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)
“If we laughed together, Lia, is it really nothing?”
Her cheeks flush red. She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. She’s drop-dead gorgeous in her silky dress, her makeup subtle, bringing out all the best parts of her.
When we leave the restaurant and I walk her past the valet, she looks up at me in confusion. “I didn’t know if we were going to drink this evening,” I say. “So I arranged a ride home.”
She gasps in surprise when she sees the limo. It’s so sweet to see her relaxed, smiling, carefree. So sweet to know she doesn’t have to run herself ragged all the time.
As I open the limo door for her, I automatically look up and down the street. I can’t see any of Vale’s men. But that doesn’t mean they’re not there. Let them come. Let them try.
I’ll turn this city into a Bratva bloodbath if they dare to even try to touch her.
I climb into the limo, wrapping my arm around her. She makes a breathy moan that goes right through me. Changes me. I feel my dick twitch, my thoughts swirling with savage, hungry thoughts.
She wriggles next to me. I stare ahead, trying to even my breathing, trying to focus on not pulling her into my lap and going feral right here in the limo. All night, through the easy chat, we’ve been making eyes at each other. She does this cute thing where we’ll stare intensely, then she’ll roll her eyes, as if playing it off. It’s hot in a way I can’t explain.
My phone goes off.
“Aren’t you going to check that?” she asks.
I shake my head. “Business can wait.”
“What if it’s personal?”
“The only personal thing I care about is being here with you.”
She nudges me playfully. “Just check your phone.”
“Lia—”
“You’re not the boss now. I am!” She laughs. “Check it.”
I take out my phone, smiling when I see the message she’s sent me.
Lia: Why do I get the feeling you’re having impure thoughts?
I look down at her. She’s staring up at me with excitement, like we’re on the edge of something special. My body stirs as I realize she might be ready.
Maksim: I can’t stop having hungry thoughts. All night, watching you laugh and smile and just be you, I’ve wanted to tear off your dress and take control. You won’t have to worry or stress to make any decisions. I’ll show you what it’s like to let go completely.
“Why is this easier over text?” She whispers, breathing hard.
I lean down and speak softly in her ear, making her shiver in a way that goes directly to my base. I’m growing stiff, feral, my body aching to feel her pressed against me. All those times I watched her, wondering what she’d feel like, how she’d taste.
I’m aching for my obsession.
“Because you can let go,” I say, and she shivers again.
I text quickly.
Maksim: You need to let go. It’s so stressful, being in control all the time. You need to let your man lead the way. And even if, when the morning comes, you’ll rebel against the idea that you’re anybody’s anything, you still need it. Here. Now. You need to know that, when I take you, you don’t have to do a goddamn thing other than be beautiful and sexy and mine.
She presses her legs together, looking up at me with those big gorgeous hazel eyes. My stiffness presses against the inside of my pants, my balls swelling, precome leaking hotly.
“Maksim,” she whimpers.
Maksim: Tell me you want to let go.
She stares up at me, nodding slowly. Then takes my hand and guides my phone away. I smile and lean down, crushing her in a starving kiss, a different kind of kiss than anything we’ve shared so far.
She moans and presses heavily against me, sinking her fingers into my chest, digging them in as if to anchor herself. I push her up against the door. Open my mouth and taste her. Our tongues glide together instinctively.
My hand goes to her leg. When she touches my wrist, I go higher. Her head falls back and she gasps.
“Let go,” I snarl. “Let go for me.”
“Make me let go,” she whimpers.
I keep going. I can feel the heat of her. I can feel the wetness, the eagerness. I’m shaking with the need to take her.
“The… driver,” she moans.
That’s the only thing that could snap me out of this. The idea that somebody else would see her like this.
“When we get home,” I tell her, “you’re not in control, beautiful. For the first time in a long time, you can let go.”
CHAPTER 19
LIA
My legs are wrapped around him as he carries me up the stairs. I’ve never felt this excited. Before Maksim – despite the complications – I would’ve said I couldn’t be this excited.
He kicks the door open and lowers me onto the bed. I smile as I stare up at him, tall and wide and powerful, his chest rising and falling like a wild thing. He groans and guides me up, then lifts my dress over my head.