Page 29 of Corrupted Guilt

“Yes, you are,” Yuri insists. “We’re going to go eat once you tell me what you want.”

“Is that an order?” I shoot back, my temper flaring.

“Yes.”

“Wow,” I roll my eyes. “You really don’t get it, do you? You wouldn’t think I was still sexy if I let myself go.”

“Believe me, I would.” Yuri gives me a wolfish look. “You have my permission to let yourself go.”

“Jesus, I have midterms to study for, I can’t let myself go.”

“It’s an order, kiska.”

“Fuck you.”

“Here?”

He grabs my wrist and pushes me up against the wall. Instead of fear, all I feel is desire.

“Let me go,” I bark, trying to push him away from me with my body. That’s a mistake. My body pressed against the hard warmth of his body is a bad idea. All it does it turn me on, make me weak, make me want him. My nipples grow hard immediately and heat bloom between my legs.

“Get away from me.”

“Say sorry for disobeying me.”

“Fuck you,” I say instead. “You told me to never apologize, remember?”

“Do you want me to punish you? Because it’s like you’re begging me for it. Goading me.” He thinks out load. “Never mind that for now, what would you eat, if you could have anything in the world?”

I pause. “I’d get a thick, juicy cheeseburger and fries. And an icy cold beer to wash it all down.”

Yuri looks surprised.

My stomach rumbles so loudly that Yuri notices. He laughs. “Grab your coat. I know just the place.”

I glanced down at my jeans. “I should change first.”

“No, you shouldn’t. That’s your problem,” he says. “You care what other people think.”

I sigh. “I just don’t want to look stupid.”

“What makes you think you’ll look stupid?”

“I just… I don’t know. I guess it won’t be a fancy place if we’re doing cheeseburger and beer but I always feel like I should overdress. Fancy places are not for me.”

“What makes you say that?”

I open my mouth and then close it. When I’m able to answer, my voice is soft. “Dad used to say it, I guess it stuck.”

“I should have just fucking killed him,” he says darkly.

11. Yuri

She’s beautiful.

It’s a fact as I watch her in the car, gazing out the window. A contemplative silence has fallen between us, and I realize she gets more beautiful every time I see her.

That’s never happened before, not with any other beautiful woman.

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