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“You could run off with the money.”

Her face colors even harder, but not from shame. “You?—!”

“Second,” I interrupt, “no skipping assignments. Ever. I’ll be demanding that advance back if you do, every cent of it.”

“Yulian, I have a kid! I work in the E.R., I?—”

“Every. Fucking. Cent.”

Her brow creases, her cheeks puffing up like a hamster’s. It’d be cute if she wasn’t absolutely fucking furious, but that’s none of my business.

This is life or death.

Whether she realizes that or not.

“Third,” I drawl, tilting her chin up with my fingers, “no getting ideas .”

I can feel the heat of her skin where our bodies touch. It’s such a small connection, but I’m already burning from it. I’ve never toyed with an employee like this. Never thought I’d be doing it with her of all people.

But now, I find myself getting high on the thrill of the chase.

Even though it won’t lead anywhere.

Even though I can’t let it.

“You’re not allowed to fall for me,” I whisper, inches away from Mia’s full, plush lips. “In lust, or in love, or in anything between.”

She glares at me, like a caged beast ready to maim as soon as I set her loose.

And yet, I can see the truth in her eyes. Her pupils, pinpricks until moments ago, have eaten away at her irises almost completely. A black hole, swallowing the sea.

“I wasn’t planning on it,” she snaps.

“Doesn’t matter. We’ll be playing a very dangerous game together. Anything could happen.”

My mouth travels close to her ear. As I speak, I can feel the shell of it against my lips. It drives me fucking crazy—how little it would take to bite it. To nibble until she mewls and writhes against me.

“But you can’t be the future Mrs. Lozhkin,” I add. “No one can.”

She struggles free from my grasp and fixes me with a glare that could melt glaciers. “Don’t worry, Mr. Lozhkin. I’m not interested in ever seeing you again after this is over with.”

Liar.

“Then we have a deal.”

I offer her my hand.

She stares at it like it could bite her. But eventually, she gives a firm shake.

“Deal,” she says, like she was ever an equal partner in this. Like she ever had any power in our little “negotiation.”

I turn to leave. “Oh,” I remember at the door. “Get ready for tomorrow night. I have a business meeting. You’ll be needed.”

Mia’s mouth gapes. “That’s too soon. I—I can’t. I have a shift, I don’t have a sitter, I—we just agreed on forty-eight hours!”

“Yes,” I agree. “And going forward, you’ll be given your precious notice. But tomorrow, you will be where I need you to be.”

Without another glance back, I climb down the stairs.

“Hey!” Mia’s voice follows me, then her footsteps. “I’m not done talking to you!”

My patience is hanging on by a thread. If I stay any longer, I won’t be able to control my actions. I’m unpredictable on my best days, but around Mia Winters?

I have no idea what I’ll be capable of if she keeps pushing me.

She chases me out the front door. Her breaths are heavy by the time she’s caught up with me, hands-on-knees kind of heavy. “You can’t—you can’t just walk away!”

I glance back at her figure. Bent, sweaty—exactly the way my worst instincts would want her. “I just did.”

“You…!” she heaves. “You arrogant, cocky, entitled son of a bitch! I am not going to dance to your fucking tune just because you want me to, you got that?!”

Finally— finally —the thread snaps.

It happens faster than I can process it. One second, I’m standing in front of my car, and the next?—

“Hey! What the hell?!”

—I’m dragging Mia into an alley.

I bracket her against the wall with my right arm, slamming my palm hard into the concrete. Plaster crackles and falls at the impact. Mia’s gaze snaps to the spot I crushed, takes in the consequences. Immediately, a shiver goes through her.

Good, the dark side of me preens. Fear me. Hate me.

And show me some fucking respect while you’re at it.

I lower my gaze, meeting hers. She looks terrified, and yet, at the same time, ready to pounce. I’ve never seen such a mix on a person’s face before.

“You seem to be under the mistaken impression you can call the shots here, Ms. Winters,” I growl, low and dangerous. “Let me assure you, you cannot.”

“I—”

“Quiet.” My hand flies to her throat and clamps down. Not enough to hurt, but enough to keep Mia from moving a muscle, her quick tongue included. “I’m talking now.”

I draw my face closer to my doe in the headlights. Like this, I could do anything to her.

I just might.

“I will decide when we meet, where, and how. I will decide how you dress, how you act, what you say, when you say it. If I’m displeased with any of it, I won’t hesitate to tear that pretty contract of yours to shreds.”

We’re close. Way too close. Enough to kiss or kill each other.

Right now, I can’t decide which one I want more.

“Tell me you understand.”

Mia’s eyes fill with fire again. The kind of fire that makes me want to draw closer to the flame, see how bad it can burn.

All this time, I’ve been the one burning down empires left and right.

Never have I let another’s flame touch me.

But Mia’s heat almost matches the intensity of mine.

“I’m not your property,” she says. “I’m not?—”

“Yes, you are. You are mine. Until the sun comes up six months from now, you belong to me and only me. And I won’t have you questioning me.”

“Or what?” She trembles. “You’ll hurt me?”

“No, Mia. I’ll never hurt you. I’ll never need to.” My lips graze her cheek, just shy of her quivering, open lips. “There are much easier ways to teach someone a lesson.”

She shrinks into the wall, but I don’t let her go. The fear in her eyes has a delicious undertone to it.

Mia Winters is a liar. I’ve known that from the day Maksim handed me that file on her.

No—from the day I fucking met her.

She has secrets up to her beautiful blue eyes, thick enough to drown her. She has a fake name, a fake life, and a fake notion of who she is.

Right now, she thinks she fears me.

But I know the truth.

The body doesn’t lie.

Mia’s pupils aren’t shrinking. They’re blown, black and full, wider than ever before. Her breath hitches, coming out in short little gasps that make me want to do the unspeakable to her.

I’m hard as a fucking rock, but like hell am I gonna let her notice.

Rule number one of power plays: Never let your opponent know how much they have over you.

And Mia, as loathe as I am to admit it, has done quite a number on certain parts of me.

When I speak next, I mask my desire. Instead, I fill my voice with implied violence. “Tell me you understand, kotyonok. ”

She’s panting now, her breasts brushing against my chest with her every breath. I know she feels it, too—the heat pooling between us, the circle of gasoline around our bodies.

One spark, and it’ll catch.

“I understand,” she whispers.

Only then do I let her go.

“Tomorrow,” I say once more. “Don’t be late.”

With that, I leave her.

I leave her in that alley. I leave her gasping, shaking, with tears in her eyes and tremors in her thighs.

I leave her and curse myself, over and over, in the car.

Blyat’. I let myself get carried away. I let her lead the game. Even if she doesn’t realize that’s what happened, I know it did.

I lost it. I lost my cool, lost my head.

And I’m still hard as a fucking rock.