Chapter Nine
Valentina
The tension over the breakfast table is so thick the next morning, I can practically taste it.
I stab a piece of melon and stuff it into my mouth, looking at him over my lashes. Viktor’s eyes haven’t left my face once since I sat down.
"How did you sleep, Valentina?"
The fucker. He knows exactly how I slept.
I slept like a baby. The man didn't even touch me last night, and it easily ranks in the top three sexual experiences of my life. His dirty talk, the way he looked at my pussy like it was some kind of holy trial... God, just the memory makes me wet. I’m so damp I already know I’m going to have to change my panties before I leave for the office.
On that note.
"I slept well," I say, setting my fork down. "But I want my underwear back."
A dark chuckle rumbles from his chest. It sends a wave of goosebumps erupting across my skin.
I want to fuck this man. But I paid for him.
I don't even know if he truly wants me. It makes me feel like some creepy old man taking advantage of the weak, and that thought isn't sexy at all. I mean, I sometimes take advantage of the weak in my deals, just like my father taught me. But not sexually. That’s where I draw the line.
I fluctuate between bouts of intense, hellish sexual fire and a freezing, sobering chill. Whenever I remember the rot he came from, the ice spreads through my veins, instantly cooling the heat between my legs. Am I just another one of his tormentors?
Viktor leans back, his massive shoulders expanding. "I don't think you want them back."
I tilt my head. "Why?"
What did he do to them? Did he jerk off into them? Fuck. I stab a strawberry and stuff it into my mouth, using the tart sweetness to stifle the craving urge to wrap my mouth around his cock right here at the table.
"Because they are full of spunk," he grumbles.
I almost moan out loud. I literally have to swallow the sound down with the fruit. "And why is that, Viktor?"
He raises a brow, any trace of meekness dissipating. He’s lived in a brothel for years; he knows exactly how to be crass.
"Because you are a hot, sexy little thing, Valentina," he says, his voice turning rough. "Do you want to know exactly what I did to them?"
I nod once, incapable of speaking. I reach up to adjust the stiff collar of my blouse so it won't suffocate me whole.
"I sucked all your juices out of the silk first," he growls. "I breathed you in. Kissed them. And when none of your wetness remained, I wrapped the lace tight around my dick and fucked it, imagining it was your pussy squeezing me. I ruined them for you, Valentina. They're stiff with my seed now."
I start shifting in the chair. It only makes the agonizing heat build between my thighs. I reach for my glass, taking a hurried swallow of ice water as a conflicting wave of good and bad sensations floods my chest.
I haven’t forgotten where he came from. A brothel. A freaking underground brothel. Is this the same script he recited there to keep himself fed?
I set the glass down. "I wouldn't have imagined that you'd get hard for a woman who paid for you."
Viktor shrugs. "I never have before. Naturally, at least."
I rub the tense area between my brows. "So back in the brothel... you never... enjoyed it?"
He lets out a laugh. It’s a humorless sound. "Enjoyed it?" He rests his massive forearms on the table. "I fucking hated it. Every single second of it."
The question I asked was ignorant. Dumb. I don’t even know why I asked it. It’s the haze he puts me in.
"To them, I was a beast," he hisses. "They paid to make me perform like an animal. I had to disconnect my mind from my body just to survive the day."
He takes a deep breath. "But last night was different. For the first time in my life, my dick got hard because I wanted a woman. Not because a guard was standing over me with a pipe."
My throat goes completely dry.
"I don't play games, Valentina," he murmurs, his stare dropping to my lips before rising back to my eyes.
My pride is soothed a little. I never explained myself to any man other than my father, and I don’t know what’s tempting me to explain myself to Viktor. "Believe it or not, Viktor... I don't pay for sex. I don't pay for men."
"Then why pay for me, Valentina?"
I look out the floor-to-ceiling windows at the gray skyline. "You were peculiar. I could feel your sadness from miles away."
"Sadness is not something new in this world, Valentina. Nor at those auctions."
"But you were different," I sigh. "It was... magnetic."
He grimaces. "So... a ten-million-dollar charity case?"
I shake my head. "No. I’m not a saint, Viktor."
"So you do not know why you bought me?"
Exactly.
"Not really. I think it’s just the first time in my entire life that I've ever done something genuinely good."
He massages the back of his neck, looking bewildered. "I thought you would chain me," he murmurs. "I thought you would hit me. I did not expect... this."
"And that's exactly why this complicates things," I say as the sobering chill finally wins the battle against the fire in my veins. "Because of your past, Viktor... I don't think a sexual relationship can happen between us."
"Valentina—"
"No, listen to me," I interrupt. "I’m not the type of person who uses sex as a transaction, even if you claim you want it now. I'm bad, but not that kind of monster. Think of these three months as a gentle start to your freedom, Viktor. A transition. You just exist."
It’s going to be hard to resist him. But I have to. Because fucking him would feel good in the moment, but the aftermath would leave me questioning everything I am. I won’t go far enough to say that the spontaneous decision to buy him is something I regret, but it’s definitely confusing.
He shakes his head slowly, a dark look crossing his features. "You are only hiding behind your pride."
And maybe I am. But in the end, that’s my decision to make.
"Let us make a deal. Please. Just allow yourself to be around me. We can watch the television and eat the ice cream, exactly like yesterday," he begs.
I hold his stare, my heart hammering against my ribs.
"But if tension rises between us," Viktor murmurs, licking his lips, "let it. If I did not want it, Valentina, I would not be approaching it. I am a grown man."
I am so close to throwing him onto the table and having my fill of him. Getting him out of my system. Goddamn it, he’s dangerous. I push my chair back and stand up, wanting to put distance between us before he sucks me back into his orbit.
"We will see," I say.
I turn on my heel and walk out of the dining room before he can say another word, rushing toward the elevator to leave for work, my mind already completely consumed by the fire he left behind.