Page 95 of The Crimson Lily
“Would you do the same to me?” I exhale after a frail moan.
“Not if you don’t want me to,” he whispers to my ear.
I just have to know if he’d do it. If he’d get off on being that close to taking my life. If he’d enjoy crushing my face or gouging my eye. It’s an ounce of selfishness that makes me realize I’d be okay with Maksim’stendenciesif they’d never be directed at me.
“Would you kill me?” I ask softly.
No answer at first.
“I don’t get off on killing,” he groans before kissing me.
His tongue pushes through my lips and greets mine. This isn’t a normal kiss. It’s too…dangerous. I try to push him away, but he resists and keeps me pressed against the wall with his massive size. However, despite his beastly strife, he is careful not to touch my wounded arm, careful to not even lightly brush it.
“Can you explain it to me?” I murmur.
A low growl escapes his hungry lips. “I just got you back, Liliana. Do you expect me to teach you something now?”
His husky voice sends tremors through my blood. I could fall to my knees right here, such is the power he has over me.
“Were you…worried when I was gone?” I ask, my voice almost disappearing behind my shallow breaths. I’m hoping he’ll say yes, then it’ll prove one hundred percent he cares for me.
Maksim lets out a complete and guttural growl. “I was furious,” he declares. His eyes flare with his allure. “You gave yourself up for me. You could have died.”
“But I didn’t. And we finished the mission thanks to that.”
I’m right. I have the right to be a little entitled. My ingenious plan to surrender to William de Loit and smuggle that GPS tracker into the Syndicate’s lair worked after all.
“That’s why I’m not punishing you right now,” Maksim declares. “If it were up to me, I’d be pressing into that bullet wound on your arm until you begged for me to stop.”
Cold shivers run down my spine. I’m not scared. I want to learn. “So, is it about pain? Is it seeing the other suffer that turns you on?”
“Partially.”
“What else?”
He frowns. “Why do you want to know?”
I take a deep breath, preparing for the tallest leap of faith. Here we are, against a wall in a suite in Rome, a successful job behind us. Maksim is just within reach of me, and I can finally ask him about what I’ve been dying to know. “I want to know how you work if we…”
Break. I can’t continue. I want to say “If we’re going to be together forever,” but I chicken out and swallow my tongue.
“I could show you,” he proposes, and I round my eyes in curiosity.
He lowers his arms, releasing me, and he goes on his knees. I shiver when he starts unbuttoning my jeans and lets them slide along my legs. He doesn’t even flinch when his lips slip between my thighs and make me quiver. He’s absolutely in total control.
“What are you doing?” I whisper and pass my hand through his thick black curls.
“I’m making you more exposed than you already are.”
He stands up and turns around to fetch something from the table. The box of Plexiglas.
“Should I follow?” I ask, already entranced by this short moment of intimacy.
“Stay right where you are,” he says. He turns around and holds the Kinzhal Strastey in his hand. “Do you know whatStrasteymeans?” I shake my head, so he continues. “Passion.” He comes close to me and delicately brings the point of the blade to my neck. “And I am passionate about my work.”
My body stiffens, and I can’t avoid his silver glare.
“That look in your eyes right now—that’s fear, and that’s what makes you so fucking desirable.” His tone has changed. It’s no longer the stern voice of a serious man but the growl of a cruel fiend. “The best feeling is when they break.”
