Page 28 of Malevolent King

He threw me a wicked smirk and turned away to grab the tiny motel shampoo bottle, leaving me with the glorious sight of his muscled ass to feast my eyes on.

I raised my chin and held my tongue, not trusting myself to speak. Choosing a spot on the tile where black mold was growing tendrils, I deliberately turned away. I stared at it hard, ignoring my curiosity and burning desire to look back at him.

* * *

Later,I lay on one side of the bed, sheets pulled up to my neck, watching Nikolai patch up his various wounds. He’d skipped the small Band-Aids in the kit and gone for the other thing he’d stolen from the gas station. A role of silver duct tape. He wrapped a thick cut in his shoulder with it, patting it smooth. I was intrigued by his toughness. It wasn’t an act, like a lot of men in my family put on. Silvio, my cousin, was a good example. Nikolai was genuinely tough.

He ignored a dozen cuts that I thought should be treated and only focused on the ones that were bad enough to drip a constant stream of blood. I cringed at the thought of him ripping off the duct tape at a later date.

He’d lit another cigarette in the bathroom, dragging nicotine into his lungs as he patched himself up. I coughed as the smell reached me. The smell wasn’t off-putting. I was used to it at home, but tonight, it irritated my lungs.

He raised an eyebrow at me, catching my gaze on him in the mirror.

“Those things will kill you, you know,” I muttered.

He let out a bark of a laugh. “So? You should tell me to smoke ten at once in that case.”

Right.I’m meant to want this man dead. Ishouldwant him dead. He’d hauled me all over the woods, held a gun to my back, and threatened to shoot me. He’d shot Gino, poor, innocent, inept Gino.

“Whatever, knock yourself out,” I muttered and turned onto my back, careful to keep the sheets high.

I had nothing but my underwear to sleep in. I’d dried it out with the hairdryer. The rest of my clothes needed a lot longer and would probably still be damp tomorrow when I put them back on. I shivered at the thought of tomorrow. What was going to happen? Had my father gotten my message?

“Here, drink this. You must be thirsty,” Nikolai said, opening a bottle of mineral water and passing it to me.

I was beyond thirsty. Now that he’d mentioned it, the desire to drink roared to life. I accepted the bottle and took a long swallow and then another. I gulped the cool liquid.

Nikolai appeared on the other side of the bed, finally clean and patched up. It was still early, yet both of us were ready to sleep. A silent agreement. Nikolai’s dark-ringed eyes seemed to grow heavier and heavier as time ticked by, and I needed a break from his wolfish gaze on me. Being around the youngest Chernov was unsettling and always had been. I felt too much; my skin tingled, and my senses were heightened. It was exhausting. Worse still, all the constant touching and glimpses of his hotter-than-hell body, not to mention the scene in the shower, had my skin feverishly hot and my panties damp. I was in a constant state of being turned on and terrified at the same time. I’d die if he found out the former.

I clutched the sheet when Nikolai attempted to pull it back.“I don’t have clothes on.”

“Not my problem,” he pointed out flatly.

“A gentleman would sleep on top of the covers, or better still, on the chair over there.” I knew there wasn’t a snowball’s chance in Hell that Nikolai would do that, but it felt good to point it out. Someone had to remember how crazy all this was. Something rational should send a message to my pathetically curious body that this man was my captor and enemy.

Nikolai laughed heartily and tugged the covers back. “You have a great sense of humor,lastochka. I don’t know if anyone has ever told you that before.”

“They haven’t, and I wasn’t joking.”

Nikolai tutted. “Then no one in your life appreciates good comedy.” He dropped his towel.

I twisted my head to stare at the ceiling, heat flooding my cheeks.

“I guess they don’t get you like I get you,” he said, climbing into the bed beside me.

The mattress dipped, tempting me to roll into him. His warmth filled the cavern under the sheets immediately.

“You don’t get me,” I protested darkly.

“Sure I do. I’d bet I’m the only one in your life who does,” Niko said matter-of-factly. His tone pissed me off.

I turned on my side after checking that he was covered. Crap, just the thought that he was naked and only an arm’s reach from me was doing something to my belly, sending it liquid and warm.

“Okay, then. What do I feel, if you know me so well?”

Nikolai cracked his knuckles, and I stared at the ink on his fingers and the backs of his hands.

“You’re bored and lonely, locked up in that compound of yours, like a princess in a tower,” he said quietly. He turned his head to pin me to the spot with those disturbing gray eyes. “You’re trapped in a cage, a pretty bird for Antonio De Sanctis to trot out and display… my little swallow with clipped wings.”

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