Page 72 of Shattered Altar (Makarova Bratva Duet)

My legs are shaky and the ground is littered with everything that was upended when Aleks swept them off the table to make room for me.

He stands to the side and observes me as I pick my way barefoot between broken pottery to the pile of my discarded clothes.

“You could help me,” I say, glaring back at him.

He shrugs. “And miss the show?”

My annoyance blots away some of the self-consciousness, which is good, because he never takes his eyes off me. Now that I think about it, maybe that’s part of why I stay so damn mad at him all the time—because it’s a better alternative than acknowledging what he’s doing to me deep down inside.

I pull my dress up over my breasts, although I know there’s no way I can zip myself up without his help. But he doesn’t offer and I’m not going to ask.

He grabs a glass of wine from the table and sits back down as if the area isn’t a complete disaster of spilled cutlery and broken glasses.

“Well?” I ask, turning to him.

He looks at me with amusement. “Well, what?”

“I did what you wanted me to do.”

He frowns before taking a sip. “I don’t follow.”

“You need to take me to see my brother.” I still sound confident for now, but uncertainty is starting to creep into my limbs with each passing second.

He raises his eyebrows. “You don’t strike me as the type of woman who trades sex for favors.”

I know if I concentrate on that insult, I’ll get side-tracked. So I stick to the point instead. “I told you I would do anything—”

“And I asked you to prove it,” he says.

“So I…”

I trail off when I realize the point he’s trying to make. I start to pale as he regards me with his gaze.

“You fucked me of your own accord,” he says. “I didn’t ask you to.”

I shake my head, but his chuckle makes me freeze. “You gave me your body before I even asked for it, Olivia. You showed me everything I needed to know. You want it. You want this. You want me.”

I rear back and twist around so that I don’t have to look at his face.

Oh God, what have I done? I walked right into the trap he set for me.

But even that isn’t totally true. I set the trap myself. I told him I’d do anything. Because I was blinded by my attraction to him.

“All I want is to be reunited with my family.”

His devil-may-care eyes see right through my lies. “If only that were true.”

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