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He closed the door behind him.
CHAPTER17
Natasha
After he left, I pulled at the cuffs, a bit annoyed that they wouldn’t come loose. I could move somewhat, but there was really no way for me to reach far enough to unlock any of them. I wouldn’t be going anywhere.
I understood why he’d tied me down though.
If he had left me to my own devices, I probably would have hopped in one of his cars and driven away without looking back. I didn’t know where I would have gone or what I would do, I just knew that I would run as far as I could run, the consequences be damned.
With a huff, I reluctantly decided that I was at least slightly grateful that he’d tied me down because I didn’t really want to run away from here. It gave me a moment to take a deep breath and think.
I knew that he never did anything without reason. He wasn’t impulsive or cruel, not with me. I hadn’t been intricately involved with his bratva organization, but I was sure he handled that business with the same integrity I knew to be in his heart. Instinctually, I also knew that he wouldn’t have done it to hurt me, either.
Then why?
I sighed, resting my cheek on the bed.
Even though my outburst had made him angry, he hadn’t lifted a single finger towards me. Not a single place on my body ached, even where he’d gripped my arm and led me downstairs. There was one other place that was screaming for his attention, though, and I blushed hard, trying to ignore it but knowing I couldn’t.
My pussy was embarrassingly wet.
I couldn’t even bring my thighs together to hide it, and when he returned, I knew that he would see it. I turned my head, trying to ignore it as best as I could, but it was like trying to ignore an oncoming train when you’re tied down to the tracks.
Like my body wanted to taunt me, a droplet of arousal rolled down my inner thigh. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to disregard my building desire as I lay there all by myself surrounded by it. I knew I couldn’t do anything about it, which only seemed to make it that much worse.
I’m not really sure how long Sergei was gone for. Honestly, it was probably a little less than an hour before the door creaked open again. I sucked in a breath, a little nervous to know that he had come back, but also sort of relieved that he had.
Silently, he uncuffed my left wrist and then the right. His fingers trailed down the length of my spine, over my bare bottom, pausing for the briefest of seconds as he passed over the backs of my thighs. My pussy clenched knowingly. When he finally let his fingers trail down to my left ankle, I breathed out as he released the locking mechanism. He did the same to the other side. I went to push myself up, but he didn’t leave time for me to crawl away. Immediately, he grasped me around the waist and sat me down in his lap.
I wanted to hate how good it felt to be held by him like this, but I couldn’t.
“When I first walked into that chapel, I told you I wanted to protect you from that day forward. What I didn’t tell you is I wanted that with you long before I joined you at the altar,” he began. It was then that I noticed that there was a manilla folder beside him and I quizzically glanced at it.
“I did my research of this city before I came here. Decades ago, my father had his fingers deep in the Chicago Underground, but things have changed a lot since then. I came here only after my men had created full profiles on every family already here. There wasn’t a single detail that they overlooked for me, from every member, whether they be related or not, to every person in the city that owed them money, to whoever they had a deal or even a suspected alliance with. I wanted everything, and it was late one night when I came across this picture,” he began.
I shifted in his lap as he reached for the folder. He slipped his fingers inside and pulled out a photograph.
It was of me.
“It was that night that I first saw you, and I knew that I would do anything to have you.”
I was walking across the university campus, a brilliant smile on my face as I looked back over my shoulder towards the camera. I don’t even remember seeing anyone taking a picture. His expression was nostalgic as he gazed down at the picture. I cocked my head, watching as his thumb dragged along the length of my chin.
“The Lenkovs had a file on you too. It was a small one, but it was connected to a much bigger one that detailed your fiancé. I made one of my own on him using the excuse that I wanted to find a way to secure my position with one of the major Russian families already here, but it was just an excuse to find out more aboutyou,” he continued.
For several long moment, he stared down at my picture.
“I found out about his mountain of debt first. When he gambled away his own accounts, I saw that he’d drained yours and that made me angry, but that wasn’t the only thing I found in my search.”
His body radiated tension, and I curled around him, wanting to make it better while also battling with my own nerves about what he was going to say.
“I never told you about this part of the story because I wanted to protect you from him. I wanted to shield you from it all because you deserved so much better, and I didn’t want the knowledge of it to cause you sorrow,” he said, his voice soft.
“What did you find out?” I asked tentatively.
With a trembling sigh, he looked up to the ceiling and then back down to the folder as if he was searching for the courage to speak. My heart felt like it was in the back of my throat and my fingers clutched at him a bit tighter.
