She bites her lip. “But only if you win today’s chase?”
“Yes, or you can have a boring day on your own, in your room, with no e-reader or phone.” I really do not want her to choose that.
“I don’t know that all this running is optimum for my health.” There’s a gleam in her eyes.
“This isn’t a fitness camp, lapochka. I’m not your personal trainer.”
“No. You’re a mafia boss who kills people for fun, profit, and vigilante justice.” She sobers. “And I’m a girl who got caught up in all of it, and you’re humouring.”
“You don’t have to do this, you know,” I say conversationally as I reach across the table for the mask. I’d like it if she decided to remain my captive, I think.
She wouldn’t be with me by choice, it’s true. But I’d get to keep her. That could be enough.
“I want to finish my degree, Kirill. I can’t only read romance books all day for the rest of my life.” She doesn’t sound entirely certain on that point.
“But are you prepared for the consequences if you lose?” I secure the mask over my face, and the narrowing of my vision to the integrated cameras makes Tess seem further away. “You’re willing to be my prey.”
“Yes.”
I encircle her throat with my hand and look down into her face. The mask isn’t as intimidating in the daylight, but it’s enough that I feel her swallow.
“Even though I might eat you up. Or put you to work on your knees. I could hold you down and fuck you from behind like the animal you make me until you can’t walk.”
She raises her chin, and I think to anyone else, she’d appear defiant. But I see the secret desires of her heart and the pink in her cheeks.
“Okay. I’ll do the chase.”
13
TESS
“If I catch you, you get to keepallyour smutty ebooks,” he says teasingly.
We’ve only just stepped outside the house into the crisp morning air, and he pulls off his T-shirt, gripping the back and dragging it over his head in one smooth motion, and I’m entranced by his beauty. By the black lines across his defined muscles.
“But you’ll pay a high price, lapochka,” he rasps. “Nowrun.”
A shiver goes down my back.
I have to win. Right? But even as I stumble away, I glance over my shoulder at Kirill.
His black hair is tousled, making him seem boyish rather than the dangerous man he is. And thatmask. It’s creepy, but it’s also familiar now.
I force myself to run, this time taking a different fork in the path, heading off to the left.
I should want to win, and escape. But part of me is wondering whether I should stay one more day?
It wouldn’t be so bad, would it? What if he took my virginity as one of his wishes? Heat flickers between my legs at the thought.
He’s big and scary, with or without the mask, and he’d have me at his mercy. Again.
And that’s been soooo bad, a sarcastic little voice in my head whispers.The pastries and coffee, the orgasms and reading. Such a hardship.
If I stay one more day, I’ll have all the joy of knowing my friends are reading books they couldn’t otherwise afford.
Would it be selfish to leave now? No, that’s ridiculous. I’ll ask for protection and freedom, and continue studying my degree and working in the pub.
But I’m not running as fast as yesterday. My heart isn’t in this chase, quite aside from the fact my legs are already tired.
