Page 17 of Harvest Maze

Demyan hummed in approval. Swiping his fingers through my slick pussy, he brought them up. “Look at you.”

I wanted to squirm away, but his arm was iron wrapped around me.

“Look what you did for me,” he breathed, and as I watched, he brought his fingers to his mouth. He licked them clean.

Which only made my pussy clench greedily.

“Oh, wow!” I whispered. “That was…uh…really hot.”

His chest rumbled with a laugh he didn’t let escape. I wasn’t sure if he knew how to smile and laugh. But I could teach him.

If only he would stay….

“Don’t leave,” I asked quickly, before I could think of why this was weird. “Please, Demyan, stay here.”

He grabbed the orange and brown throw I’d crocheted and tucked it around my shoulders, cradling me close. “I’m not going anywhere.”

I took that as an invitation to lay my head against his shoulder. “You know, San Pietro Cove is really a safe place. I don’t know what got into me tonight.”

He tensed. But the movement was so small and followed by him adjusting himself on the couch, so I thought maybe I misread the motion.

“I don’t want you to think badly of my home,” I added. “There’s nowhere else I’d rather live, so please don’t leave a bad review of this town.”

His fingers drew lazy patterns over my spine. “It’s a cute town. I like it here.”

Hearing such a large man say the word cute made me want to giggle. I resisted the urge.

“You do?” I studied him. “Is it…is it somewhere you’d like to stay?”

This time, he couldn’t hide the tension.

“Sorry! I just blurted that out; I’m silly. I don’t know why I said that.” I tore at the skin on the back of my pointer finger until the spike of pain made me realize what I’d done. “We don’t know much about each other. Or well, you know about me. Barista who likes to bake. But you probably have a job. A whole life outside this place! I can’t ask you to uproot yourself. Don’t take it that way.”

Demyan shifted. “What if—”

I held my breath.

“What if I could stay?”

My stupid little heart did a flip.

I didn’t trust my ears. What if he’d really said, “What if I couldn’t stay?”

Yeah…that was probably what he’d said. My brain translated it to something I wanted.

“Ivry?”

“Don’t you work?” I hedged instead of making him repeat his answer. The wild beating in my chest made me anxious. “You just came here to fish.”

He rumbled an assent. “My job is unstable. Maybe it’s time for a career change.”

I felt giddy. Burrowing into him, I bit my tongue so as not to say anything else. I clutched his shirt tightly—happy that this hangnail wasn’t bleeding, just open and raw—as if that would make him stay. It was utterly selfish, but I didn’t care. If there was even the smallest possibility he might not leave, I was going to keep him.

Chapter 9 – Demyan

It wasn’t the first time I terminated a contract. The process was simple. I logged into the account, sent an encrypted email, then hopped into the bank account to refund the deposit.

There.