With This Ring

My hand touched the warm silk of her panties.

I felt like a man who had walked for miles without shoes to reach a place of pilgrimage. Finally, I was at the entrance. The priest had opened the wooden door guarded by fierce dragons. Soon I would see the face of my God. The God who had hidden his face from me.

My finger hooked into the silky scrap of material and I felt her wetness, her delicious sweetness.

Suddenly, she tore herself from me with a gasp, and slipped sideways. I felt such loss that a strange snarl rolled out of my throat. Like a heat-seeking missile, I went after her. In the next moment, I had my lips back on her mouth.

She tasted pure, of unadulterated, heady pleasure, the kind that could only be dreamt about. God, I could not get enough.

She placed both her hands on my chest and pushed me away. “Get off me!” she yelled.

I was so gone I almost couldn’t find my sense of reason to pull away. She shoved at my chest again, this time with all her strength, and I felt myself moving.

I saw my reflection in her eyes, and it was one that brought me shame. It was the image of a weakened man … almost broken and completely tamed … by her.

The realization struck me with more fear.

Chapter Forty-One

Maxim

“How dare you touch me?” she panted.

“You fucking loved it too. I’m not the only one who’s intoxicated. You’re as maddened by it as I am.”

“I have an excuse. I’m drunk. What’s yours?” Then she turned away from me and ran from the room.

I punched the wall and welcomed the pain. My breath was coming fast and hard. I tried to calm myself down, but nothing could bring me back down from the high that had just exploded in my brain. I wanted her, with a ferocity that felt as if it would sooner or later drive me insane.

I couldn’t tell how long I remained there, but then suddenly I heard her steps rushing back down from the stairs. I closed my eyes and prayed for strength. She was playing with me like a cat does with a mouse. Here freedom, sorry nope. Here pleasure, sorry nope. Here heaven, sorry nope.

A few moments later I heard her close to me. Much too close.

I opened my eyes and found myself staring into the barrel of a 9mm Glock.

Her request was simple. “Tell your men to let me go.”

The gun was cocked and ready to fire.

I saw the rage in her eyes and confirmed that she was very able to carry out the threat. She was also alcoholically intoxicated enough to, and I wasn’t going to take any risks.

I played along and lifted both my hands in the air. “What do you want, Freya?”

“I want out of here. I want a car.”

In that moment, and especially at the look in her eyes I was more worried for her than for myself. If she made the wrong choice, everything from then on would truly be ruined. It would be the end and I would never be able to forgive myself. “You’re going to drive in the condition you’re in?”

For a moment, she seemed stumped.

I pressed my advantage. “You could kill someone.”

“I won’t be driving. You will.”

“Okay.”

She held out her phone. “Tell your guys to bring a car around and then I’m going to get in it with you. And if any one of them even try to follow me, I will blow your fucking head off.”

I hesitated.

“Do it,” she screamed.

I called them and gave my instructions. There was no way they were not going to react badly to a request like that from a number they did not recognize.

Seconds later, a gang of armed guards burst into the room. All five men gazed in shock at the incredible scene in front of them. Their next reaction was to point their guns at her.

I was almost deranged with anger. “What the fuck are you doing?” I roared.

They looked at each other in confusion.

I glared at them. “What the fuck are you going to do, shoot her?”

In a flash, they lowered their guns.

“Just do what she says,” I instructed. “She won’t harm me.”

“Don’t be so sure of that,” she scoffed.

I turned to glare at her. “Are you sure you want to get out of here alive? Then you better shut up and wrap this up quickly.”

She glanced at my men, but didn’t say anything.

“Did you bring the car around?”

“No,” Otari said, even as he produced his walkie-talkie and gave instructions for the Range Rover to be brought to the elevator doors.

“Move aside!” I said to my men and they parted ways. With the gun pointed to my head, I walked ahead of them towards the elevator.

As the elevator doors shut on us, I turned to look at her. “Where are you planning on going?”