Page 30 of British Bratva: A Russian Mafia Romance

The rest of it could go to hell.

CHAPTER 12

Elizabeth

Face pressed up to the glass of my bedroom window, I looked out across the silent street with my heart thundering in my chest, trying to calm my breathing. Three in the morning, it was deserted. There was no one around to see me.

But maybe Maxim was out there. The mysterious man from the boxing gym who’d spoken in riddles and been so serious and disarming. The dress had to be from him. So why hadn’t he come up to me? Where had he disappeared to?

I’d wanted him then and I wanted him now, still on edge from escaping the clutches of Pierce’s friends at the promotional evening, and still reeling from seeing Sandra’s PA all over him.

I hadn’t been able to get Maxim out of my head for days, and there was nothing I could do about it if he didn’t want to be found. It was maddening.

I peered at all the windows of the building opposite, straining my eyes to make out anything beyond the darkened glass panes. He was out there, watching me, in one of those apartments, just feet away. I knew he was.

Had he listened in to the whole dinner party? Heard my awkwardness and seen my blushes when Pierce’s friends talked about what a ‘handsome young lady’ I’d become.

Did he think so too?

Boxing made my arms too muscular, my chest tight and my breasts small. I never felt feminine, but I felt attractive in this dress, sophisticated, sexy. Like maybe I wasn’t so shabby next to all the glamorous people there. It was so much better than the pale yellow dress and the bright white cardigan Pierce would have made me wear.

But he hadn’t come over to me the way I’d hoped he would.

“Maxim, are you out there?” Even whispering, my voice sounded terribly loud against the silence of the street. I stayed still, up against the glass, watching for any sign he’d heard me.

And – there.

Something moved in one of the windows across, one floor down from me. There and gone before I could focus on it.

“Was that you?”

The window stayed silent and blank. I let out a short breath, full of impatience. What was I doing? I might as well have been talking to a ghost.

The thought that it was him excited me more than it should. All this time I’d had a deadly guardian angel waiting in the wing, and I knew now he’d be ready to swoop in and dish out vengeance. For the first time in so long, I wasn’t on my own.

Slowly, I peeled my cardigan off, eyes locked onto the window where I thought I’d seen something move, and there, again, just as fleeting, came a little flash reflected from the streetlights. Binoculars? A camera? Some kind of scope?

“Come to the window Maxim. I already know you’re out there.”

One by one, I lowered the shoulder straps of my dress, sliding them off my shoulders. I held my breath, already knowing what I was about to do – what I wanted to do, before I reached back behind me to slide the zip down.

Inch by inch, I let the dress fall off my body, my eyes locked onto the window, until I was standing there, in my bra and knickers. I wanted him to show himself. I wanted to know for sure that he was there.

Down below, the curtain shifted. And a piece of paper with just two words on it appeared.

Stop it.

My breath caught in my throat. He was there, and he was watching. Slow and deliberate, I shook my head from side to side. “I don’t want to.”

I ran my thumb along the inside of my bra strap, easing it off my shoulder, thinking about Maxim’s body, what he was like up close when we had each other on our toes, sparring in the ring. I knew he’d been holding back. But I gave him more of a run than he’d been expecting.

And I wanted to know what it would feel like to have him up against me in another way entirely.

Leaning down, I opened my mouth and breathed against the glass enough to fog it. Carefully, I traced letters backwards so he’d be able to read them the right way. Make me.

The paper disappeared. I watched the curtain for a long stretch of minutes, but he didn’t appear in the window.

I stepped back a little way from the glass, turning around as I unhooked by bra, facing into my bedroom. My nipples were peaked even before the air hit them. I held it out, letting it drop to the ground theatrically by my side.

This was insanity. I didn’t care. The only thing I wanted was for him to see me, the way he’d seen Sandra’s bloody PA. I wanted him to want me more than that.

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