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“Hungry?” he asks when he sees me looking.
“A little.”
He nods. “I’ll go inside and get dinner ready.”
I linger to soak up the view for one more moment before I follow him inside the cabin. It takes all my willpower not to touch everything we pass. The crown molding is flawless, the timber looks like it’s still quivering with life, and the sandstone in the walls soaks up the sun that passes through the windows. It’s all perfect—because, of course, Ilarion Zakharov couldn’t possibly have anything less than that.
“I’m assuming this isn’t an AirBnB,” I mutter.
“No,” he replies with a chuckle. “This is a family home.”
“So you don’t bring back girls here to wow them out of their clothes with the view?”
“Dima has been known to sink to those depths from time to time,” he admits. “But I made sure the maids disinfected everything thoroughly. As for me? No. Never.”
“Forgive me if I don’t believe you.”
He keeps his back turned to me as he pulls frozen cuts of meat from the deep freeze chest and sets them out on the counter. When he turns around, though, his eyebrow is arched high and skeptical. “If you thought I used this place like a whorehouse, then why did you come?”
“Because, as you might have already realized, I don’t always make the best decisions,” I drawl.
He laughs again. It’s such a musical sound when he’s like this. I could sit here and watch forever, just staring, mouth agape, as he glides gracefully around the kitchen and laughs and smiles and wields a chef’s knife like it’s an extension of himself.
“Go explore, Taylor,” he tells me, pointing down the hallway with the blade. “The master bedroom is down at the end there. You’ll love the view.”
“Is that going to be your room or mine?” I ask. I’m shooting for a light, airy tone. Easy and breezy. Totally chill, a cool girl voice.
But the moment he turns those stormy blue eyes on me, I know I’ve stepped in it.
“Ours.”
I swallow hard. “I’m not sure that’s the best idea, Ilarion.”
His eyes narrow dangerously. He sets the knife down with a quietshhiiiink.“You don’t think that’s the best idea,” he repeats. He emerges from behind the counter and stalks closer, backing me into the wall.
“No…we—”
“I didn’t bring you all the way up here to go fucking bird-watching,” he growls. “We’re here so that we can be free of the shadows hanging over us. We’re here so that I can fuck you as many times as I want, and you can scream as loud as you’re able while I do it.” He runs a surprisingly gentle finger along the curve of my neck. “And you’re not leaving my bed after.”
My cheeks flush, and I have a hard time meeting his intense gaze. Some of it is embarrassment, but most of it is arousal. And I’m worried that if I look back at him, he’s going to know that.
Something tells me that he knows it regardless.
I try to push him away, but he doesn’t so much as flinch. Honestly, the man could be one of the boulders outside for all the good my pushing does.
“Move.”
“Why?” A playful smirk tugs the corner of his mouth. “There’s nowhere to run.”
“I’m assuming the doors in this place lock?”
“I’ll just break them the fuck down if you even think of locking me out,” he growls, his good hand landing possessively on my hip. “I didn’t come up here for the damn conversation,tigrionok.”
“Right,” I snap, angered by his sudden, and very presumptuous, attitude. “You just came up here to fuck me. Touseme.”
“Why didyoucome up here?”
It’s my turn to narrow my eyes. He’s not off the mark, turning the interrogation on me. I did come up here with him. Willingly. Even after he told me what he wanted from me…
