Despite myself, I’m touched that he remembers how much I loved that dress.
“If I don’t marry you, you’ll kill me, is what you’re saying.” I lick my lips.
“Not me, or my men,printsesa. My enemies. They have discovered my weakness.”
“Which is?”
“You.”
A fist of panic slams into my sternum. This is no dream. This is really happening. “Bullshit,” I blurt out, babbling like I’ve acquired a sudden case of verbal diarrhea. “You hated me when I was a kid. I mean, understandably. I was an annoying teenager following you around. You left the room as soon as I came in.”
“You were a child then.” He gives me a sidelong glance that scorches down my torso. “You aren’t now.” His steps are almost silent on the thick carpet. He bends, dropping one hand onto either arm of the chair I’m tied to. “You have something my enemies would kill to possess. They have searched for it for five long years.”
“The thumb drive,” I whisper.
“It is an encryption passkey.” His mouth hovers over mine. “The only secure way to access a trove of information that could take down the global network of bratva, if it fell into the wrong hands. My father entrusted it to me before his arrest, and I gave it to you for safekeeping. Although you have so carelessly lost it, my enemies will not believe such a simple explanation. Now that they know it exists, they will hunt you down. When they find you, they will torture you.”
Part of me deflates. Of course this isn’t about me. He just wants his stupid fob. At least I know what it is now. I should’vegiven it to the Feds when I had the chance. Now that Rafail has me in his clutches, though, I can try to negotiate for my freedom.
“It’s in my jewelry box,” I tell him, tripping over my own words. He’s so close. His scent curls around me, a hint of cologne tinged with a metallic scent I can’t quite identify but suspect is from a gun. “You can have it back. Just let me go.”
“Oh,printsesa,it is too late for that. My men found it hours ago.”
Fuck. There goes that plan. Wait… “How?”
He ignores my question. “You are still in danger. My enemies will hunt you down to hurt me. They will be vicious when they find you. It was sheer luck that I got to you first tonight. If not for me, you would be dead by now. Very, very painfully.”
I swallow. A single tear escapes and rolls down my cheek. Maybe it wasn’t a glamorous life, but it was mine, one I built with hard work and hope for the future. Now, it’s slipping through my fingers just as surely as that brief time living on Dmitri’s generosity did.
“I ask you again, Hailey or Lila, or whatever you want to call yourself. Will you be my bride?”
He drags his thumb along my lips. Against my better judgment, I open just enough to let the tip of my tongue touch the meaty pad. An electric jolt strikes deep in my core. Everything below my navel tightens when he pushes his thumb deep into my mouth. I suck, tasting salt, my eyes fluttering closed as a tiny whine wheezes out of me.
He pulls away. My cheeks flame with embarrassment. What did I justdo?
“One way or another, I will have you.”
He rises with fluid grace, but not before I glimpse a sizable bulge tenting the front of his tailored black pants. My core clenches at the sight.
5
RAFAIL
Brat.
Hailey’s refusal to yield has my cock siphoning all my blood away from my brain. I need to think. I can’t. Not with the feeling of her wet, hot mouth on my thumb.
One more provocation and I am going to take her over my knee.
The littleprintsesawould like that, judging from that whine she made. Barely audible, but I understood what it meant.
I unfasten my pants and pull out my cock while facing away from her. I watch her in the mirror on the living room wall. She could see me, too, if she looked slightly to one side, but she stares at my back as if transfixed. Slowly, I unfasten the remaining buttons on my shirt and toss that aside. I palm my hard length.
“If I suck your cock, will you let me go?” she asks.
“No.”
Her shoulders slump.
