Chapter 17 Vaughn #2
“How can you lie with a straight face? Teach me!” He cuts the distance in a heartbeat, caging me against the tall guardrail framing a cliff that overlooks the crashing waves below.
“But seriously, you didn’t come for your friends.
You wouldn’t have been in disguise if you had.
Or run away for the dozenth time when I saw you.
Would it kill you to admit you’re here for me? ”
Yes, it would.
But I don’t say that because his question sounds quiet, almost wounded, and I don’t like that tone. Not from Yulian, who’s usually so confident, it grates on my nerves.
I keep my mouth shut, not knowing what to say.
Or do.
A fire burns me with every inhale of his masculine scent. It’s intoxicating—this feeling of closeness and the knowledge that if I reach out, I can touch him, feel his muscles up close.
Just one more time.
“Mishka…” he breathes out in a shaky breath. “Let me in… I promise to make you feel good.”
He reaches a hand out, but I slap it away.
“Don’t touch me,” I growl, glaring at him.
He flexes and unflexes his hand at his side. “Why? Because you know if I start touching you, you’ll want more?”
“I want nothing from you.”
“Then why do you keep crawling back to me?”
My hand shoots forward of its own accord, and I wrap it around his throat. “Because you had the audacity to sleep with my girlfriend, and I will make you pay.”
He grabs my own throat, squeezing with the same strength I squeeze his.
“You should thank me for saving you from a cheater, don’t you think?
Besides, you murdered my girl Zver in cold blood, so we called it even, but you still came back.
Like a fucking junkie. You can’t get me out of your head no matter how hard you try.
I’m already flowing in your bloodstream. ”
“Shut the fuck up.”
“I have my fingers up in that complicated head of yours, and I will keep toying around with it until you quit the denial.”
“I will break your bones. Don’t test me.”
“Love how you resort to threats when you’re cornered. Tell me more…” He yanks me close so that I feel his words on my skin instead of hearing them. “If I run my hands all over your body, you’ll be so hard for me, won’t you, baby? Your cock can’t get enough of me after one taste—”
I swing us around and slam him against the railing, his back twisting against the metal that rattles with the impact.
It’s true.
He’s right.
And I can’t handle that he’s fucking right.
Or that my cock has been in a state of high alert since I first touched this motherfucker.
Actually, it’s been like this since I saw Yulian in the rearview mirror, and it’s only gotten worse with us being in each other’s faces. The aggressiveness that pours out whenever we’re at each other’s throats turns me on in ways I never could’ve imagined.
And I categorically refuse to let him feel the effect he has on me.
Yulian flashes a grin, his eyes unhinged, glittering like the sea that rages beneath the cliffs. “You can’t control your temper when you’re angry. Good to know.”
Only when I’m angry at him, apparently. I’m usually skilled at reining in my anger, phasing it out before it shows.
“I’m telling you this once, Yulian. Stop messing around.”
“I’m not messing around—I’m trying to pursue you very, very seriously, swear on everything holy.”
He tries to shove himself farther into my space, but I tighten my grip on his throat, pushing him back, maintaining the distance.
And my sanity.
A horn blares, alerting me to the fact that we’ve stopped the car and the bike dead in the middle of the road.
A man leans out his window, glaring. “Fucking fags! Get out of the road!”
“Suck my dick!” Yulian shouts back, flipping him off. “Oh, wait! Yo mama did it first!”
I freeze, turning my head sideways even as the car speeds past.
Fuck.
I was so worked up and distracted by Yulian’s provocations, I completely forgot we were outside.
In public.
Someone could take a picture, and it’ll get back to our parents.
To our entire entourage.
We’d be hunted down, and this would destroy my parents’ position.
What the fuck have I done?
What am I—
“Hey.”
Rough, bandaged fingers squeeze my throat, pulling my attention from the abyss to Yulian’s mismatched eyes. He lifts his other hand and palms my cheek. “Don’t worry. I memorized his plate number and will cut his tongue out for daring to say that.”
I let him go with a jerk and back off, my breath wild and chopped off. “I’ve got to go.”
“You’re leaving?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I don’t owe you an explanation. You mean nothing to me.”
“A nothing you keep coming back to?” His voice rises a notch, stripped and raw. “When will I expect you next? When I fight Nikolai? That doesn’t seem to work, so maybe I’ll sleep with him. Yup, I will do that tonight, actually. Sit tight and wait for another video—”
I swing around and punch him. “Do that and I will kill you.”
He touches his cheek that’s reddening, and I expect him to punch me back, go blow for blow like he did with Nikolai in that ring, or get in my face like he usually does.
I’m fine with violence.
I prefer violence when dealing with Yulian.
But instead of giving in to his nature, he fixes me with a look sharp enough to kill. “If you don’t want me to sleep with Nikolai, let me fuck you just once and we’ll call it quits.”
“You will not fuck me. I’ll never let anyone do that.”
He lifts a shoulder. “We’ll fight over who gets to fuck the other. How about that?”
“No.”
“Don’t refuse outright.” He runs a tense hand through his hair. “Listen, I’ve never allowed anyone to fuck me, but I’m offering a compromise here, giving you the chance to fight me for it. So compromise back. Meet me in the middle.”
“I said no. Leave me alone, Yulian. Seriously, just let me be.”
“I’m not the one who keeps catching flights. You are.”
I’m breathing so heavily, it’s audible in the silence, and he feels it, the conflict, and the urge that I can’t control—the reason why I keep sneaking back here like a hopeless addict.
I initially thought this phase would pass, but it’s only seemed to get worse.
Way worse.
I’ve managed to painstakingly keep Yulian out of my head for the past four years, very narrowly so, but he surged to the forefront of my thoughts the moment I saw him in that restaurant.
The sex with Danika made it more complicated, but truly, he’s been messing with my sanity since he touched my godforsaken ear in the restaurant. Ever since then, I don’t recognize myself.
“Tell you what,” he muses when I say nothing, pinching his bloody lower lip between his fingers before releasing it. “I’ll jump off this railing.”
“What?”
“Hear me out. If I make it out alive, you’ll have to give me a chance. If I die, then, well, I’ll no longer annoy you. What do you think?”
“Jump. Drop dead, for all I care.” I scoff and turn to my car. “Just stop messing around, and you better not get involved with Niko, or I’ll shoot you in the face.”
“You know…” His voice drifts as movement stirs behind me. “You’ve always underestimated me, Mishka.”
I spin and lunge forward, my arms outstretched. He flashes me a calm grin as he lets himself fall back.
“Yulian, no!” My fingers claw at empty air.
The motherfucker just threw himself off the cliff.
Water splashes violently against the rocks below, the sound reverberating in the night. I stare into the black current, gripping the metal railing so tightly, my knuckles ache.
Fuck.
Fucking hell.
I only said he should jump and drop dead to taunt him. I never meant for him to do it for real.
Fuck.
It happens in a flash—for the first time in my life, I move before my thoughts can catch up.
Before I realize what I’m doing, I dive in after the man who’s tearing my life apart.
Plunging with him into the depths of the ocean.