Tarnished Tyrant - A Mafia Romance

Chapter 15 Episode 15

I hold it out of her reach. “Are there nude drawings in here orsomething?”

“I work for Roger because some of us need guaranteed pathsto financial stability,” she snaps. “I didn’t have the money towaste on an architecture degree.”

Belle would probably love to know the similarities in ourbackgrounds. Maybe my “rags to riches” story, as Giorgoscalled it, really could be an inspiration to her.

But I’m not here to be anyone’s f*****g inspiration. And Idon’t need her to relate to me.

I need her to listen.

“Now, give it back to me, asshole,” she spits again.

I fan through the pages, catching glimpses of other houses andbuildings she’s drawn. “Maybe there’s a distinguishedrendering of a particular man in a particular airplane bathroomin here you want to hide?”

“Or a composite sketch I can show the police.”

I regard her over the sketchbook. “You already tried the lawenforcement route. It didn’t pan out.”

“Because I had no proof.” She slaps her hand on her laptop.“Now, I have plenty. Lots of discrepancies here.”

The threat, however toothless, irks me. My life is filled withthreats, but they’re usually flung by men who have a leg tostand on.

“If you never want to see your sister again, then sure, thatsounds like a great plan.”

She seems to notice the shift in my demeanor. Her browfurrows, hazel eyes assessing me. “You’re not a murderer.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure. I know an airplane bathroom that canattest to your astounding lack of judgment.”

She clenches her jaw and swipes out again for the notebook.This time, I let her grab it and yank it towards her, but I movewith it, refusing to fully let go.

In an instant, I’m in her space. She tries to jerk back, but I leandown.

“You have no clue who I am or what I’m capable of.” I rakemy gaze over her heart-shaped face. “It’s hard to know what aperson is capable of. I never would have guessed you’d fuckyour boss to keep your job.”

“You weren’t my boss,” she grits out.

I shake my head. “I wasn’t talking about me.”

It takes a second for understanding to settle over her, but whenit does, she jumps to her feet. “Are you serious? I never fuckedRoger!”

I let go of the journal. It thumps on the table. “You’re prettydesperate to keep your job. And it’s obvious you have an…insatiable s****l appetite.”

I don’t really think she slept with her boss—I’m just trying torev her up because I like how the little lamb looks when she’sflustered—but even the thought twists something inside of me.A man as foul as him should never get to touch something asflawless as her.

“You’re the one who followed me into that bathroom,” shecries. “You—you practically forced yourself on me!”

“‘I want this,’” I say, slowly repeating her words that havebeen replaying in my mind since we met. “‘I want to come.’Does that sound like someone who was forced?”

Even twisted in hate, her face is beautiful. The point of herchin, the fullness of her lips. She doesn’t have an ugly angle oremotion.

I step forward, pinning Belle between my body and theconference room table. “Don’t lie.”

“I’m not a liar,” she hisses, squaring off with me even thoughshe’s a good six inches shorter. “About anything. I didn’t sleepwith my boss. And I really do hate you.”

“Okay.” I raise my hand and cup her delicate jaw. I can feelher pulse fluttering against my fingertips. I drag my handlower, down into the hollow beneath her collarbone. “Thenanswer this, princess: do I make you wet?”

She goes rigid under my touch and presses her thighs togetherlike she’s worried I’ll reach down and check.

To be fair, I’m considering it.

“Not in your wildest f*****g dreams.”

I shake my head and drag my finger down, swirling around herclearly pointed n****e. Her back arches into my touch and I

“Wishing you weren’t attracted to me doesn’t mean youaren’t.”

Her cheeks are a beautiful rose pink and her lips are parted,panting, as her body responds to how close we are.

My body is responding, too. Belle glances down and notices.“You’re attracted to me, too.”

She wasn’t expecting the honesty, but I have nothing to hide.

“I don’t make it a habit to f**k people I’m not attracted to,” Icontinue. “But given your situation with Roger, maybe youdon’t understand what that’s like.”

Belle pounds a fist into my chest. “I’m not f*****g him,asshole.”

I grab her arm and twist it so her wrist is against my lips. Shemakes a halfhearted effort to pull her arm away, but her eyesare fixed on my mouth.

“Is that why you’re doing all of this?” she whispers. “Becauseyou… you like me?”

Arslan’s words ring in my head, but I shove them away. I tellher the same thing I told him: “I’d like to be inside of you.There’s a difference.”

She wrinkles her nose. “You’re disgusting.”

“You’ll be rid of me soon enough,” I say, nibbling across thedelicate blue vein in her wrist. “My infatuations don’t lastlong.”

She’s trembling, her body vibrating with palpable desire. Theeffort it takes to not press her back onto the desk and give intowhat we both want is exhausting.

But some things are better when you work for them.

She lets out a soft groan of frustration. “What’s the matter—you can’t pleasure a woman long-term? Do they get boredwith your little bag of tricks?”

I grip her wrist and wrap her arm around my neck, drawing useven closer together. Belle gasps, but our bodies are alreadymolded, my mouth pressed to her ear.

“You came around my c**k twice, in case you forgot. But ifthat’s not proof enough, I’ll give you a taste of next time.”

“There won’t be a next time,” she spits, even as she fists herhands in my shirt.

“There will be,” I assure her. “And just like the first time,you’ll ask for it. You’ll beg for me to make you feel good. AndI will. First, with my hand. Then, when you’re still tremblingfrom your release, I’ll use my mouth and lick you until youscream.”

She inhales sharply, but her hips grind against mine. Even asshe denies it, Belle can’t stop herself from seeking me out.

I know I’ll be coming in my own hand again tonight, but itwill be worth it when she breaks. When she finally submits tome.

This is my masterpiece in the making.

“And when that’s no longer enough, I’ll drive my c**k intoyou until you can’t stand it. Until your body is too physicallyexhausted from pleasure to move. I’ll drive you mad for me,little lamb. I’ll make you erupt. I’ll ruin that pretty little faceof yours with my c*m. And then I’ll be done with you forgood.”

I feel the wind go out of her sails. She sags against me,disappointment and hurt weighing on her. But before she cansay a word, I step away and saunter out of the room.

In the morning, my wrist is sore. And shame sits in mystomach like a block of lead.

Nikolai Zhukova is a monster. He’s a criminal and a liar. Akidnapper and an embezzler. He’s everything I should hate.

So why then, did I get home last night and spend an hour inthe jacuzzi tub trying and failing to make myself come?

Forget twice in a row—I couldn’t even get off once.

I wanted it… desperately. But the pleasure hovered just out ofreach. I imagined Nikolai holding my orgasm in front of me,dangling it like a carrot as I moaned and panted after it. All Ihad to do was give in to him. If I let myself reimagine all thedirty words he’d whispered in my ear in the conference room,then I probably could have saved myself an achy wrist.

But I couldn’t. I can’t.

Nikolai is a cancer. If I let him in, he’ll replicate, doubling andtripling and swallowing up all the Belle he can find untilthere’s nothing left of me.

Elise is still asleep when I leave, sprawled across the king-sized bed with a silk eye mask pulled low over her eyes.There’s no need to leave a twenty on the table for food, sinceNikolai is giving us free unlimited room service.

God, I hate him for it.

And I hate that I can’t hate him more.

When I get to Zhukova Incorporated, I head straight for theconference room and unpack my bags. No dawdling and nodoodling today. I need to get through this fake-ass “audit” asquickly as possible and get the hell out of Dodge. The sooner Iget home, the sooner I can start to purge Nikolai Zhukovafrom my memory.

“Although that might require a lobotomy,” I mumble.