Defiant. Sweet. Alluring.
A business deal gone wrong brought me to her doorstep.
She's everything I shouldn't want; everything I was against after watching my mother's obsession destroy her.
Still, I can't stop myself from craving her.
I should know...
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I LIED.
I remembered every word I said.
But, I wasn't lying when I said the Russian had slipped out unconsciously.
It was a habit I'd tamed a long time ago - switching between the three languages I spoke whenever I was in a heated conversation with someone or slightly irritated.
It wasn't a good look for me because it was tantamount to outwardly losing my cool, and growing up in an environment like mine, it was seen as a sign of weakness, an opening for the predators to prey on you and your emotions.
Now, I barely batted an eye when I was heated or irritated, and that was because I'd spent the past decade curbing this bad habit - I succeeded, too - and in just one night, she'd undone all that work.
I should've taken it as my sign to disengage and get myself out of the situation before I spiraled, but hours after she'd fallen asleep, I still laid awake next to Ariana, staring down at the soft contours of her face, and all I could think of was hiding her away from the rest of the world and keeping her to myself.
They didn't deserve her beauty, her rare smiles and rarer laughter, or her fierce loyalty.
I wasn't quite sure if I deserved them either.
She shifted on the bed, drawing closer to me until her leg was cocked over my torso.
She did that a lot — clinging to me when we shared a bed at night. If we somehow got an inch separated during the night, she always found her way back to my side, pressing her body against mine.
At this point, my body had already memorized all the soft curves and lines of her body, and how it fit perfectly against mine like she was custom-made just for me.
I was never one for physical touch, but I always found myself touching and reaching out for her, too, running my hands over her curves until they were branded on my palms.
I let out a harsh breath.
Yeah, I needed to pull away and get my head under control before I got completely drowned in her.
I gently plucked her limbs off my body, sliding off the bed while she mumbled in her sleep. A crease appeared between her brows, and I thought I'd woken her, but she merely turned to her other side, curling into herself in a fetal position. Her soft, even breaths filled the room, and I released a relieved breath.
I grabbed a pair of sweatpants and a tee from my closet before I quietly slipped out of the bedroom, heading straight for Mikhail's part of the house.
I knew where he usually was this time of the night, so I went in search of his art room.
Creepy statues filled the hallway from knights to mythological monsters that could keep a person up at night.
But Mikhail, with a few screws loose, claimed they made him sleep better at night.
