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)
37
MATVEI
I sense Natalya before I see her. Her pull is magnetic. I feel it from the roots of my hair to the tips of my toes. The hold she has over me once scared me. Not anymore. It is what brought her back to me, and what will keep her at my side until the day I die.
I shut Blake up by slicing my hand through the air before requesting that he give me a minute. I hate this side of the business, the ass-kisses, compromises, and pledges you have no intention to keep once you get the schmuck’s life savings wrapped up in an unbreakable contract.
I loathe wheeling and dealing. My industry was once as straight as a line. You paid fifty percent upfront and the rest once the job was done. Compensation wasn’t bartered. You paid the retainer requested or risked your target not being as scroogie as you and paying for revenge in full. It was honest work that kept me off everyone’s radar—including my family’s.
That is the only reason I’m striving to learn the ropes of my family business. My family needs me to have a local base. And by family, I don’t mean Maksim, my mother, or the half-brother I share with Natalya.
There’s only one name on my list that steers my destiny.
She’s entering my office on Blake’s heel, her strides more controlled than the frantic bob of her throat when our eyes lock and hold.
“Close the door on your way out,” I instruct Blake.
“It’s okay,” Natalya negotiates, her voice turning my cock to stone. “It can stay open.”
“Close it.”
Blake is a smart man. He closes the door before sprinting past the frosted glass wall so fast he’s a blur.
Natalya sinks toward the wall when I stand and walk around my desk. She’s not scared of me. The lies her lawyer told didn’t come from her. She fears what I make her feel and how she loses all sense of control when I’m nearby, but she will never cower in my presence. He tossed that in for free, happy to say anything to get his retainer paid sooner rather than later.
He’ll pay for his stupidity. I’ll make sure of it.
“Let me take your coat.” It isn’t dotted with snow like mine was when I left my lawyer’s office, but it is bulky, which means I’m being denied the opportunity to drink in her mouthwatering curves and fantastic tits.
That’s another injustice I can’t stand.
Natalya steps away from me. “It’s fine.”
“It’s too warm in here for a coat. Your cheeks are red—”
“I said I’m fucking fine. Just let me leave my damn coat on.”
My palms twitch to bend her over my desk and spank her, but I hold back the urge—barely. “Language. You’re a lady, so you should speak like one.”
“And you’re meant to be a gentleman, so how about you act like one?”
Goosebumps rise to the surface of her skin when I whisper in her ear, “That’s why I was trying to take your coat.” I swear the faintest moan leaves her lips when I inhale a large whiff of her delicious scent before saying with a purr, “You smell divine.”
Again, she steps forward before I can take a second sample. “My lawyer advised you wouldn’t sign without speaking with me first.” She dumps a thick envelope onto my desk before spinning to face me. “I’m here, so speak.”
There’s no doubt she’s turned on when I say, “I’d rather feast. It’s been months since you’ve writhed beneath me. I’m starved.”
“Then you should have hired a female secretary. I’m sure she would have been more than eager to feed you.” She tries to hide the jealousy her vivid imagination creates, but she’d have a better chance of pretending she hates me than acting like she doesn’t want to be sick at the thought of me being with anyone else. “Can you please sign? I want to get on with my life.”
“No.” Her eyes snap to mine so fast she has to be dizzy. “You are my wife, and I am not giving you up for anything.”
“You coerced a yes out of me. I would’ve never agreed if my head wasn’t in a lust cloud.”
“That’s your second lie. You’ve only got one left. Use it wisely, Natalya.”
“I haven’t lied…” She stops, swallows, then thinks back to her giddy happiness in the three hours leading to us tying the knot.
She wasn’t blinded by lust then.
She was in love.
When I say that to her, she licks her lips. “My heart can be stupid at times, but it will learn.”
“No, it won’t,” I deny. “Love is not something that is taught. You also don’t get to pick who you love. It chooses for you.” She watches the rise and fall of my Adam’s apple when I say, “It chose us.”
Her words are chopped up by a huff when she replies, “You don’t love me.”