L Y O V
trust everything went to plan?” Andrei asks over the phone. “Yes, sir. The prisoner is in my custody, and we’re at the
safe house,” I reply, knowing that calling her the prisoner is
wrong. She’s sleeping in the damn bedroom, which isn’t where the prisoners sleep.
“Good.” There’s a moment of silence that passes between us. “Are you fine to keep watch of her until I call on you?”
I swallow hard. I should say no, especially after the way I spanked her over my knee only a few hours ago. If I told him that I wasn’t capable, he’d send another man in my place. The thought of Milana being at the mercy of one of my other brothers makes me sick.
“Of course, sir. How long do you expect us to be here?” I ask.
Andrei sighs on the other end. He hates answering questions, but I need to know how long I’ve got put up with this. “A week or so.”
I nod, even though he can’t see me. A week can’t be too hard for me to control my urges, although I couldn’t control them within seconds of getting Milana into this cabin.
It was just a slip-up—something that won’t happen again. “Don’t worry. I won’t let you down.” Those words feel rancid on my lips. They are a lie. I’ve already let him down, even though he isn’t aware. The fact I’m not treating Milana like my prisoner is enough to let him down.
“Good, Lyov. You know how much I hate to be disappointed.” “Sir,” I say.
“I’ll speak to you within a week.” He says nothing more, putting down the phone. I stare at the phone for a moment, wondering how the fuck I got
myself into this mess.
I shouldn’t have taken her in hand the way I did. We’ve been together less than twenty-four hours, and I’ve already blown up the line between captor and captive. She pushed me, and I snapped.
The door to the bedroom is open, and I find myself walking toward it. I stop and lean against the doorframe, watching the beauty sleep.
Milana is lying in the center of the super king-size bed. She looks so peaceful and angelic. I long to curl up behind her and hold her to me. These odd feelings aren’t right. Milana is my captive and nothing more.
Why the fuck can’t I get the image of her naked out of my mind?
Unfortunately, this safe house is a little cramped. There is one bedroom and one bed. I’m too damn big for the couch. At the moment, it’s my only choice.
Although I know how wrong it is that I punished her the way I did, a part of me loved it. I’ve always been a sick fucking bastard. The sense of control when I dominate a woman gets me harder than anything ever does.
With Milana, it seems uncontrollable. An urge I can’t resist. I was steel as I held her over my knee, painting her ass red fucking raw.
The way she wiggled on my lap, I knew she could feel my reaction. She knew I was hard and pulsing with need for her. She knows what gets me off, and that makes me vulnerable. If she wants, she can manipulate me. I never let anyone know my true reactions or emotions.
Emotions are a weakness that can be exploited.
Americans show their feelings too freely. It’s something I noticed when moving here from Russia. They are like open books ready to be read. It’s dangerous to act this way.
Milana mumbles in her sleep and turns over, drawing my eyes back to her. My heart stops beating the moment her eyes flick open, meeting mine.
Walking away from her.
Fuck.
She just caught me watching her sleep. I walk away from her with slow, deliberate steps. When I hear her soft footsteps echo on the wood floor, my body tenses.
I’m too easy to read around her, and she knows she’s not truly in danger from me. I freeze as her small, soft hand falls on my arm. Milana’s sweet, feminine scent encapsulates me in an instance.
She is like a piece of juicy meat hung out for a starving grizzly bear. If she doesn’t watch it, I won’t be able to control myself much longer.
“Lyov, I can take the sofa if you want,” her sweet voice sounds hesitant. I shake my head and keep my eyes off her. “No.”
She squeezes my arm gently. “Or we can share the bed. It’s large enough.”
I growl and whip around to face her, grabbing her wrist hard in the process. “I spanked you to teach you a lesson. Don’t try to play games with me, Milana. You will lose.”
Milana winces in pain, swallowing hard as she stares at me with those big, innocent green eyes. Instant regret clinches at my chest at the look on her face. She was only trying to be kind, and I’m acting like an ass. “I’m not playing games. I just…” she trails off and shakes her head.
Her stomach rumbles, and she turns bright red.
I nod toward the kitchen. “Sit at the table,” I order, dropping her wrist.
She does as I say, walking toward the table. That dress is still on her and as tempting as ever. I need to find her a change of clothes. Or maybe, I should order her to walk around butt naked.
I walk into the kitchen area without another word, grabbing some eggs from the fridge to make us something. Any distraction is a good one at this point. Milana needs to keep the hell away from me, or I will end up doing something I regret.
I slam a pan down on the burner and turn it on, keeping my back to the room. It’s all I can do not to take her against the wall of this damn cabin. A temptress like her shouldn’t play with fire—we will both get burned. We are enemies on opposite sides of this war.
I really should talk to Andrei about getting a sofa bed. Although, I’m not sure how I’d explain the need for one. People we kidnap are always kept chained in the basement. The bed is meant for me, or whoever is staying with the captive. There’s never a need for another bed, until now.
I won’t chain her up like a second rate citizen down in the dank basement. She doesn’t deserve that treatment. She deserves to be treated like a queen—my queen.
I flip over the eggs and chuck some toast into the toaster. This isn’t exactly a great first meal to share, but I need to make a run to the store. It never occurred to me on the way here. I was too damn distracted by her.
I slam a plate down in front of her with two pieces of toast and a couple of eggs.
She smiles at me, and I can feel something twinge inside of my chest. “Thanks.”
I growl. “For what?”
She shrugs. “For the food.”
I shake my head and return to the kitchen, grabbing my plate and walking into the living room to eat. I can’t stand sitting opposite her because her presence is too much. She eats in silence to my relief.
After a short while, the scrape of her chair against the floor warns me she has finished eating. I hate that she’s getting up without my permission, but I can’t trust myself to even look at her right now.
It’s as if she’s pushing me to punish her again. The tension returns to my muscles when I hear soft footsteps bounding toward me. “Lyov, please, you can’t sleep on there, but I can.”
I sigh heavily, holding a hand to my forehead. Milana knows she’s not in any danger with me because I’ve been too lenient. Even though I know that there’s not one part of me that wants to harm her in any way. “Stop pushing me,” I growl.
“Pushing you to do what?” she asks.
I glare at her from the sofa, before standing to my feet. “You are my prisoner.” I shake my head. “You do as I say.”
She flicks her tongue over her thick bottom lip. “And, if I don’t?”
I narrow my eyes at her and then turn away. This is what I was afraid of. She knows how much I want her, and now she’s using it to her advantage. She can’t take my punishment seriously, as it was more like erotic foreplay.
I keep my eyes off her, jaw clenched tightly. My cock is steel in my pants, thinking about how wet she got when I bent her over my knee. She loves me punishing her as much as I love punishing her.
My heart rate shoots through the roof as a soft hand lands on my back.
I turn to stone under her touch as she runs it in soothing circles. A tightness closes around my chest, remembering how Liliana used to do the same thing when I was stressed.
My jaw clenches because she is begging me and testing every last string of my resolve. It’s as if she’s trying to cut away my control and force me to
behave like the beast I am. Claim her, fuck her, make her beg for my cock until she is on the verge of tears.
“Stop.” I grit out, keeping my back tense and unmoving. I can’t fold— or at least, I shouldn’t. If I give in to my urges, there is no going back.
Milana is wearing me down with every touch and caress—with every soft word spoken. As a bratva spy and brotherhood member, I should hurt her for her insolence. It’s impossible to do so. The mere thought of harming her makes me sick to the stomach. I have to protect her from everything bad in this world.
She still hasn’t removed her hand from my back. Her touch is light and innocent, but it sets me on fire.
What’s the use in fucking pretending any longer? All I’m doing is avoiding the inevitable. At least, that’s what I tell myself as I turn and capture her wrist in my hand, making her gasp.
Her stunning eyes dilate with such longing. I try to draw breath into my lungs, but they feel too tight. She has the power to bring me to my knees and calm the beast inside of me. I’ve been hurting too long, and one look in her eyes tells me she could ease that hurt.
The tension between us is unbearable. I know there’s no way I’m going to be able to resist her. Andrei would kill me if he knew how lenient I’ve been with her up to now.
“Are you ever going to speak to me?” She tilts her head to the side.
I shake my head and pull her close, yanking her into my body. There’s no time for speaking. Milana makes me insane and I intend to show her how much I want her.
She gasps as I grab her throat in a possessive grip. I’ve lost all reasoning as I stare into those bright emerald eyes. The electricity pulsing between us increases.
I keep my hand around her throat, angling her lips to mine. My lips move over hers in a hard, unforgiving kiss. I force my tongue into her mouth, searching it with ferocity — the need to show her who the fuck owns her rising inside of me.
This is the first kiss we’ve shared since we were at her father’s club in Miami. I know without a doubt, it won’t be the last. It will be the first of many more to come. Milana belongs to me in more ways than one, and I’m never letting her go.