Though tension stole through his body, he kept up his measured seduction.

I got the impression he struggled to be gentle with me; I didn’t want gentle. I inwardly begged, More . . .

But he kept up his slow-burn, seething pace.

More! My fingernails bit into his shoulders; as if I’d flipped a switch in him, ferocity overpowered his tenderness. With a growl against my lips, his hands landed on my ass, yanking me against him.

I gasped into our kiss—his cock was huge! Was he moving us? My back met a wall.

He pressed his body against mine and rocked his hips, grinding his erection.

I shuddered with want, moaning for the thick length trapped between us. I grew even wetter, my pussy aching for it. My head swam. I couldn’t get close enough to him. Rolling my hips against him, I sucked on his tongue—

“Vice?”

CHAPTER 3

I broke away from that dream kiss. When I pushed against Dmitri’s chest, his muscles flexed to my touch. My greedy fingers decided to clutch at his rigid pecs, and I was about to dip right back into the dream—

Pete cleared his throat.

I dropped my hands and shimmied around Dmitri, trying to catch my breath.

The Russian refused to let go, turning to pull my back against his front so we both faced Pete. I blushed again when I felt Dmitri’s cock between us.

He draped his arms over me possessively. “Peter, how could you hide a cousin this beautiful from me?”

Pete must be thinking: But I threw our best and brightest at your feet. With my little purse in his hands, he said, “I had no idea you would hit it off . . . with her.” Obviously. He’d been so shocked to find us kissing, he’d used my family nickname in front of a gull.

Dmitri made a sound of disbelief. “How could I not?”

I made a mental note to ask my cousin how smug I looked at this moment.

“Maksimilian is looking for you,” Pete said. “They’re about to start the toasts.”

Dmitri tugged me even closer. “We will be down soon.”

“Actually”—I twisted in his arms to peer up at him—“can I meet you downstairs? I need to talk to Pete about something.”

Dmitri glanced at my cousin. He shuttered his reaction, but I read faces like a pro, even micro expressions. And right now, Dmitri’s was micro-irritated. “Before I go . . .” He dug in his shirt pocket and handed me his miniscule phone. “I would like you to call yourself.”

I accepted the high-tech looking thing, but playfully said, “Hmm. Maybe I shouldn’t give you my number.” I am desperate for you to have my number.

“I will simply hound Peter for it. Maksim paid ten thousand dollars for Lucía’s; do you think I’ll do less?” He peered down at me. He was using the thrall on me!

But then, I did want to comply. In a way, he was assisting in his own conning. As I dialed myself, he strode to a nearby table and collected his jacket. With his back to us, he drew it on and fastened a button.

Because he was still hard?

When music sounded from my purse, Dmitri returned, raising a brow at my unusual ringtone.

“It’s ‘Let’s Go Crazy’ by Prince and the Revolution.” Zero recognition. Apparently he didn’t share my love of eighties hits. I returned his phone.

He took my hand to press a kiss into my palm. “Don’t keep me waiting too long, Victoria.” He descended the stairs.

My cousin and I stared after him until we were alone. “What the hell did you do to him?”

I examined my nails. “I used some good, old-fashioned sexual manipulation skills,” I said, as if I’d done more than hold on for dear life.

Four aces couldn’t beat Dmitri’s kiss.

Pete handed me my purse. “You’re thinking a milk-cow, aren’t you? Even though you’ve never done one before? That is a completely different animal from stock cons, with full-on emotion and entanglement. You’ve never even done a one-night badger game!” More to himself, he said, “We could still bring in Karin to close this. Maybe Dmitri didn’t have his contacts in last night.”

Though I’d had the exact same thought, I snapped, “Oh, come on!” Marcia, Marcia, Marcia! “He likes me.”

“You’re right, you’re right. But are you ready for a sexual con?”

After that kiss? Deal me in! “I’m ready.”

“You’ve only been with three men,” Pete pointed out. “And one of those guys lasted five seconds!”

I should never have told my cousin about one-thrust Ronny.

“Can you tease Dmitri to sexual insanity and then deny him? Get him so crazed he’ll promise you anything?”

As if I had a choice? I lifted my chin. “I’m going down to that party—as primary.” The lead player in a con. “I’m gonna do my job, so why don’t you do yours?” I wasn’t entering the room blind—I’d read Pete’s notes on the Sevastyans—but I’d take any more information he could give me. “How many bodyguards?” The bane of a grifter’s existence.

“Several. Dmitri and Aleks have two each. Maksim’s head of security is the bald one, Vasili. He could be trouble, so keep a lookout for him.”

“Will we stand up to a billionaire’s kind of background scrutiny?” Though no one in my immediate family had an arrest record, we were KAs of people who’d done time.

“We couldn’t beat the investigation three months ago, but Benji’s made adjustments since then. So maybe.” My adopted brother, Ben Valentine—a.k.a. Benji the Eye—was our tech guy. “We’ll have to roll the dice on that.”