Page 33 of Savage Bratva King

But Leonid must secrete the kind of pheromones that are irresistible to anyone who meets him. Jeez, I can still smell myself. I cover my mouth with one hand and exhale, praying that Tamara won’t be able to smell me too.

I shouldn’t be attracted to him. This is the man who arranged my abduction and calmly ordered the wicked witch of the west to teach me a lesson; if anything, I should be repulsed by him. But somehow, one kiss, and my knees are still trembling, and I want to yell at him to come back and finish what he started.

“I can’t have what I want.” That’s what he said.

I dissect the statement, word by word. He can’t have me because I’m an asset for him to barter with my brother-in-law. I’m his leverage. And if I’m no longer a virgin when he hands me back to my family, the war he is trying to win will escalate into a full-on nuclear disaster.

But then there’s the other half of that comment.What I want.

He wants me.

This should fill me with dread. But instead, like a little kid pulling petals from a daisy and chanting, he loves me, he loves me not, it sends a frisson of excitement traveling through me.

I knew what would happen today. Or at least, I half expected it when Leonid told me he wanted more than a kiss. I entered the maze knowing how it felt when he’d cupped my naked breast with his hand, and the part of me that is still throbbing between my legs was excited to find out how far he would go.

I could’ve refused to go for a walk. I’m sure it would’ve made Tamara happy. But I pulled this dress on with a thrill of pleasure knowing that I was naked underneath.

“Printzessa?” Tamara’s voice jolts me back to reality.

Pushing myself off the hedge wall, I straighten my dress and ball my hands into fists in case she smells my sex. I turn around to find Tamara watching me inside the maze with her brow furrowed.

“Time’s up.” She gestures for me to head outside first.

My legs carry me back to the house using muscle memory. My pulse is still racing. My heart is doing its own thing. My head is filled with the kind of images that have only ever existed between the pages of a book until now.

But for the first time since Leonid’s men brought me here, I can’t wait to be alone in my room, so that I can relive what happened inside the maze.

* * *

The next day, Tamara brings me breakfast as usual along with a jade green dress made of the kind of material that clings to every inch of my body. I spend twice as long in the shower and then moisturize my body from head to toe, imagining Leonid’s fingers sliding along my smooth legs and hesitating outside my pussy.

I don’t know if he will expect to continue the game inside the maze. But the dress suggests that he will, and suddenly, rather than praying for Xander or Seamus to rescue me, I feel like I’m counting down to my release and the last time I’ll set eyes on Leonid Ivanov with mounting dread.

I’m running out of time. Fuck going to Seamus as a virgin. I’ve had a taste of what I’m missing—just like Mika and Cartier said I would one day—and I can’t leave here without knowing more.

So, when I find Leonid waiting for me outside the maze, my heart starts doing a strange hypnotic dance, squeezing the breath from my lungs, at the promise of what today’s walk will offer.

“This is becoming a routine,” Tamara mutters under her breath. She keeps her gaze fixed straight ahead when Sergei tries to catch her eye. “People might start to question whether the Pakhan is a leader or a groundman.”

“People? Or you?” I sense the tension in her spine, but Sergei warns me to keep walking when what he really means iskeep your mouth shut.

Unfazed, Tamara retorts, “Maybe I’ll accompany you today. We will see how much you enjoy the maze with a chaperone.”

She knows. Her expression gives nothing away, but she knows exactly what is going on between me and Leonid, and I don’t trust her.

Regardless of the pakhan’s orders, she is a woman, and I’m spending too much time alone with the man she loves. I try to imagine how Mel would react if Xander was going into a maze alone with a young woman every day, and my eyes water just thinking about what Mel would do to her.

“I could lose you inside the maze as easily as I lose Leonid.”

It’s as much of a threat as I dare to toss her way without risking her dragging me back down to the dungeon. I’m just hoping Leonid will order her to wait outside. He’s a mafia pakhan. He will soon tire of this game and then, not only will I never find out what it is he wants from me, but there is no guarantee that he will allow my exercise sessions outside the house to continue.

For now, perhaps, I have piqued his curiosity. But men like Leonid Ivanov can snap their fingers and have any woman they want. Any woman who knows what they’re doing.

“Tamara wants to join us today,” I blurt out at the entrance. Because why change a habit of a lifetime and allow her to speak first.

We’ll let Leonid decide.

And somehow, I feel a little less like a prisoner in this moment, than a boxer sizing up their opponent from opposite sides of the ring. I thought that Ivana was the dangerous one, but now, I think I might’ve been wrong.

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