Page 35 of Bound to the Mafia King

“No.” I shot up from the bed. I fanned my face, trying to calm the inner sex demon that I had awakened. I needed to calm down. “Keep it together, Anastasia.”

I needed to think of Sergei and the fact that he would murder me without care if he found out what I had done.

I pulled the blanket off my body and walked to my bathroom. I opened the water and splashed my face. I did that a few times, as if to try and douse the fire that had found its way into my body.

But it was pointless. I had reached my breaking point, and the bottle was finally popping open.

“Fuck, man.” I braced my hand against the counter. “I need to get this man out of my head.”

But it was a pointless attempt. He was embedded into my grey matter, and now he was stuck. I had always been a woman of calculation. I knew my boundaries, and always moved with great caution. The red flags were all there, so why was I so persistent on this matter? I needed to walk away from him before it was too late.

For years, I had colored in the lines and had allowed the men in my life to dictate everything. I had been merely a pawn in the grander game they were playing, and I never got to move freely. It was only that night that I decided to make my move and run from this life, only for me to be dragged right back to the depths of the ocean.

I was tired.

“Fuck this.” I pushed away from the marble and looked myself in the mirror. The look in my eyes was clear.

I. Didn’t. Care.

I walked out of the bathroom before I could second-guess myself. I walked to the bedroom door, pulled it open, and then stilled. I stared into a pair of ocean eyes that had been haunting the back of my eyelids.

“Valerio,” I breathed his name softly. “What… what are you doing here?”

He observed me for a moment. “The same thing you’re about to do.”

How did he know?

“I can see it in your eyes,” he answered my unspoken question. “I see how you want me, and you can see that I want you just as badly.”

I gulped. I had been so sure of myself only a few seconds ago, but now, as I stood in front of him, I was locked in place. My eyes roamed the length of his body, drinking him in.

“Tell me,cielo.” He stepped forward with molten eyes. The heat in his gaze raised the temperature of my blood. “Will you take that leap? Will you throw caution to the wind for once and take what you want?”

My lips parted, and a soft and desperate whimper left my lips. There was a gentle hunger that hummed just beneath the surface of my skin. It was the kind of hunger that left me yearning for him.

He stepped into the room, and I drew back. He shut the door behind him, caging me inside the four walls.

“I won’t take a single step your way,cielo. It needs to be you this time. I need to be sure you want this, because once you take that step, I will not stop. I’ve held myself back for months. From the moment I saw you at the gala. It’s your move, now.”

Silence descended on us.

It was now or never. My mind wrestled with my body, lust versus logic, sense versus recklessness.

I had always done as I was told and, for once, I wanted to do something for myself. I wanted to give myself this slight reprieve before I was banished to life imprisonment within the coming months.

So, that only left me with one option.

I took one small step, but that was all he needed before he closed the distance between us.

Chapter Fourteen

Anastasia

He grabbed my face and smashed our lips together.

Fireworks.

That was what it felt like every time my lips connected with his. I always felt so alive. Our mouths moved in perfect sync. It was a dance that we had not done a lot of, but the steps were so familiar to us that we simply just fell into it.

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