Owned By The Bratva King by Jagger Cole

8

Yuri

Clank.

With a grunt, I set the bar back down on the rack and hiss with the exhale. My eyes close, my muscles screaming after that last set. But the endorphin rush hits me, and I grin triumphantly at the successful workout.

I sit up on the bench and reach for my water. Through the open doors of the yacht’s gym, the sea air washes over the sweat glistening on my bare chest. I stand, breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth as I walk to the balcony overlooking the lower decks.

But my gaze is not aimless. It’s instantly pulled to the deck off of River’s quarters. Because there she is, in the lap pool. In a bikini. I groan as the endorphins surge through my system.

To be fair, the bikini isn’t necessarily to show off. It’s because there’s a tempting pool, and the only bathing suits in her closet are small, skimpy bikinis. I didn’t stock the thing for River specifically, obviously. But as my plan was to host Semyon’s object of interest, the idea was to send him pictures of his captured desire parading around my yacht in skimpy clothing.

The idea of sending any such picture of River to him makes my blood boil.

I watch as she swims strongly against the surging water in the lap pool. Her hair is tied up tight in a bun, her sleek body and tempting curves coiling as she swims. The tiny white bikini is already a skimpy bathing suit by design. But on River, with her tits and that ass? It’s almost pornographic.

But it’s also all for me. And I’m certainly not complaining. I groan as I watch her pushing herself. But then she slows to a stop and moves to the side of the pool. She pushes herself out of the water. My cock thickens as she slips out, the little white thong bikini pulled tight between her cheeks.

She slips out and stands on the deck. But then, as if she can feel my eyes on her, she turns. She blushes, stiffening when she sees me looking right at her. Her teeth drag over her bottom lip. I don’t look away. I stare right at her—right at what I want but should not want.

Her big green eyes look right back at me. Her cheeks burn hotly. But then, like she’s just remembered that she’s mad at me for making her come so eagerly, apparently, her brow furrows. Her look turns to a glare. She yanks a towel around herself, whirls, and storms back into her quarters.

I groan as my hand tightens on the railing of the deck. What the fuck am I doing with this girl?

I turn to head back inside. But just then, my phone buzzes. I pull it out and smile curiously when I see Belle’s name on the screen.

“And to what do I owe the pleasure of a call from a famous movie star?”

Belle groans with a laugh. “Hi, dad.”

For the first eighteen years of her life, my daughter didn’t know me. Part of that was that she was concealed from me by her mother. But the next part was because I didn’t want the little girl I didn’t even know to be chewed up and spit out by the world of violence I live in.

Her mother—René—and I had been young and… unclear of what we were back then. I was rising in the ranks of my family business with the Bratva. She was a dancer at a club in New York, where I was living for a time. Maybe we were just young and stupid. Maybe it was more, but who knows. I know I don’t.

I do know I cared for her. And it hurt when I learned she was pregnant, and when she told me it wasn’t mine. She yelled at me, telling me we meant nothing, and that there were other men. There may have been, I don’t know. I knew I already shared her heart with the needle, which was hard enough.

She got clean for the baby, but she and I were done. And not long after her daughter was born, heroin finally took René. It was years later that I finally used my money and influence to secretly test Belle’s DNA against my own, just to see. The match was perfect.

But even with that, I knew I couldn’t be a part of her world. Or more specifically, I couldn’t let her become a part of mine. Things were much rougher back then, of course. There were constant wars between bratva families. It had barely been a decade since the fall of the USSR, and the race for power in the ensuing vacuum was brutal and bloody.

My daughter would not be a part of that.

And so, I watched from a distance. I watched her aunt raise her, and quietly made sure they were okay. I watched as Belle, a budding actress, suddenly found her big break. I watched with a heart full of pride, telling no one, as she rose to world-wide fame on the Hollywood stage.

When fate threw her and Nikolai, a captain in the Kashenko Bratva together, it also forced me into her life. And it’s the best turn of events of my life so far. It’s almost out of a movie script that I would be so worried about involving my daughter with the Bratva world for so long. And then she goes and falls in love with a Bratva captain.

“How’s… wait where are you these days?”

“Here and there,” I grin. It’s not that I’m playing coy. It’s that even though she’s married to a Bratva captain, I still feel the need to shield her from this world.

She chuckles. “International man of mystery, huh?”

“The name is Bond. Yuri Bond.”

Belle snickers. “Business is good, I hope?”

I frown. “Yes?”

“Good. So you won’t have to fall back on your God-awful comedy career?”

I chuckle. But just then, suddenly, the door to River’s deck opens again. She walks back out—still in the bikini. Without the towel. She glances up at me. She tries to hide it, but I catch the smug little smirk before she can.

I watch her sway her hips over to a lounge chair and spill herself into it. She stretches like a cat, arching her back and thrusting her full tits up, straining them against her bikini top.

My jaw grinds. She’s teasing me. Purposefully so.

“Dad?”

I wince. “Yeah, I’m here.”

The sudden juxtaposition of these two versions of me is jarring. On one hand is the tempting little vixen trying to tease me. That hand holds my untamed and forbidden attraction to the gorgeous young model currently staying as my… well, my hostage of sorts.

And in the other hand, is Belle—the daughter I am finally getting to know. The piece of me that I’ve only recently been able to start to connect to. I mean Christ, it’s only been in the last few months that she’s even started calling me dad and not just “Yuri.” I’m well aware that fathering someone does not inherently make you a dad. But fuck, it’s been nice to hear.

And now, those two hands pull me in different directions—they pull me apart.

Below and across the main deck, River is turning to sun her back. She arches her body, thrusting her ass back towards me. She’s being a fucking prick tease, and she knows it. She just doesn’t know she’s doing it while I’m on the phone with her best friend. Just as my daughter has no idea I’m talking to her while I have her best friend captive on my yacht.

“Hey, so, actually I called to invite you to something.”

I blink away my thoughts and focus on Belle. “Oh?”

“Yeah. Um… how’d you like to come to the premier for my upcoming release?”

The grin almost hurts it’s so wide.

“I would honestly love to.”

“Yeah? Look, you really don’t have to. I know you’re busy—”

“Belle,” I smile. “Consider my schedule cleared.”

She laughs. “It’s for Tomorrow’s Battle… I think I was telling you about it?”

“The one where you’re the embedded Marine Corp press photographer who gets captured by the Taliban…” I smile. “I remember.”

Her latest film hasn’t even been released yet, and it’s already generating some big buzz. What makes me even prouder is that she’s doing this all under her own production company. And the films that company is putting out are garnering so much praise that she’s getting all sorts of investment offers, too.

I grin, swelling with pride. And also with happiness. This is a big step, her inviting me to something this important. I’d have figured she’d bring someone like—

“My friend River is going to come too.”

I freeze, my jaw grinding.

“Oh?”

“Yeah, you met her once at that dinner in Chicago last year? The model?”

“I…” my eyes land on River herself, not forty feet away from me, stretched out in the world’s skimpiest thong bikini.

“I think I remember her.”

“It’s not for a few more weeks. I’ll send you the info though.” She laughs. “Oh my God, speaking of River…”

My mouth thins. “Yes?”

“This is really gossipy. But I just heard about it, and I think Niko is getting tired of being the only one I’ve been talking to about it.” She sighs. “So, apparently River ran off with some rich European guy.”

I stiffen. “Really.”

I knew the story I put into place would leak eventually. In fact, that was sort of the point, to avoid people being worried that famous model River Finn had been kidnapped. But it’s still jarring to hear it from Belle.

“You… spoke to her?” I ask, knowing she hasn’t.

“No, actually. I’ve been trying to call her, but her stupid phone is off. Can you believe that? I had learn about my best friend running off with some prince or an oil tycoon’s heir through a freaking grocery store tabloid cover.”

“Yeah…” I frown. “That’s—”

“Oh, and get this. This photo-shoot she was on got attacked by pirates. Like real actual pirates, and this prince or king or whoever he is saved her.”

“It’s a strange world,” I grunt quietly.

“Seriously.” Belle sighs. “Okay, sorry, I’m gossiping your ear off now.”

“I enjoy your gossip.”

She laughs. “Well, I’ll let you go. My assistant will email over the info for the premier. I’ll talk to you soon?”

“Any time,” I say quietly with a grin.

“Okay. Bye, dad.”

“Bye, Belle.”

“Oh, hey.”

“Yes?”

“Bring a date!”

I smile thinly as my eyes settle on River, still stretched out in a bikini.

“Very funny.”

I’m still smiling when I hang up. But my eyes stay glued to the forbidden attraction across from me, doing her damndest to shatter my self-control.

And if she keeps trying, she’s going to succeed.