Page 601 of Hell Hath No Fury
CHAPTER NINE
“Stay with me,Stellichka,” Misha says as he reclines, unabashedly naked in his bed. The early dawn light is buttery over his sinful Egyptian cotton sheets. He looks good enough to eat and he knows it, if his grin is any indication.
“I’ll come back. I just have something I need to do and then I’ll come back, I promise.” I glance at him as I search for my bra and panties in the wreckage from our long, long night sex-fest. Aha! I find my bra on top of his dresser and my panties hanging from his bathroom door.
“Come here,” he says, sitting up against his reclaimed wood headboard. “One kiss and I’ll let you go.”
Slipping into my panties and wincing at the soreness of my thighs and back, I shake my head. “Oh no, we’ve played that game. One kiss could mean anything.”
“On the lips,” he says. I give him a look as I clasp my bra and hunt down my dress. “Dirty girl,” he very nearly growls. “Fine, one kiss on yourmouthand I’ll let you go.”
I drag on my tunic dress and come to stand next to the bed. “One kiss.”
He smiles, tucking his hands behind his back. “I won’t even touch you,” he says.
I narrow my eyes, but put one knee on the bed, bracing my hands on his strong shoulders, careful to keep the tips of my fingers away from the tender skin near his tattoo. As I lean closer, I’m relieved to find his face is smooth, unworried, and his smile is easy. Closing my eyes, I press my lips to his.
Even without touching me, I feel his kiss down to my bones, warming me from the inside out, causing a flush to break out on my skin. He slumps down and gravity forces me to follow, brushing our chests together. Momentum has me throwing a leg over his hips to break my fall, aligning us center to center.
Heat against heat.
His hardness, against my softness.
I pull away, eyes narrowed.
“What?” he asks, feigning innocence. “I didn’t touch you.”
* * *
Weekdays at The Sanctum are an altogether different affair than the weekend. The main floor is no longer the hedonistic haven it was the night I met him. Now, it looks like every other restaurant in Nassau. Unremarkable, ordinary.
Interesting how all the decadent things have a veneer of sophistication and normality in the daylight.
Knowing he’ll find me, somehow he always does, I wander across the first floor to the members’ entrance that leads to the second. I press my thumb into the scanner and open the door after it beeps.
The race up to the third floor is a quick one, fueled by an aching want and humming anticipation. The room he’s reserved for our last session is unoccupied. Following his instructions, I locate the customary blindfold and slip it over my eyes. I kneel beside the door and wait for him to enter.
He keeps me waiting this time. Maybe he already knows I’m wavering. Can he sense my interest in another man? Knowing him, knowing how much he understandsme,he must. Even in the short amount of time we’ve spent together, he can read me, read my body, like no one I’ve ever known.
Emotion clogs my throat and I breathe deeply through my nose to stave off the tears.
How am I ever supposed to let go of this side of me?
How am I supposed to choose?
The door opens before I’m able to sort through my feelings. I can sense him by the entrance, a coil of potential energy.
“Are you purposefully tempting me to punish you, girl?” he asks when he sees I haven’t changed out of my street clothes.
I don’t know. Maybe I am. So I say nothing.
He crosses the room and fists a hand in my hair, pulling me to my knees. His breath is ragged, like he was so anxious he took the stairs two at a time to get to me. My stomach twists.
“Have you been a bad girl?” he asks, his voice low. When I don’t answer he sucks a breath through his teeth. “You’ll answer me,” he says.
Silence stretches between us, it burns my cheeks and brings tears to my eyes. I want to answer him. I want to tell him…what, I don’t know, but I can’t seem to make the words come out of my mouth.
He releases my hair, and I stumble back like a boat without an anchor. His footsteps cross the room and he’s nearly to the door before I come to my senses.
