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She eyes me for a long moment.
“Take them,” I say again this time with a harder tone. She throws them back and washes them down with the glass of water I offer her next. “How do you feel?”
“Like my head is going to explode, and I’ve been riding a roller coaster all night.” She rubs her stomach with a grimace. All the excitement of the last few minutes hasn’t done anything to help, I’m sure. Now that the adrenaline is wearing off, she’s going to feel a hell of a lot worse.
“Do you have vodka?” I ask, heading for the door.
“I don’t want any vodka,” she argues, but I’m already in the living room. “Maxim, wait!” She pads behind me in her bare feet as I search her kitchen for the liquor bottles. I find what I’m looking for and grab a shot glass for her.
“I don’t want that.” She makes a face as I pour the shot.
“It will help,” I promise her and slide it along the counter toward her. “Drink it.”
Her delicate fingers wrap around the glass, but stubborn eyes rise to meet mine. I wait, watching her think over her next steps.
“Fine,” she huffs, then throws back the shot, groaning and sputtering.
I take the shot glass from her as she waves her hands around.
“I hate liquor!” She rushes to the sink, grabs a clean mug from the cabinet, and fills it with warm tap water. Her delicate throat works as she gulps down the water. After she’s done, she sucks in a long breath and drops the mug into the sink.
“You drank enough last night.” I lean my hip against the counter. “If you can’t handle your liquor, you shouldn’t be drinking at a club all alone without anyone there to protect you.”
Hazel eyes sweep up to meet mine. “I can handle my liquor well enough. And I don’t need anyone to protect me. If I remember, Anya and I protected ourselves just fine.”
I fill the shot glass once more, but this time throw it back myself instead of handing it to her. Not the best vodka, but it still provides a dull burn as it slides down my throat.
“Were you going to hurt him with your baby knife?” I ask, pouring a second shot. My head aches; the woman’s bed is as uncomfortable as the damn floor.
“We had it handled,” she insists as I toss back the second shot. “Stop drinking all my vodka.” She tries to grab the bottle from me, but I hold it up high, out of her reach. She’ll have to jump if she wants to get it now. Part of me wants to watch her do it. The slip of a dress she’s wearing barely covers her breasts. One false move and she’ll be showing me the good lord’s generosity.
“Go change. Shower if you want, and I’ll take you to breakfast.” I put the bottle down, but slide it down the counter, behind me.
“I’m not going to breakfast with you.” She shakes her head and takes a step back, wiping the frantic hairs from her face. Her makeup from last night still clings to her face, though most of it is smeared beneath her eyes. The chaos of her appearance only makes me want her more. This is her at her most natural, and it’s all the more appealing.
“You don’t have anything here to make.” I’d tried to find something to eat last night after she’d fallen asleep, but there was only leftover pizza from her roommate’s date and some lunch meat.
“I’m going shopping this morning.” The woman dares to lie to me. Her eyes lower just a fraction before she says it, enough for me to find her tell. Everyone has one.
“First you attack me with a dull knife, and now you lie?” I move forward, taking up the empty space between us. She backs up until her ass hits the fridge.
“You’re testing my patience,moy malen’kiy voin.”
“Maybe you should just go then?” Her voice is hard, but she’s forcing it. The muscles in her jaw are working hard to keep a quiver from her voice.
I run the back of my middle finger down the length of her neck and lower until I’m nearly at the neckline of her dress. Just as she lowers her chin to watch my touch, I snatch her chin and push her head back against the fridge, bringing my mouth down to hover over hers.
“You aren’t going shopping today,” I say, pressing my hips against her. “Tell me what you’re really going to do.”
“It’s none of your business.” She clenches her jaw after the words leave her mouth. All of this pretend strength is going to exhaust her.
“Last chance. Tell me the truth, or I’ll have to take you back into your room to punish you.”
“Punish me?” She frowns. “I’m not… you can’t.”
“Wrong answer.” I tsk my tongue.
Mandy
