Page 18 of Maxim

“Yes, Master,” she murmurs, eyes full of desire.

The fantasy falls away when I hear the sound of another door closing somewhere out in the hallway. I close my eyes and take a deep breath. This woman could tempt Jesus to commit a sin. How easy would it be…

Pull it together. She doesn’t need another man lusting after her, she needs someone to get her out of this mess fucking safely.

Stepping forward, I raise my hand to help her up but freeze when she flinches.

Jesus Christ. What the hell did Jan do to her? No one should ever recoil the way she just did.

My mind goes to worst-case scenarios. Did he slap her around or did he beat her? Did he find other ways to torture her? I’ve done my fair share of torture in the past, but I couldn’t imagine doing it to a woman.

I knew that Jan had no honor, but this solidifies it. The man already has a death sentence because of his crimes, but now…

My jaw clenches as I try to check my anger.

“Get up.”

The poor girl scrambles, getting tangled in her own limbs. Instinctively I reach out and grab hold of her before she can hurt herself. She recoils away from me, making my heart sink.

This is worse than I thought it was. I know this is a shit situation, but for some reason, I don’t want her to be afraid of me.

Goddammit, this is a clusterfuck. I run my hands over my face in frustration. This wasn’t supposed to happen. I was supposed to gather names, that’s it, and somehow I ended up with a woman. I went off course and ended up with a woman. What the hell am I going to do with her?

I look over at her and see that she’s holding herself still with her arms wrapped around her. She looks like a stiff breeze could knock her over.

She’s cold.

The realization has me ripping off my suit jacket. Very carefully I approach her until I drape my jacket around her. I have to fight back a smile when she buries her face into the material.

Clearing my throat, I step back, giving her some room. “Do you have anything to take with us?”

“N-no, Master.” She shakes her head.

Frowning, I look around the room and see that it is, in fact, empty of personal belongings.

“Do we need to stop by your home?”

Her face lights up for the briefest moment before it falls. “No, even if I wanted to, I don’t think Father would let us onto the property.”

“I could ask…” When she winces, I mutter, “Or not.”

I don’t know why, but for some reason the fact she won’t look me in the eye drives me fucking crazy. She’s never had a problem doing it in the past, so why now?

Taking a breath, I rub my jaw. “Okay, that’s fine. We can get you whatever you want.”

I expect her to perk up at the prospect of shopping like Ivanna and Lia do, but she doesn’t, which just pisses me off more.

How deprived has she been?

She’s a woman, isn’t shopping like…their thing?

“Are you ready to go?”

Olena gives me a jerky nod.

Stepping forward, I rest my hand on her back. I can’t help but grind my molars when it twitches under my palm.

For a split second, I contemplate leaving her alone and going and finding her old man and choking the life out of him, but that kind of death would be far too easy on him.

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