Page 10 of Hunter's Trial

Either way, he’s signed the papers. That’s what counts. “We’re done here for today.” I conclude and grab the papers. For a moment, I’m foolish enough to think that he’s going to just let me go just like that. I push up from the table and head to the door. But Nikolai moves far more quickly than I could have imagined a man his size could move.

His hand comes up to block me from attempting to open the door. His massive frame warms my back as my breath catches in my throat.

“Are you certain that I can’t convince you to sign the deal with a kiss?” Nikolai pulls my hair over my shoulder, exposing the skin of my neck to him. I can feel the warmth of his breath wash over my skin and it leaves a trail of gooseflesh in its sake. “Belated birthday present.”

His other hand finds my hip, closing his fingers possessively around the skin there and spinning me in his grasp until he’s got me boxed against the door. My nose crinkles in irritation. Fear of his proximity lances through my chest in equal measure to my arousal. It takes almost no effort to pull my ceramic knife and aim it directly at his most favorite appendage.

There’s something deeply wrong with me. There’s no reason for this messy, hormonally out of control part of me to crave this. I want to be handled this way. I have been dreaming about this very exchange for the last two nights. Yet, I can’t let him think that he’s going to get anywhere with me.

Seconds before my snarled retort can tell him to get the hell off of me - he kisses me.

Fuck he knows what he’s doing.

Nikolai kisses me like he knows exactly what to do with my body and somehow just by looking at me he’s figured out exactly what I crave. I can’t breathe. His hands are everywhere. It’s not enough. A moan of pleasure slips through my lips before I can stop it. All thoughts skitter out of my head for an embarrassingly long time before I come to my senses. Two seconds longer and he would have my legs wrapped around his hips right here up against the wall. There’s no cameras. Perhaps my libido could win for just a moment…

Fuck. No. I have to stop. I have to stop right this very second.

Oh, but it feels so fucking good. Just a second longer.

Nikolai’s tongue claims mine. His hand flattens over my stomach and starts to travel lower. He slips past the band of my skirt and his rough, calloused fingertips brush against my panties and overheated skin.

It’s enough to snap me out of my trance. I can’t let this happen.

I twist the knife in my hand, digging the ceramic tip against the impressive bulge in his pants. His lips leave mine as he glances down between our bodies to the knife that I have aimed at his genitals.

“If you don’t want to lose it, I suggest that you get the hell off of me, Volkovich.”

To my eternal surprise, he takes a step back. Nikolai’s hands lift in surrender. “Can’t blame a man for trying, can you?”

I knock on the door for the guards to let me the hell out of here as fast as possible. I slip from the room before I can think about the situation for too long.

Talk about a conflict of interest.

CHAPTER SIX

NIKOLAI

Ihaven’t had a boner quite this uncomfortable since high school.

The walk back to my cell is borderline humiliating because of how desperate I am for a little relief. I won’t have a chance to take care of it either. There’s not a single place in this prison that I can access where I will have enough privacy to do what I need to do. It would require me lowering my guard and that could prove to be fatal.

Which fucking sucks.

I can’t stop replaying the way she melted into my damned arms like she was starved for my touch. I just keep hearing her soft sounds of pleasure like they are an echo inside of my head. She’s so fucking beautiful. But more than that, her fire ignites something in me that I’ve never felt before. She’s unlike anyone I’ve encountered before.

The guards that will take me back to my cell round the corner. The three other men waiting in there all share bunks with me. They have been here a lot longer than I have and not a single one of them seemed to care for the fact that I shouldered one of them right off the top bunk my first night. I know how these games are played. It’s hard enough to sleep in here as it is with one person but these cells with the four people are rough. I’m already not in top fighting shape with my ribs cracked as they are.

Worse still, is that all three of them seem to be in Di Gennaro’s pocket. Convincing them to ally with me over the power house of the prison would be impossible. I don’t have anything to offer them anymore. I have no resources outside of these walls. Alek made sure of that. I would have done the same thing if the roles had been reversed, but it certainly is making things much harder.

The moment that I get back into the cell, their eyes are on me. We don’t say a single thing as I walk uncomfortably to my bunk and swing myself up to the top. It’s so silent in here that the tension could be cut by a knife. I have to get my mind off of Kate and the situation that I’m in. I have to get her stunning face out of my head and her cocky little smirk as she met me word for word.

The cell is so silent that I can hear the uneven breathing of the three other men lying in their own beds and the dim distant sounds of a radio playing from the bottom bunk across from me where the inmate has his headphones in. It’s not exactly the breeding ground for relaxation, but it does help me get rid of the boner situation without having resolved anything. And it allows my mind to wander. I need to stay vigilant. I have to keep myself focused at all times. They could jump out of their beds at any moment.

Sadly, my distraction takes an unexpected direction .

Twelve years ago.

I stand alone in the dirty back room that serves as our locker room. All of the other fighters are still out on the floor. Given how my match ended, I won’t be invited back out to fight tonight. I don’t think that my legs would have been able to take it anyway. I touch my battered skin gingerly, relishing in the pain that I feel as I probe my injuries. I think I’m missing a tooth. That, or I fucked up my jaw at the very least. A couple of bruised ribs is a small price to pay for the fact that tonight’s payout is going to be more than enough to feed both me and my mother for the next few weeks. It’s going to be at least that long before I’m brought back here for another round. Simply because the men that they keep putting me in the ring with aren’t walking out of there in one piece.

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