by K. C. Crowne
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, her eyes narrowing. “And I don’t appreciate the tone you’re taking with me. You may live in a cabin in the woods, but you can still use your manners.”
I blinked at her. Did she just scold me like a child?
“You don’t belong here,” I grouched, scowling.
She gaped at me. “Excuse me, but this is a strange situation for both of us. All I want is to get to know the man who saved me and brought me to his cabin. Is that so wrong?”
The fire in her eyes was so fucking hot, my cock twitched again. I wanted to kiss her so badly. Dammit, this woman is intoxicating.
“What’s your deal?” Angela asked, her voice a little softer this time. “You’re really worked up for someone so removed from the stress and hustle and bustle of society.”
“You don’t know me, Malen kiy,” I replied, tempering my tone as well, although I wanted to laugh. I pissed on how other people defined stress. Fuck, a little bit late for work? The wrong size coffee? Not enough fucking likes on a post? What a terrible life.
“Why do you keep calling me that?” Angela asked. “What does it mean?”
“Little One,” I grunted.
Her brows scrunched. “Really? That’s how you see me?”
I shrugged my big shoulders. Her attitude made me want to jump her bones. Usually, I got irritated with people who gave me so much shit. But when she did it, it was hot as hell. She knew how to handle herself in a discussion to make her point clear.
I wanted to see how she’d handle herself when it came to the erotic language that could only be spoken between two naked bodies. No words needed - just the sounds and sensations of her body responding to mine. Where words couldn't explain the level of pleasure she’d surely experience.
No, words wouldn’t be needed. But still, I wanted her screaming my name. No doubt, if I had my way with her, she’d be screaming my name with zero care in the world who heard.
“Do you live up here, all alone?” Angela asked after a silence filled only by the crackling fire.
“Da.”
She looked around the cabin at the woods, the views, and smiled softly. “It's kind of peaceful, actually. No care in the world. No drama.” She looked at me, her green eyes shimmering.
I could fall into those eyes, drown in those eyes. They appeared so wholesome and pure, evergreen, like the forest around us, and when I looked in them, I saw all kinds of shit that a man like me should have the chance to experience. But a man like me had done too much wrong to experience such beauty. She didn’t belong here. Which made my suspicions even stronger.
“Did he send you?”
“Who?” Angela asked. “Ryan?”
“Who the fuck is Ryan?”
She glared at me; the nice smile gone. “I work for him. I told you I work for an insurance company. But my answers are the wrong answers, apparently. I don’t know what you want from me.”
I opened my mouth to answer, then closed it again. She was fierce, and it caused all kinds of havoc in my brain.
After another long silence, Angela shook her head, as if she had decided something for herself. She stood and walked away.
“Where are you going?” I demanded.
“Inside,” she said over her shoulder. “It’s not like there’s anywhere else I can go wearing just my underwear and a hunting jacket. And I need space.” She disappeared into the cabin with a sharp click of my front door.
It took all my self-control not to follow her. But the bird was almost finished – maybe another five minutes – and then I needed to check the satellites. I didn’t want Angela around for that. It was good she was back in the cabin.
I lifted the bird off the fire and carried it inside, then pulled the door shut again. Leaving meat out in the wild unattended would only bring all kinds of animals around for a meal I didn’t want to share.
I walked around the back of the cabin and up the rocky path that headed into the mountain. Between two large boulders, a crack in the rocks led to a cave of sorts. The opening was so narrow, I had to squeeze my colossal frame through. I didn’t like tight spots, so if I didn’t like squeezing through there, no one else would. I was banking on that.
Deep in the cave, out of sight of the opening and protected from the weather, I found my equipment: another satellite phone that couldn’t be traced, a laptop, and solar batteries I set out in the sun twice a week to charge. There was no signal for normal phones, but I wasn’t looking to make a normal call.
I brought up the satellite imagery, linking it to the body trackers the men had planted in their arms, so Maksim knew where the fuck they were. I’d dug mine out of my skin the night I’d walked away mid-job. I still had the scar on my arm. The wound hadn’t been pretty but digging a chip out of my arm with the sharp point of a knife while riding the subway leaves a hell of a scar. At least I gave the passengers a nice show. I’d always enjoyed messing with people’s heads.
The dots moved on the screen, and I pulled up the area. They were where they were supposed to be. Two men were somewhere in Siberia. One was in Finland. One in Denmark. Jobs that Maksim sent them on. None of them were headed to the States, or anywhere close by.
Satisfied, I let out a breath I’d been holding. As long as they kept their trackers in and I could find them, we were all good. Maksim wouldn’t risk having anyone work for him without a chip, and I was the only one clever enough to hack into the tracking system. I was safe for now.
I powered down my shit to save the battery and left the cave, pushing through the crack again. I walked down to the cabin slowly, giving the woman the space she said she needed. When I pushed the door open, Angela stood in the kitchen, carving the pheasant. On the little table, she had put out two plates.
I watched as she worked, her hands expertly gripping the knife. She wasn’t scared to get her hands dirty. This woman was incredible. Beautiful, feisty as shit. And she knew how to use a knife, from what I could see.
Even though I had my reservations about opening up to a stranger, I couldn’t deny her nature was genuine. She didn’t seem to be hiding anything.
Innocent, pure. She was too good for me. I wasn’t going to touch her. She deserved better. So, so, much better than a fucked up former assassin with tattoos and a past so dirty there would be no absolution. I’d crossed the line too many times to count.
Behind that line was a special kind of hell, reserved for people just like me.
I didn’t want to drag someone like Angela to that place.
Angela
When Viktor walked inside, I frowned at him and wondered where he’d been. He smelled like the forest, and I inhaled deeply before returning to my task of cutting up the poultry.
“Welcome back,” I stated, a little sarcasm in my tone. He grunted but didn’t speak, and I glanced over my shoulder again, catching his eyes. He was staring at me, and I lifted my eyebrows. “What?”
“Nothing,” he growled and stomped into the other room, leaving a trail of mud behind him.
My clean streak cried as I looked around for a broom, but my stronger half told me cleaning up after him wasn’t my job. He’d cooked, I’d cut up the bird, but I wasn’t a damn maid. Obviously he cared about cleanliness because, overall, the cabin was well-kempt. But he was a crude man and clearly not used to having company.
There was just something about him, though, and I listened to my gut. Even though everything about him screamed trouble, my instinct told me he wasn’t dangerous.
I scoffed aloud at myself. I’d seen the tattoos, his brooding nature, the jagged scar across his otherwise handsome face. Maybe the knock to my head had been harder than I thought. Logically, it made no sense that I would be this drawn to someone like him. If he spoke five words to me in a row, it was a lot. And he seemed so damn suspicious of who I was and where I came from.
He liked being out here alone, I could tell. He was one with the forest in a way I hadn’t seen before. Hell, my dad had b
een like that, too, what I could remember about him. Rough and rugged. And insistent on exacting control over the people in his life. The physical bruises my mother had borne were no longer visible, but the emotional scars would remain forever.
Viktor seemed nothing like the man my dad was before he ditched us. For one, I wasn’t afraid of Viktor. Maybe I should have been. I just couldn't find it in myself to be.
When he walked back in the room in a clean shirt, he glanced at the floor and scowled, then took his boots off and carried them to the porch in his socks. He reached into the pantry and swept up the mud, dumping it in a bin where I assumed I’d toss the bones. We worked in silence until an itch of discomfort pushed me to open my mouth.
“I really need to get home, or at the very least call. My mother is probably worried.”
He didn’t speak, just returned to the broom to the pantry. I heard rattling and assumed he was getting plates, and I thought about my mother, hoping she was alright and not too worried. I didn’t want her to feel abandoned. She’d been abandoned once by my dad, as I had I, and I didn’t want her to feel that again.
I glanced at him and set the knife down with a clack, turning my body to fully face him. “I have a job. I need to get back to it.”
He looked my way, eyebrow lifted. “What do you do?”
I sighed. I’d already told him, but I repeated, “I work for an insurance company for now.”
“For now?”
“My boss, Ryan, is a dick,” I said bluntly. “He sent me up here to check on some rockslides for claims research even though it was a waste of time.” I rolled my eyes as I walked to the sink and washed my hands. “He told me to focus on my job.”
“Are you quitting because he’s a dick?”
I contemplated not answering him since he never seemed to answer any of my questions, but I felt like talking. “Yep. He showed me his real side at the corporate holiday party. He wanted me to go home with him, you know, sleep with him. He got a little pushy. I threatened him, he backed off.”
“He tried to force you?” he asked, his voice wrathful.
I glanced at him, surprised by his vehemence. “Oh God, no. Just pushy. After, he treated me differently, more harshly, gave me shit assignments. I already told him I’m leaving, and I fully intend to tell that asshole exactly where he can shove his penis.” I snickered, but he didn’t join me. Shrugging, I added, “Time to find something new.”
“Like what?” He stepped into the kitchen and found cutlery, then placed it on the tiny table.
“There’s a job in Chicago,” I told him. “But I’m not sure I want to leave my mom behind. Leave my life in Grizzly Falls.” I chuckled. “My mom says I should go, live the life she never had. Maybe I will.”
And maybe she was right. Maybe going to a new world where the pain of the past didn’t exist was what I needed. I would do it for her. To live the freedom she couldn’t find when she was my age. Even though the unknown was terrifying.
I still had a week in Grizzly Falls, though, with Ryan making life hell for me because he was pissed off I was leaving. Without sleeping with him. I had dreaded this last week at work.
Ridiculously, I felt a bit of relief as I glanced at Viktor. I’d met my apparent saviour who’d whisked me away to his home in the woods - minus the fact that he wasn’t much more pleasant than my horrible boss. However, he certainly was far more pleasant to my eyes - and my lady parts.
Dark was falling, and Viktor locked all the doors and stoked the fire in the small hearth before we sat down to eat. I’d found some canned veggies, which weren’t my favorite, but I didn’t want to just eat meat like some kind of carnivore. I put everything on the table and we served ourselves, then ate in silence for several minutes.
The cabin was cozy and homey and being locked up with this monstrous man – holy shit he was huge – didn’t seem like a problem at all. Surely, I was still influenced by the colossal headache. I scoffed internally. More like influenced by the colossal alpha sitting across the table from me. Suddenly the reality of my lack of physical experience with a man rushed over me.
“How are you feeling?” he asked, bringing me back to reality.
“Fine, thanks,” I murmured, peering at him from between my lashes.
“Dinner’s good,” he said. “Thanks for making the corn.”
“You’re welcome, and thanks for the meat.” In my head, I thought about the other kind of meat I wanted, a laugh catapulting out of my mouth.
He stared at me, his face blank. “What’s funny?”
I shook my head quickly, replying, “Nothing.”
He watched me for another few seconds, then resumed eating. I watched him, mesmerized by him and hoping he didn’t catch me. This man was a walking, super-hot, super fucking wet dream. I couldn’t stop thinking about how we’d nearly kissed, the way he’d leaned into me as if he’d wanted it, too. He’d pulled away, though. I tried not to think about the disappointment I’d felt.
I wanted him to get close to me again. To follow through with that kiss, and so much more. I wanted him. I scoffed silently. Where were these thoughts coming from? I had zero clue about the ways of sex. I’d never had sex with anyone, because I was waiting for the right guy. Sure as hell wasn’t going to be that moron, Ryan, and I’d never wanted to with any of the men I’d dated.
I hated to admit it, but the abuse my mother had suffered at the hands of my father had scarred me as well. I compared all men to him, and I worried I’d fall in love with a bastard like my mother had. She’d loved him so much, she couldn’t walk away from him, even when he started punching her. So I was awfully choosy about the men I allowed in my life, and none had been able to get into my pants.
I glanced up, my thoughts churning, and caught him staring at me. I looked into the deep, haunted eyes of a man that made me yearn to be wrapped in his arms, caressed by his rough, hard hands all over my body, claiming me in such a way I’d never ever want to turn back. Exploding from my insides.
I knew I’d be ready when the right man came. And I’d give myself to him fully, holding nothing back. Was Viktor that man? I desired his lips on my skin, teeth scraping, hands cupping my ass and my breast… I shouldn’t think about a man I barely knew like this, but my intuition told me I could trust him.
I couldn’t help myself. I desperately wanted him to take me in every way possible.
Thinking about it, I felt a build-up of warm moisture between my legs. Of course, it wasn’t a new experience for me. I knew very well how to give myself an orgasm, and I’d watched enough porn to know what it meant to be with a man - but I knew none of that would compare to experiencing sex first hand.
After dinner, and in complete silence, his way of life, apparently, we cleaned together and put the leftover chicken in bowls to be eaten another day. I scavenged and found some tea bags and offered to make us each a mug.
“You don’t have to,” he mumbled uncomfortably.
“It’s just a cup of tea,” I replied. “I’m making me one.” He didn’t answer, so I rolled my eyes and looked at him. “Do you want a tea or not?”
“Yes, but you’ll have to boil the water on the fire outside.”
“Oh,” I said, remembering there wasn’t a stove. I’d heated the veggies by setting the bowls close to the fire. “Ok, I guess we won’t have tea.”
“I have whiskey,” he rumbled.
“Um, okay. Maybe just one,” I replied. I might feel completely safe with him, but I wasn’t getting drunk with him.
He grabbed two glasses and poured generous helpings in each. He handed one to me, and I shifted in the old leather armchair where I sat. Viktor sat across from me in a seat of his own, staring into the flames. I glanced at him and ended the silence, which seemed to be my job.
“Why do live out here?”
His eyes jerked up, his expression shuttered. “Because I want to.”
The tone of his voice caused my brows to draw together. “No need to be rude.”
He grunted and shifted, his scowl deepening. “I’m not used to having anyone here.”
“I won’t be here long,” I reminded him, taking a sip of the whiskey. I gasped as it burned and warmed, then sipped some more. “This is actually better than tea.”
He nodded. “I agree.”
We sipped in silence for a bit. I stared into the fire, the heat from the flames and whiskey killing the slight chill. My eyes began to feel heavy, and I wanted nothing more than to curl up on the chair and sleep. My body was somewhat sore from the mudslide, and I wished more than anything for the big tub in my mother’s bathroom where I could soak away the soreness.
My whiskey forgotten, my eyes shifted to the man who’d rescued me, and I wondered about the sleeping situation. Heaviness settled over me, and I cared only about letting myself slip away.
“We should sleep.”
I jolted, realizing I’d snuggled into the chair. I hoped I hadn’t been snoring. “What?”
“We should sleep.”
“Where?” I blurted before I’d even thought about it. There was only one bed in a tiny little room.
“You can take the bed.”
“Where will you sleep?”
“I’ll sleep on the chair.”
I cocked my head to the side and sarcasm slid out of my mouth. “You don’t have guests often, do you?”
Viktor shook his head and stood, holding out his hand to me. “Come, Malen kiy.”
I hesitated before I put my hand in his. The moment our skin touched, electricity pulsed through me, and it was like a direct line to my wetness. Heat rushed through my body and pooled between my thighs.
I looked up at Viktor and knew he could feel it, too. His eyes were dark with lust, his lips slightly parted, just before he licked his lips like he wanted to eat me up. I so wished he would follow through with the promise in his eyes. The primal look on his face made it clear he wanted to devour me, just as I wanted him to.
“You can sleep on the bed with me,” I murmured before I caught myself. “I mean…” I blushed wildly. “Not that I’m expecting… I just…thought.” I let out a breath, not managing to tell him that I wasn’t trying to invite him to bed in that sense. I was just thinking about how uncomfortable his big frame would be in the chair all night.