Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 72284 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72284 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
Goosebumps tear along my skin, and the thrill his words give me is like ice water. I can’t be near this man because he is bad for me.
Correction.
He is bad.
Period.
I take a step away from him.
“Did any of our night together mean anything?” I ask, immediately hating myself as soon as the words leave my tongue.
Lev’s eyes roam my face, but as usual, that handsome face remains unreadable, a tight keeper of secrets and the emotions I’m beginning to realize he simply doesn’t have.
“I do whatever I have to do to get what I want.”
His words are cold and slice through me. He couldn’t make it any clearer that I was nothing but a means to an end.
I swallow back the hurt, but the humiliation still burns against my cheeks. “You really are a monster.”
His eyes flare. “Don’t take it personally.”
I scoff. “Oh, okay then. I’ll just shut off my feelings so I’m more like you, Mr. Robot Man.”
“Our night together wasn’t about feelings, Brooke. It was about two people taking immeasurable pleasure from each other. An exchange of desire.”
“You make it sound like a business transaction. Like you were buying groceries.” I shake my head. “You know what, I feel sorry for you. At least I can admit that I felt something that night. I don’t know what it was, but it was something. I’m not talking about a relationship or a permanent thing. I was happy for it to be over. But at the same time, I thought I’d had one special night with a stranger that was serendipitous enough to change my life. I knew I would never see you again, but our encounter was special enough to help me find something that night. A new version of me. A stronger version of me. But now—”
“But now?”
My eyes fix on his. “Now I know the only person who would’ve received anything real that night was you. Because all you gave me was a big pile of bullshit.”
His jaw is tight. “And multiple orgasms, if memory serves.”
“I seem to remember you had your fair share,” I snap back. I narrow my eyes. Hating where this conversation has led us. “Why did you sleep with me? Why not just do what you’re doing now—kidnap me and force the information out of me?”
He bristles as if I’ve touched on a nerve. He turns and walks toward the door. “It was an error in judgment on my behalf.”
Hurt twists in my stomach. Hearing him say our night together was an error of judgment stings more than it should. Because he couldn’t possibly regret it as much as I do right now.
“Yeah, well, it was the biggest mistake of my life,” I reply.
He turns back and his eyes seem to darken, if that’s even possible. “I would think agreeing to marry Wilson was the biggest mistake of your life,” he says cruelly.
I tilt my head. “That mistake pales in comparison to the colossal mistake I made when I let you put your hands on me.”
“I recall you enjoying my hands on you.”
“I guess it was an error in judgment on my behalf,” I slam back.
We just stare at each other for a moment.
I look around the room that is to be my home for the near future. A knot forms in my chest, and I know it has nothing to do with the fact I’m a prisoner and everything to do with the idea that Lev picked me up that night and fucked my brains out not because he was attracted to me but because he wanted to find out where Wilson had disappeared to with his flash drive.
He walks out, and I hear the lock slide in the door, and I slump down on the ridiculously soft and comfortable bed and wonder what the hell I ever saw in Lev Zarkov.
19
LEV
“This doesn’t make any sense,” Feliks says.
We’re in my office. I’m behind my desk while he sits across from me looking relaxed, his dress shirt open far enough for me to see the Zarkov medallion he wears around his neck.
“Which part?” I ask.
“All of it. But mainly the bit where you let the mudak leave, and you brought the woman with you.” Feliks eyes me suspiciously. “The pakhan I know would have made the pizda hand over the flash drive with the barrel of a gun pressed into his temple.”
“The pakhan you know doesn’t take too kindly to being questioned by someone who is not the pakhan,” I say, my tone full of warning.
But Feliks doesn’t pay it any mind. He knows how far he can go with me before he’s crossing any lines, and it’s a lot further than anyone else would dare go. He’s my cousin. My bratva brother. My right hand. My most trusted. But that said, even he can go too far, and right now, he is dancing on the edge.