Chapter 22 Lie Down
❦ Rosalind ❦
I am going to kill him. For real this time. No speculation, no third party, and with my very own hands.
I cut my screaming short, remembering that I was tied to a bed on his vast estate that crawled with men loyal to him. No one was going to save me. Certainly not Enza. She calls him master, and that tells me all I need to know about where her loyalties lay.
Tugging did no good. The knots were tight and true.
The doorknob turned. And my captor walked in.
“Untie me. Right now,” I hissed the moment he was all the way inside.
I didn’t have time for this. I wanted to be in my own home, unbound and surrounded by people who actually smiled.
He sat on the edge of the bed, observing me with his bottomless gray eyes.
“You’re feisty for a traitor.”
“That’s because I haven’t betrayed anyone.”
“Evidence is stacked up against you.”
I growled in frustration. “Can’t you see? I’m being framed!”
He did not respond. He pinched the edge of the towel over my legs and adjusted it to cover them properly.
The tenderness in his movements, his concentration, sent a shiver through me. I tried a softer tone.
“Someone doesn’t want us working together, Viktor.” The ropes pressed into my wrists as I tried to turn my body to face him. “I meant it when I offered a truce. It’s obvious now that we’re both targets. And I don’t want to do this alone.”
At that, his gaze snapped to mine, a knowing smile on his lips.
“That sounds dishonest as hell.”
“Okay, fine. I would rather do this alone. That’s the only dishonest part. But I can’t. And that’s a fact.”
“You’re trying to use me as a shield. You want me to protect you and solve your mysteries, and for what?”
“Don’t you want to find your father’s killer?” I asked him.
“Not for the same reasons you want to find yours.”
“Well, the point is we want the same thing. We’re after the same person.”
“I’m after more than one person.”
I swallowed the impatience clogging my chest. I couldn’t afford to break the spell now. We were having a normal conversation, and at least he was listening to me. All I wanted was to be untied.
“Come on, think about it. Why would I try to have you killed and then follow you back here?”
“Because your soldatos were either too occupied or too dead to save you. I was your best bet.”
“I could’ve left you to die!”
“You wanted to. I saw it in your eyes.” He leaned down, his finger pushing a strand of my hair back.
“I should have left you.” I snapped. Our faces were so close together I could kiss him. My body tingled at the thought. For all his danger and anger, I couldn’t deny the attraction anymore.
I wanted this man. I wanted him to close the distance. I didn’t care if it was pure, empty lust. I wanted him to take out whatever darkness he had, on me.
His eyes moved from mine to my lips, and it felt as real as physical contact.
“I would’ve come back just to haunt you.”
“I don’t fear ghosts.” I breathed.
“You should.”
I pressed my lips to his.
When he didn’t respond, I flicked my tongue over his bottom lip, sucking it into my mouth.
With a growl, he slid his hand over my neck, grabbing my nape roughly, our lips clashing in a dance that wasn’t so gentle. He pulled back, trailing wet kisses down my neck and back up to my ear.
My back arched, a breathy moan escaping my lips.
“So this is how you got your way in Boston,” he whispered.
I froze. The accusation hung in the air.
“You seem really interested in knowing how to please Boston men.”
With a chuckle that didn’t reach his eyes, he pulled away completely. The cold air returned where his heat had occupied. I pressed my lips together before I could embarrass myself further by asking him for another kiss.
He licked his lips once, glanced at me, and then stood up.
“Wait…” I gasped. He turned to me with a raised brow. “I need to use the bathroom.”
He sighed.
“Or I can just pee on your nice guest bed.”
He undid the knots, and while he leaned over me, his scent hit me hard, and I hated how much I wanted to bury my face in his neck.
On my way to the bathroom I took a clean T-shirt, eyeing him before disappearing around the glass.
I’d almost taken off the shirt before I remembered the glass was see-through. The grin on his face told me he’d hoped I didn’t realize it in time.
Face flushed, I operated the controls to make the glass opaque, his heated gaze on me until the smart glass fogged up.
I took my time, scrubbing myself thoroughly and for an unnecessarily long time just to test him.
But when I emerged, dry and changed, he still lounged in the chair, staring straight at the bathroom as if he saw the whole show.
We stared each other down.
“Lie down.”
“W-what?”
“I’m going to tie you back up.”
He couldn’t be serious.
“Oh come on. We both know I couldn’t escape even if I tried.”
“It would make me feel safer.” A smirk teased his lips. “Lie down.”
When I didn’t move, he did.
“Wait!” He paused, watching me with uncanny patience and an expression that suggested he was enjoying this. “I’m hungry.”
He seemed to consider starving me, and I pouted my lips, grasping my fingers in a pitiful manner. His heated gaze slid down my clasped hands to my exposed thighs. He licked his lips once, and I just knew he was parched, but not from dehydration.
“Enza will bring it up.”
“I don’t want…”
“You’re not leaving this room, Rosalind.” The roughness of his tone cut me off.
“You know I’m innocent.”
“That remains to be seen.”
The door slammed shut behind him, and for the first time… I wasn’t afraid of him.