Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 57121 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 286(@200wpm)___ 228(@250wpm)___ 190(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57121 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 286(@200wpm)___ 228(@250wpm)___ 190(@300wpm)
I’m throbbing, my shaft burning with desire, my heart pounding almost painfully in my chest.
A minute passes, then she replies.
Lia: That was a mistake. I shouldn’t have asked you to do that.
Fuck. Did I go too far?
Maksim: I lost control. When I was typing that message, it was like I was there.
Lia: It did its job. I know I’m sending mixed messages.
Maksim: Send me any kind of messages you want, as long as you keep sending them.
Maksim: What do you mean, it did its job?
Another pause.
Lia: Use your imagination… I’m sure you can figure it out.
I clench my jaw so hard it’s a miracle I don’t break something. Oh, fuck.
Maksim: Are you telling me you slipped your hand between your legs and rubbed your soaked pussy after reading that message?
I’m breathing like an unhinged lunatic, my cock harder than it’s ever been before.
Lia: I need you to promise you won’t watch me anymore.
She ignores my question. I picture it anyway, Lia with her hands buried in her shorts, moving furiously, her eyes fixed on her phone. I imagine her breaking for me, soaking her own hand. I hear the filthy, delicious noises.
Maksim: I promise.
Lia: This doesn’t mean I’ve forgiven you, but thank you. I’m going to try and settle down for the night. I’m exhausted. Please tell me if there’s any news about Daniel.
Maksim: I will. But you still haven’t answered my question.
Another pause, then.
Lia: Yes. I’m only human.
I close my eyes, the image coming to life in my mind. Her hand working away, her hips chasing the movement. I imagine walking in and finding her like that, then stopping her before she can orgasm. Finishing the job for her.
Before I know it, I’m standing in my bathroom, over the sink, my cock in my hand. I close my eyes and pump fast and hard, thinking of her, dreaming of her, almost feeling like it’s the real thing in the final, blissful moments.
The next morning, Nikolai and I are driving to a restaurant owned by Conrad Vale. He hasn’t tried anything since pulling the stunts with our businesses. Now, we’re going to show him how unafraid we are of him.
Nikolai glances over from the driver’s seat. When it’s just us, he always drives. It’s a sign of my position. And a callback to childhood, when I taught him how. Driving is one of the only times we feel like regular people, who do regular things, and not the devils this work has made us.
“Wrong side of the bed?” he asks.
“What?” I snap.
“We’ll find him,” he replies. He must think I’m stressed about losing Daniel before we had a chance to question him. “Or, if we don’t, we’ll find another way.” He drums his fingers against the steering wheel.
“What’s up with you?” I say.
“Huh? Nothing.”
“You’ve been skittish for weeks.”
“Rachael and her boy have had some trouble at school. I’m handling it.”
Rachael is a woman Nikolai saved from a trafficker a couple of years ago. He’s still in contact with them. He’s a good guy, my brother, when we’re not being bad.
“Is this the woman troubles you’ve been referring to?”
He looks at me for a moment, then lets his eyes drop. “Nah, that’s something different.”
Did he just lie to me?
I entertain the thought for a second before I push it out of my mind. I can’t think of a single time Nikolai has lied to me. I can’t even imagine it, honestly. We’ve been through too much together.
“Anyway, you’re one to talk,” Nikolai says.
“The fuck you talking about?”
He snorts, smirking at me. “You’re smitten with that girl, brother. I don’t know what’s going on with you two.”
“It’s… a lot,” I mutter.
“Oh, damn. I was just ribbing you. Come on, spill it. I can drive us by a therapist’s office if it would be easier.”
“I’ve done a pretty fucked-up thing,” I say.
He says nothing, just waits me out.
“I’ve spent months watching her on the CCTV system linked to her hospital. We own the company. For a few minutes at a time, here and there, I’ve been logging in so that I can watch her. It all started after that attack. The gunshot. I saw her and… I don’t know. I felt something. She was confident. She didn’t make herself smaller just because of who I am. That’s why I insisted on going to the hospital when this first started.”
Nikolai glances at me, then back at the road. “Holy shit,” he mutters.
“Yeah.”
“You might be even crazier than I am. I always thought you were the level-headed one.”
“I was until relatively recently,” I mutter.
“Are you sure you didn’t get poisoned by that gunshot or something?” he jokes.
I laugh gruffly. “I don’t need a bullet to make me insane.”
“Just a nurse, apparently.”
“I told her last night,” I go on.
His phone vibrates. He snatches it out of his jacket and rejects the call, then replaces it. It’s done that twice since we’ve been in the car already. I’m not going to pry, but something’s going on. Maybe he’s losing his head to a woman too.