"And you're here because you want me to do what Vera won't."
"I'm here because there won't be an empire left for me to inherit if someone doesn't step in." She shifts, crossing her arms under her tits, and they push up slightly, showing a hint of cleavage.
I toss the towel onto the foot of the bed and walk to my dresser and pull open the top drawer, taking out a pair of boxers whichI hold in my right hand as I turn back to face her. It's chilly, and if I were alone, I'd be clothed by now. I just like watching her squirm.
She's turned away fully now, facing the wall as she clears her throat. "I just want you to?—"
"Look at me when you're asking me for a favor, Mila. Have some respect."
"But you're…"
"I'm what?"
Her eyes come down from the wall and find my face and hold there for about two seconds before they drop, tracing down my chest to my stomach and then lower, and the red in her face darkens into a flush so deep that it matches the pink of her darkened lips. She snaps her gaze back up to my eyes and her throat moves on a swallow.
"Can you put clothes on?"
"No."
"Roman."
"You came to my bedroom." I take a step toward her and she doesn't move, though her fingers tighten on the robe's belt. "I'm perfectly comfortable."
She presses her lips together until they go pale and turns her back to me, facing the door, her shoulders pulled up toward her ears and her spine rigid. "I need you to force Vera's hand. She's ignoring what's happening inside the organization because she's too busy trying to marry you off to Sofi or Sabine. People are getting hurt and she doesn't care."
I cross the distance between us and put my hand on her shoulder and turn her around. Her eyes are wide and bright and wet at the corners and her breathing has gone shallow. I can smell her from here, the musky scent of arousal she's feeling. It makes my dick twitch more to know she's turned on by what she sees.
"Now I said, face me when you ask for my help."
"God," she hisses, and I chuckle as I put a finger under her chin and draw her eyes up away from my hard dick to my face.
"I'll step in," I say, "and have Vera handle the situation, and if she won't, I'll handle it myself."
She nods and her lower lip is pinched between her teeth. Her pulse is racing. I can see it in her neck as it throbs, and I let my knuckles slide down her throat until my fingertips dust the collar of her robe.
"But I don't do anything for free, Mila. You know that." She shudders as I toy with a few hairs snaking their way under the robe. When I pull them out and drape them behind her back, she closes her eyes.
"What do you want?" The words come out tight and thin through her teeth, and her eyes flicker down my body again and come back up with a new wave of color flooding her face.
I let my gaze move from her eyes down to the collar of her robe where the fabric crosses over her chest and the edge of a nightgown shows through. I drop my boxers and bring my hand up to the knot at her waist and pull it loose with one slow tug. The silk cord slides through itself and falls limp against her hips and the robe falls open.
The nightgown under it is short and silky and sits high on her thighs, the straps thin enough that they barely stay on her shoulders. Her stomach pulls in when the air hits her flesh, and goosebumps rise along her collarbones and down her arms.
She doesn't pull the robe closed. Her hands stay at her sides, her fingers curled into her palms, and she stands there breathing heavily and her eyes locked on mine.
"I want to pleasure you," I tell her, and I watch the breath leave her body in one long exhale that pushes through her parted lips. "Let me put my hands on you tonight, and I'll deal with Vera tomorrow."
"Well, that doesn't make any sense." She looks down again, trying to avoid eye contact, but it's impossible to not notice how hard I am now. "If I'm the one receiving the pleasure, then I'm not paying for anything. You're still doing it for free…"
"You're wrong about that." I let my hands slide up her hips, opening the robe until it falls from her shoulders, hanging on her arms from the elbow. "Believe me when I tell you I know what I'm doing, and I don't make bad deals."
"That's not—" She stops and swallows, and her eyelids flutter when my thumb moves from the robe to the bare skin above the neckline of her nightgown. "That's not how business works."
"It's how my business works." The robe slips off her left elbow first and then her right and catches at her wrists before it drops to the floor and pools around her bare feet.
She's standing in front of me in nothing but the nightgown as her arms hang at her sides limply, but she hasn't backed away yet.
"Tell me to stop," I say, "and I'll stop." I lift both hands to the straps of her nightgown and hook my fingers under them, one on each shoulder, but I pause to give her time to protest and she doesn't say stop.
