Still staring at my mouth, he answers my question with one of his own. “How did you know I’d be in here?”
“I didn’t.”
“Don’t lie.” A frown draws his eyebrows down, emphasizing his scar. “Dimitri wouldn’t have told you, but maybe one of the other guards… Who sold me out? Tell me which of my men was disloyal so I can castrate him.”
“Sold you out?” My voice pitches high in disbelief. “What the hell are you talking about? No one told me you’d be here.”
Alik jerks his gaze up to mine. For the first time I see how unfocused it is. “You want me to believe it’s a coincidence? Thatout of all the rooms in this entire fucking house, you happened to find your way to this one? That you didn’t come down here just to keep driving me out of my fucking mind?”
“Alik, what the hell are you talking about?”
He closes his eyes, his head rolling back on his thick neck. The movement seems to unbalance him, little ripples cascading out across the water.
“Wait—are you drunk?”
“Not nearly enough, apparently. I was sure I’d had enough vodka to drown a Siberian tiger.”
Jesus. I’m caught off guard by a surge of concern. “Then you shouldn’t be in here. Swimming alone and drunk—you could drown, you idiot. Why the hell would you do that?”
Alik’s eyes fly open. “Because I don’t have a choice.”
I don’t understand his answer or the way it makes every nerve ending in my body light up like a Christmas tree. “Why not?”
“Because,” he groans, his lips so close to mine, “if I don’t drink like this, punish my body like this, I won’t be able to stop myself.”
Alik’s breaths are coming out heavy, more rapid than before. His lips parted in a way that makes me insane with the need to slip my tongue between them. The heat simmering between us is rapidly melting my brain cells. “Stop yourself from what?”
On either side of me, his grip on the pool edge tightens. Power radiates up his arms, and I half expect the ledge behind me to crack. “From touching you.”
For a solid second, I don’t know if he’s teasing me or taunting me. Or giving me shit for what happened at the apartment yesterday. Anger and undeniable attraction war within me and it’s anyone’s guess if I want to slap him or kiss him. But the longer he looks at me, body locked in punishing restraint,the clearer his eyes get. The more obvious it becomes he’s telling the truth.
Holy shit. He wants to touch me. Badly.
The knowledge knocks something loose in my brain and I can’t stop myself from whispering, “What if I want you to?”
One question and Alik’s restraint falters. I watch it happen in real time, like a fissure opening in the earth. And every thought, every feeling I’ve had about this man coalesces into an unbearable desire for him to do the one thing he won’t.
I want him to touch me, to play with my body until I explode. Maybe then I can purge myself of the insane, reckless attraction I have to him.
“You don’t know what you’re saying,moya voitelnitsa.”
“I do. I want you to.”
Alik’s jaw ticks. I want to kiss him there. Everywhere.
I thought my statement would melt his resolve. It does the opposite. His whole body gets harder, his teeth grinding audibly. “Then tell me what you want me to do.”
“I said I want you to touch me.”
“But how? Where do you want me to touch you? What do you want me to do to you, Sera? I want to hear you say it.”
Visions of everything he can do to me tumble through my head, but there’s a disconnect between my brain and my mouth. I stammer, unable to find the words I’m looking for.
My silence seems to prove Alik’s point, whatever the hell it is. He stares over my shoulder, his thoughts a million miles away. Humiliation brings tears to my eyes and I’m about to fight my way out of the cage of his arms when he asks, “How much experience have you had?”
“Experience?”
“With sex.”
