Page 17 of Shadow

He sucked in a sharp breath of surprise when I wrapped my hand around his throat and slammed him back against the elevator wall hard enough to make the box rattle. Leaning in, I smashed my mouth to his. He resisted at first, trying to turn his head, but I just dug my fingers into his jaw, holding him in place. And then, I sank my teeth into his bottom lip hard enough to make his lip bleed. Snarling, I lapped the blood up, then pressed my hand in harder against his neck, cutting off his air flow. Immediately, he stilled, realizing he no longer had the upper hand.

Hell, he never had it to begin with.

“I’ve played your fucking game long enough, Shadow,” I growled as the elevator slowly came to a stop. “Now, we’re playingmygame, and your hand isempty,” I warned him. My hand dropped from his neck just as the elevator doors opened, and he reached up almost absentmindedly, rubbing at his neck as he stared at me.

I pressed my arm against the door to keep it open, then arched a brow at him. “Let’s go,” I told him, jerking my head in the direction of the hallway.

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” he rasped, his throat obviously hurting. I’d put a lot of pressure beneath my hand. If I’d really wanted, I could’ve crushed his windpipe. And that look in his eyes let me know he was very aware of that.

He was even more aware that I hadn’t.

My other hand snapped forward, and I gripped the front of his t-shirt. Twisting the fabric in my fist, I yanked him toward me. His pupils blew wide, and unable to help myself, especially when a trickle of blood ran down his chin, I leaned in and kissed him again, taking a moment to lick that blood up.

“Our room.Now,” I growled as I pulled back and shoved him into the hall.

He stumbled, quickly catching himself. I stepped out after him and adjusted my shirt. When I arched a brow at him, waiting to see if we were just going to have this shit out in the hallway—because I didn’t give a fuck where I got inside of him at—he turned on his heel and walked off toward our room.

Good boy.

With a smirk tilting my lips, I followed after him, my shiny Oxfords silent on the hallway’s carpet. His hand shook as he swiped his keycard over the door pad. When he pushed the door open and stepped inside, I followed, quietly shutting the door behind me. When that littleshnickechoed and the electric sound of the lock engaging reached his ears, his shoulders stiffened.

I licked the front of my teeth, then began to slowly and carefully unroll my shirt sleeves. He turned to face me, and for the first time since Malik had appeared on my radar, he looked nervous and unsure.

Fucking good.

“Strip,” I snapped, letting my mask fall away. That rage I’d been feeling consumed me, and Malik swallowed thickly, nervousness glimmering in his dark eyes. “And do not say a fucking word unless it’s to say yes, more, please, or my fucking name.”

14

Malik

Iwas out of my fucking depth. Within one brutal kiss and his hand around my throat, Rurik had accomplished stripping away my defenses, leaving me feeling vulnerable and raw. Splayed open. For the first time, I was laid bare in front of Rurik, and he was seeingeverythingI tried so fucking hard to hide from the world.

I’d thought seeing him finally crack, finally give in to that lack of control would make me feel better. Make me feel higher than I usually felt around him. More in control. Because I’d been the one to make his perfect mask fracture.

To break.

But instead, I’d only backed myself into a corner. Dug myself into a proverbial hole. Because Rurik wasn’t like me when he got angry, when he was pissed off with the world.

No… Rurik let his humanity slip away. His eyes were blank and cold as he stared at me, waiting for me to follow his command. Iswallowed thickly, hating that my fingers trembled at my sides. I didn’t want to obey. Fuck, I did not want to give him more power than he already had over me. But when he arched that perfect fucking brow at me, impatience leaking into his features, I knew I didn’t have a choice.

Either I’d strip or he’d come do it for me. It was written in every aggressive angle of his body.

We’re playingmygame, and your hand isempty.

His words echoed in my head on repeat. It was clear I no longer held the control in this situation, and that lack of control left me spiraling. I was untethered. Fucking lost. I couldn’t even bring myself to be angry in the face of the monster standing in front of me.

It didn’t matter that Rurik was both shorter and smaller than me. Seeing that mask of his gone made him seem larger than life, and now, I understood how he’d come to be Anatoly’s second when he was only in his late twenties.

Rurik had always been nothing more than the devil in disguise.

“Five… four… three…” His words were soft. Careful. Completely the opposite of the cold look in his eyes. And they had me scrambling to tug my shirt over my head. My nail split and blood welled on my thumb when I fumbled to unbutton my jeans and yank my zipper down, but I didn’t pay the pain or the blood any mind.

Once my boots were off and my clothes were kicked to the side, Rurik began slowly working open the buttons on his dress shirt. I damn near swallowed my tongue as slowly, inch by torturous fucking inch, more and more of his tatted skin was revealed tomy hungry eyes. My cock, hard and leaking, jerked against my belly, and my fingers twitched.

“On the bed on your stomach,” Rurik growled.

It took me a moment to obey. My feet felt rooted to the floor. I was caught between wanting to obey him and wanting to fight him. See where fighting him might get me. But when he paused, danger flickering in his blue eyes, I bit the inside of my cheek and followed his order.

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