Chapter 20
CHAPTER TWENTY
AXEL
I was driving back to work after a meeting when Maksim called me.
“Where are you?”
“On my way back.”
“Can you swing by your house for a moment? The guards want to show you something.”
“What?”
“Suspicious footage.”
“Tell them I’m on my way.”
When I walked in the front door, Bandit was lying in a dog bed in the foyer, unmoving and staring at the front door.
“What’s going on with Bandit?” I asked Jordan as I walked into the kitchen.
“He doesn’t leave his bed by the door when Mila’s at school. He waits there all day until she comes home.” Bandit was wrapped around Mila’s finger. He tolerated or ignored every other human, but he was obsessed with her.
Just like everyone else.
Just like me.
I walked by the ottoman and could feel my dick respond.
The memory of her in that little skirt played on repeat in my mind and left my self-control hanging by a thread.
That was the reason why I forced myself to keep my distance.
She was getting bolder and sweeter with each attempt.
The fact that she was deliberately teasing was what wrecked me so bad.
It was an unhealthy obsession but I didn’t want to stop. I spent way too much time thinking about all the things I wanted to do to her, and I was scared at how fast I was losing the ability to hold myself back, especially now that she was the one escalating things.
I walked out to the guard’s house at the back of the garden.
“What is it?”
The guard pulled up footage from the night before.
“We do rounds, twice an hour, around the entire house. We caught this on our camera last night.”
The footage showed the long shadow of someone going over the fence. They stayed out of the camera’s direct view, but it was definitely someone.
“Is there any way that could be you coming in the side gate?”
“The exact same timestamp on another camera that is synced shows me and the dog at the other side of the house.” He played both cameras at the same time and the person who went over the fence had definitely been waiting for their moment.
“Then the dog reacts.” The guard forwarded to footage of the dog reacting to the scent and running around the yard, focusing particularly on the doors and windows at the back of the house.
“Had I gotten home yet?”
“Not yet.” He rolled the footage forward. “You arrived exactly seven minutes later.”
So that meant Mila had been asleep in the house. Alone.
“I want two dogs on at night. When you do rounds with one dog, leave the other dog off leash in the backyard.”
“Yes, boss.”
“And watch your six.”
I sat in my truck before I headed back to work, fighting the overwhelming urge to become violent. The thought of Mila sleeping in her bed while some man was creeping around our yard, trying to get inside the house? Pissed off didn’t describe the rage I felt.
I kept in constant touch with either Anton or Oleg during the day. I told myself it was because I needed reassurances that she was okay, but I was starting to doubt my own excuses.
Me: How’s she doing?
Anton: Laughing with her friends in study hall
Something sharp twisted low in my gut. Jealousy. It was a ridiculous feeling, completely unwanted, but real nonetheless.
Me: Any sign of trouble?
Anton: Nothing
Me: Keep me posted
I stared unseeing at my computer screen, willing myself to focus on something other than my wife. But thoughts of her kept pulling me off my game.
Before I could stop myself, I texted Mila. Even as I was writing out the message, I knew it was a bad idea.
Me: I have a business dinner I need you at tonight. 8 PM.
I stared at the message for a long moment. I was on thin ice. I had no business trying to spend more time with Mila.
I hit send.
I didn’t even try to pretend to work while I waited impatiently for her response.
Finally my phone dinged.
Mila: Sexy or chaste?
Just the thought of getting to see her tonight made my entire body tighten. If she dressed sexy again, she’d be testing my willpower, which was almost nonexistent.
Me: I want you to remember who you belong to
Mila: I have the perfect dress
A moment later, my phone dinged again. Anticipating another sassy text from Mila, I opened it with a smile.
It was Grisha.
Grisha: I got your monthly sales report. Call me.
I pinched the bridge of my nose. Grisha was relentless in his micromanaging. There was no pleasing the man and he always had opinions on how his way was better.
I was sparring at the gym with Maksim, trying to burn off some of the energy building inside of me. After I pummeled him up against the ropes for the fifth time, he bounced away and took out his mouth guard. “You okay?”
“Yeah, why?”
“You just seem a little… pent up.”
“I’m fine. Just burning off some stress, you know?”
He grinned at me. “Heating up the sheets is a better stress reliever than fighting.”
He didn’t know that I hadn’t yet consummated my marriage. Or that my wife had been putting on sexy little shows just for me. Or that I was suffering a state of sexual frustration that would rival a teenage boy’s.
I’d never admit that to anyone. “I needed a workout.”
“It’s more fun too,” he said as he put his mouth guard back in. “And less dangerous.”
I was working long hours at my job, exercising to the point of exhaustion, and then topping it off with a couple drinks at the end of the day, all to prevent me from finding my release in the softness and fuckability of my wife’s sweet, perfect body. “You need the exercise.”
“I’m good, and I actually like my teeth and my nose the way they are.”
And I liked my obsession under control. I couldn’t risk crossing any more lines with Mila.
“Come on. Let’s go another round. I can still feel my arms.”
After my workout, I headed home to shower and change before dinner.
Part of me regretted inviting Mila because I wasn’t sure how much more temptation I could take, but part of me was genuinely looking forward to spending time with her.
Everyone else, from our chef to her dog, had taken their fill of her.
It’s my turn.
As I was coming up the stairs, I could hear Mila’s soft voice calling me from her bedroom. “Axel, come here. Come see this cute thing Bandit is doing!”
I stopped in the doorway of her soft pink room and nearly fell to my knees. Mila was sitting on her vanity stool, wearing nothing but lingerie. A string of pearls hung between her perfect breasts. Her long hair was curled and hanging down her back, and her makeup was artful with a dark, smoky eye.
Her legs were demurely crossed, but the delicate lace of her bodice left little to the imagination.
“Look at Bandit curled up with his stuffie. Isn’t that the cutest thing you’ve ever seen?”
She leaned forward to point at Bandit, and her movement alone was nearly my undoing. I’d never been so captivated in my life. My dick was hard, fighting to escape the constraints of my pants.
I didn’t even have anything smart to say in response.
I backed out of her room before I blacked out.
Her soft giggle followed my retreat.
As I stood under my cold shower, I realized that I was in the danger zone when it came to my young wife. My need for her felt like a chokehold.
Unless I was working or sleeping, I was thinking of her. Constantly. Relentlessly. No matter how hard I tried to stop.
And lately, since she had started her little stunts with the short skirts and the ice cream, my thoughts had turned almost exclusively to how much I wanted to sleep with her.
The desire was becoming more feral every day.
Something wild and dark was fighting to come out, a hunger I was barely holding at bay.
Like my soul was so parched that, if I didn’t take a sip, I might combust. If I crossed the line, it wouldn’t be pretty.
Unleashed, I wasn’t sure I could control myself until I had completely imprinted her as my own.
Only the knowledge that, when she learned of my true identity, I would cause irreparable damage to her innocence kept my insatiable desire at bay.
When she walked down the stairs toward me, I knew I was in trouble.
Mila wore a long-sleeved black dress with a square collar.
In the shadows the fabric looked opaque, but in the right light it became practically transparent, showcasing a bra, high-waisted briefs and every delicious curve of her body.
Without speaking, she turned at the bottom of the steps, letting me shrug her into a black, ankle-length evening coat that covered her from head to toe.
Bandit waited sadly next to the steps. She crouched down and gave him hot kisses all over his face. “I’ll be home soon.”
Lately, I was even jealous of the dog.
As Anton drove us to the dinner, I looked over at her in the dim glow of the streetlights. She looked stunningly beautiful.
“Giselle will be at dinner tonight.”
“You mentioned that,” she responded.
I leaned over, catching a whiff of her sweet scent so I could growl lightly in her ear. “This is an important dinner, so you need to keep your hands to yourself.”
She shrugged. “I understand.”
I sat back and looked out the window. The way she’d so readily agreed not to touch me only made me crazier. And why the hell had I even told her not to?
When Anton got out of the vehicle to open her door, she used that quiet private moment to speak.
“I respect that you don’t want me, but if you change your mind, I’m on birth control, and this is my consent.”
I managed to say one word, but it was loaded with all the things I couldn’t say. “Mila.”
“I want to be your fuck doll.” She blushed and bit her lip. “And I don’t plan on drinking too much tonight.”
Anton chose that moment to open the door. I barely refrained from reaching over her and yanking the door shut again. Instead I just sat and watched as she smirked at me before climbing out.
My dick was so hard it ached. Goddamn, I was going to seriously suffer tonight.