My gut wanted to believe Rocco is as generous as he is stirring, but my heart refused to consider it for even a moment. It knew my gifts were from Dimitri, just like he knew I was going to participate in his ruse even if it came with a risk I wouldn’t come out of it unscathed. Fien deserves the chance to experience a father’s love as I never have. If I help her achieve that, perhaps my own failure won’t feel so horrific.
I jump up from the couch like an obedient lapdog when Dimitri enters the large office in the lower half of his compound. Although the well-decorated space is shrouded in blackness, I know who he is. Not only have my eyes adjusted to the dark, his scent is highly distinguishable as is his suffocating aura.
It chokes the air of oxygen even more when he barks out, “You did good tonight, Roxanne. The bidders’ eagerness to woo you had them spilling secrets left, right, and center.” Air whizzes out of his nose. “But you also did bad. What was the first rule Smith told you tonight?”
The nerves twisting in my stomach are heard in my reply, “That I wasn’t to touch anyone.” I’m not worried I broke the rules. Just remembering the men were here to buy my virginity assured my hands wouldn’t get close to them. I’m petrified I haven’t given Dimitri a reason to punish me. His punishment would have been far more pleasurable than painful.
When Dimitri slants his head, the light outside the hall unshadows half his ridiculously handsome face. “And what did you do?” I’m about to answer, kept my hands to myself, but he continues talking, foiling my chance. “You touched.”
I almost shake my head until I realize it isn’t anger pumping out of Dimitri. It’s jealousy.
A one-way ticket to hell drops into my inbox when I mumble, “I didn’t mean to. I find it hard to communicate without my hands.”
I anticipate for him to call me out as the liar I am, so you can imagine my shock when he commences pacing to a big wooden desk in the corner of the room. His arrogant walk wasn’t dissuaded from the seediness of tonight’s undertakings. It’s as cocky as ever, and it has my pulse racing.
Once Dimitri has the starchy material of his dress shirt rolled up to his elbows, he strays his eyes to mine. They are as brutally beautiful as ever. “Remove your dress and bra. You can keep your panties…” His lips curve to his infamous half-smirk before he adds, “… for now.”
I almost double back, stunned he’s gone straight for my jugular. I’m not comfortable being naked, but the collision of our eyes alters the direction of my course in an instant. Just like when he commanded me to remove his shirt earlier tonight, his steely blue eyes expose this is another test.
Although I hate that he’s forever testing me, only days ago, I decided that failure will no longer be associated with my name. So, with that in mind, I raise my shaky hands to the neckline of my dress to undo the first button.
The first four buttons come away without too much drama. The same can’t be said for the final few. The heat teeming out of Dimitri is too much. It has me torn between wanting to fall to my knees and beg forgiveness for my lie and marching across the room to soak up every blister of his scold. I’d rather he not be angry, but I also prefer his jealous fury over no emotional response whatsoever.
Once my bra is sitting on top of my dress, I raise my eyes to Dimitri’s. Not even the dark can take away from their allure. They’re icy pools of seduction.
My already brisk heart rate breaks into a canter when he jerks his chin up. “Come here.”
I pace across the room, my strides so shaky, you’d swear I was wearing heels instead of flats. Alice’s choice of wardrobe nearly made it impossible to validate my father’s claims I’m a virgin. If it weren’t for Smith suggesting that I ask Dimitri’s housemaids for help, I may have still been in my room, sewing together four skimpy outfits with the hope of making one modest one.
Smith’s unexpected assistance scared the crap out of me, however it also assured me I wasn’t going into tonight blind. I had eyes on me—many of them—including the pair gawking at me now.
After sitting in his fat leather chair, Dimitri pushes it away from his desk. “Sit.”
I want to crawl into a ball and die when my attempt to straddle his lap has the faintest of chuckles ringing in my ears. This is more horrifying than I could ever explain and has me suddenly knowledgeable about why I’ve only ever dated men who thought they could milk my loins of their nectar.
“Ass on my desk.” When Dimitri lifts and locks his eyes with mine, the lust in them reveals my embarrassment is unwarranted. He isn’t chuckling because he thinks I’m an idiot. He’s pleased I am as naïve as his guests tonight hoped. “Legs opened wide.”
Through quaking, breathless lungs, I do as requested, confident Dimitri is too possessive to let anyone see me in a vulnerable state. I like when he watched me climax in the alleyway many months ago, but that doesn’t mean I’m open to a free for all.
After planting my backside on the edge of his desk, I part my thighs in an unladylike manner.
“More.”
My thighs are stretched to the width of Dimitri’s large frame when he scoots his chair back in close to his desk.
“Keep them there.”
It’s virtually impossible to follow his clipped command when he runs the back of his hand down my lace panties. Since I couldn’t morally borrow underwear, I had no choice but to don one of the many risqué thongs Alice added to my collection. They leave nothing to the imagination, which means I feel every delicious callous on Dimitri’s newly-battered hand.
“How much?” Dimitri strains his words through the jealousy clutching his throat. I know this as his voice has the same gravelly deliverance mine had when several women approached him at the start of tonight’s event. They didn’t have the eyes of any of the men wanting to get to know me. They didn’t care. They had their target locked, and they weren’t going to stop until they had him. “How much was the highest bid you received tonight?”
Even aware he knows the answer since Smith recited each offer to him as they were received, I say, “One hundred and eighty-three thousand dollars.”
My thighs press together when his low growl races lust through my womb like a wildfire. It has my knees curving inward even faster than it has his face sitting within an inch of my aching sex. “Then why aren’t your panties soaked through with the scent I can smell building in your clenching cunt? Weren’t you turned on knowing how much men we’re willing to pay to spend one night with you?”
While fighting my hips not to gyrate toward his mouth, I shake my head. They could have offered me ten times as much, and I wouldn’t have been flattered. Money shouldn’t enter the equation in exchanges like this. Hell, right now, I’m not even sure love should. It’s all about lust and chemistry so blistering, even if it fizzles out as quickly as it ignites, it deserves to be explored. Ignoring something this sweltering should be criminal.
When I say that to Dimitri, he runs his hand down my panties for the second time. His fingers don’t make it through the carnage unscathed this time around. The wetness glistening on them is as noticeable as the fiery glint darting through his eyes. I’m soaked in an instant, and it has Dimitri paying more attention to me than he did my final suitor when he kissed my cheek goodnight. He looked seconds from killing him, although it has nothing on the urge masking his face now.