Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 107608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 430(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 430(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
“It’s Alexei. Take Ella Rendale to the safe house. Yes. Right now.” He clicks off.
Panic engulfs me. “Don’t hurt her. Please don’t hurt her.”
He deliberately places the phone back on the table. “Why would I hurt Ella?”
God. He knows. “You killed David Fairfax,” I blurt out.
“That little shit,” he mutters. “She kept a copy of the disc?”
I nod. “Ella can’t resist a puzzle. She decoded it, and if anything happens to her, the video goes straight to the police.”
His eyes go flat. Hard. “Lying is a mistake. I suggest you learn to tame that part of your personality before I do.”
Tears spring into my eyes. “If you hurt my friend, I’ll never forgive you.”
He doesn’t move. “Now that’s the truth.”
I can’t believe this. “Why did you kill David?”
“He was a bad guy, and that’s the only explanation you’re going to get. I do a lot of things for my business that will never be discussed with you, and that’s just how life is going to be. I suggest you learn to accept this reality. Either you trust and believe in me, or you don’t.” His eyes are hot coal, burning deep in the earth.
The guy never said he didn’t kill David. He just said that he was set up—which he was. He lives in a world I can barely fathom, and now I live there as well. “I’m not a killer,” I whisper, knowing this to my soul. “I can’t survive in your world.”
He brushes the hair away from my face, his large hand gentle now. “There’s only one killer in this marriage, Kotik. You will survive because I’ll make sure of it. Your protection is my utmost goal.” He kisses me gently on the nose.
“Kotik?” I ask. He called me that once before.
“Little kitty. Always spitting fire at me.” There’s a fondness in his tone, even though his eyes haven’t lost the intense expression.
I grind a fist into my right eye before a migraine can attack me. “Why in the world did you go back that day? You killed him and left. I saw you put the knife into the bag, and then you left.” So David had been killed earlier than I thought.
Alexei sighs. “It was a normal practice for me to leave and then meet Blythe for lunch, and if I had refused, it would have been suspicious. I figured I’d get there after the maid discovered the body, but she was late that day.”
I can’t believe this. “Did you kill him because of jealousy?” My lungs trap my breath.
“No. He was a bad guy, who messed around with other women, girls really. Some very young ones. He also beat the crap out of Blythe, and I did want to protect her. But I didn’t love her and had no plans for a future with her.”
I wish those words didn’t mean so much to me, but they do. I’ve seen him kill before, but the idea still gives me pause. He’s so dangerous. To the world. Not to me.
His gaze darkens. “Do you trust me?”
It’s a real question. A primal one. I look into his eyes, as I sit on his warm body. Do I? I glance around my room, searching for answers.
My grandmother’s mirror catches the image of the two of us, and I swear, it appears as if a force, barely discernable, surrounds us. Dark and light, male and female . . . we look right. As if we belong to each other.
I stare back at him. “Yes.” It’s the truth. Even if all evidence points to a different answer, I feel him inside me. Deep. As if he’s a part of me. “I do trust you.” Sometimes instinct is all we have, and upon admitting the truth, my body relaxes. A pit releases and a coil unfolds inside me with a sense of peace.
“Good.” He runs his hands down my arms, grasping my wrists. Then he flips us around, flattening his large body over mine, my wrists now held in one of his above my head. “I like this lingerie.” He rolls to the side and tears the teddy off.
“Then you shouldn’t have ripped it,” I say breathlessly, captured in place. I want him but not his world. Right or wrong, I like that he wants to keep me out of most of it.
He lowers his head and nuzzles my breasts, taking an obscene amount of time lavishing each one. I’m gyrating with need before he even snaps the sides of my panties.
“You have to stop doing that,” I gasp, my body tingling with need. “I’m running out.”
“New rule. No panties for you.” He releases my wrists and wanders his body down mine, reaching my clit. “This is my favorite place.” He bites my thigh and then goes at me, not taking his time, finally. Forcing me up fast, he hums in pleasure as I cry out with a violent orgasm against his mouth.