High breasts led to a sleek waist and long, icy legs splayed open as if ready to take a lover. From this angle, she couldn’t discern the facial features, only the lithe body.
Blue light poured from a high vent breathing artificially cooled air over the ice in order to keep the refined tips of her nipples peeked instead of melting in the warm evening. Standing this close she could feel the chilled air sweep across the gold-infused marble to play in the delicate fringes of her dress where it pooled around her ankles.
On her periphery, she caught sight of something else that left her chilled.
“Beautiful, is she not?”
Dimitris slithered up beside her, his venomous fangs sheathed behind a dangerous smile.
She turned. Part of her wanted to drive the spike of her heel into his balls.
“Stunning.”
Black beady eyes drank in the curve-hugging red number Rhia found in the back of a closet in Mikhail’s guest room. Who it belonged to in the past while Mikhail lived Sevastyan couldn’t tell her, but Dimitris appreciated the way it denoted her ample curves a little too well.
Dimitris eased a step closer, his body heat making her muscles tense. His gaze flicked over her face but didn’t stay there.
Rhia clenched her teeth to hold back the curse she wanted to whip out.
“I had this carved from our beautiful Maya. Do you like?”
Rhia’s hands began to tremble and she tightened her fingers around her clutch to keep from lashing out and baring her claws.
She cleared her throat and appreciated the ice sculpture once again. “She’s magnificent. You’ve done her justice.”
“She is truly remarkable.”
“Was,” Rhia corrected the other man, never breaking eye contact. She’d learned you never show the beast in the room an ounce of fear.
“So I’ve heard. An unfortunate event. She was an asset I didn’t want to lose.” He pinned his hands behind his back in a move to make himself look less intimidating. Only a fool would think that true and she was no one’s idiot.
“Your bitch of a mole and your goons killed her. But you already knew as much and had no problem finding replacements, I see.” She eyed the two girls standing slightly back from him much how Maya had stood behind him that night at the club. Head down, webbed whip lashes marking the skin along their thighs.
His black, calculating eyes narrowed on her. “Let me get troublesome details out of way for you.”
His broken English didn’t undermine the power of his words. She felt them to her very core.
“Like why you sent Indigo after me. And why she tried to kill me when you only instructed her to bring me to you so we could talk. I received that message loud and clear. Lucky for you I don’t scare easily.”
“An unfortunate mistake on her part and one I will be rectifying shortly. She’s hard to control when she wants something.”
Dimitris was starting to piss her off. She canted her head. “For someone like you, I doubt that and I’m not up for grabs.”
“This is too bad. You would find pleasure under my care.”
He inclined his head, but she’d caught the glint of challenge deep in those dark, pitless eyes. Like evil stared back at her and wanted to drag her inside the folds.
Speaking of the devil, his sidekick just made her appearance.
Indigo, silk blonde hair and curves encased in smooth leather—the bodice barely containing the swell of her breasts—sauntered through the crowd, heading their way.
“I see you didn’t chicken out. How brave of you,” Indigo cooed in a sickening tone that made her blood turn to ice. “I hope there’s no ill will between us. Business is business.”
It happened before she could protest.
Dimitris moved so fast she barely recognized what her eyes registered—the blur of Dimitris’ hand grabbing her flute and then the stalk of her champagne glass buried in Indigo’s throat, the bulbous head and liquid falling to the floor.
And then Sevastyan was in her ear. “Stay calm. He won’t hurt you. Whatever you do, do not look away, kroshka,” he soothed but like hell it was working. Gain the monster’s trust, then slay him. She repeated Sevastyan’s last words to her before they left the safety of his safe house earlier that evening. Calming as they were, nothing worked to soften the blows of her heart trying to hammer out of her chest by using blunt force.