Page 18 of The Arrangement

Screw it.

As I unlock the door and let him step inside, the air between us crackles. Quickly, I lock the door again, turning to face him, ready to demand an explanation.

"What are you doing here?" The words barely leave my lips before he's on me, his hands gripping me with a sureness that silences any further questions.

“I heard you,” he says.

I’m baffled. My brain has turned itself off, and all I can do is stare at him, unable to move or do or say anything. “What… Huh?”

“I heard you, Tory.”

“I… I don’t understand.”

“You’ll soon learn this about me. I like to keep an eye on the people who owe me money, especially the ones prone to defaulting,” Max says, his gaze bouncing from my eyes to my lips with a fervor that makes my spine tingle with icy shivers. “I’ve got ears on this place, darling.”

The way the word “darling” rolls off his tongue has me temporarily blindsided, and I don’t register the contents of what he’s telling me, not right away.

“Wait, you… YOU BUGGED MY SHOP?” I blurt out.

My first impulse is to wrangle myself free of his grip, but he’s got quite the hold on me. He won’t even let me budge, his lips so close… I feel his hot breath tickling my face.

“I heard you, Tory. I heard you touching yourself. Making yourself come. Hard. Calling out my name.”

“Oh… OH, no… No, you misheard,” I manage, about to melt into a puddle of raw shame.

I expect him to contradict me. Instead, his lips crash against mine, a kiss so intense my thoughts scatter. My body reacts on instinct, pressing into him, drawn to the danger and allure he embodies.

"You can’t lie to me, Tory. I feel it even now. I heard you, and I had to come see for myself.”

“No, you’ve got it all wrong, I would never—” He cuts me off with another kiss. Hungrier. Merciless in his conquest. Ruthless. Who am I kidding? He knows. He bugged my place. He heard me and my screaming orgasms, crying out his name.

Tory, you frickin’ fool.

“You want this, don’t you?" His voice is a low murmur against my lips, as if he's reading my mind.

This is it.

I’m done for.

I can't manage words, just a nod, my body betraying my inner turmoil by responding to his every touch. Without another word, he lifts me effortlessly, carrying me toward the office. He sets me down gently on the Murphy bed, the makeshift nature of my living quarters seemingly forgotten in the moment.

"Tory," he breathes out, a question and a declaration all in one.

"Yes," I whisper, giving in to the torrent of emotions he's unleashed within me. It's a surrender, an acceptance of whatever this is between us, despite the million reasons I should hold back.

In the silence of the shop, everything else fades into the background. It's just Maksim and me, teetering on the edge of something neither of us fully understands but are too caught up in to question.

We kiss again, long and deep and sensual. The fantasy I had about him was only a few hours old, but already it was blown out of my mind by the reality of what was happening between us.

He takes the hem of my sleeping shirt and tugs it a bit. “I like your ensemble.”

I let out a nervous giggle. “It’s the kind of outfit you can expect when you come over unannounced in the middle of the night.”

“As charming as it is, let’s get it off.” He pulls the shirt off, the air of the office cool against my skin.

Once the shirt’s gone, I work on his buttons, unbuttoning them one by one. With a quick push, I throw off his shirt. Just like in my fantasies, he’s sculpted and shredded and muscular, not a drop of fat on his body. And there are tattoos, just like I’d imagined, ink on his chest and shoulders and arms.

I don’t have much time to stare. My fingers do plenty of roaming, though, exploring every inch of fine, inked skin, as if desperate to record him, to register him physically somewhere deep in my mind. This won’t happen again, I reckon we both know it. We’d be insane. I’d be out of my mind. The man is dangerous, cold-blooded. Definitely not boyfriend material. But damn, these rippling pecs and broad shoulders feed the raging fire in my loins, making me lose my mind.

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