Page 227 of In Love with a Ruthless Man

Every inch of his hot, powerful body was suddenly pressed against her, and she bit back a whimper.

Oh God.

“Does that answer your question?” Sergei’s rough, accented growl made Fredericka shudder, the involuntary response causing her belly to come into full contact with his cock.

Ah!

Sergei sucked in his breath, his plan to arouse Fredericka backfiring as his own control over his body threatened to snap. Lust so powerful had struck him the moment he felt her womanhood rub against his erection, and now the mere scent of her fed his arousal.

Blyad.

With near-inhuman strength, Sergei managed to pull away from her and rolled to his back, breathing hard.

As soon as the billionaire pulled away, Fredericka quickly flipped on her back as well, staring into the darkness as she tried her best to calm her still-hammering heartbeat.

The bed shifted, the billionaire moving, and she swallowed hard as she sensed him locking his fingers behind his head.

Oh God.

She could easily picture how sexy he looked at that moment, with his hand behind him, his hard, naked body in full display.

Fredericka squeezed her eyes shut.

This was going to be a long, long night.

And it was.

It was almost five in the morning when sheer exhaustion made her fall asleep, only for her buzzing alarm clock to wake her up an hour and a half later. Her head pounded like the devil, and sleep beckoned like an addictive drug.

But when she turned to her side, Fredericka became wide-awake in the next second.

The other side of the bed was empty, and she sat up, looking around her, searching but finding no sign of the billionaire.

“Sergei?”

She felt silly saying his name out loud, but what was sillier was the way she actuallyhopedhe would answer back.

But only silence answered her.

Getting up, Fredericka stepped out of her bedroom, and the little hope she had left of seeing Sergei disappeared when she still didn’t see any sign of the billionaire.

He really was gone.

The thought made her feel heavy with emotions she couldn’t and didn’t want to name, and she forcibly reminded herself that there wasn’t any reason for her to feel bad in any way.He’s just a friend, dammit.

A friend, the way Alyx and Anneke were her friends.

The other girls slept over her place, too, and there were also times when she completely missed them the morning after. That hadn’t made her cry, so the billionaire leaving her before she woke up shouldn’t bother her either.

Right?

Fredericka nodded determinedly to herself.I’m not bothered. I’m not bothered. I’m not bothered. She repeated this line over and over in the shower and on her way out. She chanted it to herself while buying herself a croissant and coffee, but by the time she made it to the office, her mental pep talk had done her no good.

She still felt like she had been dumped.

“Good morning, Ms. Spears,” Selena, Fawkes & Rogers’ nineteen-year-old receptionist, greeted her with a frosty smile.

“Morning, Selena.” She forced herself to smile politely even as she privately wondered why it was that all the women these days seemed to hate her. First, there was Sergei Grachyov’s secretary, and now it was the law firm’s receptionist, who hadn’t ever bothered to greet her in the past.

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