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)
“We’ll see?” he murmurs in my ear, his voice a panty-wetting snarl. He waits for our eyes to lock and hold before he finalizes, “That’s on par with I can’t.”
I scoff at him. “You’re being ridiculous.”
“Am I?” When I nod, he twists his lips. “Okay. Then how about we test the theory?”
He barely waves his hand through the air for a second before a waitress pops up to answer his every whim. She flutters her lashes at him as regularly as Jax does a hottie in the booth next to us and looks set to melt into a puddle when Matvei licks his lips before dragging his eyes down her body.
I swear to god, one sweep of his hooded eyes down her body has her itching to saddle his lap and take him for a ride.
It also has my claws prepared to maim, but we will keep that between us.
A blood bath is imminent when Matvei asks the waitress, “What time do you knock off?”
“Ele—”
“He’s not interested in you,” I interrupt, my tone rude considering she doesn’t deserve the wrath of my anger. “He’s using you to prove a point.”
She brushes off my concern as any woman with Matvei’s attention would. “Eleven. Why?” She twirls on the spot, fanning out her cheerleader-inspired skirt. It is skimpy and exposes she has fantastic legs. “Did you want to catch up after my shift?”
After making her wait long enough for her hopeful expression to shift to desperate, Matvei croons, “We’ll see.”
She practically glows with excitement, her response on par with a kid getting the latest fandangle device on Christmas morning. “Okay.” After scribbling down her number on a napkin and stuffing it into Matvei’s hand, she tells us she’ll return with complimentary drinks.
She’s only steps away when I snarl out, “If that napkin gets anywhere near your pocket, I’ll…” I can’t think of a suitable threat. Every idea bombarding me is teeming with violence. So, instead of finalizing my reply, I snatch up the napkin, scrunch it into a ball, then hook it onto the dance floor.
It’s shredded to pieces by stilettos more lethal than knives in less than a minute.
Matvei’s laugh replaces some of my anger with lust. It is a manly, throaty purr that gains him even more eyes than his predatory walk across the bustling space. “You’re much more ravishing when you’re jealous.”
To shift the focus off the inane reactions I shouldn’t be harboring for a man I hardly know, I ask, “Where have you been, Matvei?” I suck in a lung-filling gulp of air. It does little to harness my frustration. “I didn’t expect you to chase me when I left you high and dry, but I thought there’d be some kind of contact.” I pretend Jax isn’t tilting in close to eavesdrop on our conversation. “You spanked me in a restaurant full of people, then disappeared for days on end. There’s being dissed, and then there’s this. Your response to a girl wanting to be chased.”
My teeth grit when goosebumps follow the trek of his finger as he drags it over my collarbone while replying, “I’m more than happy to chase you, Natalya. I was just out of town. Working.”
“On?”
He lifts his eyes to my face, his expression humored that he has to answer to the likes of me, but he still answers nonetheless. “On you.”
His reply isn’t close to what I expected, so it stuns me into silence.
When my unusual stint in the land of silence doesn’t keep Matvei talking, I stumble out, “What do you mean you’ve been working on me?”
“How about we talk about this somewhere more private?”
His tone implies a hidden innuendo, but I act ignorant. “I can’t. I promised Saka I’d wait for him here.”
“Saka won’t have an issue if you leave with me.”
“Ha!”
His breath is hot on my neck when he murmurs, “If you don’t believe me, text him.” I have a hard time concentrating on anything but his next move when he squeezes the taut muscle in my shoulder. “You’re tense. I know the perfect way to ease that.”
“With the waitress?” Too jealous to act rationally, I barge Jax with my hip, demanding him to move. “I need to use the restroom.”
“I’ll take you.”
“No. It’s fine. I know where they are.”
Matvei isn’t pleased by my denial of his offer, but he remains in the booth, where his hooded eyes burn a hole into my backside.
Halfway across the dance floor, I am unexpectedly grabbed. While slurring about how beautiful I am, a man with hairy hands and too much alcohol in his system flattens his hand across my stomach before grinding his crotch into my butt that’s still stinging from Matvei’s watch.
I’m horrified by his sweaty body staining my vintage skirt, but it has nothing on the terror that rains down on me when my heel stomping into his boot does little to slow his assault.