His expression softened for a split second before he set his jaw.“You don’t want to be a possession?Fine.Figure out what youdowant to do and go for it.Stop being a victim andfight.”
“I have no power!”
His eyebrows rose.“No power.”Dmitri huffed a laugh.“For fuck’s sake, Keira, you have more than you know and I’m a damn fool for telling you as much.”
Surely he didn’t mean…
She didn’t have power over him.That was absurd.Heownedheras he was so fond of telling her.It wasn’t the other way around.
Except…
She’d seen Dmitri with nearly every member of her family, and he’d never acted around them the way he acted around her.Even as early as their second meeting, he’d indulged her, just a little.She dropped her arms to her side, letting the robe gape open.It was hardly indecent, but his gaze followed that slight bit of skin all the same.“You want me.”
“You’re stating the obvious.Again.Why?You know how to play the game, Keira.You’ve proven you have brain in that beautiful head of yours.It’s only that poison that dulls it.”He slashed a hand through the air toward the sink.“Choose now—perpetual victim or the role you were always meant to play.”
What game was he at now?She tried for a belligerent tone.“And what role is that.”
“My motherfucking queen.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Dmitri didn’t sleep.Instead, he went to his office and cued up the monitors surveying the rest of the house.The whole night had been one giant mistake, from climbing into bed with Keira to letting her convince him that it wasn’t too soon for sex to laying one of his most valued cards on the table.
He’d misplayed things badly.
Heknewshe wasn’t ready, but he’d let his own desires override his plans.Just like he had time and again when it came to Keira O’Malley.Following her into her room and finding that bottle at her lips had stopped his fucking heart.It didn’t matter that she would hardly drink herself to death tonight—if she took that sip, eventually she would.He might have threatened to put someone on her night and day, but the truth was that if she wanted alcohol or drugs, she’d find a way to get them no matter how tight the security.
The only thing that would stop her was ifshemade the choice herself.
He couldn’t make it for her.She was right—she wasn’t a possession that he could put in a glass box and only take out when it suited him.His life would be simpler if that was what he wanted from her, but he’d told her the truth.He didn’t want a toy.He wanted a queen to his king.
The problem was that he didn’t know if it was bait enough.
She wanted power.She’d as much as said it herself, but wanting something and being willing to take it were two very different things.
His phone rang, and he was pathetically grateful for the break.“Romanov.”
“Answering your own phone at this hour?Tsk-tsk.”
He went still.He knew that voice, but he wouldn’t have guessed that the bitch had the audacity to phone his direct line.“Alethea Eldridge.What a pleasant surprise.”
“I think it’s hardly that.Did you get my present, Romanov?I picked it out just for you.”
Now it was his turn to tsk.“We both know who sent that gift, and it wasn’t you.Though it begs the question—did you command your daughter to do it, or have you lost even a modicum of control over her?”
“It’s a moot point.The gift got its point across.”Alethea paused.“How is your darling wife, by the way?”
He expected the dodge, and allowed it.Alethea was too smart to admit she’d lost control of her daughter, even if they both knew it was true.Dmitri considered her words.“I have no doubt that you love your daughter, but if she so much as touches my wife, I’ll skin her alive while I force you to watch.You be sure to let her know that.”
“So quick with the threats.You must really care about the girl.”Alethea laughed.“Though I don’t know that I’d be making threats I can’t follow through on, Romanov.You don’t have ready access to Mae, but Idohave access to something you lost.Or should I say someone?”
He went still.Fuck.“I have no idea what you’re going on about.”
“Don’t you?He was remarkably difficult to break, but my Mae is gifted.Mikhail Sokolov.He didn’t give us much more than that, but I laid down boundaries to what my daughter could do.Make one wrong move on your part, and she’s under orders to kill him in whatever creative way her twisted little mind can come up with—and we both know Mae is an artist when it comes to such things.”
An artist was one way to put it.
He wanted to call her bluff, but Alethea wouldn’t have contacted him over anything less than a sure thing.Which meant Mikhail was under their tender care—and had been long enough for them to force his name out of him.Knowing the man, it took more than simple torture to get even that much.
