by Zoe Blake
“Let me go!” I pleaded.
In desperation, I shifted my hips upwards to dislodge him. That was a mistake. I could feel the hard press of his rigid cock.
I froze.
“Exactly. So, unless you want me to rip those panties off and give you the fucking you richly deserve, I suggest you talk,” he threatened.
I burst into tears. “I’m sorry. For real this time. You’re right. I shouldn’t have lied about where I would be tonight, and now this complete mess is my fault.”
Mikhail made a soothing sound as he stroked my hair with his free hand. He leaned down to kiss the corner of my eye where a tear had escaped. Once more, the gentle gesture struck me, coming from such a fierce-looking man.
“Don’t cry, baby. It’s not your fault. I’m going to make it all better, you’ll see.”
I looked into his earnest blue eyes. His words were a strange mix of taboo and calming.
Mikhail shifted, raising his body off me, and I instantly missed the comforting weight. He moved to sit on the other side of the sofa. I swung my legs free and sat up. Just as I was about to settle myself into position, he wrapped his arms around my waist and lifted me onto his lap.
“Mikhail,” I protested.
Ignoring me, he pushed my head onto his shoulder.
This new side of Mikhail was difficult to get used to. With our limited relationship, he had always been strictly professional except for those two times he kissed me. Now he was holding me close and kissing my tears away. What was happening?
He continued to stroke my hair and speak soothingly. “I’ll have my men grab whatever you need. We’ll move you back in with your brother temporarily. Everything’s going to be fine.”
I stiffened. “I’m not moving.”
“What?”
I tried to pull back from his embrace to face him, but he just tightened his arms. “I’m not moving. I love my apartment and my shop. I’m not about to let whatever illegal activities my brothers are involved in ruin that. I’m sorry about what happened tonight, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to uproot my whole life!”
I could feel his body tense. Then he lifted me off his lap, stood abruptly, and started to pace. I was afraid to speak, unsure of what I’d said that had set him off. I watched in silence as he paced like a caged animal. He ran his hand through his dark hair. Finally, he stopped to face me. His eyes looked hard. I could see a muscle in his cheek twitch as he clasped and unclasped his fists.
“If I hadn’t arrived in time, they could have killed you — or worse.”
The last thing I wanted was to fight with him about this, but I knew if I relented now there would be no turning back. He was just like my brothers. Both he and they would steamroll right over me, till I found myself living under my brother’s roof until I was an old maid. I shook my head. “I’m glad you arrived in time. Really, I am. It was amazing. If you hadn’t gotten there precisely when you did, I—”
Wait.
How did he manage to get there at just the right time?
How did he even know I was there?
His eyes narrowed. He moved swiftly toward me.
I leaned away, pressing into the cushions of the sofa. He placed his hands on the sofa back and leaned down, his sharp features close to my own. “Don’t. I know what you are thinking and don’t. Eto bylo dlya vashey zhe zashchity.”
“For my own protection?” I slipped out from under his arm and stood. “Have you and my brothers been spying on me?”
He didn’t even have the decency to look embarrassed or ashamed.
He crossed his arms over his chest. Through the thin white tuxedo shirt, I could see the splashes of color from the tattoos on his forearms. He had long since abandoned the bow tie. The shirt was open at the collar, exposing a small section of his chest. There were also a few flecks of blood from his fight earlier. Most people probably would have been bothered by that. Knowing someone else’s blood was on them, they probably would have torn the shirt off the moment they had gotten the chance. It didn’t seem to bother Mikhail. Worse, it barely seemed to bother me. It was like despite being kept away from my family’s dark secrets, I had still somehow absorbed all the violence into my soul.
He raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t honestly think your brothers would have let you move into that apartment without some assurances about your safety?”
Turning my back on him, I stared out the massive window. The sky was ablaze with color, bright orange, fiery pink, and violet as dawn broke. Seeing the buildings of the Georgetown waterfront, I recognized precisely where Mikhail had taken me. We were less than three blocks from my shop.
There was a large starburst crack in the glass and long hazy streaks of dried liquid. My gaze swept downward to a strange pile of shattered amber glass and a puddle of what looked like beer on the floor. Slowly pivoting, I looked around the room again. My initial reaction to the space was correct. This wasn’t a safe house.
My eyes narrowed as I stared at Mikhail. “Whose penthouse is this?”
He ran his hand through his hair. “What does it matter?”
“It’s your house, isn’t it? I was never really independent at all. You’ve been nearby the whole time.” I paced around the living room. “So do you have some secret room for all the surveillance equipment and computer screens? Is that how you knew I was in danger?”
His eyes flicked to the wall behind me. I hadn’t noticed before, but the other sofa was slightly askew. Behind it there was a sliding panel only partially shut, as if someone had been in too much of a hurry to make sure it closed properly. I placed a hand over my mouth and turned back to him with wide eyes. “Are you fucking kidding me? There really is a surveillance room?”
I paced down the center of the room, a habit I’d obviously picked up from him. I wrapped my arms tightly around my middle.
“Kroshka….”
My body whipped around. “Don’t call me that! You don’t get to call me that ever again!”
“The fuck I don’t!” he shouted back as he took a few steps toward me.
I picked up one of the useless pieces of decor he had about the place to make it look like a normal home and not like the security surveillance headquarters it really was.
He raised his arm. Pointing a finger at me, he warned, “Don’t you dare!”
I threw it.
He ducked in time for it to smash against the wall behind him.
“Liar!” I cried as I launched another missile, a glass cylinder holding an unlit candle.
He lunged for me. I feigned right then left and bolted to the other side of the room, placing the sofa between us.
“You’re a fucking liar! You’ve been fucking lying to me this whole time!”
“Language!” he roared as he circled around. I kept out of arm’s reach, always keeping the length of the sofa between us.
I fired back, purely out of spite, the one phrase I knew would piss him off. “Poshol nahuj!”
Reaching down, he used both hands to shove the sofa. It easily slid across the polished dark bamboo floor, removing the barricade between us. He rose to his full, unbelievably intimidating height. A vein pulsed in his temple as his chest rose and fell with each agitated breath. I had angered the beast. Without the sofa between us, I was vulnerable and unprotected.
“Apparently,” Mikhail snarled, “my bad girl needs another lesson from me.”
There was only one option left for me. I turned and bolted for the front door.
He was right behind me.
Snatching my arm, he swung me around and used the force of his body to press me against the wall of windows. Behind me was a panorama of stars and the flickering lights from the boats out on the Potomac, a peaceful scene that belied the war brewing between us.
He pressed his fingertips into my upper arms. “Listen to me.”
Not wanting to listen to his excuses and lies, I clawed at his grasp, trying to wriggle away.
He shifted his hold to my waist and s
wooped down to capture my lips in an attempt to subdue me; I shifted my head to the side, avoiding him. It didn’t work.
Tightening his hold on my waist, he lifted me high off my feet. I was anchored against the glass by his hips, his hard cock pushing against my stomach. He released his hold and wrapped his hands around my jaw, forcing my head forward. He then took possession of my mouth. When I tried to keep my lips closed, he pressed his thumbs into the soft flesh of my cheeks, forcing my jaw open. At first, I returned his kiss, then I returned to my senses and fought back and bit his lip.
His head reared back. He swept his tongue across his lower lip, lapping up a tiny bead of blood.
He wasn’t deterred.
He captured my mouth again. I could taste the metallic tang of his blood. His fingers slipped into my wild strawberry curls, holding my head steady for his continued assault. He pressed his body tighter against my soft curves, refusing to give quarter till I accepted him and accepted his dominance over me.
He broke the kiss and breathed against my mouth. “You’re mine. Fucking mine.”
I knew the moment the fight left me when I felt the brush of the back of his knuckles down my cheek. Swallowing my capitulating moan, he deepened the kiss. He interlaced his fingers with mine and pressed my hands against the glass on either side of my head. The cold, hard surface brought reality crashing back. I desperately wanted to return to the warmth and ignore all else but knew that was not possible.
Using every ounce of strength I possessed, I pulled back. He ran a thumb over my cheekbone, feeling the soft warmth of my flush. I never wore makeup, but at this moment, I was certain my swollen lips looked as if they were bright with a kiss-smeared crimson lipstick.
“Why?” I whispered, the sting of betrayal bright in my eyes.
He took a deep breath and told me the jaggedly raw truth. “All I can say is, from the moment I met you, there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that you were meant to be mine and mine alone. Part of that meant you were mine to protect.”
“So you snuck a security camera into my shop?”
His eyes hardened as he shifted his gaze away from mine.
Fuck. It was so much worse than just a single security camera. He and my brothers had probably been watching and monitoring every step I ever made from the moment I left Gregor’s house, seeking my so-called independence.
He took a step back and let me slide back onto my feet. From this position, he towered over my slight frame. “Baby, you are just going to have to trust me.”
“Trust you? I feel like I don’t even know you anymore, if I ever did.”
“I never had any cameras in your apartment. Just the entrances and exits and your shop.”
I threw my arms into the air. “Oh, well, that makes things all better.”
“I will not apologize or feel guilty for doing my fucking job, for wanting to keep the woman I love safe.”
I shook my head. “No! No. You can’t do that to me. You don’t get to say that. You don’t get to give me the cold shoulder for three years and then one day announce that we’re together and you love me because you’ve finally decided you want me. That’s not how this works.”
He slammed his fist against the window. The glass vibrated from the impact, and the starburst crack a few feet away lengthened. “Damn it, Nadia. You know why we couldn’t be together. It was for your own good.”
I shifted away from the window and backed up a few paces, needing space from him. I couldn’t think straight when he was that close to me. “For my own good. For my own protection. You’re no better than my brothers. Deciding what is best for me without even bothering to ask me!”
He started toward me. “I am what is best for you. I’ve always been what is best for you. Me and me alone.”
Picking up the nearest object I could lay my hands on — a blue glass bowl —I shouted back, “Then you should have put a ring on it instead of just standing on the sidelines all these years.” I threw the bowl straight at his head and once again bolted for the door.
I didn’t make it two steps before he caught up with me. Grasping me from behind, he wrenched my body close to his own. He leaned down to whisper in my ear, “You’re not going anywhere.”
My hands balled into fists as I stomped my foot, trying to step on his toes and force him to release me. “Let go!”
Mikhail moved so quickly I didn’t even have time to protect myself. He spun me around in his embrace. His right hand struck out, wrapping his fist into a shock of my messy curls, then he wrenched my head back. His other hand went to my lower back, pushing me forward and against him. My hands rose to press back against his chest. He didn’t budge.
He stormed back, “You need to understand that as of tonight, things have changed. We’re together now, and I’m not letting you go.”
I twisted my head to the side. “We’re not together. All I’ve ever been to you is a security job.”
“You’ve been a whole lot fucking more to me than some stupid job, Nadia.”
His mouth swept down to capture my own.
Chapter 14
Mikhail
This wasn’t a kiss.
It was an act of possession.
I knew she didn’t truly hate me, and she had every right to be angry at me. I was angry at myself. I should never have kept my distance these past years. It had been a mistake, one I was going to rectify right now.
Forcing my tongue past her lips, I tasted and claimed. After swinging around, I pressed her against the wall and pushed my hips into her softness. I wedged my thigh between her legs and raised it high. She was so tiny, I easily lifted her off her feet, forcing her to ride me. Forcing her cunt to rub against the top of my leg. I sucked her bottom lip into my mouth, scraped the sharp edge of my teeth against the soft pink fullness. The feel of her small hands as they pressed against my chest nearly drove me wild. I wanted to feel her cool touch against my own heated skin. I had this crazy notion that perhaps, just maybe, she had the power to tame the demons inside of me. That this tiny slip of a woman might actually be my match.
These past three years, I had kept my obsession in check. Kept it leashed and tamed, as I forced myself to only watch but never allow myself to touch her again. Keeping her safe from my own animal needs. The knowledge that she had been in danger while I watched unknowing from a distance nearly tore my gut to shreds. My anger and fear felt like physical pain, a hot knife digging into me. I didn’t know what the fuck was going on, but I knew it would end with me.
I would cross to hell and back to keep her safe.
Never again would I let her leave my side.
My grip on her hair tightened as I deepened the kiss, grinding my cock against her thigh as I forced her to ride my own. I slid my hand between her thighs, feeling the wet silk of her panties. I couldn’t contain a growl as I swallowed her own helpless whimper. My baby wanted me as badly as I wanted her. I moved the fabric of her panties aside and slipped a single finger between her slick folds.
Rolling my shoulders, I lowered my head and rested it against her forehead as I took a deep, controlling breath, forcing my pulse to slow, willfully ignoring the spike of pain in my fully erect cock. I looked down into her small, upturned face. Her cheeks were a deep pink and her lips looked bruised and swollen. There was a rush of possessive pride knowing I had marked her as my own.
But it wasn’t nearly enough.
Seizing her by the wrist, I didn’t even give her a chance to look around. I pulled her into my bedroom. Nadia tried to pull back the moment she realized what room I had brought her to, but I wouldn’t let her. The king-size bed was on a platform, dominating the room. Instead of a headboard, it was pushed up against a wall of tinted floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the river. I only let go of her when she was standing at the foot of the bed. I gave her shoulders a small shove, and she fell back.
Her eyes widened. “What do you think you’re doing?”
I took one of her legs in my hand and raised it up high.
I worked the laces of her thick Doc Marten boots. Except for the occasional high heels when she was wearing a cocktail dress, I had never seen her wear anything else on her feet.
“Hey!” she protested as she tried to pull her leg out of my grasp.
Pulling the boot free, I tossed it to the side. Despite her attempts to evade me, I snatched up her other leg and made quick work of those laces as well. I left her in a pair of yellow ankle socks with lollipops on them. With her leg stretched high, her dress rode up on her thighs, and I glimpsed her pink panties. The sight just made my already hard cock harder.
I watched as she scrambled to the other end of the bed. With the breaking dawn light from the windows, she was framed in shadow, her wild strawberry blonde curls a halo around her. While I couldn’t make out the distinct features of her face, I knew her eyes were on me.
Keeping my gaze trained in her direction, I unbuttoned my shirt and pulled it off my shoulders. As I lowered the zipper on my pants, I kicked off my shoes. Pushing my thumbs into the waistband of both my pants and boxers, I shoved them to the floor. I knew I was both a large and physically fit man. I fisted my hard cock. Although she was in shadow, I could imagine her biting her lip nervously.
She should be nervous.
“Come here,” I demanded.
She stayed where she was.
“Rule number one. Never disobey me.”
“Rule number one? How many rules are there going to be?” she threw back saucily.
“As many as I want. Now come here.”
After a moment’s hesitation, she slowly moved to the center of the bed, but no further. She was on her knees, her babydoll dress falling about her in soft folds.
“Take off your dress.”
Her pretty pink lips opened on a gasp.
“Now,” I barked impatiently as I gave my shaft a hard squeeze.
Her hands flew to the small pearl buttons down the front. One by one she unclasped them. A blue lace bra peeked through her fingers as the dress fell open. When she had unbuttoned the dress to her navel, she slowly let it fall off her shoulders.