Chapter 26 Slippery Slope
Slippery Slope
Mikko
Levi: I can’t make our debrief meeting tonight
The text from his informant was not unlike Levi. Still, Mikko quickly typed a message back.
You know our arrangements :Mikko
Levi: I know, I had some stuff come up with Anika. If I break away now, she’ll be suspicious of us
What stuff? :Mikko
He waited for a couple minutes, but Levi didn’t respond.
Concern and jealousy shot through Mikko’s heart, but he quickly wrote it off, knowing Levi would be fine.
He had the man’s location on his phone if his situation turned dire.
Besides, they’d done more dangerous tasks in the past and made it out alive.
Having him get close to Anika was tame compared to that.
But that didn’t keep his mind from ruminating on other things that could be keeping him busy.
Which was why he needed to keep his hands occupied.
Tucking his phone back into his pocket, he continued what he’d been doing before Levi had pinged: rummaging through Anika’s house. Again.
While he’d vowed to stop and put some goddamn distance between them, his traitorous mind had other thoughts.
Getting to know thy enemy, or whatever the fuck Shakespeare had said.
He’d already memorized her routines and knew her schedule, so sneaking in and out was easy. Especially when she was never home. A fact he was relating to as he was spending more time at the office or here.
After antagonizing her at the gun range early yesterday morning, she’d seemingly won by digging a metaphorical knife in between his ribs.
While he’d gone home shortly after she’d left the range—his dick way too hard for public decency—and jerked off, she remained seemingly unaffected.
She’d let Levi into her home. A perfect plan on his part, but his emotional, illogical side was fucking fuming.
Just when he thought he’d gotten under her skin, she smiled back and clawed her way deeper.
Is that all you got? she’d say in his head, her molten eyes intoxicating.
And his answer was no, hence the reason he stood at the top of her stairs, short nails biting into his palm as he clenched his fists.
Despite their game, his feelings were becoming convoluted. His need to unravel her was outweighing his logic of letting her go. He feared this infatuation was the exact reason she reached out to him in the first place. It was like she knew he was drawn to the beautiful and the unusual.
But now, he was wading into dangerous waters.
This compulsion was consuming him—his need to know and control her overshadowing everything else. Her emotions were hidden, an unknown variable he wanted to decipher so he could say that he did.
So that I can say I’ve solved a woman who thinks she’s untouchable.
And below that, it was deeper.
Mikko craved being seen for who he truly was and not what he stood for.
All his life he’d been forgotten and abused, singled out in the worst ways possible.
Outwardly, his life of wealth reflected everything someone could want, but it left Mikko empty.
Now, with Anika, she understood him for who he was.
A fucked up human who was handed an empire on a throne of dirty blood.
And still, she engaged.
It drove him crazy, and made him want her in the worst ways.
This investigation into her had led to his emotions morphing into fascination. One he had no problems giving into. He should be pissed that she was the one who’d broken into his penthouse, stolen from him, and then planted the evidence to frame him.
But…
He wasn’t.
In fact, her wit turned him on, made him realize life was so much bigger than Romanov Real Estate.
Even if she hadn’t blatantly admitted her crimes, he still knew it was her. It had to be. She was guilty until proven innocent and nothing about her screamed blameless. Hell, even the information he’d gotten back from Rebecca had cemented this idea farther.
Anika Simmons. Anika Naidu.
Two names, one dangerous woman.
Now why would a seemingly average woman change her name?
That answer awaited him back at the office, locked away in a drawer in yet another manila folder. Rebecca, while a shit lover and expensive service, knew how to get a job done.
Something Levi was struggling with.
After tonight, he’d read it, but until then Mikko wanted to live in the darkness for a little longer. He wanted to enjoy this obsession, this poison, consuming him. Later he would reap the consequences of his actions. Later he would think.
But for tonight, he’d act. He’d escape it all.
While standing among her possessions, feet carrying him into her bedroom, he held her scarf. The cherry on top was the fact he knew it smelled more like him than her, especially after all he’d done to it.
Stepping farther into her bedroom, his eyes caught on the chair she positioned in the corner of her room. Delicately, he folded her scarf and placed it on top of the chair. Unlike the rest of the crumpled clothes she’d discarded there, this one was neatly presented, albeit stained with his cum.
It was a bold move, but he didn’t care. Mikko was no longer interested in playing things safe.
Safe wasn’t what got him answers; safe wasn’t what drew her to him.
It was time for him to go after what he wanted.
All the signs were there. Every move she made, Mikko wanted to know about.
She occupied his thoughts, all day every day.
Soft, inked skin and ebony hair wrapped around my fingers. Golden eyes holding more secrets than I can count.
Everything was falling apart. Or into place?
Mikko pressed the heels of his palms to his eyes, desperately trying to push her out of his head. Anika was consuming him—luring him in with her wit and beauty—and who was he to say no?
His emotions always ruled him despite what he showed to others as being perceived as an immovable facade. Mikko was losing this battle between himself, his father’s legacy, and Anika.
Anika. Anika. Anika.
All because of a twisted crush. A twisted obsession.
An exasperated sigh echoed in her bedroom.
Lust curled around his heart. Blood rushed lower as he stood there.
Why should he hold back anymore? It wasn’t like it’d helped him all this time anyway.
Maybe if he gave in and let himself be run by his emotions he could finally think.
His father had been wrong when he’d conditioned Mikko to keep everything bottled up, to stifle every feeling settling into his bones.
Mikko was no longer that little boy, one craving acceptance from his father. Now, he was old enough to take what he wanted.
And he wanted Anika.
Palming himself through his jeans, unable to keep his desire under control, Mikko groaned at the relief. His cum covered scarf on her chair teased him from the corner of his eye. It’d been a scare tactic at first, a violation of her space. But now Mikko hoped she interpreted it as it truly was.
Infatuation.
Would he stay here and entertain his thoughts or leave, content to let his fantasies be just that? Logically, the latter option was safer, a smart choice, but Mikko was tired of being rational. His whole life had consisted of that, and it’d gotten him nowhere.
So, he’d give in this once to see where it took him, to prove his dead father wrong.
With light footsteps, he walked to her bathroom. Pushing on the wood, the door creaked open. Just as it had the first time he’d been here—and the last—her scent immediately overpowered him. He groaned aloud shamelessly.
Stopping in front of her shower curtain, he quickly stripped his shirt off. He knew he had plenty of time before she returned since Levi was wooing her with his cooking skills.
Hopefully he doesn’t burn the whole block down.
Standing shirtless in her space, his heart raced. It was a violation making his lips quirk up in a grin. Dropping his shirt onto the floor, he began unbuttoning his pants only to be stopped short at the small pile of clothes near his recently discarded shirt.
It was an oversized T-shirt and underwear.
He froze; his mouth watered.
Take them home, take them home, his mind silently chanted at him.
And for a moment, he stayed strong, fingers securely on the unbuttoned waist of his pants.
Until he wasn’t.
Crouching, he let his fingertips trail over the bunched up fabric. Simultaneously, his mind flashed back to the night she’d touched him—traced his arm as if she owned him. A shiver zipped up his spine, goosebumps erupting across his exposed skin.
Or to the early morning at the gun range, her ponytail smelling of shampoo and tickling his nose as he positioned her inside the shooting lane.
They’d been so close, yet so far, and it’d driven him crazy.
He’d pretended to touch her for the sake of lessons, but in reality they were excuses.
He knew that; Anika knew that, yet she didn’t swat his hands away.
That realization had made him want to do more—to lick and kiss and suck every inch of her body, but he was certain she would’ve shot him then.
Something he mostly likely would’ve been fine with if she’d only graced him with her touch in return, her voice like honey in his ear as he bled out.
Swallowing thickly, he withdrew and stood to his full height once more.
He pushed the botanical shower curtain aside and turned on the stream of water.
While waiting for it to warm up, he shed the rest of his clothes, smirking when they dropped into a bundle next to hers.
He wanted to intertwine himself with her in every way that he could so she felt the same kind of desperation she’d planted inside of him.
Steam wafted out from above the shower curtain signaling the water was ready. He stepped inside.
The thrill weaving through him was one like no other. His intrusion was obvious—a blatant sin—but that was what made it so sweet. It was terribly wrong, yet Mikko couldn’t stop himself. Once he set his mind to something, he couldn’t be deterred.