Page 27 of Wicked Vow

I’ve never in my life tried to figure out how to win a woman over.

I don’t think I’ve ever really had anything that could be called a relationship. My life wasn’t conducive to one, and I didn’t long for it. Sex was easy enough to get when I wanted it, either by charming a woman into bed or paying for it, and that had always been enough.

Until Natalia blew my world apart.

Now I have to find a way to win her over–to win herback, if she was ever really mine at all, and I’m not sure how to go about doing it. All I can think of is what I’ve done before–catch her, keep her, and convince her that her only option is to stay.

Viktor has thrown quite a wrench in that plan, though.

The thought that she’s not mine anymore makes me feel like I’m going borderline insane.

As soon as I’d made up my mind to try to get her back, to find a way to convince her that I knew I’d made a mistake in blaming her,hurtingher, I hadn’t been able to wait to see her again. I’d known I was risking everything in getting close to her again, including my life, but what was the other option?

Never seeing her again, letting her move on with no idea as to what she was doing or thinking, felt a million times worse than death. I’ve spent my whole life knowing that death was a possibility. I’d never for a second thought that love might be.

So I formulated a plan.

I’d acquired a handful of small devices that could pick up audio from a former contact in the city, using cash that I’d pulled off the card Viktor had given me. He’d made two big mistakes with that. He’d given me a card with far more money than I needed to survive for a month–and he’d put my name on it, which meant all I had to do was give it a PIN, and I could use the cash from it for anything I wanted.

It took three days to get the devices back. Once I had those, I snuck onto Viktor’s property.

It wasn’t as hard as he might have imagined it would be. I still remembered the general outlay of his security from the days when I’d worked with him–I’d helped build the protocols and train his team back then–and it hadn’t changed so much that it had put me at any real risk. It had been simple enough. I’d waited for the entire family to go out to dinner one night–including Natalia, Ruby, and the children, and then for a staff member to leave.

I’d slipped through the unguarded back entrance before the door could be alarmed. From there, it had been easy to stay in the shadows, placing the small devices in the dining room, the living room, and then, with my heart pounding from the thought of being so close to her again–Natalia’s bedroom.

It had smelled like her. Her warm scent, her skin, her perfume. Placing the devices in the dining room and living room had been quick, sleight-of-hand, in-and-out maneuvers that had taken seconds. However, once I was in Natalia’s room, I’d been frozen. Heart racing, blood pounding, cock hard as iron–I’d stood there, desperate to be close to her again.

I’d placed the device at the back of her bed, so close to the pillow that I knew I’d be able to hear her breathe as she slept–or any other noises that she made. That thought had wrenched through me, heating my blood with desire that felt almost unbearable at the thought of her in bed touching herself, imagining me.

If it was me. But who else would she imagine?

It had been too long since I’d been with her. Days–long, aching, painful days. When I’d had her in the house with me, I’d barely been able to keep my hands off of her–and now I couldn’t touch her. Couldn’t evenspeakto her or see her.

I hadn’t been able to stop myself from looking in her dresser, touching her clothes, breathing in the scent of her. It felt like torture, being so close to her and still so far away.

Her room led out to a balcony overlooking the back garden, with bushes below it low enough that I could get off the balcony without being hurt. It bought me a few extra minutes in her room, before I might run the risk of getting caught by one of Viktor’s security patrols.

I’d known I needed to go. But I wanted to stay there,rightthere, until she came back and found me and saw how desperately I wanted to see her again. All I could think was that if she knew how badly I wanted her, she’d go with me.

Deep down, I knew that wasn’t true. I needed information to know what she was thinking now, to plot a means to convince her to be with me again. Standing there in her room wouldn’t be enough.

I’d walked to the window, quickly, passing by a black woven basket with clothes tossed inside. I’d seen, at the top, the silky pair of panties that I remembered her wearing for me not so long ago when I’d pinned her against the door and dragged them down her thighs with my teeth.

When I picked them up, they still smelled of her.

It had taken everything in me not to wrap them around my cock then and there, stroking myself feverishly until I came. I felt almost blind with need, hard and throbbing, the desire worse than it had been since we’d left Moscow. But somehow, I forced myself to shove them in my pocket and keep going–out onto the balcony, over it, into the bushes, and back through the garden as I avoided Viktor’s security and made my way back towards where I could call a cab to my hotel.

I’d put off listening to the feed from the device I planted in her room. If I did, if I heard her moaning, the soft sounds of her touching herself, I’d known I wouldn’t get anything done for far too long. So instead, I focused on the other feeds. And I’d learned where I could find her.

Where I could follow her.

It led me to thePassion Flower, where I’d known she would be, watching her friend audition for a new job.

When I see her sitting there, her hair that rich honey blonde again under the lights, her slim bare legs tucked to one side, the hint of the curve of one breast visible in the neckline of the white t-shirt she’s wearing with red shorts that cling to her thighs and ass in a way that makes my mouth feel dry, it’s all I can do not to go to her. I want to grab her, sweep her into my arms, and carry her off like the villain in an old movie, hand clamped over her mouth until I have her locked safely away and can convince her that she belongs to me.

If I’d only wanted to keep her and not hurt her, she might have stayed before.

I’d slipped in through a back entrance once again–places really should keep their back doors more closely guarded–and stayed in the shadows, dressed all in black so that if anyone noticed me, I could potentially be part of security.

---