Page 59 of 10 Days to Surrender

Dammit.Unfair tactics win yet again. It’s criminal that he keeps getting away with this.

“But if you insist on disobeying,” he says, “I’ll carry you upstairs myself.”

Again, something low in my belly quivers in a way that’s not at all unpleasant.

“Fine.” I turn and start the slow trek back to the stairs. That nice heat stays simmering the whole way. It occurs to me how easy it would be to let bygones be bygones. Kosti and Jasmine will be gone for a while yet—maybe hours, if the rain keeps them stranded in town. I could stay down here and take what I want from Sasha. A quick, breathless romp in the dark. No one wouldhave to know. I could pretend it never happened. My hormones, if nothing else, would be extremely pleased.

But I can’t do that. Some bridges can’t be uncrossed, and that’s one of them. I need to remember where the lines are and why I put them there.

It’s for the best this way,I tell myself.Just go back upstairs and climb into bed. Hell, maybe even take Sasha’s suggestion to heart. A little fun in bed all by your lonesome and you can kick that horny can down the road for a little while longer.

That sounds like a much better idea. Once I’m upstairs, I can let myself be transported somewhere else entirely. I’ll dissipate all these unwanted feelings and get back to my grim, unwavering focus on the nine weeks left until the rest of my life begins.

As I reach the top of the stairs, I find that there’s only one problem with that plan.

The door won’t open.

The handle doesn’t budge when I twist it. “This cannot be real.” I try again, but it’s even more stuck than it was before. “Fuck. Fuckity fuck. Uh… Sasha? Can you help me, please?”

The wrench clanks. Sasha’s boots thud up the stairs behind me. His heat presses close as he reaches over my shoulder to try the knob.

“Move,” he growls.

“Wow, so helpful?—”

The door groans but doesn’t budge. Sasha curses again. The flashlight wobbles underneath his face.

He steps back, fingers flexing like he might try to punch through solid oak. I grab his wrist. “Don’t you dare,” I snap as he prepares to turn himself into a battering ram. “If you hurt yourself again, we’d be stuck here until Kosti and Jasmine get home, and who knows how long that’ll be?”

“Goddammit. Fine.” Darkness swallows his smirk. “I guess the fun stays down here for now.”

23

ARIEL

My nipples could cut glass.

We’ve been down here for an hour and I’m already wishing I’d never rebelled against Sasha’s bedrest instructions in the first place. “Under my covers” sounds like a really nice place to be right now.

If nothing else, it’d be less tense. Sasha and I are sitting in the pool of light from his flashlight—which, conveniently enough, is growing dimmer and dimmer with every minute that passes.

“Kosti is supposed to get new batteries,” he explains with a grimace.

“Perfect,” I chirped back. “What wonderful timing for them to die.”

It is actually nice in one sense, which is that darkness is gradually swallowing up his face. The less of him I can see, the better, seeing as how the Hungry Hungry Hormones I’d been so eager to work out upstairs seem intent on sticking around.

And they sense prey.

Or predator, rather. Because Sasha Ozerov, shirtless in the dark, is the kind of thing that does hunting all on its own.

“You’re shivering,” he notes suddenly.

I cup my hands over my chest so he can’t see proof that he’s one hundred percent on the money. “Am not.”

His shirt hits my lap before I can protest—still warm from his body. We’re on the mountain all over again, but this time around, there’s way less glitter to amuse myself with.

“Don’t,” he says when I try to hand it back. “The babies need you warm.”

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