Chapter 14 Roman
ROMAN
I'm crossing from the bathroom into my bedroom with a towel around my waist and water still running down my back when someone knocks on my door. At this time of night, they all know better than to interrupt me, but sometimes things come up.
"Come in," I call, and the door opens. Yegor steps inside, but he isn't alone.
Mila enters behind him in a house robe cinched at the waist, her hair loose around her shoulders. Her eyes land on my chest first and then drop to the towel, and her lips press together as the color starts climbing up her neck before Yegor's even finished opening his mouth.
"She insisted," he grumbles, "and before you snap at me, I tried to warn her."
She's stunning, breathtaking even with the way she flushes from embarrassment. And now that my business with Timur is done and I'm stuck in limbo waiting for news from him, I am free to allow myself a few moments of enjoyment.
I flick my wrist at Yegor, and he backs out of the room and pulls the door shut behind him. Mila stands there staring at me, though, and her eyes are locked on the droplets of water still beading on my flesh.
"Talk," I say, and I pull the towel from my waist and bring it up to my hair, rubbing the water out of it while I stand in front of her with nothing on.
She opens her mouth and closes it and opens it again, and the red in her neck reaches her ears. I'm getting a kick out of this.
"Uh, there are men in my father's organization moving against Vera." She swallows and turns her eyes to the wall. "My father's cousin Dmitri and two of his lieutenants have been building support in the lower ranks for weeks, and it's turned violent."
I drag the towel across the back of my neck and down over my shoulders. "How violent?" Her reaction and the deep blush on her cheeks are far more interesting to me than whatever mess Vera has gotten herself into.
"My cousin is in the hospital," she says, turning back to me briefly. Then her eyes go wider to see my dick starting to swell. What did she think would happen when she marched herself into my room wearing that skimpy night robe? I wonder what's under it.
"And you're here because you want me to do what Vera won't."
"I'm here because there won't be an empire left for me to inherit if someone doesn't step in." She shifts, crossing her arms under her tits, and they push up slightly, showing a hint of cleavage.
I toss the towel onto the foot of the bed and walk to my dresser and pull open the top drawer, taking out a pair of boxers which I hold in my right hand as I turn back to face her. It's chilly, and if I were alone, I'd be clothed by now. I just like watching her squirm.
She's turned away fully now, facing the wall as she clears her throat. "I just want you to—"
"Look at me when you're asking me for a favor, Mila. Have some respect."
"But you're…"
"I'm what?"
Her eyes come down from the wall and find my face and hold there for about two seconds before they drop, tracing down my chest to my stomach and then lower, and the red in her face darkens into a flush so deep that it matches the pink of her darkened lips.
She snaps her gaze back up to my eyes and her throat moves on a swallow.
"Can you put clothes on?"
"No."
"Roman."
"You came to my bedroom." I take a step toward her and she doesn't move, though her fingers tighten on the robe's belt. "I'm perfectly comfortable."
She presses her lips together until they go pale and turns her back to me, facing the door, her shoulders pulled up toward her ears and her spine rigid.
"I need you to force Vera's hand. She's ignoring what's happening inside the organization because she's too busy trying to marry you off to Sofi or Sabine.
People are getting hurt and she doesn't care. "
I cross the distance between us and put my hand on her shoulder and turn her around.
Her eyes are wide and bright and wet at the corners and her breathing has gone shallow.
I can smell her from here, the musky scent of arousal she's feeling.
It makes my dick twitch more to know she's turned on by what she sees.
"Now I said, face me when you ask for my help."
"God," she hisses, and I chuckle as I put a finger under her chin and draw her eyes up away from my hard dick to my face.
"I'll step in," I say, "and have Vera handle the situation, and if she won't, I'll handle it myself."
She nods and her lower lip is pinched between her teeth. Her pulse is racing. I can see it in her neck as it throbs, and I let my knuckles slide down her throat until my fingertips dust the collar of her robe.
"But I don't do anything for free, Mila. You know that." She shudders as I toy with a few hairs snaking their way under the robe. When I pull them out and drape them behind her back, she closes her eyes.
"What do you want?" The words come out tight and thin through her teeth, and her eyes flicker down my body again and come back up with a new wave of color flooding her face.
I let my gaze move from her eyes down to the collar of her robe where the fabric crosses over her chest and the edge of a nightgown shows through.
I drop my boxers and bring my hand up to the knot at her waist and pull it loose with one slow tug.
The silk cord slides through itself and falls limp against her hips and the robe falls open.
The nightgown under it is short and silky and sits high on her thighs, the straps thin enough that they barely stay on her shoulders. Her stomach pulls in when the air hits her flesh, and goosebumps rise along her collarbones and down her arms.
She doesn't pull the robe closed. Her hands stay at her sides, her fingers curled into her palms, and she stands there breathing heavily and her eyes locked on mine.
"I want to pleasure you," I tell her, and I watch the breath leave her body in one long exhale that pushes through her parted lips. "Let me put my hands on you tonight, and I'll deal with Vera tomorrow."
"Well, that doesn't make any sense." She looks down again, trying to avoid eye contact, but it's impossible to not notice how hard I am now. "If I'm the one receiving the pleasure, then I'm not paying for anything. You're still doing it for free…"
"You're wrong about that." I let my hands slide up her hips, opening the robe until it falls from her shoulders, hanging on her arms from the elbow. "Believe me when I tell you I know what I'm doing, and I don't make bad deals."
"That's not—" She stops and swallows, and her eyelids flutter when my thumb moves from the robe to the bare skin above the neckline of her nightgown. "That's not how business works."
"It's how my business works." The robe slips off her left elbow first and then her right and catches at her wrists before it drops to the floor and pools around her bare feet.
She's standing in front of me in nothing but the nightgown as her arms hang at her sides limply, but she hasn't backed away yet.
"Tell me to stop," I say, "and I'll stop." I lift both hands to the straps of her nightgown and hook my fingers under them, one on each shoulder, but I pause to give her time to protest and she doesn't say stop.
Her chest rises on a breath and her chin dips in the smallest nod I've ever seen, and I slide the straps off her shoulders and let the nightgown fall. It catches on the swell of her breasts before it slips free and drops past her hips and lands on top of the robe at her feet.
"Look at me."
Her eyes come up, and they're glassy and wide and her pulse is hammering in the hollow of her throat. I hook my thumbs into the waistband at her hips and pull her underwear down, and she steps out of them without my asking, one foot and then the other, and holy fuck, is my dick throbbing now.
I put my hand on her sternum and walk her backward toward the bed.
Her calves hit the edge of the mattress, and she sits and then lies back when I press my palm flat between her breasts and push.
She is so pliable, I could make her do whatever I want, and yet what I really desire is to make her writhe until she screams my name.
I drop to my knees at the edge of the bed and pull her toward me by her hips until her thighs are on either side of my head. Then I spread her knees and she lets them fall to the side.
"You're fucking gorgeous," I mumble, ready to dive into the pool of moisture beading between her thighs.
I press my lips to the inside of her left leg and she twitches, her muscles jumping under the skin.
I drag my mouth along the soft crease where her thigh meets her hip and bite down before I let my breath dust her core.
She's soaked, and when I press my tongue flat against her she makes a sound that comes from deep in her chest and her hips lift off the bed.
"Oh, God." Her fingers find my hair and pull while I hold her down with one hand spread across her lower stomach and work my mouth against her in long strokes that drag upward until I find the spot that makes her thighs clamp against my head.
I circle it with the tip of my tongue and pull tiny gasps from her lips.
She's so sweet yet salty at the same time. And her body twitches and her hips roll under my mouth, moving so much, I have to pin her down so I can continue enjoying her taste.
"I can't—" Her hips push up against my mouth. "Fuck, I can't—"
"You can." I pull back enough to speak against her, and the vibration makes her whole body shudder. "Let go, Mila."
I seal my mouth over her and push two fingers inside her at the same time, curling them forward. Her back comes off the bed in a full arch making her hips dip and angle forward. She's tight around my fingers and every time I curl them she clenches harder.
She bites down on her own hand to muffle the erotic sounds she makes, and I reach up and pull her wrist away from her mouth.
"No. I want to hear you."