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He laughed way too heartily. “Oh, Theresa. I could tell exactly how many orgasms I gave you.” His hand slipped from my side to nestle between my wet thighs. “Your tight little pussy was eating up my cock.” He laughed again, and I should have swatted his hand away, but oh, it felt so good there. So perfect and right, despite the fact he was once again pissing me off. “In fact,” he continued. “I think that should have earned me another painting.”
I did swat his hand away then. Was that what those beautiful moments boiled down to? Getting something out of it? Everything had to have a price? He was certainly only joking, but I was so caught up with my predicament, the fact that my mother had probably already signed the contract and was just waiting for me to get home so she could deliver the goods that I snapped. Sure, he showed me an amazing time, a time I would never forget, but he was back to being as insufferable as ever.
I rolled away and grabbed the plush hotel robe, wrapping myself up in it. He looked confused, then disappointed, then settled on angry when I crossed my arms over my chest and nodded toward the door.
“This was great, but I need to catch an early flight tomorrow,” I said.
He looked like he might argue, and honestly I wished he would have. But he sat up, slowly buttoning up his shirt as he gave me a long stare.
“No round two then, little girl?” he drawled, his deep voice rolling over me like a caress.
Hell yes, I wanted a round two, but it would just make it harder to get on that plane back to real life in the morning. His knowing smirk when he could tell how badly I wanted him to stay despite my words was the last straw.
I marched over to the door and swung it open. “Goodbye, Aleksei.”
At the door, he paused, tipping up my chin. Before I knew what was happening, he had my face cupped in his big hands and kissed me until I had to lean against the door to hold myself up.
“Goodbye, Theresa,” he said, stalking past me and down the hall.
I shut myself in the room and slid down the wall, trying to figure out what had just happened. Every fiber in my body wanted to run after him, all while my brain simmered with anger at how that last kiss had me so worked up again. My only relief was that he surely had to go to sleep tonight thinking about me.
Sleep. I needed some, since it was almost three in the morning now, but knew it would be a long time coming. I started packing up my stuff, turning over my phone to see I had several missed calls and messages from my mother. Damn it, she was going to be pissed at me for ignoring her.
It was never too late to call her when she needed something, so I clicked on her number, holding my breath until she answered.
“About time,” she said, not bothering to ask if everything was all right. Certainly not sensing my whole world had just changed.
“Sorry,” I said dully. “What’s wrong that it couldn’t wait until I get home tomorrow?”
“Change of plans, sweetie. I need you to stay put. We’re coming to Miami.”
My stomach rolled over. “We?”
“Donny is excited to meet you and we were talking about how nice it would be to celebrate the engagement in the sun,” she said.
Donny? Engagement?“So that’s it? It’s a done deal and I haven’t even seen him?” I was irate but knew she couldn’t be swayed once she made a decision.
“I already told you, he’s a doll. You’ll adore him. Hang tight at the hotel, we’ll be there before lunch tomorrow.”
She ended the call, her cheerful voice ringing hollowly in my ears for a long time after. Of course she was cheerful. She was getting something she wanted at no expense to herself. I dropped onto the bed and curled up in a ball, distracted by Aleksei’s lingering scent on the sheets.
“Oh God,” I groaned as the finality of it all hit me.
I was engaged. To someone I’d never met. The best night of my life was now also my worst. And it certainly wasn’t going to get better.
Chapter 5 - Aleksei
I caught Ivan’s eye across the restaurant table as my forced fiancée droned on about her new piano.
“After the designer finally got the gloss the shade of white that I wanted, it took over a week to get someone to come in and tune it. Then of course the bench was the wrong height and when it came back, there was a snag in the velvet. Can you imagine the ineptitude?”
I rolled my eyes while Ivan narrowed his, mouthing for me to be nice. If I kept it up I was sure to get a swift kick under the table, but I was in a foul mood. The shade of white she wanted? How many shades of white were there?
I didn’t dare ask, because that would set off another tangent. I didn’t want to spend more time with Sofia, and having to be chaperoned by Ivan because he didn’t think I would show up otherwise was just plain ridiculous. Well, maybe not so ridiculous. He was probably right about that since I already stood her up once.
“It’ll need to be tuned again after it’s moved intoourhouse,” Sofia continued. She snapped her fingers twice at the passing server, snapping that she was still waiting on her coffee when the poor kid turned around.
“It’s only been a few minutes,” I said, earning an unappealing pout.
