With This Ring

I felt a zap!

A painful jarring sensation shot straight to my core and awoke every single nerve in my body. He kissed me softly, gently, and I felt myself begin to crumble to the floor. His taste was like a drug, released into me to completely unravel me, and it was so sweet that it stole my breath away.

His tongue teased mine, stroking and withdrawing and at the hard suck of my lips I almost felt liquid hot desire begin to drip from my thighs.

“Maxim,” I held onto his shirt, desperate not to fall … desperate to hold on to what remained of my sanity. This was wrong… he was wrong. I was supposed to loathe him. That was all I knew for so long.

Somewhere in the distance, I heard laughter and was instantly jerked back to my senses. Maxim did not hear or did not care.

I tried to pull away, but he held on tightly to me and slipped his tongue even deeper into my mouth. I couldn’t help it. All I could do was suck on his tongue. He tightened his grip around my waist and I was so lost in him that for the next few seconds I did little to protest. But then I felt everything go silent and that was more than enough to jar me back to reason. I grabbed uselessly at his hand around my waist.

“Maxim!” I heard a call from the distance, and his grip loosened.

Our parting made the sweetest, softest, sucking sound. I knew that punctuation to the end of how much he had just made the world spin under my feet would haunt me in the days to come. He let go of me and turned away, not giving any of us a chance to see just how much he had unraveled. I watched him, his chest rising and falling with every harsh breath. I turned around to meet Levan and Bianca watching us. Levan had a very thoughtful gaze on his face while Bianca couldn’t hide her smile.

“We’re so sorry for interrupting you both,” she apologized, and grabbed onto her fiancé’s hand. “Let’s give them some privacy.”

“No need!” I almost yelled. “I’m leaving.” I began to look madly around for my purse until she reminded me that it was in the foyer. I almost sprinted towards it. She came after me to see me out, but I barely heard a single thing she said.

I was out of the door in a flash. My whole world had just turned upside down.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Maxim

I couldn’t go home.

With that one kiss, it felt as though my entire belief system had come crashing down, and I needed to finish what I started. I went and got my car and found myself arriving at her apartment building and parking on the opposite side of the street.

They lived on the third floor of an old Bronx apartment building and although the blinds were open all I could see was a glimpse of their living room. But there were no movements whatsoever.

But I couldn’t leave. I had to see her again. One look, and I promised myself I would go. Just one look.

I felt cursed, put under a spell that I couldn’t understand. Even the crippling dose of self-loathing that filled me was not enough to make me pull away. I sat there like a fool. For one little glimpse.

I knew not to call her. She wouldn’t respond. She was probably as shaken as I was, but had an ego that was bigger than any man’s. It aggravated me, but at the same time heightened my excitement for her.

I saw a car pull up in front of her building and stop. A few seconds passed and no one came out of it. I sat up, all my senses on high alert. Then a man came out of the front passenger door. He was dressed in a t-shirt and jeans, and had a baseball cap worn low enough to hide his face. He had a pizza box in hand, but he looked around cautiously. The way a hitman does.

I could be just paranoid, but no harm in being safe. I immediately grabbed my gun and got out of the car.

I began to approach the car. As I got closer the car jerked to a start, and I immediately pointed my gun at it. It screeched away and I knew then that I only had a few seconds before Freya would be in trouble.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and made a quick call as I ran up the stairs.

“Follow the car!” I said to the men watching.

“Already on it,” came Nikolai’s response.

“How many of them are in the car?”

“Just one,” he responded. “The driver.”

That meant he would be too preoccupied to warn his colleague who had gone into Freya’s apartment.