A Stranger In Moscow: A Russian Billionaire Romance (International Alphas Book 7) Read online

  A STRANGER IN MOSCOW

  INTERNATIONAL ALPHAS BOOK 7

  AUTHOR

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  Summary

  When Olivia took a job as a nurse working for powerful billionaire Joseph Touhy she thought she had landed the job of her dreams.

  In reality it was the opposite.

  And it was when Joseph took Olivia to Moscow to care for his dying wife that things began to get strange.

  It turns out that Joseph has a very dark past and one that was going to come back to haunt him. Olivia did not know what to do.

  So it was down to charming Russian Billionaire Ruslan to help Olivia find a way out of the dark circle she was now stuck in...

  Copyright Notice

  Stranger In Moscow © 2018, Lacey Legend

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

  This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher.

  Contents

  Chapter1

  Chapter2

  Chapter3

  Chapter4

  Chapter5

  Chapter6

  Chapter7

  chapter 8

  chapter 9

  chapter 10

  chapter 11

  chapter 12

  chapter 13

  chapter 14

  Chapter1

  Olivia lay on the bed, legs spread and belly up. The window was open, letting a cool breeze roll over her naked body. The sheets wrapped themselves around her figure as she reached across the bed in anticipation. Her smooth brown skin glowed in the moonlight, illuminating every dewy curve and crevice on her body.

  She didn’t know who she was waiting for until he walked in. He was a tall and mysterious figure, someone she hadn’t met before. His face was hidden by a shadow, but she could tell that he was tall and strong. She felt nervous but not scared, thrilled, but not terrified. He slowly climbed onto the bed and grabbed her hips, pulling her body forward with one easy motion.

  He bent down and kissed her stomach, slowly working his way up. She felt sensitive to his kisses, recoiling a bit, only a natural reaction to the delicate pecks. Each time his lips met her skin, an electrifying shock buzzed straight up to her brain. He kissed more aggressively once he reached her neck, grabbing her hair and tugging it gently. She grabbed his shoulders to let him know she wanted him to continue, slowly running her hands down his back, digging her nails ever so slightly into his smooth skin.

  She ached for him to get closer, wanting to feel every bit of him inside her. She wrapped her legs around him, pulling him close, but still nothing. She pulled his torso on top of her body, letting him know she was ready, but still, he kept his pelvis distant. Just as she thought she was about to explode, Olivia woke up in a cold sweat, forgetting where she was.

  She had been experiencing a lot of frustrating sexual dreams of that nature recently and every time, she woke up before she got to the best part. It had been a while since she’d been with any man, especially one that looked like the mysterious figure in her dreams.

  When she was fully awake, she realized she had fallen asleep in the living room after sitting down for just a second to take a break. She remembered there was still a full sink of dishes waiting to be washed in the other room.

  Any other time if she were alone, she would have just thrown the dishes in the dishwasher. That is, if she even used any dishes—usually she ate her meal out of restaurant carry-out containers. Where she was, the dishes were too nice to just be thrown in a dishwasher.

  While scrubbing away the leftover food she had worked so hard to prepare hours ago, Olivia remembered her steamy dream once again. Why was her own mind torturing her so?

  Olivia looked down into the empty sink in front of her, feeling she accomplished something. She washed her hands once more, even though she just finished the dishes. She felt that leaving the dish soap sit on her hands might make them rough and coarse. Although she worked hard every day, she didn’t want her hands to show that.

  She filled her palm with a dollop of lotion and headed out onto the deck to get some fresh air. The sight that greeted her was a quiet part of the city of Moscow. Though it was just after dinnertime, the city was quiet as snow fell slowly over the smooth white city. Just the glowing lights of houses could be seen through the dead gray trees.

  As she rubbed the lotion into her rich brown skin, she looked around, inhaling a fresh breath of the cold Russian air. Olivia was from the Midwest, so she had her fair share of cold weather storms. Nothing quite compared to the winters in Moscow, however. She was only planning on staying for about two weeks, but the bitter chill made her wish she was already back home.

  Being able to travel to a foreign country was something most people would go their whole lives without experiencing. For Olivia Johnson, she found herself traveling more often than she’d like. She was originally hired a couple of years ago by the Touhy family. Margot Touhy suffered from breast cancer and hired Olivia, a private nurse, to help her with appointments, medications, and other household duties during her treatment.

  Being a maid wasn’t in her job description, but they paid much more than an average nurse’s salary, so she didn’t mind looking after the small family of three. They ended up keeping Olivia around for a while after to help around the house while Margot was in remission.

  Unfortunately, the cancer came back worse than ever, and Olivia agreed to help with the family until Margot passed. She was given less than a year to live and decided to do whatever she could to make the most of her time left with her husband Joseph and daughter Vera.

  Margot had difficulties going to the bathroom, making dinner, and showering, so Olivia was always there to help. Margot had been a housewife since giving birth to Vera, so now that she was unable to do the duties she had carried out throughout her life, she needed someone to step in and make the transition easier.

  Olivia had originally gone to nursing school because she wanted to help take care of people. She didn’t know what exactly she wanted to do with her future and felt that being a nurse would give her a decent salary and potential to live anywhere she pleased. People always needed nurses around.

  She met the Touhy family through a mutual friend and ended up becoming a member herself, or at least one that would always be there to clean up after the Touhy trio. In the beginning, she just helped take care of Vera while she was finishing her senior year in high school. They were hopeful that Margot would recover, and she did enter remission after some aggressive treatments. Unfortunately, the cancer came back, this
time, with a life sentence.

  Joseph Touhy was the founder and CEO of his own business, so he was constantly traveling. Normally, when Joseph went on business trips, like the one that brought him to Russia, he would travel alone. Margot didn’t want to be apart from her family any more than she had to, so Olivia went along with the family on their trips to help with Margot and the rest of the necessary tasks that travel brought.

  She was a nurse, nanny, maid, and anything else the family needed. Joseph would normally have had Olivia book him the nicest hotel room she could find for his business trips, but with Margot coming along, they decided that renting a house in a quiet place was best for them all to get some close family bonding in. They rented a cabin right on the outskirts of Moscow, tucked away in a hilly area separated from other luxury cabins.

  It was furnished with all the nicest appliances and deep wood that made it feel like a home away from home, for billionaires, of course. Olivia didn’t have a family of her own, and as she was approaching 30, finding a place in the Touhy household at least helped her to feel less alone.

  She was much different than the 20-year-old Vera, but at least felt connected in that they were both the only child in their families. Olivia also lost her mom to cancer when she was just a child, so it was easy for her to care for Margot and always knew what she needed to make the terminal illness easier on her and the rest of the family. It was Joseph that she sometimes felt uncomfortable around. Something about him and the way he practiced business didn’t always sit right with Margot.

  Olivia would have normally loved to travel to Moscow, but not in the middle of their winter and not working for a family like the Touhys. They treated her fair and always with respect, but she couldn’t help but feel out of place as one of the caretakers of the family and not like a member.

  She couldn’t feel any more like an outsider in Russia either, so she didn’t always mind staying in after dinner when they went out to grab a drink. Any American traveling to Moscow in such a cold time would certainly stay in at night, but Margot always wanted to take the opportunity to enjoy a night out with her family while she still felt up to it.

  They had rented an entire cabin for the small family of three plus Olivia, so it was nice to have a warm house to herself in the quiet winter night. She liked to step out onto the snowy deck without a coat to feel the rush of cool air on her toasty skin. That night she had managed to prepare a large roast for the family, so spending time in front of the hot stove and preparing so many dishes made her dark caramel skin feel extra warm that night.

  She was only wearing a thin T-shirt and joggers that she slipped into after dinner. When she could get in her pajamas and focus on cleaning up alone, she felt at peace, at least momentarily. Looking into the dark sky on this snowy night gave her a chance to clear her thoughts. She sometimes felt surprised that she was working for this family and had to remind herself of reality every once in a while.

  She could only stand the weather for a moment before having to run back inside and warm up by the fire. It was only her fourth night there, but she had already made a habit of topping off the night with a hot cup of tea and a thick novel by the fire.

  As she reached for the door back into the house, her worst nightmare was realized. She had managed to lock herself out, with no phone or key to get back inside. It was a sliding glass door that had led out to the wooden deck overlooking a heavily forested hill next to the road. How she managed to lock a sliding door behind her wasn’t something she could easily figure out, but nonetheless, she figured she managed to mess up the door somehow.

  Although she was only wearing slippers, she knew she could probably manage to make her way back inside if she was lucky enough to find the front door unlocked. She walked down the stairs of the deck and through the gravel pathway around the side of the house back to the front door. Her feet were icy cold, and she slipped on some patches of frozen snow a few times, but she had managed to make her way back to the front porch.

  She turned around and wanted to take one more sight back in before heading inside. It amazed her that the woods surrounding the cabin somehow managed to be darker than black. When she turned around, she was relieved to see that the front door was not only unlocked, but slightly open.

  Olivia would never be careless enough to just leave the door open, so her stomach dropped, realizing that something might not be right. She didn’t believe in ghosts or anything supernatural, but she watched enough crime documentaries to know what horrible things might be awaiting her behind that door. She couldn’t always trust her brain, however. Sometimes she would accidentally put the milk back in the freezer or forget to set an alarm before going to bed.

  Maybe this was just one of those moments. This was only a rental home, anyway, so she wasn’t in the habit of shutting all the doors properly. Maybe there was a secret to latching the door, like having to jiggle the handle or slam it shut to work.

  She slowly pushed open the door, took a quick peek around the cabin, and realized that she was still the only one. Standing with the door open behind her, she looked down at the snow that had become frozen on her slippers after having to run through the yard to get back inside. She realized, however, that there were already snowy footprints inside the house, leading around the corner down the hallway where Olivia and Vera’s bedrooms were located.

  A wave of fear filled her body. She turned around to close the door behind her, but just as she pushed the handle into place to latch, the knob twisted, and the door burst open. She was thrown back with surprise and her body instantly went into shock. Her first thought was that the family arrived home early, but when she looked at who was standing in front of her, that thought quickly turned into a panicked realization.

  “Ne dvigaytes'!” a man wearing a ski mask and all black shouted in Olivia’s face. She stared back at him in shock, realizing he was also pointing a gun right at her. She held her hands up and started to back away from the man who towered over her, easily 6 and a half feet tall. Olivia was barely five feet herself, so it was easy for her to feel threatened by his size alone. “NE DVIGAYTES’!” he shouted again.

  “No Russian! I don’t speak Russian!” she screamed back, tears streaming down her face, paralyzed with fear.

  “Don’t fucking move!” he said again, walking behind her and grabbing her wrists. He twisted her arms and she felt the gun jab into her back hard, forcing her to let out a scream. “Don’t make a sound!” he yelled again.

  The cabin was a completely open layout with two bedrooms and a bathroom off the kitchen and the master suite in a loft above the rest. There wasn’t much hiding there, but Olivia knew that this wasn’t the only man in the home. The snowy footprints she first saw when she walked in belonged to someone much smaller than this giant holding onto Olivia.

  They must have been watching the house, waiting for it to be empty. Had the man who came in first been the one to lock Olivia out? She looked around the cabin, hoping to see who else might be there. What did they want from her? Being in Russia as someone who didn’t fit in well was already terrifying enough for Olivia. Being trapped inside a cabin alone with two dangerous men only made her more terrified.

  The tall man dragged Olivia by her arms to a dining room chair, throwing her into it. Another man came out from Olivia’s bedroom carrying an even larger gun than the one that had been pointed at Olivia’s back.

  “Kto eto?” the man with the larger gun said. Olivia didn’t know what he said at all but could tell he was asking who Olivia was or at least why she was there. The taller man shrugged his shoulders and pulled rope from a black bag on his back. He tied Olivia to the chair, not being delicate with the knots. Her skin was already sore from the harsh rope.

  He then pulled out two pieces of black fabric, tying one around her eyes and one around her mouth. She calmed down a bit once she was tied to the chair. She realized they weren’t there to hurt her, but to take what they could from the house. Her inability to do anything somewhat m
ade her feel free. If she was untied, she would have to think of what to do next, but these men were likely there to take something and not harm her. If they wanted to kill her, they would have done so already.

  She still felt pain from the tight ropes around her wrists and stomach and suddenly found it hard to breathe. She could hear the men stomping around the cabin, up and down the stairs and throughout her and Vera’s bedrooms. It felt like they were there for hours, but she knew by the pace of their loud steps that it was only minutes. Even if she wanted to scream the cloth tied around her mouth made that impossible.

  The fabric was tied so tight around her mouth she could feel it getting harder and harder to breathe. She just wanted to take one deep breath, but every time she tried, she could feel the fabric go deeper in her mouth, soaking up her saliva and stealing every last bit of air from Olivia’s mouth. She started to panic again, wondering when the next time she could breathe easily might be. How long were these men going to take? The family had left less than a half an hour ago, so who knew how long she’d have to sit there with the cloth in her mouth unable to breathe.

  She heard the front door open again and another voice shout, “My dolzhny idti.” She turned her head towards the third voice, hoping they might be able to help her out of the ropes. She couldn’t see anything through the blindfold. It was darker than even the negative dark sky had been. “What is this?” the man shouted with a Russian accent. Olivia could feel him walking towards her and felt his strong hand grip the fabric on her mouth. He removed that, as well as the bandana around her eyes, and she suddenly came face to face with another large man.

  All three of them were wearing the same tight black sweater, black cargo pants, steel-toed boots, and black ski masks with mesh covering the mouth and eye holes. Despite dressing like triplets, the three men were very different. The first one she saw was probably the largest man she had ever seen in person. The second was smaller and a little more awkward, probably the one who managed to slip inside without having to break in.