Page 23 of Malevolent King

I stayed frozen to the spot for a long, painfully slow minute, listening intently. Nothing.

Blowing out an annoyed huff, I turned and started forward again. I wasn’t sleeping well and it had me jumping at shadows. Great. Reaching the back wall of the gym, I bent and picked up my metal water bottle and spun around.

I didn’t have time to scream before his hand clamped across my lips.

Nikolai Chernov loomed over me. I didn’t know how he’d crossed the gym floor so quickly, but there was no denying that he was there. He pressed the length of his hard body against mine, trapping me effortlessly against the wall. One hand was tight over my mouth, and the other grabbed the hand holding the water bottle and pinned it to the wall beside me.

“Hello,lastochka,have you missed me?” he drawled.

His faint accent made his speech more attractive and exotic, reminding me of how sheltered and untraveled I was. I swallowed hard against his hand and shook my head as much as I could considering the pressure of his hard grip.

His full lips twisted in a mocking grin. “Liar,” he whispered.

My cheeks burned with guilt, adding to the heat from his hand across my face.

His grin told me he knew exactly what was going on. “I think you’ve thought about me more than once… isn’t that right, Sofia?”

His words were spoken right into my ear, sending tingles of awareness rippling down my spine, chased by the sensation of his hot breath. My chest rose and fell too quickly. He leaned away, keeping his hand over my mouth. His eyes dropped to my body, and a low grunt left him. He took a step back, his gaze hungry as he took in the short plaid skirt of my uniform, knee socks, and tight white shirt. His gaze trailed over me like a caress, and I shivered.

He grinned. “I’ve thought about you,lastochka.” He tore his dark, starving eyes off my body. “My runaway prize.”

Prize?

His hand had loosened a fraction on my lips, and I turned my head to get my words out.“I’m not your prize—” I sucked in a breath, forgetting what I was saying as his knee slid between my legs.

He pressed me back into the wall, his face only inches from mine.“Yes, you are, Sofia De Sanctis. I won you, fair and square. You’re mine. You belong to me,” he breathed.

The dark possessiveness in his tone made me shiver for an entirely different reason. It was fear and something far more dangerous. Excitement. I was terrified and turned on, I realized with detached clarity.

Shaking my head, I wet my dry lips. It was a nervous habit, and his eyes fell to my mouth. “No, I’m not.”

“Yes, you are. Don’t make me prove it to you here and now, I’m a heavy-handed teacher,” he murmured, leaning his forehead against mine. “You know, I’ve never had someone belong to me before. I’ve never had anything of my own. It’s more distracting than I imagined it would be.”

His hot breath felt like it was melting my skin. He smelled good, but he shouldn’t. The scent of oil, like he’d gotten gas on his hands and not washed them, cigarettes, and something sweet and musky. None of it should be addictive. And yet, I found myself sucking great, panicked lungfuls of him. He was danger and sin. All the things I’d been hidden away from my entire life, and some perverse part of me wanted to tell him to take whatever he wanted. Burn me deep enough to leave a mark, so everyone would see.

But the logical part of my brain that sensed the strength of the predator currently nosing through my hair, breathing me in as much as I was breathing him, screamed at me to run.

I looked up at him.“Nikolai…” I started and jolted as his dark-gray eyes fixed on mine.

“Yes,lastochka? Tell me,” he said, matching my husky whisper.

That was as far as I got before my hand was moving. It was my right hand, and though I was missing my knife, I had the metal water bottle. The rounded end smashed into his temple and I twisted away. An explosive curse left him as his body shifted from mine, and I stepped past him.

I ran with all my might. I was fit, worked out, and trained in a deadly sport.

I got halfway across the gym floor before he caught me.

His arms went around my middle, spinning me around before we fell. I landed hard enough to knock the breath from my lungs and was crushed further by his weight.

He straddled me, his thighs hard against my waist. He pinned my wrists above my head so he was face-to-face with me.“That wasn’t very nice, Sofia. I’d expect better manners from a little Mafia princess like you.”

Blood dripped down his temple and splashed onto my cheek. I twisted my head, thrashing at his hold like an animal, my fear taking me over for a second.

A surprised chuckle left Nikolai as he took in my feral movements. “My, my, you aren’t what I expected at all, Sofia. Don’t tell me there’s something wild beneath that good-girl exterior? Something that longs to be let out.”

I stared at him, my arms growing exhausted from fighting against his superior strength. My chest rose and fell harshly as I panted from fear and exhaustion. He watched me with something like fascination. I was bloody, smeared from the steady drip from his chin. My hair was wild, and my skin heated.

“Beautiful,” he muttered, using one hand to hold both of mine and the other to run carefully through the red on my cheek.

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