"Natalie, drink. You don't even realize how cold you are."
At that instant, my teeth decided to chatter with a vengeance. With a mulish look, I chugged the burning liquid. When I set the glass down on a shelf, rim first, he gave me a satisfied nod and took my hand, leading me back toward the fire. While I watched, he stoked it even hotter, then ladled water over the rocks.
Steam hissed, floating through the air. It surrounded us, caressing my face. "If we stay h-here, something might happen." Something sinful.
Like the two of us stripping down to nothing, so we could lick droplets from each other's skin.
"Happen?" He strode toward me, removing his coat on the way.
I backed up a step. "You know, between us." He'd gone so long--why would he blow his perfect record now?
He raised his brows, eyes devilish in the firelight and mist. "Can't control yourself where I'm concerned?" His voice was a deep rasp.
Resist him, Nat. "Maybe I can. Doesn't mean I have to prove it by hanging out in a freaking sauna with you." When he stalked closer, I demanded, "What are you doing, Sevastyan?"
"Getting you out of those wet clothes," he said in a tone that brooked no resistance.
What the hell? Had the countdown clock finally zeroed out? My breaths shallowed as I recalled his restlessness, his piercing looks and mounting tension, as if he'd been about to strike.
Because he had been?
But why now? Why today? And in what . . . manner?
I pictured those indecipherable warnings he'd cast my way. Was I brave enough to face whatever it was he'd been warning me from? "And what if I refuse to take off my clothes, huh?"
"Pet . . ." Now every time he called me that it reminded me of his words: collar and keep you. He reached for my jacket, his gaze gone molten. "There's one thing you should know."
How could a single heated look make shivers dance over my entire body? "What's that?"
"I wasn't asking."
CHAPTER 18
"Hold on!" I tripped back from Sevastyan as he advanced on me through the billowing steam.
Hanging out in a sensual sauna, naked, with an off-limits enforcer who happened to make my mouth water: what could possibly go wrong?
And Sevastyan had been all too prepared to take advantage of the storm. The sauna fire had been lit before we'd even arrived. He'd hinted around about planning my seduction, which made me wonder . . . "What's gotten into you, Siberian? I know the rules--we're not supposed to be trifling with each other."
In a low tone, with words like a promise, he said, "I have no intention of trifling with you."
I frowned. "But that's why you've avoided me, isn't it? Because you don't want to risk getting saddled with me. So what is this?"
"It's simple." He was almost upon me. "You're freezing when I can make you warm."
When I skirted away, he raised his palms, as if to let me know he'd never force anything on me.
I rolled my eyes. Like he ever would have to.
"Then I'll need to make it hotter in here." He returned to the fire. After coaxing more warmth and steam, he sat on a nearby bench and began undressing, his manner casual.
I was rapt as he unbuttoned his shirt with those ringed fingers. I didn't know if it was the vodka in my belly or a growing coil of excitement that was heating me more--just knew my chill had all but disappeared.
When he drew off the wet fabric, the muscles in his arms and shoulders rippled, those tattoos stark across his flexing chest.
I'd researched more about those markings of his. The two stars meant that he was a criminal aristocrat, a man who'd neared the upper echelons of the Bratva. The ones on his fingers signified that he'd been a thief and an assassin. But I also saw scars that I hadn't noticed on the plane--one from what must be a bullet wound in his side and another slash down the back of his arm that looked like a knife wound.
More reminders of how much pain his body had taken. Yet these scars didn't detract from his attractiveness; just the opposite.
He raised his chin proudly. The bastard knew how good his body looked.
How masculine.
How sexual.
I found my feet taking me closer to him, my hands itching to touch his damp skin. What woman would be able to resist him?
A better woman than I.
Before I knew it, I'd sat on the bench a couple of feet from him. I felt obligated to say, "I don't want this."
He raised his brows. Oh, really? "Take off your jacket."
With a swallow, I did. My ivory silk blouse was transparent, my stiff nipples and coral-colored areolas visible through my white lace bra.
When he made a low sound of appreciation, I admitted, "I'm scared."
"Of me?"
Never. I shook my head. "I'm scared of what this means. From what I understand, if we keep fooling around, you're going to get permanently stuck with me. Like you might as well slip a ring on my finger. Especially if we have sex."
"You let me worry about that."
Maybe the threat of mutual saddling had been exaggerated? Like when parents tell kids: "Go outside with wet hair, and you'll catch a cold."
Fool around with an enforcer, and you'll catch forever.
Sevastyan would never risk an everlasting future with me, right? And if I remained a virgin through this encounter, surely I'd be exempt from any mafiya-logic rules.
But maybe my brain was latching on to any excuse to keep this interlude going. Mist suffused the air, making everything feel dreamlike. And wasn't it easier to be reckless in dreams?
"What do you want from me, Sevastyan?"
He reached down to seize my ankles and pulled them over his lap, making me spin on my ass to face him. "Do you trust me, milaya moya?" My sweet.
Off went one of my boots and the accompanying stocking. "For some reason, I do." Off went the other.
Then he reached forward to unbutton my blouse with those tattooed fingers. I was still considering a retreat--until I caught his masculine scent.
Game over. I'd been drugged.
When he guided me to, I shrugged out of my clinging blouse, leaving my bra--which highlighted my breasts more than it concealed them.
His gaze dipped, and he rubbed his palm over his mouth. "You control this situation, Natalya," he said, his voice lulling me until I was staring at his lips. "Tell me what you want."
Before I could think better of it, I'd gone and told him the truth: "More."
Cupping my face with both of his hands, he brushed his thumbs over my cheekbones. "Then I will pleasure you as I need to, as you need me to."
I didn't know what that meant, just knew it sounded necessary and critical. Like breath. "But I can't sleep with you."
He dropped his hands, narrowing his eyes with a blatant flare of anger. "All you can think about is preserving your way out? Then rest assured, I won't fuck you until you beg me. But if you're not strong enough to resist me, then that's on you," he said, repeating what I'd told him on the plane.
No begging equaled no sex? I could resist begging. Then I would be in control. "If not sex, then what do you have in mind?"
"I'm going to give you commands, and I want you to follow them to the letter." A gleam of pure lust accompanied his roughened words.
How much he needed this! The idea of my fulfilling his "particular interests" wiped my mind of resistance. Made my body pliant, my will weak.
He wanted to command me; I wanted it as well.
He pulled me closer to sit across his lap, until our faces were inches apart, our breaths mingling. He nipped my bottom lip, only to soothe it with his tongue. When he slanted his mouth over mine, I sighed with defeat and welcomed his sensual kiss.
As our tongues began to twine, I was dimly aware that my pants had seemed to melt away. The shock of my bare breasts against his blazing hot skin roused me. While he still wore pants, I had only my panties left.
He broke from the kiss, lifting me off his lap. "Here, lie back."
My fi
rst order. The bench was about two feet wide, with polished slats. I could lie on it comfortably, but I suspected comfort was not Sevastyan's first concern. With a nervous swallow, I reclined for him.
He reached forward to tug my underwear off. Then he stared.
His golden eyes were lit with an animalistic intensity so strong it made my heart race.
I followed his gaze as he raked it over my naked body, wondering what he was seeing to affect him so strongly. My normally pale skin was flushed with excitement and dotted with mist, until it looked like it glittered. My restless hips couldn't seem to stop moving.
He wants me darkly, deeply, my mind kept repeating. What had unnerved me before now turned me on like crazy.
"Close your eyes, Natalie. Do not open them. And remain where you are."
"Sevastyan . . ."
"I give commands. You obey them. Sdavaisya." Surrender.
Trepidation surged--but it couldn't compete with my eagerness. Once I closed my eyes, he left the room. I heard him in the pre-bath. Had he gone for more vodka?
As I wondered what he was up to, I perceived a change coming over me. Any lingering uneasiness disappeared under an onslaught of sensations. I could feel those droplets of mist collecting all over my skin, to stream down my sides and pool in my navel. My nipples puckered tighter with each whisper of steam. The scent of the fire filled my nose.
The heavy fall of my hair spilled over the end of the bench. I bit my lip when I felt the rumble of thunder in the wood beneath me, a vibration from my heels to my head.
Every one of my senses was overwhelmed.
I grew even wetter, my lips swelling between my legs. I wanted to spread my thighs, to open myself to him. He'd said I was beautiful there, had licked every crevice and fold with a ravening hunger.
I needed him back! What was he doing? Curiosity plagued me--
Rip.