Holding out my arm, I settled when she shuffled closer and snuggled in, her face pressed against my chest, my chin on top of her head. “You can rest here, Bunny. It’s safe.” I sensed she needed some reassurance.
“Thank you.”
For an hour we lay together, warm bodies entwined, feeling like the most natural thing in the world. I hadn’t ever been close to a woman in bed like this for a very long time, and the more I thought about it, the more my libido was reminding me what I’d missed for all those years. I shuffled around a little so Jolie couldn’t feel the inappropriateness of my arousal, but she wriggled back in place making me curse underneath my breath.
A small giggle from her made me laugh. “I’m sorry. I can’t help it.”
“’S okay.”
“I’m trying to behave here.”
“Ah, but you’re not a good man, are you?”
Yet, there she lay in my arms, all warm and relaxed and too damn tempting to move away from. I thought about lying to her, couldn’t bring myself to do it because I didn’t want to be starting off on the wrong foot if this was to become anything in the future, which I desperately hoped it would.
“No. No, I’m not.”
“I don’t know who you are exactly, I think I have some guesses. Is it wrong I don’t particularly care to find out either? Who you are out there is not who you are in here, I reckon.” Her fingers tapped gently against my chest bone, my heart beating a heavy thump beneath her hand, pulsing a little harder at her touch.
Jolie Summers was invigorating. If we lived in a fantasy world, I’d have considered her a witch casting an incantation on me because she’d pulled me right under her spell. I was finding it difficult to stretch up those walls and be the formidable man I was known to be. There was guilt there too, for the fact I was entertaining the thought of dragging this beautiful being into my dark, murky world. A world which would destroy her if I wasn’t careful.
I had to be honest, there was nothing else for it. “I am the face of an old Russian organisation, Jolie, some people use the word mob to describe us. It doesn’t get any worse than that.”
My admission had the effect I expected. Jolie wriggled from my arms and sat up, brushing her fingers through her hair. She wouldn’t look at me, so I lay still, letting her take the lead. If she got up and walked out of the room without so much as a single word - well, maybe that was for the best. Running away from a man like me was probably the right thing to do.
“I’m a supply teacher,” she said, surprising me. Her breaths were deep, her chest heaving, her gaze fixed on the wall behind me as she considered something. “I live in a two-bed flat with my alcoholic mother, and when I say alcoholic, I mean a bottle a day, living in a recliner kind of alcoholic. I work two jobs to make ends meet and I don’t have friends because I don’t have any hours in the day to devote to anyone else. And quite frankly,” she stated, “People are disappointing.”
I hung my head. Now there, she had a point. People were disappointing. I was lucky enough to have an inner circle I could genuinely call friends, apart from them, anyone I met either wanted something or was afraid and would do anything I desired. I’d played the part, right? And now I wanted to leave it all behind and not be that disappointing person anymore.
You didn’t walk away from the mob - Sandir’s words were spot on. I hated I would most likely be forever chained to an organisation I’d helped to build and strengthen, regardless if there was a contract in place or not. Meeting face to face with Lev was looking more likely by the second if I wanted the chance at a straight break. No, Jolie didn’t belong in my world, nor should she be anywhere near me.
Getting out of bed, I began getting dressed, refusing to look in Jolie’s direction, disappointed with myself. “I’ll take you home.”
Jolie
“I’ll take you home.”
I didn’t want to go home, and I didn’t want the indifferent man sitting in the chair and pulling on his perfectly polished shoes.
“No.” Crawling to the end of the bed, I reached out and wound my fingers around the top of his arm, his muscle tensing under my fingers. “No.”
“Jolie,” he warned, my name carrying a hint of regret.
If ever there was a time to be brave, it was now. I’d take the consequences with my chin up because I’d chosen this. When the sun came up, the walk of shame would be on my terms. Something for me, even just the memory of this single night, would be enough to see me through. An enjoyable time, perhaps a terrible decision, I wanted Yannick Ischmov, wanted to throw caution to the wind. To be a woman who unashamedly reached out for what she wanted and took it for once in her life.
Shifting onto my knees, I pulled the tank top over my head and threw it on the floor with purpose. I’d never been any good at the seduction game and truly hoped Yannick wasn’t a man who preferred busty women, because really, I didn’t have much to look at.
His heavy gaze brushed over me, interested at least, then he met my eyes, his pupils darker than I’d seen previously. He stopped lacing his shoes, sitting upright in the chair, palms flat on his thighs.
“I don’t want to go home,” I said, making myself
