THE GATEKEEPER

I decide not to complain. I'm being good for him. Seeing where that gets me.

Every moment that goes by, I sense the impending sense of disaster. Soon, the FBI and Stepanov will arrive, and the bratva will be waiting for them. Considering the FBI will think I'm a double agent, I can't count on either side protecting me when it goes down, and that's a problem. Even more of a problem? I'm starting to align myself with the bad guys. I'm becoming that double agent.

When I finish eating, Maykl takes me back to the bedroom, where he chains me, spread eagle in the center of his bed. A feverish heat blooms, just at the position.

Knowing he put me in this position for his pleasure.

He traces the curves of my body with a heavy-lidded gaze. "Did you like telling me all your deepest fantasies yesterday, Kira?"

"I didn't tell all of them." I say it like a dare. Like I want him to find out the rest of them.

He takes my bait. "Then I will have to pry the rest of them from you."

My pulse skitters. Belly flip-flops with excitement. "How?"

"I'm going to make you beg and plead and scream, little warrior." He tweaks one nipple between the knuckles of two fingers. "But I think that's what you want, isn't it?" "Nyet," I lie.

"We'll see." He's smug. Very sure of himself. The secrets he stole from me gave him confidence.

A sliver of warning rings through me. I believe this man is sane. Not sociopathic. But I may have given him more credit than he deserves. After all, he is a killer, and he works for the bratva. He may have a very skewed sense of right and wrong.

Also, just because he doesn't want to hurt me doesn't mean he'll ever let me go.

He pulls the covers completely off me and crawls between my legs. His breath feathers hot across my lady bits.

He presses a chaste kiss to the apex of my nether lips, and a shudder of desire rolls through me.

I'm already close to begging, and he hasn't even begun. The tip of his tongue parts me, and he rolls it over my clit.

"Does it bother you, Kira?"

My inner thighs tremble, straining against the zip ties. "Wh-what?" I warble as he sucks one of my labia into his mouth then releases it with a pop.

"To receive pleasure from someone you hate. A bratva brother?"

For some reason, that statement brings a sharp stab of pain to my chest. A protest to my lips. Because my hatred has already mingled with attraction. With desire. My need to best the bratva is caught up on the hooks of attraction. Of interest in this big, burly man who seems so very interested in me.

Not just in the information I gave him. But in me.

"My hate..." I can't go on because I feel it jamming up under my ribs, pressing against my lungs to constrict my breath. It's old. Finely honed. Born of the fear and helplessness of my youth. Of a desire to overcome that feeling once and for all. It doesn't help that Maykl has begun to lave me with his tongue, to penetrate me with the tip of it, to screw one finger inside of me.

"You see?" He lifts his head and smirks, his lips glossy with my juices. "You can't even answer me."

"You are part of something I hate," I manage to say. It's the most I can offer. I can't say I don't hate him because he's in it, he represents it. But no part of me feels hate directly toward him. He's too...

"Ugn." I throw my head back with the shock of pleasure he delivers when he finds my G-spot.

Too...

Another whine leaves my lips. "Pozhaluysta." I'm begging, just as he predicted.

"Tell me what you need, Valkiriya."

I tug at my bonds, lust, and helplessness making me aggressive. Angry. "I need you to set me free."

He shakes his head. "Not going to happen." He slaps between my legs, delivering several light spanks that make me yank even harder to be free.

Then, to my horror, he backs away, off the bed. "I'll let you simmer a while. I have to get back to my station."

"Wait!" I cry in alarm. "I'm hungry! Thirsty! I have to go to the bathroom!"

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None of those things are true. I just don't want to be left alone. Not when I'm hot and needy and have no means of finishing myself off.

He seems to know it's a bluff because he just offers a shrug. "You'll have to think very hard about how to please me next time."

"Wait...what?"

He walks out the door, and I stare in fury, mouth open, frustration slamming through me.

Evil man. Wicked, horrible, marvelous demon of a man.

I suck in a shaky breath and let it out with a moan. Maybe I do hate him after all.

If he keeps this up, I will definitely learn to thoroughly despise him.

Maykl

The trouble with torturing Kira is that I'm torturing myself at the same time. I leave the guards in front of my door to watch the apartment and go back to my station with the biggest set of blue balls in history.

I left Gleb in charge of the front door. "You back already? Go," he waves me off. "I'm here. You go do whatever it is that has you occupied today. I have nothing else to do."

I hesitate. Leaving Kira alone was part of my plan although it's true that I didn't want to leave her for long. But the funeral home left a message on my phone saying her sister's ashes were ready to be picked up, so I could run that errand. "Thank you." I speak English because that's Ravil's rule for us. If he didn't make it, none of us would perfect our English since we all live here together.