“Just like you took a thousand others, I presume.”
He bites the corner of his lip. “Hey, is that jealousy?”
This time, I shove myself away so hard, I stumble and nearly lose my footing. “I couldn’t care less what you do with others.”
“You know what I think?” He swings his leg off the bike and stalks toward me, and I move to the edge of the road. “I think you clearly do. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have flown here twice now just because you think I’ll seduce Nikolai.”
“I’m here for my friends.”
“How can you lie with a straight face? Teach me!” He cuts the distance in a heartbeat, caging me against the tall guardrail framing a cliff that overlooks the crashing waves below. “But seriously, you didn’t come for your friends. You wouldn’t have been in disguise if you had. Or run away for the dozenth time when I saw you. Would it kill you to admit you’re here for me?”
Yes, it would.
But I don’t say that because his question sounds quiet, almost wounded, and I don’t like that tone. Not from Yulian, who’s usually so confident, it grates on my nerves.
I keep my mouth shut, not knowing what to say.
Or do.
A fire burns me with every inhale of his masculine scent. It’s intoxicating—this feeling of closeness and the knowledge that if I reach out, I can touch him, feel his muscles up close.
Just one more time.
“Mishka…” he breathes out in a shaky breath. “Let me in… I promise to make you feel good.”
He reaches a hand out, but I slap it away.
“Don’t touch me,” I growl, glaring at him.
He flexes and unflexes his hand at his side. “Why? Because you know if I start touching you, you’ll want more?”
“I wantnothingfrom you.”
“Then why do you keep crawling back to me?”
My hand shoots forward of its own accord, and I wrap it around his throat. “Because you had the audacity to sleep with my girlfriend, and I will make you pay.”
He grabs my own throat, squeezing with the same strength I squeeze his. “You should thank me for saving you from a cheater, don’t you think? Besides, you murdered my girl Zver in cold blood, so we called it even, but you still came back. Like a fuckingjunkie. You can’t get me out of your head no matter how hard you try. I’m already flowing in your bloodstream.”
“Shut the fuck up.”
“I have my fingers up in that complicated head of yours, and I will keep toying around with it until you quit the denial.”
“I will break your bones. Don’t test me.”
“Love how you resort to threats when you’re cornered. Tell me more…” He yanks me close so that Ifeelhis words on my skin instead of hearing them. “If I run my hands all over your body, you’ll be so hard for me, won’t you, baby? Your cock can’t get enough of me after one taste?—”
I swing us around and slam him against the railing, his back twisting against the metal that rattles with the impact.
It’s true.
He’s right.
And I can’thandlethat he’s fuckingright.
Or that my cock has been in a state of high alert since I first touched this motherfucker.
Actually, it’s been like this since I saw Yulian in the rearview mirror, and it’s only gotten worse with us beingin each other’s faces. The aggressiveness that pours out whenever we’re at each other’s throats turns me on in ways I never could’ve imagined.
