Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 56608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 226(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 283(@200wpm)___ 226(@250wpm)___ 189(@300wpm)
I grin, but there’s a dark edge deep inside me. She still doesn’t know who I really am. I get into the driver’s seat and guide us through the city. My windows are tinted, and we’re not touching, but annoying nerves still try to grip me. It pisses me off. I shouldn’t have to be paranoid just sitting in the car with Lia.
“Are you okay?” she asks quietly.
“Fine,” I tell her.
“It’s probably been a tough week… even if your feelings about your dad are confused.”
“They’re not confused,” I tell her. “They’re just bad, but we don’t need to talk about that.”
“We don’t have to not talk about it, though,” she says. “If you want to?”
There’s no way for me to explain just how bad my father was without revealing that we’re Bratva. There’s something so refreshing about Lia not knowing. Other women, especially those who have been involved in the life for a long time, automatically throw themselves at me. I hate it. It’s always felt so wrong. I never knew why until I met Lia.
“There’s no need,” I say. “The past is the past.”
“It can still hurt, sometimes,” she murmurs, staring at the road.
“Is there something you want to talk about, Lia?”
She wraps her arms around herself. I meant what I said before. Every time she does that, her big, delicious tits press together. My dick gets hard again, precome smearing my underwear. “That’s not how this works, Dimitri.”
“Then let’s just enjoy our shopping trip, eh?”
When I reach a red light, she looks at me with a mixture of excitement and fear. Maybe I can read it easily because the same mixture surges through me. “Okay, Dimitri. We don’t have to get serious.”
She’s got some sass in her voice, but she doesn’t push the issue. When I tell her who I finally am… No, I don’t want to think about that now. Just like I don’t want to think about my wife-to-be. Hell, what am I doing here? What am I—No, I need to focus on the here and now. As hard as that is. But it’s not fair to Lia, leading her on, and yet here I am. Doing it anyway.
“All my life,” I tell her, “I’ve had to think about the future since I was a kid, and my father was grooming me for… the company. With you, Lia, it’s easy to be present. I don’t think I knew what being present meant before I met you.”
I didn’t mean for all that to spill out, but when she places her hand on my arm, the warm skin-on-skin contact tells me it means something to her. Soon, I pull up outside the store.
“It looks like it’s closed,” Lia says. “And… I mean, this place? A pair of pants probably cost like two hundred bucks!”
“You’re worth it,” I tell her, “and you’re right. It’s closed, but I’ve got the key. You can have anything you want.”
Now, she tries not to look excited but can’t hide how the corner of her lip twitches. She can’t stop her perfect eyes from sparkling with anticipation. “I’ll just get something cheap,” she says. “I’m happy to pay.”
“You’ll get whatever you want,” I tell her, “and you’re not paying a single penny.”
She walks around the upscale store, her mouth sometimes falling open before she stubbornly closes it.
“What?” she says, turning away from a sparkly gold dress to give me the most beautiful glare I’ve ever seen.
“Nothing,” I say innocently.
“I’m just looking.”
“You can do more than look.”
“This dress is over a thousand bucks!” she says, holding the tag up to emphasize her words.
I take both her hands, knowing I’ll never tire of how she feels, the warmth and the closeness. “You’re worth far, far more than that, Lia. Don’t forget your underwear…”
Leading her into the lingerie section, her hand tightens around mine. Maybe I’m going nuts, but I’m sure I can feel the drumming of her heartbeat through her hand.
“One hundred bucks for a set,” she says, gasping, and, sickly, I find myself thinking of what Mila said about how she’s always had the best of things in her life. I hate comparing them—there is no comparison. But the threat of what I might have to do is aimed at me like the barrel of a gun
“You’d look good in that one.” I gesture to a frilly set with a little bow on the bra and panties, trying my best to shut the voices in my head up. Smoothing my hand to her lower back, I inch down to her ass, feeling her thickness. “You’ll be like a gift, ready for me to unwrap…”
She shifts her ass against me. It’s so hot when she does that. It’s like it’s not even on purpose. She can’t help herself when she feels my touch.
“It’s so expensive,” she murmurs.