Page 3 of Under Control

When I look up, he’s holding a gun aimed at my chest.

I open my mouth and I should be screaming, but no noise comes out.

“Who are you?” he asks, sounding shockingly casual for a man pointing a weapon at a naked woman.

“I’m—I’m—my name’s Karine. I thought, I mean, I was looking for Merrick, he invited me to pose for him, and I think this is just some misunderstanding.”

The man doesn’t move. For a bleak, terrible moment, I think he’s going to kill me. A wave of raw, powerful energy wafts off him like the aura around a fire. He’s terrifying and beautiful all at once, like an avenging angel come down from heaven to rip me to pieces with its claws.

Then the gun disappears back into his suit and he relaxes.

“Get dressed,” he says like he’s used to giving commands and expects them to be followed.

“Gladly.” I whip the jacket back on, cheeks burning bright pink. I’m so mortified I could die. “I’m so sorry. I think I have the wrong house or something. I knocked and your housekeeper answered?—”

“I am going to have a conversation with Nikkita about carefully vetting any guests before she allows them to enter my home once you’re gone.”

“Right, great, that’s a wonderful idea. But don’t be too hard on poor Nikkita. She seems busy. Again, I amso,sosorry. Honestly, I don’t show up at random houses totally naked all the time, I mean, this would be a first for me.”

His lips raise, and it’s the most sinister and attractive smile I’ve ever seen. “I’d like to say it’s the first for me as well, but that would be a lie.”

“Oh. Right.” If blushing could kill a girl, I’d keel over. That has to be the sexiest single sentence I’ve ever heard in my life. I mean, he’s obviously an arrogant prick and clearly deranged and dangerous, given the wholeaiming a gun at mething, but my god.

There’s something about his voice.

It’s deep and crushing like the sound of an ocean breaking against a sheer cliff face.

I want to hear that voice in my freaking dreams.

“Merrick lives next door.” The man’s eyes glance over at the painting on the wall. “I’m a fan of his work, as it happens.”

“That makes sense. I recognized the painting, and I guess I just thought I was in the right place so I took off my jacket to break the ice, and I’m honestly so embarrassed I could die right now.”

“Nikkita will walk you over to Merrick’s house.” He looks me over one more time. The curiosity is back in his gaze, like he’s wondering if he should come over here and tug off my jacket again.

A very sick, very stupid part of me wants him to.

That’s wrong. I mean, he pointed a freaking gun at me. What kind of guy does that?

But for some reason, the look on his face, mixed with the splendor of his house and this man’s sheer intense sexual attraction makes me totally brainless for him.

I follow him into the hall. When the older woman appears, they speak in Russian, and the housekeeper glares at me like, somehow, I’m the problem.

“It was nice seeing you, Karine,” the man says, and the way he slightly emphasizesseeingmakes my knees go weak.

If my nipples weren’t already hard, they’d be cutting glass by now.

“Thanks for not shooting me,” I blurt out.

Nikkita shakes her head like I’ve lost my mind, which is entirely possible, and leads me to the door.

I realize I never got the man’s name.

I look over my shoulder and glimpse him watching me from the hall, shrouded in shadow, looking like sin, death, and sex wrapped up in one terrifying masculine body, and I’m suddenly sure that if I ever come back to this house, I won’t ever leave it again.

Chapter 2

Karine

---