had sex for money? After he told me I was going to this wedding, he also told me he expected a heated negotiation for clothes and jewels."

"He doesn't know he was your first client?"

"He refused to believe me."

Natalie frowned. "Oh. That sounds not so good."

I couldn't disagree. "Now I want to see if he can love me despite my past."

Jess squinted

at me. "Let me get this straight. You want him to love you even though you're an escort, even though you're really not?"

"Exactly!"

"But what was all this about you being a hostage?" Natalie asked.

"I got drunk, and we had sex without a condom at my peak time of the month and all."

Jess nodded. "As you do."

"He accused me of trying to trap him with a pregnancy and refused to let me go."

Natalie sighed. "It might have started like that, but his feelings have deepened. Aleks told me he's never seen Maksim look so satisfied. Not even when they were young. Apparently, Maksim was an anxious kid who rarely cut up."

He'd told me he never laughed naturally. "It's so strange, since I love his humor."

My phone chimed from my clutch. I fished it out. M Sevastyan: having fun?

I told the girls, "Hold on, it's him."

Me: I loke natlie & jse! So fn!

M Sevastyan: ah, the tequila hits. are you being a good girl? or do i need to put you in chastity?

I moaned.

"Cat, did you say something?" Natalie asked.

"No. Nada."

Me: fuck'g devillll!1

M Sevastyan: little witch

With a shaking hand, I stowed my phone.

CHAPTER 30

"I wasn't going to come down here," Maxim snapped when he reached me outside the lodge's garage later that night. He looked more pissed than I'd ever seen him. "You're a grown woman. How much trouble could you and Jessica get into in a garage? Then I realized that I didn't know who was in the building before one of my men followed you here."