I only manage to breathe properly when I leap out of the bed and stand at a safe distance from the monster in tailored clothes.
“If you don’t need anything.” I nod and turn around, barely resisting the urge to jog to the door.
“Run all you like, Sasha, but one of these days, you will confess, and I’ll reward you.”
I give up trying to look cool and break into a run.
If I refuse to deal with these feelings plaguing me, surely they’ll disappear, right?
21
SASHA
Three days later, I have a fading bruise due to Damien’s punch, and the tension in the house has gone up a notch.
Yulia always looks at Kirill like she wants to strangle him—which isn’t a surprise, considering he did kidnap her.
Konstantin has been sneaky and going out for multiple meetings. Yuri told me that just because he lost his father’s power doesn’t mean he’s out of the game. He still has his mother’s influence to fall back on, and he’ll use it to its full capacity.
Karina has been coming out of her room to watch me or her brother like a creep before she runs back to her self-confinement and slams the door.
Me? I’ve been actively trying to avoid Kirill as if my life depends on it.
It takes every ounce of professional willpower I have to look him in the eye and not think about the feeling of his body beneath mine. His fingers on my lips. His hand gripping my hip. His erection beneath my ass.
His breath, his smell, his warmth.Everything.
It’s impossible to forget. I didn’t even get a proper taste, but I still want more.
And more.
And even…more.
But I can’t. Iwon’t.
No matter how tempted I am by Kirill, no matter how hard it is to keep this fiery, unusual attraction at bay, that’s exactly what I will do.
He’s dangerous to everything I’ve been trying to build. I lied when I said he wasn’t my enemy. After all, he’s Roman Morozov’s son, and depending on that man’s involvement in my family’s murder, he might become my enemy.
I’ve spent the last couple of days actively memorizing the mansion’s security system. While I hated using Maksim, I had to learn how everything around here worked. The cameras, the alarms, and the guards in charge of surveillance.
The interesting tidbit I came up with is that there are no cameras in any of the bedrooms or the office. If I somehow manage to get into there without looking suspicious on the hall’s cameras, I’ll be able to get some information.
I’ve been to the office before, but only when Kirill and Viktor were there.
Most drawers have keys that Kirill changed to password protection. The safe is thumbprint protected, so only Kirill can open it. That doesn’t matter, though, because I don’t think Roman considered his involvement with my family a sensitive enough secret to hide in the safe.
He probably thought of the whole ordeal as something trivial. Hell, I have to be prepared for the possibility that he considered it unimportant enough that he left no record behind.
I won’t know until I try, though.
Keeping my steps nonchalant, I walk down the hall leading to the office, then knock on the door and try to open it.
Locked.
Of course it is.
Still, I remain there for a moment, contemplating the best and fastest way to pick the lock without looking suspicious.