The place Lien had been taken to was the bottom floor of a parking garage. It was devoid of any natural light, Lien having to rely on the dim wall lights and the men leading him to an imposing charcoal door. Once they reached it, Lien kept his cool and went up the stairs through the doorway to find an elegant restaurant inside. It had tall arches and red tapestries along the walls, highlighted by golden chandeliers and a calming luxury. The door closed behind Lien, and he tensed at the sudden aloneness. Slowly, he walked past the threshold of the archway, seeing that the restaurant was entirely empty except for one table in the center of the room.

Vitya Reznikov was sitting with his hands interlocked together and resting on the table, watching Lien from across the room. Lien's assumptions about how Vitya would look were squashed immediately, and those games he played over the phone started to leave him. That protective, bitchy shell he put around himself was beginning to crack. "Closed down the place just for me? If I didn't know any better, I'd think you're flirting with me," Lien cut the tension in the air with his voice and made his way to the table, moving his hand to grab the chair. He found that someone else seemingly appeared out of thin air and pulled the chair out for him. Lien jumped and held his chest. "Jesus! You came out of nowhere," he exclaimed before taking his seat and being pushed in. Of course, the waiting staff were there the whole time, but Lien had been too focused on how Vitya's top tightened around his muscles.

"You'd do well to acknowledge my staff," Vitya responded and swigged from his full glass of whiskey. Lien tilted his head. "Do you own this restaurant?" he asked Vitya and leaned forward in his chair, a smirk coming across his face. Vitya didn't respond and ushered the waiter over to the table, whispering in the man's ear and nodding. "Would you like something to drink?" Vitya said to Lien expectantly while drinking the rest of his own whiskey. There was a brief hesitation in Lien's expression; however, he wanted to impress Vitya as much as he could. Suddenly, working for the Triad and making his grandfather proud was left on the back burner, and now all he wanted was to address his attraction to this mysterious beast from Russia.

"I'll have what you're having," Lien gushed and ran his fingers through his hair, almost as though making sure his appearance was perfect. Indeed, he did look beautiful under the low light and candles that caught the sheen of his skin. He rubbed the underside of his forearm as the waiter poured Lien a glass of whiskey and refilled Vitya's. Without an exchange of words, Lien's eyes flickered to Vitya's while he drank the whiskey and did his best to stifle an unpleasant reaction to the burning liquid coursing down his throat. For Lien, a bottle of sweet wine was his drink of choice or a cocktail with peach or pineapple juice.

Unfortunately, the drink he'd succumbed to was the tang and spice of whiskey. He could feel sweat forming at his temple from how the alcohol went down and made a furnace in the pit of his stomach. "Can you handle it, little Lien?" Vitya smirked, and the other nearly choked on his drink. Lien wiped the whiskey that dribbled down the side of his chin. "Don't call me that, if you know what's good for you," he made a sour expression, and his eyes went back to the drink and suddenly downed it. Vitya was amused as the waiter returned with a large platter of China pearl peaches, setting them down on the center of the table. "Might I remind you that you wanted this meeting. I make the rules. You don't have your dog to protect you in here," Vitya licked his lips and set his drink down, beginning to slice a peach with one of the knives on the table.

"I agreed to meet with you because of the rat problem. I demand respect," Lien straightened his posture, his cheeks flushed with a rosy color due to his low tolerance for strong liquor. The younger man leaned forward to grab a peach, and with cat-like reflexes, Vitya caught his wrist, pressing his thumb into Lien's median nerve. As a result, Lien winced and looked up at Vitya. The man would stick a fork into a peach slice that was wetted with sweet nectar. He held it up and let go of Lien's wrist. "Eat," Vitya demanded, and Lien furrowed his brows. A game of cat and mouse, it made Lien feel hot. With wavering resistance, Lien broke, and the liquid courage influenced him to be more brash than usual.

Lien leaned forward on the table and went to reach for the fork in Vitya's hand. "Ah ah, you eat when I feed you," Vitya stated, and Lien forgot his modesty, not that he had much to begin with. Lien parted his lips that possessed untamed gloss, revealing his pearly white teeth and pink tongue. At the same time, Vitya raised his free hand to grip the other's chin and force his mouth to open wider. "Let out your tongue, kotenok," Vitya ordered, and Lien listened. Once Vitya was satisfied, he gazed at the velvety pink appendage and pressed his thumb against Lien's bottom lip while pushing the dripping peach into his mouth. It was a scene of pure lust without breaking that final boundary, and Vitya was becoming aroused by the Triad son obeying his commands.

There was a moment when Lien was chewing the sugary delight in his mouth that he thought he'd take this moment a step further, and he waited until Vitya had stabbed another slice of peach. Lien moved away and climbed onto the table on his hands and knees, his spine curving inward as he grew closer to Vitya with a smirk on his face. "More," he said in a breathy voice, and Vitya had a surprised look on his face that replaced his usual stone-cold expression. Vitya complied and stood up, lowering the fork down to his waist and waited for Lien to inch forward and suck on the decadent slice of fine fruit before him. The balance of power was clear to Vitya, who had Lien on the table begging for slices of fruit and taking them into his mouth without breaking eye contact.

Vitya took his seat again and cooled off; he couldn't let Lien know he was being affected by this little charade. "Obeying every word like a whore, I'm almost tempted to take you," he scoffed, and another surprise came his way when Lien leaned forward and whispered in his ear, "I have no master, certainly not you," the voice of Lien reverberated in the shell of Vitya's ear. His icy skin warmed by honeyed breath with a tinge of whiskey. Soon, Lien moved to put his face close to Vitya's, licking the corner of his mouth as sticky nectar of the peaches exchanged from skin to skin. "Your time is up, kid. And I don't like drunks," Vitya hissed and stood up from his seat, dusting himself off and leaving the table without a word or a passing glance to Lien.

Understandably, the attention Lien received vanished, and he shamefully moved off the table, standing up and going towards the door, following Vitya out into the parking garage. When he went down the stairs, he grew spiteful and did his best to ignore Vitya as he passed him to get to the car. Though, Lien couldn't help himself but pause at the car door where Peng was sitting inside. "Vitya, I'll be in touch," he said with a wink, and Vitya looked at him for a brief moment, like a bear confronted in the wilderness. With that, Lien got inside the car. "Did he hurt you? Are you alright?" Peng immediately began to check over Lien, holding his wrists and noticing a bruise where Vitya had gripped Lien in the restaurant. He was infuriated, and Lien snatched his wrist away. "God, stop being such a pussy. I'm fine, let's get to a hotel," Lien rolled his eyes and wiped his lips free of the peach nectar.

On the other hand, Sasha was glaring at Lien from the rearview mirror. His hands held so tightly on the steering wheel that his knuckles turned white. Before he grew angrier, he put the silver gun away and rolled the window divider up, driving away from the parking garage and to the nearby hotel, which Peng was not a fan of. "Staying here in Moscow, your grandfather would shoot me for this," Peng muttered under his breath, and Lien was silent, having a small smile on his face. He was busy reliving that moment in the restaurant over and over again until they arrived at the hotel. That's when Lien came to a troubling realization...

He needed more.