Page 39 of Deceitful Vows

After lifting his eyes to my face, he loosens the inflexibility of his jaw with a quick grind before he says, “You need to tell my brother you’re not interested.” When I roll my eyes in silent assurance that he has no right to bark orders at me, he lowers his tone from menacing to downright dangerous. “Let me rephrase.Tellmy brother you’re not interested.” He steps closer, swamping me with his delicious scent. “Or I’ll make you watch when I remind him how serious my threats are.” The droplets of juice the lid caught are soaked up by his business jacket when he leans in so close his hot breaths revamp my hunger. “Your tally will never reach six,???????.Your body count ended the instant I laid eyes on you.” A smirk curls his lips at one side. “Now it will only ever travel one way.” A shiver involuntarily runs through me when he murmurs, “Dead men don’t count.”

“Is that what you tell your wife so she sleeps better at night?”

Andrik is not a man I should mess with. He’s dark and dangerous, the epitome of threatening, but for some reason, I don’t fear him.

“That all your mistresses are dead, so they don’t count.” I tilt nearer, bringing our eyes so close that our noses touch. “Slashing their self-worth to nothing isn’t killing them, Andrik. It simply frees them of men like you.”

His anger is so white-hot the iced tea is no longer iced. “My wife?—”

“So you admit it? You’re married.”

“Yes,” he answers bluntly, his voice disgusted. “But that doesn’t need to change anything between us.”

“It doesn’t?” If my voice gets any louder, I will sustain permanent hearing loss. “How silly of me. I assumed that the vows you exchange automatically take you off the market when you get married. Now that I know that isn’t true, I have no reason to fret matrimony. I can fuck as many men as I please both before and after I replace you.”

I took it too far, and I realize that long before Andrik’s hand shoots for my throat.

After using his grip to pin me to the wall, he squeezes my windpipe tight enough for me to drop the drinks I was carting for Mikhail but not firm enough for no air to seep through the minute gap.

“Choose your answers very wisely,?????, because my leniencies have reached the end of the line today.”

His fingers around my neck flex, proving he still has some morsel of control. I can’t say the same. His hold is so possessive that I’m more horny than scared.

“Do you understand that I will killanyman you place between us, regardless of his title, status, or reason for being between us?”

His fingers flex again to ensure his firm grip isn’t behind the delay of my head bob.

They’re not. I’m just a stubborn fuck who shouldn’t be turned on by his possessiveness, but for some strange reason, I am.

When I eventually nod, his nostrils flare in victory.

“So what will that make your count when you take your last breath?”

“Five,” I squeak out slowly.

“Five?” he double-checks, his arrogance tripling. I nod again, and the smirk it produces would convince any woman that adultery isn’t so bad. A minuscule of attention far exceeds none. “It’s not five,?????.” He crowds into me so closely I am confident he is seconds from finding out I’m not wearing any panties. “Because, as I said earlier, dead men don’t count.” When he wets his lips, his tongue also moistens mine. That’s how close he’s standing. “So what will your number be?”

I want to say there’s a lengthy delay between his question and my answer, but that would be a lie.

I answer so fast I’m more angry at myself than Andrik.

“One.”

“One,” he repeats, pleased. “And what is the name of that chosen one?”

My delay is far more respectable this time around, but it is still shamefully honest. “Andrik.”

“Andrik.” He says his name with a throaty purr like he’s only ever heard it screamed in ecstasy by me.

As he smirks in victory, he moves his thumb counting my pulse from my neck to my lips. He drags it over them in arrogance like they’re not bone dry before he returns it to my neck, several inches lower this time. He brushes it past my collarbone and then drops it to my budded nipple.

“It’s cold, so maybe you should turn the elevator’s main power back on so we don’t freeze to death.”

I don’t need to look at his face to know he is smiling.

I can feel it.

“You’re cold?”

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