Page 96 of Doctored Vows

Just knowing he’s trying cuts my worries in half.

We stay huddled together for several long minutes, neither willing to break us apart first. I could stay immersed in his bubble forever, but regretfully, I can’t. This is the only elevator in the building. We can’t continue to hog it.

When I say that to Maksim, he draws me in closer, holding me with a tenderness a man his size shouldn’t have, before he mutters against my temple, “They can use the stairs.”

I peer at him, smiling when I notice how relaxed he seems. There are no grooves between his brows, no shadows under his eyes. He appears well-rested, which has me thinking back to his earlier confession.

“Did you really sleep with me every night?”

My heart thumps wildly when he tilts his chin so our eyes align. It isn’t solely his nod responsible for the extra blood pumping through my veins. The raw emotion in his eyes is what my heart is paying attention to the most.

He doesn’t want to hurt me. Not for a single second.

He only wants to protect me.

“What did they do?” I murmur, my curiosity too high for me to contain.

It had to be something mammoth, because I don’t see this beautiful, gorgeous creature murdering three people for something minute and unmeaningful. His title in the underworld demands a level of fear, but this seems more important than that. It appears personal.

He brushes a damp stray lock off my temple before using the same fingers to increase the heat on my cheeks. He isn’t distracting me, but he isn’t racing to tell me the truth, either. He appears torn, like he’s unsure of what my reaction will be to his confession.

“I won’t hold it against you.”

“I’m not worried about how it will have you looking at me.” His voice is husky and lustful, and it makes me wish I could save our conversation for another day. My heart just refuses to listen to the prompts of my brain and body. “I’m more worried about how it will have you looking at yourself.”

Me? How would the actions of others affect me?

Maksim appears seconds from answering my inner thoughts, but before he can, a familiar voice sounds out of the speaker above our heads. “I wouldn’t bother knocking if the elevator was still rocking, but since it’s not, I thought I should tell you that security has your 4:30 appointment in the foyer, waiting for the elevator.” Even during work hours, Zoya still acts like a prepubescent boy.

“Thanks, Zoya,” Maksim replies, miraculously standing.

I want to whine like a fifth grader when he carefully slides out of me after setting me on my feet. I just can’t get any words through the lust clogged in my throat when I realize his cock never seems to go down. It is as thick and lengthy as it is when he thrusts it inside me, just a little floppier.

“If you don’t quit gawking, Doc, I’m gonna clear my schedule for the rest of the day.”

My eyes snap to Maksim before they shoot to the camera in the corner of the elevator when Zoya moans, “Keep looking, Doc. I’m about ready for round two.”

The camera isn’t flashing, and Maksim’s grinding jaw announces he wouldn’t even let my best friend watch our sexcapades, but that doesn’t stop me from shoving my feet into my scrub pants and yanking them up like we have an audience before asking, “Were you listening in?”

“No,” Zoya immediately replies, conscious of where my suspicions lie. “But I didn’t need to hack into the building’s servers to hear you. You were moaning loud enough for half of Myasnikov to hear.” When my cheeks heat so fast she hears their boil over whistle out of my ears, she laughs. “I’m joking. I only joined the party two minutes ago because Ano was too chickenshit to interrupt you guys.” I realize Ano must be close to her when she cups the microphone before repeating her statement to the accused. “You were totally chickenshit.”

While muttering something under his breath about firing his staff and starting anew, Maksim hits the emergency stop button on the elevator panel, jolting it back into gear, before requesting Zoya have the security officers take his guest to his office. “Tell Francesca I will join her in the boardroom once I have Nikita settled.”

“Francesca?” Zoya and I ask at the same time.

Maksim pays Zoya’s grumble no attention. “Doc…” For one short word, he takes an extremely long time to deliver it. “I fuckin’ love when you get jealous.”

“I’m not jealous.”

I glare at the now blinking contraption in the elevator’s corner when Zoya’s pfft rumbles louder than Maksim’s grumbled denial.

Thankfully, I’m saved from the disadvantage of a two-against-one fight when the elevator dings, announcing its arrival at our floor.

I race out of the car that smells of sex and desperation, only just making it to the door of our apartment half a second before Maksim’s sweat-dotted chest warms my back.

When his lips brush the shell of my ear, I’m putty in the hands of a sex god in mere seconds, so we won’t mention how weak my knees become when he growls against my neck, “It’s too late to run, Doc. I warned you the last time you got jealous that it would be the only time I’d fuck it out of your system in under an hour.” His following sentence has a double meaning, making me more than eager to gauge its authenticity. “I’m a man of my word. It is about time you learn that.”

Once we’re in the safety of our apartment, he shreds my scrubs off me even faster than he did in the elevator. Then, just as swiftly, he falls to his knees and drags his tongue up the seam of my pussy, buckling my legs out from under me.

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