I stopped tracing my patterns. “You did what?”
“Your interest rate was ridiculous, and it pissed me off. So I paid it.”
My mind floundered. What was his motivation? What angle was he working? “I can’t let you do that.”
“Yes, you can.” His eyebrow bent into an upside-down V. “It’s already done, anyway. They’re not going to give me my money back.”
“Luka—”
“I didn’t do it to trap you. There’s no strings attached, so you’ll accept this from me, understand?” His voice was quiet, yet firm. I nodded slowly, too stunned to render an answer. His displeased look softened. “Good. Merry Christmas, Addison.”
Holy crap. His hand beneath mine turned over, and he laced his fingers with mine. Such a simple action, and yet it carried so much meaning.
“Merry Christmas, Luka.”
Chapter
Twenty-Five
Vasilije moved in the week after New Year’s.
His room was in the middle of the second floor, and I was grateful there was an empty guest bedroom between the brothers as a buffer. Since Vasilije had failed out of school, Dimitrije got him a job in sales at the dealership. Luka was in the back office, so he said he didn’t see much of his brother.
I didn’t either. Luka asked me to steer clear of him, and I had no problem following that order.
My spring semester was a lighter load than the fall, but still kept me busy, and I spent most of my afternoons in the office, which Luka had forbidden Vasilije from entering. It had become our space as much as Luka’s bedroom had.
“He finally asked her out,” I said to Luka one afternoon.
He looked up from his desk to spy me curled up on the couch. I still had the blanket over my lap even though the fire was going in the fireplace.
“Gavin?”
“Yeah. He’s in my psychology lecture.”
Luka sat back in his chair, intrigued. “What’d Vanessa say?”
“She said yes. You’d think it wouldn’t work between them, because they have nothing in common.”
“They like each other,” he said. “Sometimes that’s enough.”
I supposed that was true. I stretched my arms up above my head and closed my textbook, setting it on the table.
“Are you done for the night?” he asked. To anyone else, his tone would sound benign, but I knew better.
He had plans for this evening. My blood pressure rose. “Yes.”
“Good.” He stood from his chair and his expression thickened with desire. “Come here.”
I followed his order without a word. I stood still and allowed him to methodically strip off my clothes, each removal exposing more of my flesh to his lust filled eyes and greedy hands.
I wasn’t nervous, and I wasn’t cold—the fire was putting out enough heat. But I shook anyway from the excitement and anticipation. He took his papers off the desk and put them in a drawer, which left the top of the enormous desk bare.
He trapped my waist in his hands and moved me to the center of the desk. “Sit.”
The smooth wood was cold against the backs of my legs.
Rope had been stored in the bottom drawer of the desk, which he retrieved and dropped down beside me with a quiet thud. Luka’s eyes gleamed as I found his gaze. He hadn’t tied me up since the first day I’d been at the house. He’d told me one day I might want it, and now I looked at the coiled rope with surprise. The blackness inside me did want it. There wasn’t any other feeling like being at his mercy.
It was a rush when he eased me onto my back, urging me onto the center of the desk. There was no conversation. No discussion about rules, or safe words, or feelings. The realization washed over me. There was no need for it, because I trusted him.
He snapped his fingers and I obeyed. I held perfectly still as he worked, threading the different sections of rope around the desk legs and then winding the ends around my wrists. Occasionally his gaze would wander to mine, checking in on my status.
I’m fine, I hoped my expression told him. I want this.
His warm hands positioned my feet flat on the desktop, and then there was more rope. It was lashed around my thigh, just above each knee, ensuring my legs stayed open wide to him, and the other ends were anchored beneath the desk.
When it was done and I was bound to the desk, firelight played over him, and a lazy grin swept through his face. I was a vibrating, exciting mess, and enjoyed being on display like this for him.
“Maybe I’ll leave you like this all night,” he said on a low voice. “You look too fucking perfect not to.”
I licked my lips. Once again, his heat filled the room and evaporated all the moisture.
Luka freed the tie from his neck and dropped it on the chair. Then, he worked the buttons of his shirt, peeled the sleeves down his arms, and tossed the shirt on top of the tie. He rolled the chair back to the corner, giving him plenty of workspace.