Page 70 of Beautiful Beast

“It never is with you, is it?”

Slowly, he lets me go and backs away. “Nadia is where she belongs, and if you want to be happy in this household, you need to learn to let her go.”

“No.”

He raises one perfect eyebrow. “No?”

“No. Because if you want me to let my sister go, then you need to learn to let me go. You don’t get to consume me if you don’t care about me. I will never give you my heart and mind and body if you’re nothing but a cold shell of a man.”

“That’s not how this works.”

“I don’t care how it’s worked for you in the past. You think you’re in charge of me, Erik, but I think you know deep down you were never going to get control of me. If you want me to actually respect you, then show me some respect in return.”

He stands there, looking stunned. It’s a damn good feeling after what he did to me.

I walk away from him with my head held high, feeling so fucking proud of myself.

Chapter

Eleven

ERIK

“Erik, are you there?” James asks, pulling me out of my thoughts. I blink and look around the room. Sergei and Ivan are standing next to me in the dirty old warehouse. Before us is a man named Carlos, who’s selling us machine guns.

The deal is to get as many guns as we can to prepare in case Dante strikes.

My problem, though, is that I have my wife on my fucking mind, and I can’t seem to get her out of it.

Anya shocked me during our conversation the other day. The way Anya looked me in the eye and called me out was impressive. No one has ever done that to me before.

If I’m being honest, it makes me want Anya even more. I want to fuck her. Claim her as my own. I’ve never been this desperate to be with a woman in my life. I hate the hold she has on me. It makes me fucking weak.

And yet, it’s there, and I’m not sure it’s going anywhere. Anya is a tough woman to crack. She’s stubborn and beautiful and wild. She’s a lot like me in some regards.

Maybe that’s why I’m so fascinated by her and why I can’t stop thinking about her, even though I need to be thinking about my job. Fuck. I run my hand down my face and nod at James.

“I’m all good.”

Carlos, a young man who works for the Mexican cartel, sneers at me. “If you think I’m not worthy of your time, then I shouldn’t have come.”

“No. We want to buy from you.” I nod at the crate next to him. “How much do you want for it.”

“Five million.”

Sergei stands up straighter. “I thought we agreed on three million when we spoke earlier. Erik, I agreed to three million. Not five. This man is trying to rip us off.”

“I want five.” Behind Carlos stands two of his men. Guns at their hips, ready to draw in case anything goes down. James has his own gun ready just in case.

“Why the miscommunication?” I ask.

Carlos glares at me. “When we spoke on the phone, I said I wanted five.”

“When we spoke … I apologize, but I have no memory of that.”

“We spoke on the fucking phone! I know I spoke to Erik Koslov. I know I did!”

Ivan leans in closer to me. “Is it somehow possible you forgot?”

---