Page 28 of Beautiful Secrets

Imagination is key.

He calls me seconds later. “Hendry,” he rasps into the phone. “Do you have any idea what I’m going to do to you when I—”

“If you ever want to see your precious Mika alive again, then you’ll shut the fuck up and start listening,” I cut in.

Mika’s spine goes stiff. I sink onto the cushion beside her and put the phone onto speaker just as Dimitri lets out a rough, “Fuck you, Hendry. When I find you, I’ll—”

I pinch Mika’s nipple, the one that slipped out of the torn shirt earlier and has been haunting me ever since. She lets out an indignant gasp and jerks away from my fingers.

Dimitri shuts the fuck up, but I can hear him laboring for breath.

Angry is good.

Furious? Even better.

“Now here’s how it’s gonna work,” I say, making sure my voice drawls as much as possible. “I’m giving you one week. By noon, seven days from now, you and your entire litter of ill-begotten fucking scumbag relatives and soldiers and will be gone. Do you understand?”

Mika tips her head back, trying to peek at me from under the strip of cloth. I grab one of her curls and yank it, but she doesn’t make a sound. Just grits her teeth at me like a savage.

I could just eat her up.

“This is not possible,” Dimitri says. “I do not have the power to—”

“Save your daughter’s life?” I cut in. “Are you sure, friend?” I loved the response I got from tweaking her nipple—time to up the stakes.

I shove my hand between Mika’s legs, putting the phone close to her mouth and hoping the delicious gasp she makes comes through crystal clear.

It must—Dimitri curses in Russian and the line goes dead.

Mika tries to move away from my hand, but stops as soon as I click my tongue. I put the phone down on the coffee table and lean in, inhaling the scent of her.

“Think he’ll take the bait?” I ask.

There’s a bunch of fabric between her and me, but still her heat cascades over my hand. I cup her pussy, using that grip to push her into the back of the couch.

“I do not know,” she says in a tight voice.

“And if he doesn’t? What do we do then?”

Her chest flutters as if she’s struggling to catch her breath. “I do not know.”

“I do,” I murmur, putting my lips right by her ear. “I think I’ll send a video next. Something a little more—” I squeeze her pussy hard enough to make her gasp “—graphic.”

Mika whimpers.

The sound does something to me. It’s what I imagine a predator must feel like when it has its prey in its teeth, and the thing goes limp.

A surge of sadistic pleasure rushes through me at the thought of how easily I could overpower this little rabbit shivering in my grip.

So easy—ripping off her clothes and baring her smooth skin.

Effortless—holding her open.

She could fight—and no doubt she will—but it would only delay the inevitable.

I stand in a rush, giddy for a second, and stumble away from where she’s sitting. “Don’t move,” I grate out, pointing at her even though I know she can’t see me.

She collapses in on herself a little at that, and nods furiously.