Page 5 of Ivory Ashes

You, Viviana. Since the moment we met, I’ve wanted you. I couldn’t stand it for another second.

Or, y’know… something along those lines.

Mikhail does turn to me, but there’s nothing but an icy chill when he looks at me. His eyes scrape over my skin. I swear he can read every thought bouncing around my funhouse of a brain.

It’s confirmed when he tilts his head to the side. “Do you think I’m here for you?”

“Wha—No!” I cross my arms again. Mikhail’s eyes drop to my chest.

I don’t uncross my arms this time.

He takes a step closer. “This has nothing to do with you, Viviana.”

Heat coils low in my belly at the way he says my name. “Why should I believe that? I’m the woman promised to the heir of the Novikov Bratva.” I gesture to the ring on his finger. “That’s you now, isn’t it? Some people would argue we still have a binding agreement.”

My father would be among the loudest of those people.

I, however, should probably have shut my big, dumb mouth. In a flash, Mikhail crosses the distance between us and cages me in.

His palm is flat against the wall next to my head. He holds his body stubbornly away from mine, but he might as well be smothering me. I feel him everywhere. Heat pours off of him and tingles across my skin.

He smells like mint and champagne as he dips his chin and whispers in my ear. “Do you want me to make good on that agreement, Viviana? Is that why you’re still here?”

Truth be told, I don’t know why I’m still here.

Fear? Habit? Curiosity?

I wrote Mikhail Novikov off the first night we met. I assumed he was a pompous asshole and never thought of him again, no matter how much I enjoyed the sight of him at functions Trofim dragged me along to.

No women dared get close to him. Mikhail didn’t deign to talk to anyone else. He was a shadow on the edge of the room.

But now, he’s revealing himself to be something else entirely.

I want to find out what.

“I’m still here because…” I duck under his arm and walk across the suite. “I’m still here because helping clean up some of this mess is the least I can do for the man who saved me.”

I bend over and scoop a handful of glass shards into my palm. It’s only when I turn around to find the trash can that I remember what I’m wearing. Or what I’m not wearing. Full coverage underwear, for one.

Mikhail is standing rigid against the wall. And he isn’t the only one. There’s a noticeable bulge at the front of his pants. A large, noticeable bulge.

My gaze drops down, back up, down again, and finally back up to the dark holes where his eyes once were. His pupils are blown wide.

Mikhail Novikov may be difficult to read, but I know desire when I see it.

He blinks a few times and seems to snap himself out of it. His mouth twists down into a scowl. “Me being here has nothing to do with saving you.”

“Really? You had me fooled. ‘Touch her again and I’ll kill you,’” I say in a terrible impression of his voice. “Seems like it had at least a little to do with saving me.”

“You think I came to save you? Is that why you’re putting on this little show for me?” He crosses the distance between us and swats the glass shards out of my hand. They rain down over my bare feet, but I barely feel it. Not when Mikhail is staring into my soul. “Am I to collect my reward now?”

My cheeks burn. “I’m not putting on a show! I’m cleaning up the mess you and your brother made.”

“This is why you’re not the right fit for this world,” he says almost to himself. “Someone does one nice thing for you and you’re throwing away your chance at freedom. You don’t owe me anything, Viviana. I didn’t come here to save you.”

If he keeps saying that, I might start to believe him.

Maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing, though. As it is, my heart is doing an interesting little dubstep in my chest.

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