Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 80602 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80602 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
He stalks into the bathroom with panther-like agility, his feet not making the slightest sound on the white tiles. I instinctively step back. There’s something frightening in the depths of his eyes. It was present when he was fucking me, but I couldn’t figure the meaning behind it.
It wasn’t exactly anger then, but it seems close to it now. Either way, it’s a version of Kyle I don’t want to butt heads with, especially since I’m naked and in my most vulnerable form.
“Didn’t I say you can’t lock me out?” he asks in a deceptive type of calm that knots my stomach.
The back of my foot catches on the edge of the shower’s entrance. I chance a glance so I can step in. I’m probably trapping myself, but it’s the only choice I have while he’s advancing on me like this.
When I look up again, Kyle’s height blocks my vision. I’m caged in that angry look in his eyes, in the disapproving feelings behind them.
He grabs me by the throat and pushes until my back meets the wall. My breathing is constricted and I can feel the blood rushing to my face. There’s nothing sexual about his grip. It’s raw and meant to threaten. “You do not get to run or hide from me. Do you fucking understand?”
I claw at his hands, but that only causes him to tighten his grip until no air seeps through. My struggles come to a halt since that will only drain my energy. He’s the one with the physical power, and if I fight him on that, I will only get myself killed.
Dedushka’s words about picking my battles keep me rooted in place.
“I said…is that fucking understood?”
When I remain motionless, he grabs my hair with his other hand and forces me to nod my head.
“That’s yes, I understand. Yes, I won’t run from you. Now, say it.” He loosens his hold on my neck and I gulp copious intakes of air, choking on the life it brings me. It takes me long seconds to catch my breath.
“Fuck you,” I manage, glaring up at him. “What right do you have to demand that from me when you ran away first? You left me first!”
“So what’s your angle here? Do you plan to leave me as revenge?”
“Believe me, if I put my mind to revenge, me leaving you would be the easiest way out for you.”
“Rai…don’t test my fucking patience.”
“Or what? Or fucking what? You took a lot from me already. If you think I will let you do it again, you don’t know Rai Sokolov.” I push at his chest, but his grip on both my throat and my hair keeps me imprisoned in place.
“You forgot a little something, Mrs. Hunter. You’re my wife now.”
“That doesn’t make you the boss of me.”
“We’ll see about that.” He strokes his finger on the hollow of my throat, loosening his hold a little. “Fuck. You do bruise easily.”
I glance down my body and immediately regret it. Bruises, hickeys, and imprints from his fingertips are all over my neck, breasts, hips, and thighs. I can’t even recognize my body anymore. It’s like it already left me and went to Kyle.
“Let me go.” I try to push at him.
He keeps me caged between him and the wall. “Not before you tell me why you left the bed that way and hid in the bathroom.”
The reminder of what happened slams back into me all at once: the power, the abandon, the searing pleasure and the unbearable pain.
“Why do you want to know? You already got what you wanted.”
“We got what we wanted. Don’t try to pretend you didn’t like what happened for even one second.”
“I told you to put a condom on. I told you not to come inside me.”
He narrows his eyes. “Is this what all the fuss is about? A condom?”
“The fuss is about getting pregnant. I’m not on birth control.” My voice drops at the end and I look away from him.
Kyle uses his hold on my hair to bring back my attention to his sinfully beautiful face, his expressionless face. “And you hate that so much?”
“Of course I do! Who in their right mind would bring a child into this world? And with a father no one knows anything about. What if I wake up one day and you’re not there, huh?” I stop before I blurt out everything inside me. That I barely survived alone the other time. That I can’t do it again, especially if an innocent soul is involved.
“Is that how low you think of me?” His voice isn’t angry, more like astounded, and that hits me even harder.
“What should I think? I know nothing about you. Nothing. All Dedushka said about you was that you’re a reputable killer and that’s it. Who are you, Kyle? Who are your parents? Where are you really from? What’s your real last name? Is Kyle even your real name, or is it another ‘fuck you’ I have to live with once you’re gone?”