Total pages in book: 36
Estimated words: 33290 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 166(@200wpm)___ 133(@250wpm)___ 111(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33290 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 166(@200wpm)___ 133(@250wpm)___ 111(@300wpm)
Currently, one of those dreams is carrying me down a crowded sidewalk like a sack of potatoes, and fine, the caveman routine might work for me a lot of the time. But not today. Not when the future I’ve worked so hard for is at stake.
“Sasha!” I scream through my teeth. “We have to talk about this. Put me down. Right now.”
“I do not think this wise,” he says, sounding completely calm.
“I don’t care.” I bunch a fist and ram it awkwardly into his back. Of course, it ends up making my own wrist throb. “Ouch, dammit.”
Sasha clucks his tongue. “I taught you to punch better than that.”
“Excuse me, miss? Are you okay?”
My blood cools, then freezes, at the sound of a strange man’s voice. Not because I feel threatened. Oh no. An angry mob could be chasing me and as long as Sasha was there, I wouldn’t feel an ounce of fear. No, my jolt of alarm has everything to do with the newcomer’s safety. Not mine.
Beneath my draped body, Sasha’s shoulders turn to rippling iron, his step slowing to a stop. I struggle in his grip to get myself upright, and Sasha lets me, remaining still as a marble statue as I slide down the front of him. I can count on one hand the number of times another man has dared to question Sasha — and it has never happened in relation to my well - being. When I catch sight of the deadly intensity he’s directing at the stranger, I know I have to intervene or he’s going to decorate the sidewalk with homeboy’s guts.
“Hey.” I frame his face with my hands and attempt to get his attention, but his neck is stiff, his gray gaze never leaving the stranger. “Sasha.”
“Move…” he rasps, one of his eyes twitching. “Along.”
A nervous laugh. “I was only checking to see if the girl was — ”
Sasha surges forward with malice written on his face.
I shoot onto my tiptoes and kiss him.
There’s a long beat of tension. A standoff where my lips work over his stiff ones. Someone questioned my safety. If that man knew how serious Sasha takes my well - being, he would have kept on walking. I don’t like it, either. The insinuation that my Sasha isn’t taking good care of me. A classic tale of “I can yell at my possessive Russian bodyguard, but God help anyone else who does.” And when the fight drains out of him and he groans, the edge is taken off my earlier anger, even more so. One big hand slides into my hair, the other finding my hip as he begins ravaging my mouth. Wait. No. I was only going to distract him from committing murder, but now…what’s happening?
Sasha walks me backward until I feel the familiar shape of his car pressing into my back. There are low murmurings all around us from passersby, but I’m having a hard time making out their words over the chirping canaries circling my head.
College. He just told me I’m not going to college.
I pull away from his kiss and drag in a gulp of breath. “Me. School. I’m going.”
“Still you believe this?”
Oh, hello, anger. There you are. “Did you ever plan to take me?”
He tilts his head, like I’m daft. “Nyet, Anya. After five years of making sure no one breathes on you, do you think I could leave you in the care of strangers?” His eyes glitter with malice. “Males. No supervision. Alcohol. Those things mixed together will not set foot near my Anya.”
Fire floods my cheeks. “Then where are you taking me?”
“Get in the car and you will find out.”
I try to push Sasha off, but he only pins me tighter between his body and the car. And…and…my train of thought is busted because his erection is so thick where it lies across my belly. Focus, Anya. You can’t let another man dictate your future.
Isn’t that what it all comes down to? I haven’t been in control of my own life. Ever. Now I’m about to get my first taste of freedom stolen. By the only person who’d tempt me to give it up of my own free will. If he cared about me, he wouldn’t ask me to do that, though. Right?
Right.
“I’m not going with you. I’ll find another way to make it to orientation.”
“Angel.” Panic slides across his expression. “You would not.”
Taking a deep breath, I lift my chin. “I would.”
For a few moments, I can’t read him. Except to know he’s deciding how to play me. Play the situation. And after what just happened in the library, I should have known seduction would be his choice. But even if I had known, I never could have prepared for the power of Seductive Sasha. “Anya. Angel.” His lips press to my forehead, detour down my cheek and open above my mouth, just a hint away, his warm breath coasting over me. “Did you not say you loved Sasha?”