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When he looked up and noticed my presence, a flicker passed through his eyes, and he suddenly spoke clear and concise English. A man of many secrets.
“You disappear for three years and then come back and demand things from me? You made your interest clear a long time ago, Allister. I’ll never answer to you—get used to it already.” Cold eyes pierced me with an arrow through the chest. “What part of ‘call me if you need anything’ did you not fucking understand?”
“Please. When a woman doesn’t hear from a man in two weeks, she gets the picture crystal clear.” Another response ricocheted off the walls in my head: You weren’t there. You weren’t there for me, just like everybody else. Resentment wrapped around my throat. “Or maybe it was just easier for you to accept a new husband with enough money to keep your self-indulgence supported for the rest of your life.” I laughed and then choked on it in fury. “I despise you.” “The feeling is mutual.”
:(
His words were different, rougher, than they should have been. It took me a moment to understand the significance while I was trying to catch my breath. And when I did, I stared at him, panting. The bastard was Russian.
She’d just had to prod that one spot—that one weakness of mine—to make me lose my grasp on control. She’d been right about my mother. I could only imagine the look on her pretty face if she knew I’d been the one to put the bitch out of her depraved fucking misery.
“Fortunately for Russia, their women seem to have a little more self-respect than to drop their clothes for a man they hate. Guess I needed a change of scenery.” Anger flashed in her eyes. As soon as I stepped into the hall, a thunk hit the door before I could pull it closed. I gritted my teeth. She’d thrown her goddamn shoe at me. “If I didn’t already know you’re a fucked-up bastard and like pain, I’d be making your face a lot less pretty right now.” Funny that we were both thinking about each other’s faces. Just the sight of his pissed me off.
he didn't say that!!!!!!
Over my dead body would I assign some limp-dicked analyst to watch Gianna twenty-four-seven.
I had won the bet. But I was only so happy because the bride and groom seemed so happy. They looked at each other like they were . . . in love. My chest hurt, and my smile fell. I wished love was visible, like the sparkles on Elena’s gown. Or the shimmer of the sun on skin. Then it couldn’t be hidden or faked. I wondered what love felt like. I wondered if it even existed.
As for my growing suspicion that it had been a certain Russian, and considering the way he’d taken care of me . . . well, I didn’t even want to think about it. Especially since less than two weeks ago, he’d insinuated I was easy, a boring lay, and had low self-esteem in one hit.
While walking past us, Allister pulled the cigarette from my lips and tossed it to the sidewalk before entering the hotel doors. I sighed. Valentina laughed.
I grabbed the glass in his hand with every intention of tossing the contents in his face, though before I could, he ripped the tumbler from my grasp and threw it to the floor. I stared at my failed revenge shattered on the marble but could see nothing but rage. I wanted to hurt him as much as his words had me. I pushed him, and when he didn’t respond, I did it again. Then, I beat on his chest and tried to knee him in the groin. When he’d had enough, he spun me around, pulled me back against his chest, and pinned my arms with one of his. “Calm down,” he ordered. “Go fuck yourself.”
“Everything about that night was forgettable. Why do you think I didn’t call you?” Sympathy filled my voice. “Seems I didn’t listen.” We both knew I was referring to what he’d said to me that night: “You won’t forget me.”
“What are you wearing?” He said it calmly and slowly, but the anger was laced too finely to be masked. “Dolce and Gabbana.” “The jacket?” I sawed my bottom lip. “Let me guess, it’s from the Vincent Monroe Collection.” I didn’t deny it.
<<<333
“Is that what you think we do? Play games?” “I don’t care what you call it. I’m done! With this.” I gestured between us. “With you.” Like the set of the sun, his eyes filled with darkness. A merciless darkness that wrapped around my soul and pulled. The force of the snap made me fall back a step. He slammed the car door. Stalked toward me. “You’ll never be done with me.” He grasped me by the throat, pushed me back against the car, and swallowed my next breath in his mouth.
I listened to the command without a single thought, but before I could get far, a snag caught my sleeve and ripped the jacket off me in one smooth move. I turned my head just in time to see it landing in a puddle on the ground.
I tried to undo the buttons on his shirt, but he grabbed my wrists and stopped me. Something cold settled in my stomach. I worked myself free from his grip, and as if he hadn’t already denied me once, I tried again, only to get the same result. “It’s staying on,” he said harshly against my lips. He wouldn’t let me touch him, not really. And sitting here with my body on shameless display, it suddenly felt . . . humiliating. I pulled away, tugged my dress down, and reached for the door handle.
“You’re an attention-seeker, sure, but not a fucking tease.” “And you’re a selfish bastard who takes and doesn’t give anything in return,” I snapped. “Selfish?” He laughed.
I let out a little growl. “I don’t like you at all. Let me out.” Why had I thought this was a good idea? There were so many ups and downs with this man it made my head spin. We stared at each other in a silent battle of wills. His jaw ticked. And then he pulled his dress shirt from his pants, grabbed my hand, and slid it over his stomach and up his chest. He was compromising with me, allowing me to touch him without taking off his shirt.
i think about this allllll the time :(((((((
“Ty samaya krasivaya zhenshchina kotoruyu ya kogda-libo videl.” “What did you say?” “You’re annoying.”
"You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen." <3
The only other neighbor on this floor lived right across the hall from me. I knocked, smiled brightly, and as the door opened, it slipped off my face like the ice cream on a little kid’s cone. The dirty fed’s narrowed gaze fell from mine to the plate I cradled with two hands. Well played, Ace, well played.
ohhhh myyyy godddd. i didn't except this!!!
“I don’t bite,” he said, sounding annoyed. “Liar.” His gaze flicked to me, and then a slow smile pulled on the corner of his mouth. It was the kind of smile seen on the bad guy’s lips after stealing the girl. Warmth rushed beneath my skin; a prickling, breathless heat traveling all the way to my toes. “Fine. I don’t bite women in elevators.”
Tension rolled through him. His fingers laced through my hair at the small of my back, his voice hoarse. “Tell me who hurt you, Gianna.”
yes. finallyyy
He wasn’t amused at my sarcasm. “Look at me, Gianna.” I did. “We have a saying in Russia. S volkámi zhit’, po-vólch’i vyt’. Say it.”
“It means, to live with wolves, you have to howl like a wolf.”
“Hmm,” I replied. “Why do you kiss me?” His gaze dropped to my lips, his jaw ticking in thought. “I wanted to know what you tasted like.” We both knew he hadn’t answered the question. He’d known what I tasted like three years ago, if that had been the only goal. “What do I taste like?” His eyes drifted back up to mine. They were so deep and serious they held me captive. His next two words tugged at my heart, even though I didn’t know the meaning. “Kak moya.”
Like mine <<<333
“Because another moment of this, and I’m not going to be able to.” I looked at him, confused. “But I don’t want you to.” He made a frustrated noise in his throat. “This wasn’t what this was about, Gianna.”
I’d bared my deepest, darkest secret with him, naively believed it meant something, and been turned down, hard.
“I had every intention of coming back for you three years ago, Gianna.”
“Why are you telling me this?” Why are you making me feel this way? “You hate me for that night.”
we all do :(
“Ask me why I kiss you.”
yes pleassseeee
“Remember that the next time you offer me your body, malyshka,” he bit out. “Because next time, I’ll take it. Regardless if there are still tears on your face. Fuck, I won’t care if you cry the whole way through it.”
“Kak moya,” I said, smoothing the gloss on my lips and watching her in the mirror. “What does it mean?” She stopped at the door, assessing me with a look. “It means, like mine.”
oh yeah
“You’ve been ignoring me.” I shook my head. He followed me as I walked backward, his tone demanding a response. “Tell me why.” “You like me,” I breathed. “Like?” His gaze flashed with something sardonic. “I don’t know if I’d call it that.” I swallowed. “You like me . . . like me.”
“I’ve thought about you so much you’re mine now.” It was a growl that lowered into a threat. “You’re lucky you didn’t let him touch you, Gianna, because I really don’t like it when people touch my things.”
“Why do you kiss me?” My lips parted as he ran a thumb across the seam. “It shuts you up.” That wasn’t what he’d planned to say two days ago at the cemetery, but I was suddenly glad he’d evaded the question.
“You blushed for him,” he growled. “You really shouldn’t have done that, Gianna. You have no idea what you’ve just unleashed.”
“Moya zvezdochka.” He murmured the two rough words against my lips. I stilled. Those words . . . I’d heard them before. More than once. And then the memory dropped into place. “You,” I breathed, eyes wide. “You were at my wedding.”
A thumb skimmed across my cheek. “If anyone can do it, it would be you . . .” His voice was soft and rough. “Moya zvezdochka.” And then it went black.
my little star! god my heartshattersinto pieces.
“I’m glad to see you remember, malyshka, because there is nothing I have ever forgotten about you.”
It momentarily stilled me. A raw wave of warmth flickered in my chest. It wasn’t until later I realized that was the moment the first wisps of devotion settled in and my downfall began. “Voz’mi menya glubzhe,” he rasped.
“Takaya krasivaya,” he breathed,
'so beautiful.'
“I’ll say when this is over, Gianna.” He released me, and I turned to watch him head toward the door. “I’m coming with you Saturday.” I couldn’t even protest because I was still wide-eyed and shaken from the moment before. “We’ll leave at nine,” he told me.
“Isn’t it obvious? I’m trying to mold myself into a woman you could love.” I didn’t know why the sarcasm in her voice annoyed the hell out of me. “No.” She raised a brow. “No?” “That’s what I said, Gianna. Go put on something else.”
That was when I noticed the small tremor in her hand. She was nervous. I hadn’t liked this outfit from the beginning, but now I fucking hated it.
“How are you going to explain why you’re with me?” You’re mine. And I go where you go.
“Voy kak volk, malyshka.” Howl like a wolf. Her soft eyes flicked to me. They burned a small hole in my chest. “Voy kak volk,” she whispered. She’d said it right. And I suddenly knew I was going to keep her.
She stared out the window and stayed silent on the way to her papà’s house. When this was over, I was going to force her to talk to me for two hours straight before she got her orgasm.
“As much as I appreciate the genuine concern in your voice—no. No to moving. No to the marriage. And no to fucking a man of your choosing.” Good girl.
I moved at the sound of a chair slamming against the wall and pushed open the door. My voice was unnaturally calm. “Take your hand off her now.”
CHRISTIAN THE MAN YOU ARE!!
I was only an acquaintance of his through Antonio. And I’d only ever agreed to work with Antonio—an Italian, no less—because I was obsessed with his wife.
