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Shit. I bit my lip, stifling the gasp that almost slipped free. It was too late, I realized. Too late and I couldn’t do a thing about it. Denial wasn’t an option, at least not when I was thinking to myself. I didn’t know about anyone else, I only knew how I felt. Sex without feelings could not be this intense. There could only be one reason my body lit up like the fourth of July for Adrik and only Adrik. One reason I still refused to allow myself to sleep by his side.
Self-preservation.
That was the real reason. It was too late to guard my heart. But I could try to control how bad it would be for me afterwards. See, I was falling in love with him. Stupid, stupid me cared about the billionaire who’d actually bought me for a month. I shouldn’t feel that way. I knew it was dumb, but what could I do? It was too late. And when this was over, when he was gone, it was going to break me.
“How long till we get there?” I asked Adrik even though he was still on the phone.
He covered the receiver with his hand and turned it to look at the time,
“Five minutes, Zaika moya.”
I nodded, faked a smile, and casually slid my hand out of his, picking up my clutch instead. I turned my head to the window on the other side of me, trying for composure. But my heart was trying to beat me to death, and I couldn’t help the riot of emotions filling me. He was dressed up like some dark prince out of a fairytale, and I matched him like this. My outfit, my hair, but it was only temporary. And that was the part that broke my heart.
Fuck.
How did this happen? We had a routine dammit, and I thought it was working. Every morning, I worked on my book. In the afternoons, I either used his pool or the incredible entertainment system he owned. I was a classic movie junkie, and Adrik had them all. I’d started waiting for him in the nude at first as a sort of surprise. I always wanted to do that thing where the woman wears an apron while serving dinner and nothing else save maybe high heels.
It went so well it became our thing. Sometimes, he came out of the elevator, his shirt, and pants already off. We’d fall into each other, a tangle of arms and legs, sweat and arousal coating our skin as we fucked on every surface of that penthouse. Every day was exciting, every encounter made me want him more. I thought we were growing closer, but my refusal to sleep beside him was still a point of contention. Still, every morning when he left, I could not wait to see him again, and I missed him the moment he was gone.
But the book, well, that was coming along fine. What had started as a sort of tell all about high society was now a full on romantic suspense where the hero was a former underworld crime boss and the heroine an unsuspecting schoolteacher. It might have sounded cliché, but it was moving and gritty. Worlds apart and yet drawn together by an intense desire neither had felt.
Fuck you for thinking it mirrored my reality too closely.
No, really, though, what could I say? If I was going to have to leave Adrik behind, at least I could have the fictional version of him to remember. Nothing we really said or did with each other made it to the pages, but the feelings I had, they were right there with my heroine as she fell in love with the one man in the world she could never have.
Adrik finished his call with a soft Russian curse, but the second he tucked his phone away in his inside breast pocket his demeanor changed. His black eyes raked me from head to toe and before I knew it, he’d tugged me back to his side and slammed his mouth to mine with a possessive kiss that I knew had just ruined my carefully applied lipstick.
“There,” he growled as the driver stopped and one of his men opened the door. “Now you look claimed.”
“What?” I asked, eyes wide, pulse hammering rapidly.
“You looked perfect before, Zaika. But now you look kissed. And kissed is claimed. If another man looks at you tonight for more than the two seconds it takes to realize you belong to someone else, I won’t be responsible for what I do to him.”
His nostrils flared and the hand that had been stroking my neck tightened with the last word to leave his lips. Then he was gone, standing outside the door with his hand extended for me to grab. I knew there was something really wrong with his statement, that I should not be turned on by his alphahole tendencies. But I was.
I guess maybe it was more than just my clothes that matched the sexy ex-criminal billionaire. Maybe my soul matched his as well. I bit my lips, allowing him to lead me to the entrance of Matthew Castle’s Long Island mansion. Why hadn’t I known we were going back to this place?
I hated the memory of the last time we were there, the one with Adrik wrapped around some skinny woman on the dancefloor, that flashed through my brain. I stumbled, but his firm hand around my waist steadied me, and he looked down, concern in his dark eyes.
“I swear, Zaika moya, I will touch no one else but you tonight,” he whispered in my ear, and chills danced up my spine.
Being so needy and clingy was hardly in my nature, but something happened in the last few days and though I’d tried to hide it from him, he was clearly feeling the same. Possessive instincts were pretty powerful stuff and if the way he glowered at the men taking invitations and standing guard at the entrance of the party was anything to go by, Adrik was having a hard time controlling himself as well.
His face was passive, but his arm contracted several times around me as we walked the perimeter of the ballroom. I got the impression Adrik would rather be anywhere but inside the opulent mansion with throngs of people drinking, shmoozing, and doing God knew what in the dark corners and shadows of the enormous angular room.
There was bass thumping music blasting and a DJ both set up, special effects lighting flashed all around us, making the ballroom look even more like a Manhattan nightclub than it had last time. Women in haute couture gowns clung to wealthy men like second skins, writhing together as the waitstaff walked by carrying flutes of champagne and other drinks.
I saw people doing drugs right there and frowned. I knew Matthew Castle was a bit of a weasel from things his sister had let slip, and I felt bad for not even checking in on Missy since she fired me. It was stupid of me, really. The woman had let me go without a second glance, and for some reason, I was the one who felt guilty for not checking in.
“Excuse me,” a shrill voice said, and I jostled as someone bumped into me.
My eyes widened as I saw the barely dressed woman basically push me out of the way so she could land up against Adrik’s chest. But instead, she wound up being caught by Marat at the last minute. How his brother had snuck up on us, I did not know. But I was grateful as Adrik pulled me closer, the frown on his face deepening by the second.
“That was a close call, darling. Maybe lay off the drinks until you learn to walk in those things,” Marat said, pointing to her six-inch heels.
He was so handsome, the woman didn’t seem to mind. Leaning closer, I heard her practically purring in his ear.
“Ah, the younger Volkov. Well, if I can’t have the wolf, the pup will do,” she said, wrapping her red-clawed hands around his neck.
