Page 24 of Beautiful Secrets

The thought sends a chill deep into my bones.

I wasn’t imagining things earlier. He washard.

There is no way I can stop someone as big and strong as him getting what he wants. I have first-hand experience in just how pathetically weak I am compared to a man. Despite all Lev’s training—physically, I do not stand a chance.

It takes everything I have not to give in to despair. But while my life has never been easy, this is far from the worst thing I have had to face.

Despite what Cole is capable of—and my imagination runs wild coming up with the answer to that—he hasn’t hurt me yet.

Because I am too valuable.

The daughter of his enemy. He probably thinks I am worth a lot.

My mouth curls into a grim smile, but it quickly fades.

I must escape before he finds out just how little my father thinks of me and, in reality, just how worthless I am to the Vasiliev family name.

But try as I might, my bonds do not give way. I am stuck in this chair until Cole decides to loosen me. I can’t even bite my way free—my wrists are too far away.

I will have to wait for the perfect moment.

When Cole is distracted, maybe.

Finally, a day of constant battling gets the better of me. My eyes become heavy, and I can barely keep them open anymore.

Exhausted, I let sleep take me away, back to the only place that I have ever called home.

Russia.

9

Cole

Mika looks like a goddamn angel when she’s sleeping…if I squint to blur out the ties binding her to the lounger, and the sweat-stained clothes, and her short, disheveled hair. Actually, she looks more like the kind of angel God throws out of heaven after keeping everyone awake with her death metal and incessant snorting of coke.

Definitely my kind of angel.

I use my bare foot to nudge her awake. She wakes in a rush, blinking furiously until she focuses on me, and then pulls her thigh away from my foot.

“Morning, little rabbit,” I say, adding an evil grin for emphasis. “Hungry?”

She blinks a couple more times and then shakes her head. “Bathroom.”

“Yeah sure.” I point a thumb over my shoulder. Then I drop a bundle of clean clothes on her chest.

She stares at me, deadpan, and I chuckle at her.

“Where are my manners?” I throw one leg over the other side of the couch and sink onto her hips. I don’t rest my full weight—wouldn’t want to snap the little thing.

I take my time untying her, enjoying every delicious second that she’s under me, knowing she wants nothing more than to squirm around. But I guess she realizes what that does to me, and she’s not feeling like having a rock hard cock inches from her face this early in the morning.

If only she knew what a massive boner I woke up with. And it’s all her fault. Had me some titillating fucking dreams in limbo. Spreading open her legs and licking her pussy until she was begging me to fuck her. And then obliging her breathless demands.

Over and over again.

Fuck, I’m getting hard just thinking about it.

Mika keeps her eyes on my face until I get off her and hold out a hand to help her up. She ignores it, of course, and pushes herself into a sit.