Page 30 of Sexting the Bratva Beast

My stomach clenches when I think about Nora and Audrey. “I can’t stay out all night.” Not that Andrej suggested taking me back to his apartment. I was assuming that, as he’s here, tonight would be a repeat performance, and the thought makes my pulse race. “It’s our residents’ first night. Mika and I both agreed to take the first overnight shift.”

The door opens behind me, and I smell Mika’s perfume before she bounds into the kitchen. “Go. I’ll stay tonight, but you owe me one.”

I whirl around and out of Andrej’s embrace, missing his warmth the instant we’re apart. “I can’t, it isn’t fair.”

Mika rolls her eyes. “What isn’t fair is being forced to share a room with you when you could’ve been on a hot date.”

The corners of Andrej’s mouth twitch into a smile.

“Are you sure?” I ask.

“Jeez, woman, go.” She steps behind me and shoves me towards the door. “And don’t come back until you’re prepared to give me the goss.”

She and Andrej exchange amused glances over my shoulder.

“Oh, and you might want to go home and pick up some clean clothes.”

“Mika!”

But Andrej is already guiding me through the house with his hand resting against the small of my back. His touch is like fire burning through my skin and igniting my core.

I don’t speak until we’re in the backseat of his chauffeur-driven car. The driver merges with the traffic, and I realize that I didn’t give him the address of my apartment.

“Mika is right. I should go home and change my clothes.”

“No need.” Andrej retrieves a large bag from the floor and hands it over. “I told you I bought you something.”

I don’t take it. “You bought me clothes?”

A tiny red flag is waving somewhere at the back of my mind, trying to be seen behind the pheromones and the images of Andrej with his tongue buried deep inside me.

This is how plenty of toxic relationships start with the man controlling what the woman wears. From there, it’s only a few surprisingly short steps to turning her against her friends and monitoring how long it takes her to get home from work, the only place she realizes too late that she ever goes without him.

“Better than that.” He gestures for me to peek inside the bag. His dark eyes burn right through me, and Mika’s voice bellows inside my head:Stop overthinking it and enjoy the ride.

I open the bag, and the leather scent immediately hits me. I reach in and pull out a pair of white tasseled cowboy boots, studded with rhinestones.

“You bought me cowboy boots?” My grin is so wide I feel the stretch in my cheeks.

“No fantasy is complete without them.”

He watches me intently, his expression suddenly serious. Does he think he overstepped the mark? Or is he worried that I wouldn’t like them?

“They’re beautiful.” I hold them close to my face and breathe in the strong aroma of leather, the red flag already disintegrating in the wind.

“They’ll look even more beautiful when you’re wearing them. I checked your shoe size while you were sleeping.”

He did?

What else did he do that I was totally oblivious to? Did he cup my breasts in his hands and figure out my bra size? Or maybe he snipped a lock of my hair to add to his collection.

Stop it, Cartier!The guy has cultivated the bad boy image to perfection; it doesn’t automatically make him a total slimeball.

“There’s more.”

There is?

Did Christmas come early while I was in the throes of wild X-rated pleasure last night?