Page 15 of Savage Surrender

“And losing your touch?” Lev joked.

I shook my head, running my hand down the stubble I needed to shave before I really had a beard again. “No. Fuckers. I’m not getting too old.” Iwasolder than Irina, but unlike her childish and immature peers and classmates, she posed a challenge withthe difference in our ages. A thrill—to tame her, to discipline her. “I’m not losing my touch.”

It would be fun to seduce my student. I had options for how I could get her to talk. Torture, bribes, ultimatums, and threats. Those were all fine techniques.

But seducing her?

It’s worth a shot.

8

IRINA

Sunday night, I was driven back to my father’s place for a weekly check-in. I kept a blank face on the drive there, dreading every pending second of it. To avoid falling into a completely bitter mood, I tried to concentrate on thoughts of Professor Remi.

Revisiting his dark stare at the party filled me with intrigue, chasing away the annoyance about having to speak to my father. Thinking back to how hot and hard his body was so close to mine allowed me to imagine what it could be like if he touched me, preventing me from spiraling into the irritation of facing my father.

The man was an enigma, and I relished having something independent from the usual Mafia business bullshit to focus on. He could be my secret interest, the slight source of something good instead of all the sourness and badness of my life.

But all too soon, I was in his house, looking at his smug face and dealing with the tension of not giving him the answers he wanted to hear. I couldn’t give him any answers because there was nothing to report.

“You mean to tell me that you have nothing new? Nothing at all?” He held his hands up as though to saywhat the fuck?or mock me.

“Correct. I have nothing to report.” I added a shrug to further convince him.

“You don’t want to tell me about the increase of Ilyin men on campus?” He hardened his expression into a glare.

I shrugged again, this time, out of honest ignorance. “What’s there to say? Ilyin men have always been on campus.”

“What’s there to say?” he snarled. “That they are there!”

I blinked, trying to rein in the sarcasm I wanted to reply with. Since he implanted me as a student at the college, Ilyin men had been present. “They’ve always been there.”

“You don’t think you need to tell me that more are there?”

For fuck’s sake.“You’ve never asked me to count them.”

“Don’t get sassy with me, you little bitch.”

“I’m not.” Yet, I had to watch it. I was simply being honest. He could perceive this as he saw fit, though, and if he thought I was being snappy with him, he’d react by punishing Maxim to keep me in line. “I’ve never counted the Ilyin men. I didn’t know you would want a count. Yes, I’ve noticed a few more of them, but not so many that it would indicate anything significant.”

“What would you know about that? How the hell would you be able to determine what’s significant or not?” He laughed once, smirking. “You don’t know anything.”

While his criticism of me was just one more way he could be sexist and cruel, I had to bite my lip.

If you think I’m so stupid and naïve, why askmeto be your damn spy?

“It has to be significant. If the Ilyins are trying to increase their numbers around or on campus, they are probably trying to take over the area. They must be thwarting my efforts to rule there.”

I didn’t reply, knowing that anything I could say would only make him madder. I didn’t follow the Ilyins. I was only ever asked who was doing what. It didn’t matter how many Ilyins were there. They were only there to buy or sell drugs and kind of look around, scoping out the scene.

“It’s bad enough that your guards had to tell me.” He narrowed his eyes and considered me like I was wasted space. “You should be upfront with me and tell me everything of interest.”

Until I was a mind reader, I wouldn’t be able to know what he wanted reported.

“What about the activity near the dean’s office?” he asked.

I shook my head, not even having to try to look clueless. Iwasclueless. “The dean’s office?”

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