Page 45 of My Ex’s Dad

“Because of the loan,” I agree. “She’s too proud to accept charity.”

He tosses me a dubious look.

“And it matters.” I clear my throat. When I get Liliana to submit to me, and I will, I want her to do it with no leverage or obligation hanging over her. Now that business stands between us, I hate that she might cave just to wipe the slate clean. The thought of her sleeping with me again to buy off the debt turns my stomach.

Because then it’s business.

Not personal.

And I want everything with her strictly in the realm of what’s intimate and personal between us. Nothing else. No contingencies.

“You want her to submit because she wants to?” he guesses as the Sokolov enforcer slits the spy’s throat. Blood rushes out, dark and fast.

I nod. It reads as approval of what I’m witnessing, a stamp of agreement that my men have killed this hard-to-catch spy of my enemies. But it’s also a gesture for Viktor to read. He’s exactly right. I don’t want Liliana surrendering to me for any reward other than the bliss we found together.

How to achieve that remains a mystery. Still, when I return to my building at the end of the night and say goodnight to Viktor as he heads to his floor of the skyscraper I call home, I try to trust that a solution will present itself. I’ve got men watching her. She’s within my sight, if only indirectly, and that reassures me she won’t slip away.

But I’m not sure how long I can keep testing my own patience like this.

Or why I’m doing it at all.

I’m Anton Sokolov. Ruler of crime in this city.

People bend to my will, but with her, I’m hooked on the possibility that she could be more than a conquest or an escape. I can’t shake the idea of her being so much more, a reason for my life to feel brighter and fuller than ruling with absolute power.

I enter my penthouse and come to a stop.

Elena stands in front of me.

She smiles, a seductive curl of her mouth as she hugs herself. In a long black fur coat, her face caked in makeup, she clears her throat.

“I was wondering when you’d finally come home.”

My anger lights up in an instant. “This is my home.”

“You used to say home was wherever I was.”

I doubt I ever uttered such romantic nonsense to her. But it’s not worth calling her out on such a trivial lie. “Leave.”

Instead of obeying, she lowers her arms. The coat falls with them, sliding down to pool at her feet. In lingerie, she juts a hip out and smiles wider. “So soon?”

“Leave. Now.”

I’ll be damned if she thinks she can get away with sneaking in here and seducing me. She’s thrown herself at me plenty of times before, and my stance will never change.

“It’s been so long since we’ve⁠—”

“Leave.” I say it with a finality that would have men shaking with fear.

It does the trick. She frowns, though no lines show with all the work she’s had done, but I catch the disappointment in her eyes. She bends to scoop the coat into her arms and doesn’t put it on. Because she’s not done pushing her luck.

“Fine. I can see you’re not in the mood tonight.”

I’m very much in the mood for a lifetime of seduction and intimacy—with Liliana.

“But just remember that the Grayson Ball is coming up.” She tacks on another smile, as if she’s gaining ground with me, and walks up to me. “And since I know you better than any other woman on this planet…” She trails her finger down my chest, eyeing me hungrily. “I know you’ll be far too busy to ever get a real date for yourself.”

Before she can hook her fingers under my belt, I snatch her hand and glare at her.