Chapter 15
Kasimir~
While I understood that Zoya was probably confused on top of being angry, she’d get over it.
Truth be told, she had no choice but to deal with it.
She had placed herself in a position of purchase, and she should have asked more questions when I hadn’t dragged her out of the hotel upon learning what she’d done to get here.
Now, with all the paperwork signed, I was escorting her back to the lobby, ready to happily break the bad news to her.
“They didn’t give me a room key,” she murmured quietly. “I don’t know which room I’ve been assigned.”
“That’s because we’re not staying here,” I finally informed her.
Zoya’s eyes widened at that. “What do you mean? That’s...of course, we’re staying here. That was a part of the rules.”
I stepped to her, then reached up to wrap my hand around the side of her neck. “Do you really want to talk about rules, lepestok?”
Refusing to acknowledge how she’d gotten here, she said, “Then I don’t understand.”
“We will be spending the evening at my place,” I replied. “While hotels are all good and well for quick drive-bys, it is not in my best interest to spend entire nights in hotel rooms. My paranoia would make it impossible for me to enjoy myself fully, and I fully intend to enjoy myself tonight.”
The woman immediately began shaking her head. “No...I can’t...I can’t go to your place.”
“You’ve no choice,” I pointed out. “You’re already committed, and if you back out now, I will invalidate every bid here tonight, explaining why.
Since you will not give me the name of the friend who helped you get here, I will make all the girls suffer for what you’ve done. I also don’t bluff, lepestok.”
“You’re evil,” she said, her voice wavering a bit but still sounding strong enough.
“I’m glad that you’re finally realizing that,” I smirked, the insult too close to the truth to bother me. “Now, shall we go, or do you want me to go back inside and end the rest of the auction?”
With a death grip on her purse, she said, “No...we can go.”
Only on special occasions did I ever have a driver, but that was only because I was the second son and not as important as Viktor.
Plus, I didn’t really want one, truth be told.
I didn’t like having a lot of people around me when it wasn’t business-related, and driving myself gave me a sense of control that made me always feel better about wherever I was going.
However, I was going to have to rethink that if I was going to continue to see Zoya.
The more guns around to protect her, the better.
Once we were in my car and on our way, she said, “I don’t understand.”
“What is it that you don’t understand?”
“The bidding,” she answered. “I...I was advised to check the missionary box only as a way to promote me as boring. I mean, what man would want to spend thousands of dollars just to have missionary sex? It doesn’t make any sense?”
“Did you read the limits card thoroughly?” I asked, glancing over at her.
“Well, yeah...kind of,” she muttered. “I just...I just marked no to everything else, hoping that it would make me seem like a prude.”
While I didn’t laugh at her, I did smirk. “Zoya, I hate to be the one to break it to you, but you were the only woman who marked no to using condoms.”
“What?” she gasped as she looked over at me.
“As you went down the list, marking no on everything, you must not have been paying enough attention because you marked that you were okay with not using condoms,” I explained. “That’s why the bidding was out of control. Missionary or not, men love to dirty up innocence.”
“Oh, God...” she choked out as she wrapped her arms around her waist. “Oh, God...how could I have been so stupid...how...”
“Calm yourself,” I instructed. “You’re with me.”
“You say that like that’s a good thing,” she squawked. “I think I’d rather spend the night with the devil that I don’t know.”
“Careful, lepestok,” I warned. “You might just hurt my feelings.”
“Oh, please,” she retorted as she turned back to look out the window. “Everyone in this city knows that you don’t have feelings. Hell, I’m fairly certain that every person in the state knows it, too.”
She wasn’t wrong.
“Nevertheless, what’s done is done, and so your regret serves no purpose,” I remarked, reminding her that she had no way out of this.
“I’m aware,” she muttered tartly.
Nothing more was said as I drove us to my condo, and as I pulled into the secured garage, it crossed my mind to take her to where I actually considered home, but I thought that it might be a bit too early for that.
While I knew where I wanted to go with this, I still had no idea how the night was going to play out once we got into my condo.
The elevator ride up to the top floor was also wrought with uncomfortable silence, but not for me.
Not much made me uneasy, and Zoya’s mental state wasn’t concerning me much right now, either.
She’d given me permission for all of this when she had stepped up on that stage, and I didn’t feel bad about it at all.
Granted, it was rare that I ever felt bad about anything, but still.
When the elevator doors finally slid open, I placed my hand on the small of Zoya’s back, then escorted her into the open foyer that led to three different condos.
Mine was the one in the middle with the other two belonging to two Korolev brigadiers.
Luckily, when my father had purchased the building, he’d had the walls reinforced for privacy, and I could appreciate that now that I had Zoya here.
Once we were inside, I shut the door behind me, making sure to lock it as well. Zoya was looking around, and I wasn’t sure if it was from curiosity or nervousness, but it really didn’t matter. Sooner or later, she was going to have to get used to being here.
Walking towards her, I took my jacket off, then dropped it on the couch, and she still didn’t say anything.
Next, I removed the three guns that I always had on me, but it wasn’t anything that should surprise Zoya at this point.
Besides, that was another thing that she was going to have to get used to eventually.
“Do you want a tour of the place?” I asked as she kept glancing around.
Looking at me, she answered, “No.”
When I was finally standing in front of her, I grabbed her purse from the death grip that she had on it, then tossed it on the couch next to my jacket. “You’re not going to need that.”
“So, what now?” she asked, looking up at me, refusing to cower, and it was hard not to admire how strong she was trying to appear.
“Well, that’s up to you,” I informed her. “You’ve admitted to lying on the limits card to appear boring, so is that what you’re looking for tonight, lepestok. Do you want boring or do you want to finally be honest about what you want?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“That I see a lot of fire in your eyes, but not hate,” I told her. “Never hate.”
“Would it do me any good to hate you?” she asked, her voice quiet but firm.
I shook my head. “No, baby.”
“I don’t want to be here,” she said. “And that’s the truth.”
“Because you don’t want to be here with me, or because you don’t want to be a whore?” I asked candidly, causing her to flinch. “Is it modesty that’s keeping you from dropping your dress for me?”
“I’m not a whore,” she immediately denied.
“The half a million dollars that I’m out proves otherwise,” I pointed out coldly.
“Is that what you want?” she asked, her back straightening, ready to spit fire. “You want me to be a whore for you?”
“Oh, baby...I can get whores on tap if that’s what I want,” I assured her. “If I wanted, I could have five meet me at any hotel of my choosing right now.”
“Then why did you bid on me?” she challenged. “Then what am I doing here?”
I reached up to play with the strap of her pretty dress. “Because I know that you’re not a whore, but I want to fuck you like one more than I want to take my next breath.”
“What...what about the...the limits card?” she stammered breathlessly.
“That card was filled out by Montana Hughes,” I answered pointedly. “So, since you broke the rules first...”
“Kasimir...”
“What, baby?” I asked, pulling the strap down over her shoulder. “What is it?”
“I want...I don’t know what I want,” she confessed, but that was okay. As long as I had her consent, that was all that mattered.
“Then let’s figure that out together.”