9. Sienna #2
The shark charges again, and I'm pulled through the water, my eyes burning as I try my hardest to keep them open, now too scared of what I might miss if I don't look. Nikolai grabs me by the back of the neck, and my entire mind goes blank as he presses his mouth to mine. Not sweetly. Not passionately. He forces his breath into my lungs, then he pulls away. I purse my lips with a shocking but clear understanding that wasn’t anything sexual; it was a necessity in order for me to live.
He taps against his chest once more, then a second time, and I follow the movement, as if trying to sync my racing heart to match the two subtle beats of his fingers.
Adrenaline pumps through my veins, the icy cold sinking into my bones. Yet my head still swivels as I watch the predator circle our cage. In that moment, something else seems to take over me.
Perhaps submission to my fate.
Or maybe I've actually lost my fucking mind.
Something a little thrilling.
I've never done anything like this before, and something shifts within me that I don't entirely understand.
I don't feel safe here. But I know I have the choice to hold my own. If I didn’t have the safety of the cage, perhaps I wouldn't feel so brave.
The adrenaline still flows through me, but as I look out at the shark, I’m overcome with a sense of pity. Nikolai said it was his boss who had exotic tastes in animals. But by bringing me here, Nikolai is making a clear message as to how dangerous his boss is.
Nikolai is far from a hero. But without this moment, I wonder if I would've ever connected to myself in this way. The last few months, I’ve felt invisible even when in the spotlight, but right now, I feel fierce and unstoppable, fueled by recklessness.
Be careful what you wish for, I suppose.
The water shifts, and I realize the cage is being pulled back up. I scan the water, looking for the shark. The moment we break the surface, I suck in a shaky breath. Gravity takes over as my hair and the shirt I wear cling to me. And the chill of the room and what just happened folds in on me.
Nikolai, seemingly unfazed, combs back his black hair, the water sliding down his muscles.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I shove him so hard, he bangs against the bars, then he chuckles as he combs through his black curls once again. My hands shake from the cold and the emotions buzzing through me.
“Careful, mishka , or we can try that again without the cage,” he says, and his striking green eyes narrow at me. “Don't you feel the thrill?”
It hits me then, right in my core, the pent-up energy that has nowhere to go.
A thrill?
Nikolai speaks to Andrei in Russian. “Leave us for a moment while I train this prisoner to be more obedient and to know her place.”
Before I utter a word in protest, I bite my tongue, reminding myself that it's to my advantage that I maintain the mask of ignorance when it comes to their native tongue.
Andrei looks between us, uncertain, but then obediently nods and walks toward the elevator.
Nikolai begins climbing down the ladder, and my eyes bulge that he’d leave me up here alone.
I quickly yet carefully follow him, ensuring I don’t slip and break my neck.
Wouldn’t that be fucking pathetic. He heads toward the small room, and I follow him, raging at the fact that finds amusement in my fear.
All of those combustible emotions seem to come to the forefront. Not just about this but about everything. I have nowhere to direct them but at him.
“That's all you're going to say to me?” I demand as he walks into the room and then pulls a fluffy, white towel from a cabinet.
He places it over my head, looking down at me. “Stop confusing me for a hero, mishka .”
I see red as I shove at him again. He's nothing but a wall of muscle that doesn't even budge.
I go to shove him again, but he's quick to snatch my wrist and spin me around.
He bends me over the couch, his hand holding me down by the back of my neck.
When I look up through thick, wet eyelashes, I can see through the tinted glass and into the tank where the shark still roams.
My breath hitches when I feel his hard bulge press against my ass; my body coming to life for a different reason.
“What are you doing?” I ask breathlessly as heat radiates at my core, and all that adrenaline trickles between my legs. Oh God. My body naturally arches into him, and the guttural noise that escapes him vibrates down my spine.
“You need to watch the way you speak to me in front of others,” he reprimands before releasing me.
I turn on him, hooking my fingers around his belt and pulling him back toward me. His eyes flare slightly, but the fire in them burns relentlessly. When was the last time a man looked at me like that? Has a man ever looked at me that way?
“And in private?” I challenge. I'm out of my fucking mind, tempting a man like him, but I’m riding a high where I think I can take on everything and anything. I need a release.
His jaw hardens as he grits, “It’s not a good idea to get involved with me.”
I step closer to him, the tips of my toes touching his as I look up at him. Logic has no place here; it’s just bodies and jacked-up energy. Our mouths naturally draw toward one another, and I whisper against his lips, “I never asked for permission.”
And then I kiss him, everything in me wanting to be free of this unbearable tension snapping between us. It’s like an electrical current exploding through my body the moment our lips meet, and everything else falls to the wayside. Reason, expectation, rules. Gone.
His hand pins my jaw in place as he kisses me back, and I already feel as if I'm being consumed. Nikolai is a lot, but in the heated mess that this is, I feel as if I can finally take all that frustration out on him.
Snaking my hand between our bodies, I quickly unbuckle his belt.
Every fiber of my being is screaming for this.
I bite his bottom lip, dragging it through my teeth, and he pushes me back by the jaw, looking over me briefly before forcing me back two steps toward the glass where the mixture of the blue water and the red lights silhouette us in a purple hue.