The sex. Making dinner together. Now a walk by the lake. It feels romantic and sweet. Like he’s my boyfriend, not a guy I sold my body and soul to for the next month.
Is he trying to… woo me?
No, that’s ridiculous. Why would he? Except when I review everything that’s passed between us until now through that lens, it almost fits.
He took me home from the Red Room but refused to have sex with me. Like a gentleman. He wouldn’t take my car. Also, very gallant. He let me have the ring back with the payment of a single kiss. He came out to dinner with me—which was a huge favor for me to ask, considering we had no relationship. And then he wanted to be invited up.
That’s the single most damning piece of evidence I have.
He wanted to be invited up, but I refused, which seemed to hurt him. And then he offered me this deal.
My pulse races as I consider all these facts.
Does Nikolai actually like me?
For more than sex?
The idea thrills me, even as I throw up a dozen barriers around my heart. I can’t get involved with Nikolai.
As amazing as the sex is, and as much as he fascinates me, I would never, ever date a guy in the Russian mafiya.
I mean, never, ever, ever.
It was bad enough my dad was a gambler, but at least that was legal. I could never align myself with someone who does things that aren’t. Someone who operates from violence.
No. Nikolai is a dangerous man in an even more dangerous organization.
There’s no way I can even consider getting excited over the fact that he might like me.
Of course, the flutters and warmth zooming around in my chest don’t wait for permission to exist. I can’t control my way out of my own attraction to Nikolai.
I grab my jacket and emerge from the bedroom. When I pick up my purse, Nikolai takes it off my shoulder and sets it down. “You won’t need that.” He takes my hand. “Let’s go.”
I try to shut down the flutters as we take the elevator to the ground floor, but they refuse to obey. My body is alive at Nikolai’s nearness. My nerve endings tingling to be close to him. To breathe the faint scent of his soap and aftershave.
We get off on the ground floor and walk out to the lobby. The same tattooed guy is at the front desk as the first time I came to the Kremlin.
“Do you ever get an hour off around here?” I pretend we’re friendly, and I didn’t cry and beg and climb him like a tree last time I saw him.
He grins. “My shift just started.” His gaze flicks between me and Nikolai with interest. “I’m Maykl.”
Nikolai growls something in Russian, and he wipes the smile off his face.
“I’m Chelle.” I hold my hand out.
Maykl glances at Nikolai without reaching for it.
“What did you say?” I demand.
“I told him not to flirt with you or his tongue would end up like Oleg’s,” Nikolai mutters.
My smile grows wider, and I extend my hand further. “You can shake my hand,” I tell Maykl. “Nikolai already owns me.”
Nikolai’s chuckle sounds involuntary.
As soon as Maykl sees the smile, he clasps my hand and squeezes too hard.
“Ow.” I wiggle my fingers when he releases it. “You’re stronger than you think.”
“Show off,” Nikolai growls. “Touch her again, and you die.”
I can’t stop the cascade of pleasure that runs through me at Nikolai’s possessiveness. I was right.
He likes me.
I grasp his elbow like we’re on a formal date and smile up at him as he leads me out of the glass doors and onto the sidewalk.
His return smile is warm. He winks, and I beam like a lunatic. “Don’t ever climb him again,” he says, and I burst into laughter.
“You didn’t like that? I was trying to see you.”
“You were trying to get your ring back,” he grumbles.
“You got a kiss out of it,” I remind him, and his fond smile returns. “And some light groping, which pretty much rocked my world, I must confess.”
Now I get teeth with the smile. Nikolai stops and yanks my body up against his, looping his arm around my back. I lose my breath, tipping my face up to his. His hand wanders to my ass like it did during that kiss. “Let’s have a repeat, then,” he murmurs as he lowers his lips to mine.
It’s dark out, and the sidewalk is mostly empty. His body blocks the chilly wind coming off the lake, and his breath is warm on my face. He strokes his lips over mine softly once. I’m instantly on fire, my body now fully belonging to him. I reach for his face and kiss him back, my tongue prying his lips apart. He squeezes and kneads my ass with one hand, then adds the other. I loop my hands around his neck and jump to straddle him.
He chuckles against my lips.
“Can I climb you, then?”
“Right where I want you,” he declares and kisses me until I grow dizzy.
Voices sound from behind him, and he sets me back down with a groan. “Tomorrow I won’t let you leave my bed for even a minute.”
“Aw, come on.” I loop my arm through his again. “You have me all month.”
His smile fades and some of the warmth leaves his eyes. He looks ahead instead of down at me as we walk and my stomach tightens.
Nikolai wants more than this arrangement.
I’d already figured that out before we came downstairs, but his change in mood drove it home.
I should tell him now—explain why I can’t do this for real.
Except I can’t bring myself to speak. I don’t want to say the words. To further ruin what was a magical moment.
When we get to the water’s edge, Nikolai stops at a rack of bicycles for rent and takes out his credit card.
“What are you doing?” I demand.
“You missed your spin class. I thought we could go for a ride along the lake shore.”
“Oh, no. We can’t! I’m not a street rider,” I say immediately.
He raises a brow as he completes the transaction for the first bike. “I don’t get it.”
“I mean, riding outside where there are people and laws you have to follow is a totally different thing. It would be dangerous.”
He lowers the seat on the bike he unlocked and turns on the headlight. “I’ll keep you safe,” he promises, as if the danger would be from someone attacking us, and not me running into a pole, or falling on my head. He pushes the bike toward me, and I reluctantly take charge of it.
“I can’t ride a bike in the dark!” I protest.
“Of course you can. Trust me, zayka. It will be fun.” He finishes unlocking the second bike and throws his leg over it. “Come on, we’ll go slowly.” He turns on his headlight.
“We don’t have helmets!”
“Chelle.” He says my name so quietly, it has the effect of settling me and capturing my attention. He holds my gaze. “It will be fun.”
I have no choice but to believe him. I mount the bike and start pedaling, controlling the wobble beneath me.
Nikolai passes me, a broad grin on his face. “Keep up, Freckles,” he calls over his shoulder.
“Oh, it’s on,” I retort, pushing hard into my pedals to catch up.
Nikolai’s chuckle carries on the wind, and I pull up beside him. He leads me to the sidewalk that runs along the lake shore. During the day, it’s usually packed with people, but at this time of night, there’s no one out here. We have the whole walkway to ourselves. The clouds part, revealing a bright white moon that creates a long, continuous reflection on the water.