“Somewhere quieter.”
Her silence doesn’t tell me much, but she follows anyway, and that feels like surrender in itself.
Finally, when I decide we’ve gone far enough from the main crowd, I push a door open to a room full of stacked chairs and other spare furniture and guide her inside before closing us in.
By the time I carefully push her back, hand bracing the back of her head, I’m in her space enough to make my intentions abundantly clear.
Mila’s breath hitches, but she doesn’t shy away from my gaze. Instead, she holds it like this, really is the place she wants to be.
“You knew what you were doing,” I say, still struggling with the thought of her toying with me when she’s the one I’ve been wanting all along.
“Yes.”
I pull in a fractured breath. “And you wanted me to see.”
She nods.
“And now that I’m pissed, what do you want, Mila?”
Unwavering with a charged expression, she responds, “I want you to stop pretending you don’t care.”
“I care a hell of a lot more than I should,” I mumble, cutting even more of the small space left between us, hand coming up to cup her cheek. It feels like battling myself, caught between wanting to hold out as a form of punishment and needing her so badly it hurts. “Or maybe it’s the right amount. Either way, nobody else matters. Definitely not a woman who could never compare to you.”
At that, I catch the slight falter in her lashes as she softens. “You mean that?”
“I do, and I don’t want you questioning that,” I tell her, thumb lightly brushing against her cheekbone as my nose almost brushes against hers. “And don’t use my family against me…not when I don’t need convincing.”
“Noted,” she murmurs, just loud enough for me to catch.
Taking her in, I feel the restraint leave me little by little, and before I can help it, I lean in and capture her lips with mine.
Mila freezes at first from the suddenness of it, then she melts, responding to me so perfectly that I let everything else go. She reaches up, gently wrapping her fingers around my wrists to keep me there while she presses into the kiss.
My anger, jealousy, and everything else mean nothing now that I have her under me, warm and just as wanting as I am. From this close, I can feel her heart thrumming against me, letting me know just how much this affects her, too.
I try to keep it controlled and deliberate, but the longer I feel her mouth on mine, the more I start to slip. With both hands cupping her cheeks, I deepen it, groaning against her lips.
She’s too addicting for her own good…and for mine, too.
As she grips my clothes, chasing my lips with hers, I know she needs this just as badly as I do, and I’m not about to deny her.
Whether this was her end goal or not, it doesn’t matter. Neither of us can act like this wasn’t inevitable.
And now that I have her here, making those little sounds like she can’t get enough of me, I’m not letting her go until she knows exactly what she does to me.
Chapter 22 - Mila
Ivan is everywhere, overloading my senses in the best ways possible.
My pulse races while he grips me, one hand dropping to my waist as he kisses me so deeply that I almost feel dizzy.
There’s no resistance left in me now, not when I’m drowning in my need for more. For him.
Every inch of my body feels like it’s on fire, and it’s so addicting that I can’t pull away, even if I should. Instead, it’s almost impossible to pull away now.
With my back against the wall, no part of me wants to move, especially not while Ivan seems like he’d rather die than let this moment pass.
I know I should be second-guessing this, given where we are, but I don’t.
