Page 32 of Bought By Sin

To ask more questions about what my job would be here, I’d suggest that I was impatient. That I expected something from my owner.

Lev never acted frustrated with me, though. He only seemed lazy and laidback about finding a job suitable for me. And that unsettled me more than I wanted to admit.

He tilted his head toward the mat. “I’m curious.”

I stood, determined to keep my cool around this man I hated to be so attracted to.

Curious about me?

Why?

You own me.

I’m not anything to you.

I followed him onto the mat, nervous and excited.

“I’m curious how you’ll handle me.” With that, he twisted and caught me by surprise, nearly slamming me down to the mat with a brutal maneuver. I caught on quickly, though, peeved that I had lowered my guard at all. It surprised me that he wanted to personally train with me, but I wasn’t going to let him think I wasn’t up to the task.

Over an hour, he tried to get me down on the mat. I suspected that he was going easy on me, not using all of his brute strength, but I wasn’t complaining.

I couldn’t. He had earned his reputation as a deadly man, and I felt it in his moves, in how rapidly he could assess the situation and anticipate my next move. He was teaching me new tricks the others hadn’t, and I fully realized that he had no concern about advancing my skills. He was committed to expanding my knowledge, even like this.

Similar to a key fitting into a lock, the notion that he wanted the best for me, to expect the best from me, simply made sense.

As the time blurred by in a long series of us facing each other off on the mat, with all the kicks, hits, and blocks between us, I had to admit to myself that I didn’t mind the physical contact with him, either. Emotions that hit me when he seduced me that first day resurfaced. And it was only with him. All the other men I’d sparred with had just been that. Men. People. Opponents.

I held my breath, tense as Lev succeeded at pinning me to the mat.

A grunt slipped from my mouth as the back of my head smacked the cushion.

Ow.

But also…

Whoa.

An intense spear of desire lit me up from the inside out. He hovered over me, his skin shiny with the hint of sweat from how hard we were training. His tongue slid out to trace the seam of his lips as he caught his breath. But it was the potent stare he locked on me that had me nearly whimpering with need.

He covered me. Sheltered me. But he still had that predatory gleam of lust shining in his dark eyes, and that was what threatened me most.

I furrowed my brow as I gazed up at him, caught off guard with this experience of conflicting emotions. Panting hard and wishing that I could be as impervious to him as I was to the other men here, I feared that his constant control and guidance were making me want something I couldn’t dare to have. That his slow and deliberate consideration was mixing with a reliance on him, one I couldn’t allow if I still wanted to be free.

“Finally.” He roved his heated gaze up and down my face, still catching his breath. When his stare latched on to my lips, a zing of desire had me aching between my knees.

Finally?

Finally what?

Finally, you will kiss me?

Finally, you can let me know what this desire can taste like with you?

“Finally got you down,” he muttered with the hint of a cocky smile. He didn’t complete the expression, holding back. Instead of saying anything else, he climbed off me and offered me his hand to stand.

I ignored it, too shaky to trust myself to touch him when he induced such a bold charge of wanting more physical contact with him.

Fuck.