Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 106159 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 531(@200wpm)___ 425(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106159 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 531(@200wpm)___ 425(@250wpm)___ 354(@300wpm)
“Going back.”
“Why? I said no. I shook my head.” I shake it again, more ruefully this time. “Turn back around.”
“No,” he replies in a thick, heavy accent. “I have a wife and children. I’m no good to them dead.”
Faster than he arrived, we return to the hotel, and the door next to me is yanked open. A hot, temperamental heat surges through me when Matvei slips in next to me and signals for the driver to go. He’s still talking on his cell, but his focus is locked on the fretful watch of the driver in the rearview mirror.
“No. That isn’t necessary. He did as asked.” The driver’s swallow is audible when Matvei’s snapped tone reaches his ears. “Very well.” He disconnects his call and houses his phone in the breast pocket of his suit jacket before slotting a handful of bills through the gap in the privacy partition. “Keep your eyes on the road, and I’ll consider letting you live.”
My mouth gapes that he so openly threatens people, but the driver’s response is more reserved than that. After a quick, “Yes, sir,” he shifts his eyes front and center, where they remain no matter how fiery my stare becomes.
After waiting for the driver to enter the onramp of the freeway, Matvei says, “I thought we agreed for me to drive you home.” I’m not given a chance to respond. “My promise to Saka that I’d bring you home in one piece is the only reason our night was uninterrupted.”
I’m shocked. Truly and utterly bewildered. “You what? How…? When…?” In my shocked state, I can’t form complete sentences. Well, not until Matvei’s silence forces me to. “When the fuck did you speak to my bodyguard about my well-being?”
Either oblivious to my anger or uncaring of it, he replies nonchalantly, “Last night.” He looks smug when he adds, “I told you he wouldn’t have a problem with you being left in my care.”
“I’ll be sure to make him aware of his ill judgment at the earliest possible convenience.”
I don’t know why I’m angry. I guess for the past two years, it has always just been Saka and me. He’s never trusted anyone with my care, not even the other men paid to protect me, so I’m shocked he backed down for a man who exhibits so many traits of my late husband.
Forever willing to take charge, Matvei instructs the driver to turn down Main Street.
He does so immediately without taking his eyes off the road, freeing Matvei to swing his focus back to me. “I’ll have your belongings forwarded to you this afternoon. I have a time-sensitive issue I need to take care of first thing; otherwise I would have fetched them for you now.”
“I can wait. Thank you.” My tone isn’t as bitchy. It is somewhat amicable. He could have held my personal effects at ransom like people have in the past. The fact he didn’t cools my anger by a smidge.
Matvei issues his thanks for the swift detonation of my frustration with a smile. He stops me from exiting the taxi in front of Polina’s boutique by snatching up my hand and tugging me to his side of the cab.
“Are you forgetting something?” he croons, his voice sexy enough to activate every one of my hot buttons.
Although incredibly turned on, I am lost as to what he’s referencing until he scoots across the cracked leather to weave his fingers through my hair.
He wants to kiss me. The lust in his eyes discloses this, not to mention the quickest brush of his tongue across his wind-dried lips.
“Oh, no, Matvei. We can’t. I haven’t brushed my tee—”
He seals his mouth over mine before I can warn him I don’t wake up with minty fresh breath like the heroines in romance books. I’m a horrible nose breather. My mouth is dry and rank long before I scrub out the gunk in my eyes with the back of my hand.
After kissing me so passionately I can’t remember what day it is, Matvei inches back. I am anticipating his expression to be horrified and hiding the need to vomit, so you can imagine my surprise when the faintest arch tugs his lips high at one side.
My insides clench when he murmurs, “You taste like me.” I hate myself more than ever when he adds, “If only you had allowed me to drive you home. We wouldn’t need to test the durability of my zipper if my pants were undone and huddled around my knees.”
As images of his big cock dipping in and out of my mouth fill my head, he presses a chaste kiss to the edge of my mouth before he leans across my body to open my door for me.
He waits until I’m on the sidewalk before saying, “I’ll see you tonight.”
“Tonight? We don’t have any plans tonight.”