Mariya…
Konstantin leans against the counter, arms folded, biceps bulging and watches me. He’s rolled up his sleeves, showing off his muscular forearms, flexing under his tan skin. Something flutters low in my stomach.
“What are you looking at?” I snap.
He suddenly grins, all those even, white teeth on display. “You. When you narrow your eyes like that and look at me like you can’t decide whether you want to punch me in the throat or rideme like I’m in the lead at the Kentucky Derby, I’d almost be willing to let you do the first thing if we can do the second.”
“What?”I don’t know what to say, andbud' on proklyat,damn him, I do want to do both of those things. But mostly, punch the smug prick in the neck. “I didn’t think you could be a bigger fucker than you were as a skinny teenager, but-”
“But I am a big strapping young man now,” he laughs like a creep, taking three giant steps and scooping me up in his arms, “and there’s so much more potential for fuckery.” He jostles me a bit in his arms and I can see his pupils flare like I’m a hit of something he’s just taken.
“Take your big barbarian hands off me!” I sputtered. I blink an unnecessary amount of times, but it doesn’t seem to clarify anything. “What is wrong with you? Are you high on something? Is that what’s happening here?” He has somehow wrapped my legs around his waist and this is beginning to feel uncomfortably close to that night on the train and that shit isnothappening.
“I want you to admit that you think about that night all the time,” he says, his mouth moving against my throat where I suspect he’s giving me a hickey.
“Well, I want you to throw yourself off a cliff, and there’s one right outside your window,” I said, attempting to wiggle myself loose and realizing I am just rubbing my breasts against his hard chest. “So you first.”
His unreasonably handsome face is lit up with some kind of unholy glee as he stares down at me and I stop thrashing since I have a feeling it’s making him harder, given the baseball bat-sized lump against my hip.
“Why are you staring at me like a wannabee Satan?” I snap. My center is warming up and my nipples - oh, god - my nipples arelike little diamond points, pressing against my sweater, and his Dark Lord of Hell smile just gets bigger.
“I’m grinning,” he whispers in my ear, “because I kept dreaming about you for years. Your pussy, how you would taste, how you would feel from the inside. But you giving me your virginity that night?O Gospodi, Pchelka,my little bee, it was so much better than I imagined.”
A high, inarticulate squeak leaves my lips and it is mortifying. Also, he has been walking while whispering filth in my ear and we are in my bedroom and he’s kicking the door shut.
“Wait!” I put my whole hand on his face and shove it away. “Do you by chance remember the morning after ‘that night’ on the train?” I make sarcastic quotation marks with my fingers, which he does not enjoy. “You know, when you threw a Plan B pill box at me and told me this wasn’t happening anymore? How dare you carry me off like a Neanderthal and expect me to be thrilled about it?”
“I meant that I didn’t do right by you that first night,” Konstantin says, still holding me lightly, like I’m a bag of laundry and not a sturdy human being.
Leaning back, I study his face with a frown. “What do you mean?”
“It was rushed,” he said. “Your first time, I wanted to go slow, make you come over and over until you were boneless and sweaty before I took you.”
“You’ve been thinking about this, haven’t you?” I said with a certain level of unholy glee. I shift closer, whispering in his ear, reckless and so stupid but I’m loving this moment of… anything other than his bulletproof arrogance. “You’ve been wondering if I was disappointed. If you were good enough.”
“Oh, I was pretty good,” he retorted, “you came three times.” His eyes light up and it’s a little terrifying. “But it’s not nearly enough.” He almost gets his mouth on mine before I pull back, heart pounding. We’re sliding into deep water here and it’s treacherous.
“I didn’t say I wanted a rematch,” I said, trying to sound as haughty as he always does.
Konstantin’s brow goes up the way it does when he spots a challenge. Setting me down gently, he puts his hands on my hips. “One kiss. If you don’t want anything else, you can kick me out.”
“How about if I just kick you out now?” I sneer. I don’t like this. Things were simpler when we just hated each other's guts. He cups my face in those enormous paws of his. “Fine. Go ahead, but I won’t enjoy it.”
“Challenge accepted,” he murmurs.
Chapter Ten
In which the challenge is accepted. Finally.
Lie Like This - Julia Michaels
Mariya…
“Challenge accepted.”
Kon’s voice is so deep, his grin is wicked and damn it, my estrogen levels are spiking. When he puts his lips on mine, I suck in a startled breath. His kiss feels like a feedback loop; the warmth of his mouth, spiraling energy down my spine, passing between where his cock - already hard - is pressed firmly against my stomach, moving up through him and back into our kiss. I was too overwhelmed the first time to feel how perfectly our bodies slotted together, my soft parts pressing into his hard places. His heart is thudding in the same rhythm as mine.
He tastes like my imminent downfall.
