Page 143 of Bratva Jewels Box Set

“Is it, really?” I question him.

“Of course, it is, it’s what I want.”

I don’t understand this man. I want to ask him why, but we are interrupted by a waiter bringing out food.

“Looks like lunch is ready,” he grins before reaching out and grabbing me. He pulls me through the water, and I bounce off his chest. Then strong hands wrap around my waist, and thenext thing I know he is lifting me out of the water and my butt hits the warm tiles.

Maxim slides in between my legs and looks up at me. “I’m hungry, are you?”

Is there a double meaning to that question?

Why is this man confusing the hell out of me? This should be easy. I’m his captive. He’s, my captor. Those are the rules I understand but this … this game of flirtation, caring, and dare I say friendship, I don’t get.

9

MAXIM

Each night she asks me to lay with her because my presence helps her sleep and keeps the nightmares away. I don’t tell her that the same thing happens to me, too, each night I get into bed with her. As well as an aching dick, thanks to being nestled against Grace’s tight little ass every night and my hand on her breast. It seems something we have continued from that first night.

I pull up the covers and lay my hand across her waist, and she moves that hand from its place to her breast. How can I say no if that relaxes her. It certainly doesn’t relax me, but I breathe through it and enjoy the quiet between us and of course the feeling of her breast against my hand. They are the perfect size for me, not too big and not too small, they sit just right in my large hand.

And every morning when the sun rises, I leave her bed, jerk off in the shower, and make her breakfast. Then we sit and talk as if we don’t have a care in the world. It’s a perfect illusion, one neither of us is ready to shatter just yet. Then we head to the pool where she swims, and I watch her while I work. If this is what domestic bliss feels like, then consider me domesticated.

Today, I’m distracted from my work like I am every day as my eyes focus on the beautiful creature enjoying the water. Watching her swim laps back and forth, her lithe arms gliding through the water. After thirty minutes, she sometimes hops out, grabs a book from the library, and lazes beside me reading while other days she lays back and enjoys the sun, which is beginning to tan her white skin.

The first day after getting out of the pool, I noticed how pink her skin was at lunch and I insisted on lathering her up with sunscreen. Didn’t think that through other than I didn’t want her to burn because as soon as my hands began rubbing in the lotion, my dick was saluting the fucking sky. The moans that my fingers were pulling from her mouth had all kinds of images projecting through my mind, and most were not PG-rated. When she eventually turned around her nipples were hard peaks, so I guess I’m not the only one having impure thoughts about the other. I would never cross that line with Grace no matter how much I may want to, something terrible has happened to her, and I would never want her to class me the same as Dmitri. I would never hurt or force a woman, ever.

My phone begins ringing, and I pick it up without looking, thinking it’s Sergei.

“Maxim, my man,” Dmitri greets me as if we’re old friends.

Last time we spoke he was almost pissing himself while I had a gun to his head. It takes me a couple of moments to collect my thoughts and make sure that Grace can’t hear this phone call. She’s currently doing her morning laps, so she will be done in the next ten minutes, Dmitri has five.

“What do you want?” I’m unable to hide my disdain for the man.

“A little birdy told me you might have captured a jewel for me.”

I still.

What the actual fuck? Who the hell told him that?

I don’t answer, waiting for him to reveal more than I do.

“Interpol is looking for her. Missing person flyers are circulating throughout the Police stations in Europe.”

Aw. One of his police contacts has told him.

“The heat is a little much at the moment. I’m being followed. I can’t take her yet.”

You were never getting her.

“I need you to look after her for like a month.”

“I’m not a fucking babysitter,” I bite back.

“Please, man. You know how it is? She’s high profile now. We need to stay low.”

“Do you have any of the other jewels?”