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  Charlize Starr

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  “Without manners, we all turn into animals,” he said.

  “And what’s wrong with animals?” she whispered.

  Sylvia

  All my life I’ve been on my guard, looking over my shoulders because my dad’s a mobster. And now he has made me a prisoner in one of his friend’s homes. Fedor Volkov, the big Russian mafia boss.

  I expected a cold-hearted monster, but he’s sexy as hell with a beard that sets my belly on fire. He stands for everything I despise, yet I can’t stop thinking about him. I want him to be the one to take my virginity. Especially since that would royally piss off my dad.

  But I got way more than I bargained for...

  Fedor

  Every two years I take a vacation in my holiday home, alone. But this time, Will Stern has begged me to take in his daughter and protect her against his enemies. I couldn’t say no. Will is one of my best friends.

  I didn’t expect her to be all grown up, though, a sexy young twenty-three-year-old with endless legs and a cleavage to drive me mad. But I can’t break the code, I am her guardian. I know I should stay away from her, but it’s almost like she’s out to make me fall.

  How much longer can I resist?

  Chapter One - Sylvia

  “I don’t understand what the need for this is!” Sylvia stood aside while her father threw open the doors of her cupboard and started flinging clothes into a large duffle bag that he had brought with him.

  “Think of this as a vacation, sweetie,” Will Stern said, barely looking at his daughter while he continued the task at hand - packing his daughter’s belongings.

  “A vacation? I don’t need a vacation, dad! I just got done with college. I need to find a job.” Sylvia took a few steps in her father’s direction, trying to follow him around the room, but he now laid an arm on her dresser and just swept all her makeup and boxes of little trinkets into the bag. Sylvia shrieked with fright.

  “Be careful with those, dad!” she yelled, but he wasn’t really paying attention. He had only one thing on his mind, and he didn’t look like he was going to take a break.

  “I’ll get you a job when you come back. It’s just for a couple of weeks. It’ll be a nice break for you, after all the hard work you’ve put into your studies. You’ve never been to Puerto Rico,” Will said, finally zipping up the bag. He thought he had packed everything, but Sylvia had already made mental notes of all the stuff that he hadn’t put in - her shoes, the scarves, her prized collection of perfumes.

  “Okay, dad,” she said softly, hoping that a gentler approach might work better. She walked towards him as he stood bent over the duffle bag and put a hand on his shoulder. Will Stern whipped around with a crazed look in his eyes.

  “Dad, I thought those days were behind us,” Sylvia asked, the color rising in her cheeks. She was so tired of this. All her childhood had been spent running away, hiding, always looking over their shoulders to see if they were being followed. It was what had killed her mother. All that nerve wracking will to survive, to live. Her father had been a small-timer then, he worked for someone else, one of the Russian mob bosses. But now that he had a gang of his own, his own security, his own source of income, Sylvia thought that those days of looking over their shoulders were over. That their lives were never going to be in danger anymore.

  “It’s never truly behind us,” Will said, sitting down at the edge of her bed with a thump. He looked exhausted.

  Sylvia put her hands on her hips, standing with her legs apart. She could feel the rage rising up her shoulders, she was exhausted too. When would she ever be able to lead a normal life?

  “You have the money now, dad. You can pay off people. Frighten them…I don’t know what. You can do something. You don’t have to run away!” Sylvia breathed in deeply, nearly pleading with her father. She didn’t want to leave New York. Not when she was just beginning her job hunt. No matter what promises her father made, the kind of work he’d find her was not the kind of work she wanted to do. She wanted to get away from the mob world, away from the world of money laundering and thugs and stories about people getting killed or beaten to pulp for not paying their dues.

  Sylvia wanted to lead a normal life, work at a startup, have a regular desk job, get a cat.

  “I’m not running away. You’re going to Puerto Rico by yourself. I just don’t want you to get caught up in this. I don’t want your life to be in danger,” Will said, running his hands through his closely cropped dark curly hair. Sylvia noticed the graying of his sideburns. She hadn’t realized before but her father was getting old. But this didn’t mean that she wasn’t still angry with him. For trying to snatch a normal life away from her, again!

  “Well, I’m not running away either. I’ve had enough of this. I’m staying right here. What the Hell am I going to do in Puerto Rico of all places?” Sylvia folded her arms across her chest, and then she saw the shift in her father’s eyes. He was determined. She had seen that look in his eyes very often in the past. She knew it scared people, but it didn’t scare her. She looked back at him directly, defiantly.

  “You’re going. You’ll be staying with my friend. He owns a mansion there. He’s on holiday there and he’s agreed to take you in for a few weeks. You’ll be safe with him.” Will stood up from the bed and picked up the duffle bag up. Sylvia could feel tears bubbling up in her eyes, from the rage. She knew she had lost the fight. There was no convincing him now.

  “I know what all your friends are like. They are all like you. Dirty criminals. You’re all alike. You’re all disgusting!” Sylvia screamed after her father as he left the room, expecting her to follow him as he went.

  Sylvia clenched and unclenched her fists, she stamped the floor repeatedly, and then breathed out deeply to calm herself. This was not going to work. Her father would eventually get his men to physically drag her to his waiting car outside if he had to. Her struggle, her reasoning was useless.

  So instead, Sylvia just opened her cupboard again. She pulled out one of her Louis Vuitton bags and started stuffing in the shoes her father had forgotten to pack, and then her scarves and her perfumes.

  Just a few more weeks of this life, she told herself as she packed. Then it’d be over. Then she’d be done with this life and would start afresh. Maybe she’d leave the country. Maybe she’d move to London or Sydney or somewhere else where her father couldn’t hunt her down. Sylvia could feel the blood boiling in her veins, but she knew there was absolutely nothing she could do about it now.

  Chapter Two - Fedor

  Fedor Volkov swirled the glass of Scotch in his hands. It was only midday, but he was on vacation now, so he allowed himself the treat. Back in Chicago, he didn’t take his first drink before all the day’s work was done, not before midnight. He needed to be thinking straight at all times.

  He definitely needed this break. Puerto Rico was good for him. His mansion was isolated, well-guarded and he never invited any of his friends or associates along. A few weeks at his getaway meant just that: a getaway. In complete isolation. It gave him somewhere to think, to actually think.

  But Will Stern might have spoilt it all. He had called on his direct line the previous night, sounding crazed, afraid. If Will sounded afraid, it had to be something big. He nearly begged Fedor to hide his daughter, to give her protection till he could sort
out this gang war. Fedor couldn’t say no, he couldn’t say no to one of his closest friends. Will and he had both risen through the ranks together. Will was an outsider, he wasn’t Russian, but he had the guts to play with the big boys. They always had each other's backs, and this poor girl didn’t even have a mother anymore. He couldn’t possibly say no.

  “Boss, she’s here,” he heard Pyotr’s voice say in Russian behind him.

  “Bring her in,” Fedor replied and folded one leg over the other, sinking a little further into his leather chair.

  He heard the clicking of heels on the marble floor outside, and he immediately had an impression of Will’s daughter. She definitely walked with a lot of confidence. He hadn’t met her since her mother’s funeral. She was only twelve then. She was twenty-three now, practically a grown woman.

  Pyotr opened the large oak doors of his study and Fedor looked up from the glass in his hand. When she walked in, she brought with her a sharp all-encompassing scent of her perfume. It was unmistakably musk, but a gentle feminine musk that tickled his nostrils.

  Whatever image of a twelve-year-old little girl he had in his head went hurling out of the window. Sylvia Stern was a woman now and what an absolutely gorgeous one she was, at that.

  She walked directly towards him, with her back straight and taking large quick steps in her high heels. She didn’t need Pyotr to make introductions or show her the way.

  Her skin was dark, shining in the natural tropical light streaming through the windows of the room. Her hair was just like her father’s, tight dark curls and she kept it open like a halo around her head. Her eyes were a dark chocolate brown. Her lips were thick and luscious and she had painted them in a rich plum red. She wasn’t dressed like a regular twenty-three-year-old either. She was in a slim pencil skirt with a white silk blouse tucked in. This girl had style.

  Fedor stood up out of courtesy, but she didn’t seem pleased.

  “I’m Sylvia Stern. My father sent me here to be your captive.” She stuck out her hand towards him, taking him by absolute surprise. Fedor stared at her, and then at her hand, his mouth hung open a little. He was expecting a spoilt brat maybe, or a meek little girl, someone more like her mother, her late mother who was afraid of her husband’s job. Fedor had met Cassandra a few times since he started working with Will, and he had always felt sorry for her.

  But their daughter was nothing like either of them, and he wasn’t expecting this.

  “My captive? Is that how you look at it?” Fedor shook her hand, clasping her small hand in his and giving it a rough quick shake. He was about to offer her a seat, but Sylvia sat down across from him on the empty leather chair without his invitation.

  “What else is it? He forced me to pack my bags and then sent me here with guards. It wasn’t my choice, which means I’m a captive.” Sylvia crossed her long slender legs. Fedor allowed himself to look for a moment and then he immediately looked away. This was inappropriate, she was his friend’s daughter. He shouldn’t be staring at her perfect body, but he couldn’t help it.

  “He’s sent you here for your own good, for your own protection. Such is the nature of his job,” Fedor said slowly, and then took a long sip of his drink. He noticed the way her eyes sparkled as he spoke, how her chest rose and fell. It was obvious that she was trying very hard to contain her anger. She looked like she wanted to slap his face or throw his glass against the wall and shatter it to pieces.

  “I’ve wanted to be left out of his job, out of his world. I’m an adult now, I should be allowed to choose,” Sylvia said, in a more composed tone of voice. Fedor smiled and licked his lips before speaking again. She was watching him too, just as he was watching her closely.

  “You can’t just be left out. You’re his daughter. All his enemies know what you mean to him. They’ll hurt you the first opportunity they get.” Fedor swirled his Scotch around in his glass again and noticed the way her eyes were drawn to it. There was defiance in her eyes, she was still angry.

  “Is this how you treat your daughter as well? Is this why you’re on his side?” she asked and Fedor couldn’t help but laugh.

  “I don’t have a family. No liabilities. That has been my number one rule,” he said, and laughed some more. Try as she might, Sylvia Stern was still a young naive little girl.

  Chapter Three - Sylvia

  His laugh was loud and Sylvia felt like it shook the floor underneath her feet. She had been expecting a pot-bellied Russian mafia boss with thick signet rings on his fingers and greasy hair. This was not the man she had pictured in her head. Fedor Volkov. She couldn’t remember his face but she knew she had met him before. She knew that her father and he were as thick as thieves, but all his friends were all the same in her eyes - criminals. And she never wanted to have anything to do with any of them.

  But Fedor Volkov had thrown her. When she entered the room he was sitting behind his desk, but when he stood up to shake her hand, she realized just how tall he was. At least six feet and five inches if not taller.

  He had a thick dark beard that covered the lower half of his face and fell way past his chin. His hair was dark and thick too, but it was beginning to gray, just like her father’s. His eyes, on the other hand, were small, intensely blue like a clear icy blue Russian lake. His shoulders were broad, and his handshake was strong.

  The most intriguing bit about him perhaps was his voice. He had a Russian accent, even though he spoke English fairly well but his voice was deep and soft and gentle. He sounded more like a voiceover for a documentary rather than a Russian mobster. It was hard to imagine him dishing out orders for murders.

  Sylvia shifted in her seat while he looked at her, still laughing from her question about his nonexistent daughter.

  “Laugh all you want, Mr. Volkov, I just want you to know that I’m staying here against my will,” she said, lifting her chin up at him. He stopped laughing, but he was smiling while he studied her with his icy blue eyes. Sylvia felt self-conscious under his gaze, she could feel goosebumps appear on her arms. This man was definitely sexy as hell. He might be her father’s age, but he was tall and handsome and rugged and sexy. Sylvia smiled, an idea instantly forming in her brain.

  “I am only doing your father a favor. I promised him I’ll protect you till he thinks it’s safe for you to return to New York, and that is exactly what I’ll do. Your problems with your father are your own, not mine,” Fedor said softly in his Russian accent and Sylvia bit down on her lip.

  “Of course,” she said sweetly and saw the look of surprise in his eyes. He wasn’t expecting her to agree so quickly with what he was saying. He was expecting her to kick and scream some more. But he wasn’t aware of her change in plans, her decision to make her father regret his decision to send her here.

  “I apologize for involving you in this, and I’m grateful for your hospitality,” Sylvia said, suddenly standing up. She pushed her breasts out towards him as she leaned over the desk, stretching out her hand towards him again.

  She caught Fedor’s gaze travel down to her breasts, which she very blatantly dangled right in front of his eyes, then he stood up too, immediately towering over her.

  The goosebumps on her flesh appeared again, and he shook her hand.

  “You are very welcome here. I’ll make sure you feel right at home here and enjoy your vacation. My aid, Pyotr will always be at your disposal and feel free to ask for anything. Your father is a very good friend of mine. I owe him my life,” Fedor said, letting go of her hand.

  “Just as I’m sure, he owes his life to you too,” Sylvia said, as politely and humbly as possible. Fedor breathed in and smiled, still taken aback by her sudden change in behavior.

  She remained standing before him, looking up at him and smiling, while he pressed a button beside him.

  Pyotr opened the door and walked in, addressing Fedor in Russian.

  “Please show Ms. Stern to her room upstairs, and give her a tour of the estate,” Fedor spoke in English and then turned to Syl
via again, his blue eyes piercing through her skull. She gulped, no man before had this terrifying effect on her.

  “Please do forgive Pyotr’s English. I hope you will find a way to easily communicate with each other,” he said and sat back down on his chair, a clear indication that their meeting was over. He seemed like the kind of man who wanted to be left alone, who wasn’t very fond of company.

  Sylvia smiled, turned to Pyotr and stretched out her arm.

  “Shall we? After you,” she said and watched as Pyotr turned his nervous, confused eyes to his Boss. Fedor laughed again, enjoying the confusion and the reversal of roles that Sylvia was causing. Clearly, no woman had ever shown Pyotr the way.

  “Ok. This way. You come,” he said in a thick Russian accent that Sylvia found hard to follow.

  He opened the door and she turned to throw one last look at Fedor before she left his presence. She smiled at him as he sat behind his desk, his fingers steepled, his glass of whiskey standing next to his elbow while he watched her, studying her with keen eyes. She could see that she was a mystery to him, that she had surprised him and also intrigued him.

  That was exactly what she wanted. She needed him to be interested if her plan was going to work. He had already studied her body. Now he needed to be interested enough, weak enough to fall for her seduction.

  That would be the greatest revenge she could cast upon her father, make him regret sending her here. His daughter seducing his best friend. What could possibly be worse than that?

  Sylvia could hear her own heels clicking as she walked out of Fedor’s study and up the marble staircase towards her room.