“What?” he asked suspiciously.
She held herself still and felt her cheeks begin to heat. “Nothing.”
“That didn’t sound like nothing,” he insisted.
That’s because it hadn’t been nothing. It had been something. Something so amazing. The perfect way his mouth had fit over her, the way he’d used just the right amount of suction even while his tongue had done its magic. Then the way he would rear up and enter her just before she came apart…
She shook her head and forced herself not to push her thighs together to quell the ache that had sprung up. What was wrong with her?
“Sacha…”
“You said you wanted to talk,” she forced out. “So talk.”
With his lips tightening, he took her arm again and led the way into a much smaller room than the one they’d be eating dinner in—if they ever got around to it. It was silent and shadowed with only one chandelier lit, and that was in the far corner. They came to a stop next to an uncovered table and two stacks of chairs.
She jumped when the door closed. Looking back, she saw Markus standing guard on the other side of the glass. Anton was now next to him.
“You remember Markus? And Anton you met yesterday.”
She nodded and attempted to extract her arm. Alekzander wouldn’t release her. It was one thing to feel muddled when near him. But when he touched her, she became lost. As wrong as it was, as humiliating as it was, he touched her, and she craved more. She didn’t want him merely gripping her arm. She wanted him to draw her in, caress her back, his hands to travel down. She wanted him to cup her ass cheeks and drag her against him the way he used to do.
She’d been such a different person with him. So open. So free.
So physical.
I miss who I was then.
“You’re going to stand here and allow me to touch you now.”
She took a step back as self-preservation kicked in.
He followed and made it so she couldn’t take another. “I won’t go too far. I just need to feel you as I talk.”
Warning bells clanged in her head. “I do not want—”
“Shh. Enough with the lies. I can see in your eyes exactly what you want. But then you start thinking again.”
He bent and lightly skimmed his nose across her cheek as he inhaled deeply. His lips touched her jaw and a small sound of desperation escaped her. She leaned back, half-heartedly trying to pull away, but at the same time gripping his tuxedo jacket at his waist so she couldn’t get very far. She wanted to pull him in and rub all over him. At the same time, she felt the need to shove him away so hard. She wanted to have the strength to put him through the wall. To break him. The way he’d broken her.
In the end, her head aching with confusion, she pushed him away and accepted the cold that enveloped her. “I am afraid I cannot play the mindless bimbo for you. Maybe the woman whose key is in your pocket will satisfy your craving for obedience.”
His confusion was apparent as his arms fell to his sides. “What are you talking about?”
His indulgent tone scraped her nerves raw. “The blonde woman who would make Barbie sit in front of a mirror and cry. I saw you accept her key minutes before you forced me to dance with you.”
“Sydney? Maks was in the middle of something, so he asked her to bring me the key to my truck. She’s the distraction I was telling you he found. The one with the kids.”
Surprise was followed by the warmest sense of relief Sacha had ever experienced. “She carried a child in that body?” she blurted before she could stop herself. How unfair! “Oh. Oh, dear.” The things she’d said to him on the dancefloor came back to her. The beautiful things he’d said to her. “I was so rude to you. I am sorry. I thought she was another of your girlfriends.”
He winced. “I don’t have girlfriends, Sacha. I told you, it wasn’t real. I actually paid that girl the night you saw me. I paid her a thousand fucking dollars to play the part of my lover. I touched her only enough to make it look convincing. But none of it was real. I did not have sex with her.”
Her remorse died, and before she threw it into his face, she placed her evening bag on the table. “I do not believe you when you tell me that. Would you like to know why? Because I saw you. I saw your hand on the skin of her bare thigh as you held her. I saw how she was enjoying your body. She was not faking that. I heard her. I still hear her, Alekzander. Why would you lie when you know I was right there? I was there! You looked at me, and you did nothing as I stood there and bled to death!” she screamed.
As the echo of her voice faded, her panting breaths filled her ears as surely as tears filled her eyes. She blinked them away as he shook his head, his face tortured.