Chapter 18
MAKSIM
I’m shouting down the phone at Anton. It’s the sort of thing the boss has to do sometimes. No progress—no damn progress. It’s starting to grate on me. We’re living with the looming threat of destruction over us.
The only aspect of my life that makes me forget, of course, is Lia. Once the phone call is over, I bring up our text thread and look through our conversation.
I texted her at around ten AM.
Maksim: You better not be up yet. I don’t want you out of bed until lunchtime at the earliest.
She sent me a selfie, still in her PJs, a big smile on her face, her hair fanned out around her shoulders.
Maksim: That’s what I like to see.
I told her I liked the view, though there’s more I’d want to see. But after watching her for so many months, I’m trying to be civilized. It’s an uphill battle.
Lia: I’m finally up. Made some lunch. Guess where I am now?
Maksim: Bed, I hope.
Lia: You’re so clever, Maksim.
Maksim: And you’re so sarcastic, Lia.
Lia: Would you have me any other way?
I smiled.
Maksim: I wouldn’t change a single thing.
Maksim: I’ll be at your place in roughly an hour.
Lia: Where are we going? It’s not TOO fancy, is it? Also, have you talked to your brother?
Maksim: We’re going to the kind of place you deserve. A place where you can be treated like the princess you are. And what do you mean, have I talked to Nikolai?
Lia: He swung by yesterday. I think he wanted to make sure my intentions with you were noble.
Maksim: Oh, that. Yeah, he told me. And I told him he ought to keep his nose out of my business. Why, was he rude?
I grit my teeth together, wondering if it’s possible for Nikolai to be cruel to someone I clearly care about.
Lia: No, it was fine. I was just curious.
I wonder if she’s being completely honest with me. But after everything I did, hell, do I have any right to interrogate her? I’m struck again by how different she makes me. In days gone past, I wouldn’t hesitate to demand the truth, even if I was withholding a lot on my side.
Lia looks around the restaurant, the light from the chandelier reflecting in her eyes.
People turn their heads as we walk by. I keep my hand on her side, steadying her.
She’s cute when she’s nervous, shooting me a look as though wondering if she belongs here.
Before pulling out her chair, I whisper in her ear.
“You’re the most beautiful woman in this place. ”
She looks up at me, eyes wide and disbelieving. “Maksim…”
“I mean it,” I tell her fiercely.
We order from the lavish menu, and then we talk about…
everything, but none of it is serious. It’s the easy banter we both slip into, as if we can pretend this whole bizarre situation isn’t happening.
She asks what sitcoms I watch at night. When I tell her Friends, she doesn’t judge me.
We just start talking about the show. Almost an hour passes like this.
“I love Ross and Rachel,” she says as we’re eating dessert. “Will they? Won’t they?”
“I know that feeling,” I say, reaching across the table and taking her hand.
She holds my hand tightly, looking down at our joined hands. Then her gaze moves to her dessert plate. “Did we seriously just spend an hour talking about… nothing?”
“If we laughed together, Lia, is it really nothing?”
Her cheeks flush red. She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. She’s drop-dead gorgeous in her silky dress, her makeup subtle, bringing out all the best parts of her.
When we leave the restaurant and I walk her past the valet, she looks up at me in confusion. “I didn’t know if we were going to drink this evening,” I say. “So I arranged a ride home.”
She gasps in surprise when she sees the limo. It’s so sweet to see her relaxed, smiling, carefree. So sweet to know she doesn’t have to run herself ragged all the time.
As I open the limo door for her, I automatically look up and down the street. I can’t see any of Vale’s men. But that doesn’t mean they’re not there. Let them come. Let them try.
I’ll turn this city into a Bratva bloodbath if they dare to even try to touch her.
I climb into the limo, wrapping my arm around her. She makes a breathy moan that goes right through me. Changes me. I feel my dick twitch, my thoughts swirling with savage, hungry thoughts.
She wriggles next to me. I stare ahead, trying to even my breathing, trying to focus on not pulling her into my lap and going feral right here in the limo.
All night, through the easy chat, we’ve been making eyes at each other.
She does this cute thing where we’ll stare intensely, then she’ll roll her eyes, as if playing it off. It’s hot in a way I can’t explain.
My phone goes off.
“Aren’t you going to check that?” she asks.
I shake my head. “Business can wait.”
“What if it’s personal?”
“The only personal thing I care about is being here with you.”
She nudges me playfully. “Just check your phone.”
“Lia—”
“You’re not the boss now. I am!” She laughs. “Check it.”
I take out my phone, smiling when I see the message she’s sent me.
Lia: Why do I get the feeling you’re having impure thoughts?
I look down at her. She’s staring up at me with excitement, like we’re on the edge of something special. My body stirs as I realize she might be ready.
Maksim: I can’t stop having hungry thoughts. All night, watching you laugh and smile and just be you, I’ve wanted to tear off your dress and take control. You won’t have to worry or stress to make any decisions. I’ll show you what it’s like to let go completely.
“Why is this easier over text?” She whispers, breathing hard.
I lean down and speak softly in her ear, making her shiver in a way that goes directly to my base. I’m growing stiff, feral, my body aching to feel her pressed against me. All those times I watched her, wondering what she’d feel like, how she’d taste.
I’m aching for my obsession.
“Because you can let go,” I say, and she shivers again.
I text quickly.
Maksim: You need to let go. It’s so stressful, being in control all the time.
You need to let your man lead the way. And even if, when the morning comes, you’ll rebel against the idea that you’re anybody’s anything, you still need it.
Here. Now. You need to know that, when I take you, you don’t have to do a goddamn thing other than be beautiful and sexy and mine.
She presses her legs together, looking up at me with those big gorgeous hazel eyes. My stiffness presses against the inside of my pants, my balls swelling, precome leaking hotly.
“Maksim,” she whimpers.
Maksim: Tell me you want to let go.
She stares up at me, nodding slowly. Then takes my hand and guides my phone away. I smile and lean down, crushing her in a starving kiss, a different kind of kiss than anything we’ve shared so far.
She moans and presses heavily against me, sinking her fingers into my chest, digging them in as if to anchor herself. I push her up against the door. Open my mouth and taste her. Our tongues glide together instinctively.
My hand goes to her leg. When she touches my wrist, I go higher. Her head falls back and she gasps.
“Let go,” I snarl. “Let go for me.”
“Make me let go,” she whimpers.
I keep going. I can feel the heat of her. I can feel the wetness, the eagerness. I’m shaking with the need to take her.
“The… driver,” she moans.
That’s the only thing that could snap me out of this. The idea that somebody else would see her like this.
“When we get home,” I tell her, “you’re not in control, beautiful. For the first time in a long time, you can let go.”