Chapter 11
LILIANA
“No, I’m not going to rush back to the city just because she thinks she has any fucking control over me,” Anton tells Viktor. He’s stern, letting every ounce of his authority bleed into the command he gives his assistant.
In other words, it’s icy in here.
I swallow more water, needing something to focus on while Anton’s anger fills the room. It’s different from Roman’s tantrums. Roman blamed everyone else for problems he usually created himself. Anton’s fury has a reason, but that doesn’t mean I have to get pulled into it.
And I’m not going to pity him. He helped create this pattern by cleaning up Roman’s messes for years. That part is on him.
Although I couldn’t fault Anton for being mad about this news, I’m not about to pity him, either. He allowed Roman to be raised the way he was and continues to fix his fuck ups. That’s on him.
Instead, sitting here on the sidelines of this bonfire of a situation, I try to think up the easiest excuse to slip away. To leave him to do whatever he needs to.
Viktor answers another call, this one seemingly from one of the Sokolov men, but a woman’s voice comes over the speakerphone. Elena begs and argues, trying to convince Anton to come back and clean up the mess Roman caused.
It isn’t my problem anymore. When Roman screwed up, he always said his father would handle it. Back then I wondered whether Mr. Sokolov was endlessly forgiving or just blind to his son. Now I understand the pattern.
Anton grows more furious while Viktor waits on the phone. Whatever this involves, it’s clearly enough to rattle him.
All I can do is stay quiet.
Watching Anton snap reminds me why I walked away from Roman’s world in the first place. I’m not afraid of Anton, but I don’t want to trade one Sokolov mess for another.
This is supposed to be my fresh start: my life, my choices, and the bakery finally climbing out of debt.
I need to remember that, no matter how good Anton makes me feel.
Anton takes the phone from Viktor and ends the call abruptly. Elena’s voice is silenced mid-sentence as she demands to know, again, why Anton is bothering to stay out of the city at a big house by himself.
As I stand, I’m glad he didn’t correct her that he’s not alone. Or maybe, to him, he really is. I’m that small a blip on his radar. I don’t count as company, or even a guest here.
You aren’t.
You’re not a guest. He didn’t invite you here.
You crashed into his car in a blizzard and that’s the only reason you’re still here.
“Excuse me.”
He’s already dialing someone else, and it’s with bitter relief that I can put some distance between us. I plan to go back to my guestroom and rest, since I didn’t exactly sleep much last night.
I don’t get more than halfway across the room before I hear him sliding his chair back. The feet scrape on the floor, prompting me to turn back.
Viktor is already leaving through another door, clearly dismissed.
The thunderous expression on Anton’s face suggests that I’m not.
“Where are you going?”
I frown, watching him stalk after me. “To my room.”
“Did I say we were done here?”
I huff at his attitude, turning to continue on my way. “I’m not yours to boss around.”
He growls. Growls. And in a few short seconds he’s caught up to me. “I’m not through with you.”
“Oh. Is that so?” I reply glibly, heading up the stairs.
“I’m not through with you,” he states again.
“I think you are.” I gesture in the direction of the dining room. “Because it sounds like you’ve got other things on your mind. Other things you need to do—”
He spins me on the steps. It’s a similar move to what happened last night, when I tripped on the riser and fell into his arms. This time, he pulls me toward him.
All I concentrate on is how he has a hold of me again.
I’m in his arms, suspended in the air, and quickly carried up the rest of the steps.
Fuck.
God, he goes from zero to sixty in seconds.
He gazes at me with pure lust and frustration. “I need you,” he says.
My body reacts instantly, but I press a hand to his chest before he can move any closer. “Not like this. You’re angry. If you want me, slow down and ask me.”
He freezes. His hold loosens at once, and he sets me on my feet, leaving enough space for me to step away. His eyes stay locked on mine. “Do you want me, Liliana?”
I should walk away. Instead, I fist the front of his shirt and pull him toward me.
“Yes,” I whisper. “I want you.”
That’s all the permission he needs. His mouth crashes into mine, and I kiss him back just as hard.
The warning voice in my head doesn’t disappear, but this choice is mine. Feeling his hard body and hearing his ragged breath, I let myself want him.
I want him too badly to pretend otherwise.
And this time, I’m the one who closes the distance again.
I curl into his space and kiss him for all I’m worth, one arm around his neck as my other hand drops toward his waistband.
I can’t waste a single second of this dark pull dragging us back together.
The second I unzip his pants and slip my hand into the opening, he loses it.
He rips his mouth from mine and growls, thrusting his hips at me. “Fuck. Yes, Liliana. I need this. I need you. Right now.”
Hearing him admit it sends a fresh rush through me. I’m fully aware this is reckless, and I choose it anyway.
I want the power of choosing this for myself. I kiss him, free his cock, then sink to my knees while he braces his hands on the wall above me.
I take his hard shaft out and wrap my lips around it.
Staring right back up at him, I get lost in the stormy lust shining in his dark eyes.
I slide my tongue around his tip, tasting his precum, and then I don’t waste a second to explore.
To learn him. To give him what it seems like he needs from me.
It’s an escape.
I know it is.
It means nothing, but just like last night, I’m swept away with the desire that feels too good to stop.
Sucking on him and daring to take him deep, I stretch my mouth and endure the sting of how wide he is.
My eyes water. But I don’t stop. I can’t.
It’s too hot. Too naughty. He’s doing something to me, turning me on as I pleasure him.
With his intense stare unwavering from my face, from the sight of my mouth as his dick disappears past my lips, I can’t resist the urge to join him in these sensations of arousal.
I lower my hand to slip it under the waistband of my borrowed sweats. Reaching lower to rub myself, I keep straining to bob up and down on his shaft.
“No.” He yanks back without warning. He pulls away only to hoist me up. His hands notch under my arms as he lifts me off the floor. Then, kissing me hard, he backpedals us into the closest room.
We near the bed, and he tosses me onto it. I bounce, my heart hammering so fast from the thrill of how ravenous he looks as he loses his clothes. My fingers tremble, making me fumble to get my clothes off too. But he is faster. Hungrier. Too on the edge and wild for me.
Before I can even settle further on the bed, he grips the waistband of my sweats and yanks them off in one clean slide. I’m bare, not bothering with panties since I didn’t have any spares. And once more, he takes charge. Gripping my thighs, he spreads me wide open.
“Anton—” I cry out instead of saying anything coherent. I can’t because he’s there. His head wedged between my legs. His mouth on my pussy. His tongue swiping over me before touching my clit.
“Oh. Fuck.” I gasp the words out as I slump to the mattress. I land on my elbows, watching his head move up and down slowly as he licks at me. As he fucks me with his tongue.
Roman never bothered to play like this, and it’s over too soon.
My first orgasm barrels through me. I’m stunned by the sheer force of how hard I come for Anton.
I cry out at the exquisite pleasure of his tongue and lips on me, and even though I’m splintering apart and out of breath, he doesn’t stop.
“Again,” he growls, his breath so low and gruff as he resumes toying with me. Between his fingers in my pussy now, and his lips sucking on my clit, he’s determined to make me come again and again, just like last night.
I don’t look away, too high on the thrill of him doing this to me, with me. Setting my hand on his head, I push him to where I want him, and I ride his face, taking what he’s offering, and within another minute, I’m trembling all over again, coming so hard I swear I might pass out.
That’s two.
And with him crawling up over me and making space for himself between my legs, I know a third is going to happen soon.
He doesn’t wait to push into me. Driving in and pulling back, fast and relentless, pounding me like he’s a machine and not a man, we come together.
I tense up and cry out loudly as I surrender once more. His cock jerks and twitches deep inside of me, flooding me with his hot seed.
As we come together and lie as one to catch our breath again, I realize that he might have known best.
He didn’t need to cool down.
He needed this. He needed me. He needed to prove all over again how pointless it is to think I could ever walk away from this.