Page 19 of Wicked Arrangement

After we finish eating, a team of people appears, rapidly cleaning away the dishes. Once we are alone again, Yaroslav fixes me with that intense gaze of his.

“Did you sleep well?” he asks.

“Yes, thank you.”

“Good,” he says with a nod. “So, I imagine that you probably felt a bit at a loss of what to do this morning. I wanted to lay down some ground rules. You’re welcome in here any time, you can help yourself to anything you like, or you can ask the chef to prepare something for you. There is an indoor and outdoor swimming pool, tennis court, basketball court, movie theater, pool table, games room, and a library, you can use these at your leisure, the staff can show you where they are. Outside these places, and your room, of course, I’d prefer you didn’t go.”

“Of course, I mean, that’s a lot of rooms, I can’t imagine why I’d want to go anywhere else,” I reply, still reeling from the extent of this place.

I shift in my seat, feeling a little awkward and uncomfortable with the situation and not knowing what to say or do.

Yaroslav holds out a hand to me, “Come here,” he commands.

I hesitate for a moment but then concede, I’m surprised when he lifts me up with ease, sitting me on the island countertop facing him. Still in his stool, he now sits between my thighs, given the height difference between us, I’m now more or less eye-to-eye with him, just a little higher. His hands linger on my waist for a fraction longer than needed and he trails one hand down my leg to rest just above the knee. My body immediately responds, and I shiver with excitement.

“Do you do this with all of your guests?” I ask breathlessly, trying to distract myself from the desire I feel for him.

He contemplates this seriously for a moment, trailing little circles on my thigh in a way that makes my body tingle and is incredibly distracting.

“I don’t often have guests. I tend to prefer privacy. But you’re more than just a guest,” he points out, his eyes looking at me in that hungry, animal way.

“I am?” I squeak.

“Yes, for the next two weeks you’re my…” he searches for the word and settles on, “Companion.”

Somehow companion feels a bit of an anticlimax. Not that I was expecting him to say I’m his girlfriend or anything like that, and it’s certainly better than whore or something similar, but after last night, I can’t be alone in feeling this connection between us. Albeit it’s mostly a raw sexual one right now, but still. Although I know nothing about him really. It could be that sex is always this great for him.

“Oh, I should mention,” he adds, “My brother lives here, he’s not overly… fond… of strangers, so it’s probably best if you avoid him.”

Something in his tone tells me there’s more to the story here, but I don’t push it. I’m sure if he wanted me to know more, or I needed to, he would have told me. I can understand sibling problems better than most.

“If he’s anything like my brother, that won’t be a big ask,” I reply lightly.

Yaroslav looks surprised and mildly irked, as though he feels he should have known that I had a brother but didn’t. “You didn’t mention a brother before, I understand why you didn’task the hospital to contact your grandmother after the crash and bombing incident, but I assumed since you mentioned no one else you had no other family.”

“It’s complicated,” I explain. “I’d rather not go into it too much, my brother hasn’t really been around much, not since Gran’s illness started getting bad. Besides, I may as well have no other family now. I want nothing more to do with him.”

Yaroslav doesn’t say anything, just patiently waits for me to continue. Like a suspect under interrogation, I feel the need to fill the silence and so, despite my initial reluctance to mention it, I open up.

“He’s the reason my grandmother needed the operation. It was an accident, but he… well, it all happened so fast. She got confused and thought he was her son, our dad. She grabbed onto him, he pushed her, and she fell and hit her head.”

Mortified, I feel myself getting emotional reliving the incident.

“A man should never lay his hands on a woman in anger, especially not his own family, the woman who raised him. There is nothing more precious than family. Someone who doesn’t respect that…” he trails off, seeming to stop himself from voicing his thought before adding, “I can see why you want nothing more to do with him,” his voice cold.

“That’s not even the worst part. After she was hurt, he ran and left us there, he wouldn’t even call an ambulance or stay to help. There was so much blood… I thought she was going to die,” I whisper.

Yaroslav’s jaw tenses and his eyes darken dangerously. He looks furious and he doesn’t even know my grandmother or brother. “Podonok,”he hisses in Russian.

His empathy and concern make the emotions I’m reliving well up and a tear escapes. He notices it and softens, his body no longer coiled tightly. He stands up, reaching out to wipe the tear away. Without thinking, I lean my face into his palm, and he cups it gently. I’m aware of how close he’s standing to me, my legs practically wrapped around his waist.

Suddenly, I don’t want to talk anymore about Gran and Noah, I don’t even want to think about them. I want a distraction, and I have a smoking hot one right here. I don’t let myself dwell on what I’m about to do, I just move instinctively. I lean forward, pressing my lips to his. He stills for a moment, caught off guard, before responding and kissing me back.

Chapter 11

Yaroslav

To say Kimberly kissing me was a surprise, would be an understatement. We’d just been talking about her asshole of a brother putting her grandmother in the hospital, not exactly foreplay. I was surprised that her telling me this made me want to go find her brother and rip his fucking head off. Not only do I think men like that are low-life scum, but the idea of someone hurting Kim set off a primal rage inside of me. I was barely managing to remain calm when I noticed she was crying.

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