Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 84968 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 425(@200wpm)___ 340(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84968 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 425(@200wpm)___ 340(@250wpm)___ 283(@300wpm)
Wood splintered as the door was kicked open, shattering the grim silence. Light flickered in from the hallway for a brief moment before the room was thrust back into darkness as that same door was slammed shut.
I wasn't alone anymore.
He was here.
On the prowl.
Pavel's footsteps were slow and even as he walked down each aisle, back and forth, methodically searching for me.
My chest rose and fell with ragged gasps as I bit down on my lip, hard enough to draw blood in my effort to stifle the scream trying to claw its way out of my throat.
Shoving my fist against my mouth, I muffled my desperate breathing, the need for silence as he drew closer battling against the sob that wracked through my shaking body.
"Come on out, little kitten."
Why did death sound so seductive?
I squeezed my eyes shut, my body trembling so hard I was afraid the desk would shake with me, betraying my hiding place.
He prowled closer.
Slowly.
Purposefully.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are," he purred.
He was enjoying this.
Of course he was.
Predators loved the chase.
They got off on it, and I was stupid enough to have put myself in his crosshairs.
I knew better.
I knew I should never have taken this damn job.
I'd been seduced by the money. Paid to ignore the danger, to look the other way.
"There is no place you can hide, Mary. Or should I say Alina?"
My body jolted.
He knew my real name.
Worse than that, he knew I'd lied to him before.
He paused, and the air shifted to something less playful and far more sinister. "Come out. Now. Before you make me angry."
There was no escape.
There was never an escape.
Even if I had gotten out of the building, he would have found me.
Trapped, I was as good as dead.
CHAPTER 3
PAVEL
It looked like more than one person was going to die tonight.
I'd given explicit orders.
This office building was supposed to be empty.
Not a single soul inside.
No external security, no late-night meetings or ambitious new hires burning the midnight oil to prove themselves.
And no cleaners.
That was why I had scheduled this meeting for midnight.
It was the dead of night, shrouded in complete darkness, away from prying eyes.
It had taken me weeks to get everything set up.
There were supposed to be no interruptions, no mistakes.
Everything was riding on this one night. And since neither Gregor nor Artem had any idea what the fuck I was doing, it had to be flawless.
Yet here she was, the sweet kitten who had been avoiding me for weeks.
Putting everything, including her life, in danger.
She thought I hadn't noticed her all this time. But I had. Oh, I definitely had.
The first time I saw her, down on her hands and knees, still haunted my dreams.
Did she not know the way her pants hugged her ass made every man want to bend her over and fuck her?
For weeks, I'd watched her from the shadows as she cleaned, gliding through the offices like a ghost, quiet and efficient. Always so careful not to disturb anything, not to be seen.
The woman practically dripped sex appeal.
From the way she bit her lip in concentration, to how she moved with a silent grace, unaware of the attention she drew.
Three weeks ago, I'd caught one of the night guards watching her. His eyes had followed her as she bent to empty a trash can, his tongue darting out to wet his lips. The next night, he came to work with a broken arm. No one asked questions. No one ever did.
Only I was allowed to watch her.
To savor the innocent way her gaze would stay on the floor.
A natural submissive.
Every time I saw her, I wanted her.
To take her, ruin her, corrupt her.
Every cell in my body screamed that she was mine. A possession no one else would ever touch.
Last Friday, I'd watched her from my darkened office as she cleaned the conference room across the hall. Some drunken accountant had stayed late, cornering her by the doorway. I made sure he "resigned" the next day.
She never knew I was the reason he disappeared.
Never knew that she already belonged to me, because I’d been forced to rein in my lust.
Gregor made it very clear—the staff were off-limits.
Initially I’d had no intention of going against his wishes, at least until after Solovyov was dead.
After that, he and Artem would be too busy with their power struggle to notice where I stuck my cock.
But all bets were off now.
She was here, where she wasn't supposed to be.
My men assured me she had left.
I caught her scent before I even opened the closet door a few minutes ago. The same floral fragrance I'd memorized from the nights I'd followed just behind her, her hips swaying to whatever music she was listening to on her headphones. My movements shrouded in the dim, after-hours lighting.
Now she was running through the building like a frightened rabbit.