Page 55 of Riley & Kane: Complete Set

My smile seems to distract him. “Thankyou.”

A curt nod. “Try and maintain that grateful attitude.” His cheek flexes for long moments as he stares out at the road ahead. “Do you remember when I came to live withyou?”

“Of course.” I turn and lay the side of my face on the leather seat. “It was the week after my mother’s funeral. My father was so paranoid, he wouldn’t let me leave the house, and I thought I’d be a prisoner forever, but…he trusted you to protect me. Before you even unpacked, you took me out for icecream.”

“Yes.” His expression warms, before the stoicism returns and chases it away. “This trust your father had in me is very important, Anya. It didn’t come for free. Do you understand? Not for him or me.” He pauses. “My mother and sister needed a home in Chicago, and your father had the connections I didn’t, being so new to thiscountry.”

I nod, because I knew this much already. Sasha’s family is private and they don’t come to the house very often, unless there’s some news that must be delivered in person. But I always know when it’s someone’s birthday because he asks my opinion when ordering flowers or a gift online. “I’m glad he helped your family. It brought meyou.”

My face goes up in flames as soon as the words leave my mouth. Normally, I wouldn’t hesitate to let Sasha know I appreciate him. But that was before he touched me. Before he admitted to admiring my near - naked body with looks Iusedto believe were platonic. Now I worry saying how much I need him out loud might make me sound too desperate. Aren’t I, though? God, I can barely sit still on the seat, I want to be in his lap sobad.

“Anya.”

“Yes,” Ibreathe.

“You will continue as you always have. You will not stop telling me your thoughts.” He rolls a shoulder. “I like them verymuch.”

My heart is pounding in my ears when I say, “Tell me therest.”

His eyebrows lift at being given a command, but thankfully he doesn’t pull the plug on our conversation. “I gave him five years of loyal service in exchange for his help with my family. When I came to Chicago, I assumed I would be running…a very different kind of operation for your father. But when he mentioned hiring you a different bodyguard, Iprotested.”

I catch a laugh in my throat, just imagining what that protest from Sasha looked and sounded like. Sort of like the human equivalent of a volcaniceruption.

“This amuses you, angel?” The car picks up speed. “Men are not to betrusted.”

“Onlyyou.”

“That’s right. Only me.” He slants a look in my direction, those cool gray eyes roaming over my legs and breasts, his humongous arms seeming to expand and flex inside his coat. “I gave him five years. During those five years, I vowed to keep you innocent. Of all men, yes. But when I made this promise to your father, it was clear that it pertained to me. So long as this five - year contract was in effect, you wereforbidden.”

Fiveyears.

My mind flips like pages in a calendar, thinking back to the day Sasha arrived. Fall. It was fall. I remember because the first time I saw him, I was sitting on the front steps of my house, head resting in my lap, wishing I could go ride my bike at the pier with my friends. Never again, though. My father, lost in his grief, had barred me from leaving. Sasha’s black boots appeared first, crunching on the autumn leaves that had fallen from the tree. He crouched down and forced me to meet his eyes. Eyes that reminded me of thawing ice.Angel, he’drasped.

“And…” My mouth is dry, so I make myself swallow. “And when does the contractexpire?”

His big chest lifts and shudders back down. “Tonight.”

Chapter Three

Sasha

It’stime for Anya’slunch.

When she doesn’t eat, everything I say is the wrong thing. So we don’t missmeals.

She has been quiet since I informed her my shackles come off tonight. Quiet and…restless. I take a book from the glove compartment and drop it in her lap, but she starts to read it upside down, so I stow it away again. Her fingers pluck at the hem of her skirt, her feet perform an awkward dance routine, and she keeps changing the radio stations, neversettling.

I have an urge to park the car and pull her across the seat, into my lap. It’s what she needs. A good, hard ride on her man’s cock. Even if she doesn’t realize ityet.

Soon.

There are some things we must speak about, before I take her body. But even I am not stupid enough to inform Anya of her future when she has an empty stomach. She might have been born in Chicago, but she has a fiery Russian temper. In the future, I have no doubt I’ll fuck her mid - tantrum — frequently — but I want her first time tobe…

Romantic.

My lip curls at such a feminine notion. Only Anya could make a cold - blooded killer consider things like candles and high thread count sheets. I never imagined myself as a husband. And I never would have, if I hadn’t met the angel. Now I can think of nothing but making every second of her life happy. Providing and protecting what God has given me. Perhaps Anya and I have different notions about what she requires to be content, but she will come around to my way of thinking. There is no otherchoice.

A hint of unease creeps into my chest, but I banishit.

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