Champagne Venom (Orlov Bratva, #1)(56)

He smiles like it’s funny, and I want to punish those cruelly beautiful lips for what they do both to his face and to me. But then the ice in his silver eyes starts to melt, just a little, and suddenly, I’m fine being the butt of the joke.

“I’m tired, too,” I declare.

He extends his arm, leading me towards the bed. “Then be my guest.”

“What are you going to do?”

He turns and grabs the dog-eared book on his nightstand. Then he drops down into the chair in the corner. “I think I’ll read for a bit.”

We’ll see about that.

“Suit yourself,” I say with a shrug.

Then I pull my too large t-shirt over my head, revealing my nakedness underneath it.

Misha’s eyes take in my newly-exposed skin for only a few seconds before he forces his gaze back to the book.

I turn my back on him and pull down my sweats. I can’t see him, but I can feel his eyes on my ass. I purposely bend low to pull off the sweats and drape them over the foot of the bed. Then, stark naked, I peel the duvet down and drape myself on top of the luxuriously soft mattress. I don’t rush to cover myself, though.

Instead, I twist my hips to the side, bowing my back in a stretch. Then I lay a hand on my hip and stare at him. “I read that book the other night.”

He glances up at me, his eyes snaking over my body before diving back down to the page. “No, you didn’t.”

I frown. I was lying, obviously, but… “How do you know?”

“Because you don’t speak Russian.”

Oh. “Maybe I do.”

“I know for a fact you do not. It would’ve shown up in the background check.”

I drop the pretense of my half-assed seduction attempt and sit bolt upright. “Shown up in the—excuse me? You ran a background check on me?”

This time, he keeps his gaze fixed firmly on the page. “Do you take me for a fool, Paige Orlov?”

I shudder. His name claiming mine, swallowing it up like that, is going to take some serious getting used to. I have a feeling it won’t take long before he consumes a whole lot more of me. “Have you ever trusted anyone in your life?”

His expression softens. For a second, just a fraction of a piece of a bit of a second, I get a glimpse of a younger Misha. An innocent, open-hearted version of him that is buried so far down I’m not sure it will ever rise to the surface again.

“My brother,” he says softly.

I can see the outline of his brother’s dog tag under his shirt. I could almost swear it has a heartbeat of its own. “That’s it?”

“You only need to trust one person in your life,” he says. “One is plenty.”

“I used to think that, too. But what happens when you lose that person?”

“Then you have nothing holding you back.”

The answer catches me off-guard. Damn him. Every time I think I’m close to figuring him out, he goes and says something completely mind-boggling that resets all my theories.

“You must be cold,” he says abruptly, as though my nakedness is offending him.

“Am I making you uncomfortable?”

“No, I’m just thinking of the baby.”

“The baby is safe and warm inside me,” I say. And then I continue quickly before I lose my nerve.

“You could be, too, you know.”

He regards blankly for a moment. Then something akin to excitement sparks in his silver eyes. “Mrs.

Orlov, are you trying to seduce me?”

“Maybe,” I admit, shuddering again at that name on his lips. “But don’t get cocky. Being pregnant is making me very, very horny. I’d fuck almost anyone at this point.”

It’s a lie. The hot twist of desire inside of me belongs to him and him alone.

And I think he knows that.

As he abandons his book and walks over to the edge of the bed, my body pulses with his movements.

He places one knee on the edge and stares down at me, his eyes devouring me with such intensity that I feel my insides heating up. Melting. Falling to fucking pieces.

He leans over me and his hand slips between my legs. His fingers graze along the very edge of my pussy.

“You weren’t kidding.”

“Why would I lie?”

His fingers dance over my skin with a practiced ease. I fight not to arch off of the bed. “Lots of people want to lure me into traps. You wouldn’t be the first naked woman to offer yourself up to the task.”

“So distrustful…” I breathe, biting back a moan.

“It’s why I’ve lived this long.”

I’ve seen enough of his life and his world to know that he’s not being in the least bit dramatic.

As he slips his fingers deeper inside me, I grasp his wrist. “Wait.”

“I don’t think I want to,” he warns, even as his fingers go still.

“If we do this, I want you to spend the night with me. The whole night.”

It’s amazing how quickly those silver eyes cloud over, hiding the heat that was there a moment ago.

“Why?”

“No reason. No angle. No plot. I just… I want you to.”

He doesn’t look happy about it, but his fingers don’t leave my warmth. I decide not to make it easy on him. I push his fingers deeper inside me and arch my back.