Page 27 of The Stalking King

I send the message too fast, then stare at it with a confusing feeling twisting through me. I’ve just admitted that part of me likes it. I shouldn’t have sent that. But I can’t think clearly when I’m talking—or even texting—with Maksim.

CHAPTER 12

MAKSIM

Isit at the window of my apartment, looking at the dome of the Capitol Building, while I think about her message. I’m a savage because it turns me on. But there’s something more there too. A light, like her name, in the darkness of my soul.

She’s attracted to me. She’s flattered. She wants this more than she knows she should.

Maksim: I don’t live in the land of ‘what if’. I deal with the reality in front of me. Whether that’s business or anything else, I can’t waste my time thinking about what I WOULD do. If you’re flattered, if you want me as badly as I want you, then I’ll deal with that.

Lia: Deal with it? What does that even mean?

Maksim: You know what it means. You just stopped me before I could go all the way.

My manhood stirs. It’s a strange thing, being aware of how messed up something is, but wanting it anyway. But there are shades of darkness. I deal in death, in violence, in seriously depraved things politicians have done.

This is something different. This is almost tame in comparison. I’m a man who’s spent too damn long locked away in my routine, my mind, my position, to ever truly understand what it’s like to be with someone.

Lia: Sex wouldn’t have made any of this more acceptable.

Maksim: You’ve already accepted it. Now you’re just trying to convince yourself and me.

Lia: Oh, so you’re a mind reader now too, are you?

Maksim: Sarcasm can save you sometimes, but not here. I felt how badly you wanted it. I felt all the years pouring out of you, all the repression, all the times you’ve stifled your own desires. I felt that the moment you grabbed me and pulled me against you for a kiss.

Just typing the words out takes me back to the moment, just an hour ago. I remember the way her warm breath felt on my skin, the heat between her legs as they wrapped around me, the feeling of her hot, needy core as I drove my bulge against her through our clothes.

Lia: I did that before I knew you STALKED me.

Maksim: Yes, I stalked you. And I’d do it again. My life is one miserable day after another, and you’re the only light in it. Fucking sue me.

Lia: So, you’re going to act like it was all sweet and innocent? Like you were watching me just to see me smile and pat a patient on the back? Is that it?

Maksim: There were moments of sweetness, of admiration.

I stare across the dark city, the land of the free, the home of the brave.

Maksim: And there were other moments too, moments that were the furthest thing from innocent it’s possible to get. There were times I had to stop myself from crossing a line, watching you lean over the counter, the scrubs clinging to your perfect figure.

Lia: My figure is not perfect.

Maksim: It is. Don’t say things like that. Your figure is flawless, curvy in all the right places. Just thinking about how I sunk my hands into you earlier is putting me on the edge.

Lia: What line? You said you never crossed it.

Maksim: You know what I’m talking about.

Lia: Maybe I need you to say it. I don’t want any more secrets, Maksim.

Maksim: I never let myself go all the way when watching you. Even when my body was hot and harder than I’ve ever been, even when I knew I could stare at that curvy, beautiful body, and stroke my hand up and down my aching cock, starving to explode inside of you, I never did it. Somehow. I don’t know how.

Lia: Am I supposed to be grateful for that?

Maksim: I’m just giving you an answer to your question.

Lia: Why didn’t you do it?