Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 68192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 341(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68192 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 341(@200wpm)___ 273(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Mine.
No, he couldn’t be.
Is that really your decision to make?
I’d sure as hell thought it was.
You couldn’t help yourself last time. You really think it’s going to be different now.
It wasn’t the same. He needed to be rescued. Ivanov would destroy him.
Yes, but won’t you too?
I thought of Niko beneath me, begging for more, arching into me, ready to take my cock in his virgin ass. An ass Ivanov wanted to possess. If I hadn’t heard someone in the hallway, I might be balls-deep in him right now, giving him pleasure he’d never imagined. There would be no pleasure with Ivanov, only pain and then… death, torment, insanity?
I growled. No. I wouldn’t let that happen.
Will you risk your brothers’ lives for him?
“Fuck.” I kicked a potted plant on the side of the path, shattering the pot and sending dirt flying.
If I hadn’t been trained to always be on alert, no matter how distracted, and those men had been coming for me or Nikolai, they’d be dead, and any hope of continued alliance with Dimitri would be over. Remington might kill me for that, but if I started a war, Dimitri would go after my brothers. All because I’d been too weak to resist a beautiful man. I could have a hot piece of ass anytime I wanted it. It didn’t have to be Nikolai. Sure he turned me on, sure something about him called to me, but I was a grown-ass man with self-control.
Not so much around him.
God, it was true. I’ve gone in there to toy with him, tease him, maybe put him on his knees and have him suck me off, but Jesus, when he told me he’d never been fucked before and then begged me to be his first, there was no way in hell I could resist. I’d thought he would fight me, that I’d have to push him to submit, but he was the one convincing me in the end.
Pulling out of Niko had nearly killed me. I’d already been fighting with myself to go slow enough for him, but stopping, then getting him off without coming myself, was hell.
I needed to get out of there. I couldn’t take any more risks. If it were only my life on the line, maybe. But that wasn’t the case. I couldn’t see him again. I would do my best to stop his marriage, but Remington would have to get someone else to negotiate with Dimitri.
I should never have sought him out, but the way his cheeks had reddened and he’d looked me up and down after I congratulated him tempted me too much. I’d needed a conquest, and all I’d gotten were blue balls and confusion. He wasn’t supposed to get below the armor I’d made around myself. When I’d shut my feelings off after my arrest, they were supposed to stay that way.
Tears burned at the back of my eyes. What the fuck was wrong with me? I hadn’t cried since that hellish night when I fucked up so badly I had no hope of fixing it. Now, here I was, fucking up again, but this time, I could stop—I would stop—before someone died.
Niko will die in Ivanov’s hands if you don’t save him.
No. That could not happen. He didn’t deserve the way he was being treated. I had wanted my position in the family. I’d willingly done all the things my father asked because I was determined to keep our empire going. Nikolai didn’t want any part of what his dad was involved in, and he sure as hell didn’t deserve Ivanov.
How could I rescue him and keep my family safe? They had to be my first priority. I owed my brothers everything. I’d sworn to protect them when our parents died. This was it. I’d taken enough risks.
“Lorenzo, I’ve been looking for you.”
I forced a smile onto my face and turned to face Dimitri.
He gestured toward the broken pot. “What happened here?”
I shrugged. “Probably someone was drunk and fell.”
His smile widened. “Right. You aren’t leaving, are you? Our business is unfinished.”
I wasn’t in any shape to negotiate. “It’s a party. Business can wait.”
“No, you were right. We need our little matter settled tonight. Besides, I included you on the guest list so we would have time to talk.”
Of course I’d known that was the only reason I’d come. Remington had made sure to set it up that way.
“Walk with me.” Dimitri slung an arm across my shoulder and gestured into the rose garden.
I surveyed the area, keeping myself on high alert. We needed privacy for our discussion, so he probably did want to talk, but I never knew what might be going on in a sick mind like Dimitri’s, and I couldn’t be one hundred percent certain I hadn’t been seen leaving Niko’s room.
The beautiful flowers were such a contrast to the bland furniture around the pool and in the house. “You have lovely roses. I’m surprised they do so well in the humidity.”