Relief and disappointment knot together when another man steps forward, asking to cut in. The dance floor is filling up, and it’s not safe to keep dancing with Nik like this.
When the man, from one of the New York families, asks to step in, Nik gives him a look so sharp it could slice a jugular. The man is undeterred, though, holding his gaze with confidence.
Nik finally frowns, nods, and steps away. He gives me a look that tells me our conversation is far from over.
I force myself to dance with a few more men, smiling, laughing, playing the part until my feet are screaming in protest in those gold shoes. When I finally make my way back to the table for my handbag, my father doesn’t even glance up before saying, “I’ll have security walk you upstairs.”
I wave it off, and he says, “Leanna, I saw how Nikolai Ivanov looked at you. I did not like it.”
“It’s this stupid dress,” I say quickly. “Dad, if I were in my usual sweatshirt, jeans, and Ugg slippers, I promise he wouldn’t look twice.”
My dad clenches his jaw, but nods and tells me to be careful. “You’re a beautiful woman, Leanna,” he says. “Men will want you. They will want to control you.”
The irony nearly makes me laugh. I want to tell him that he, too, is guilty of that same need to control. But I don’t have the energy for a fight with him.
I just want to go to my room. I want to know if Nik will be there.
So I kiss my father’s cheek, murmur goodnight, and slip away, and I’m grateful my brothers have already disappeared into whatever bottle they chose for the evening.
My heart beats wildlyin my chest as I enter the room.
Somehow, since I left for dinner, Nik has made a bed on the couch, and for some reason, it enrages me. After everything today, the intense staring and posturing and possessive bullshit, he’s going to sleep on the fucking couch?
And where is he? I was certain he’d follow me up here.
I wait. Five minutes stretched into ten. Every second stokes a storm of words, building sharp and ready to unleash the moment he walks through that door.
When the lock finally clicks, I’m already primed to attack. But as soon as I see him, big and perfect and scowling, all words vanished because he’s taking one step, then two, and then he’s picking me up. My legs wrap instinctively around his waist, and his lips crash onto mine.
His mouth, his mouth,his mouth.
It’s everything. It’s the only thing that exists.
I cling to him, drowning in the heat of it, and I know tonight will be my undoing. My control is gone.
My virtue? Already lost.
27
NIK
I am…unmoored.Fucking obliterated.
I am a ship lost in a stormy ocean, out of control, with no idea which way is true north.
“Today was fucking torture,” I murmur against Leanna’s mouth. “You tortured me.”
Her soft laugh goes straight to my cock as her feet find the floor. “Good. You deserved it.”
In our animalistic first minutes alone together, I’ve managed to rip her expensive gold dress. The long slit that bares her long leg is torn up to her side. One of its thin straps is completely torn loose.
Perfect.
I reach for the fabric at her waist and tear the dress all the way, pulling it from her body and baring all those inches of perfect skin. Her round breasts are bare, nipples are pink and hardened in the cool air of the room.
A nude thong is the only thing offering her any coverage, and it is already soaked with telltale proof of her desire.
“Your turn,” she says, her voice breathless, her cheeks stained with heat and embarrassment.
