Fractured Ties by Bethany-Kris Page 0,17
not coming, Maya. I am taking you.”
His words contrasted brightly against the backdrop of his actions, though. In ways … He posed it like she didn’t have a choice, yet refused to label her as property like another man would have in this kind of circumstance. It gave the impression she could come and go, or leave, should she want to, but he didn’t seem to be giving her that option, either.
So, what was happening?
What was she to expect here?
“Again,” she said quietly, “then why do I have to go with—”
The look Kolya shot her had Maya quickly correcting her statement.
“Why are you taking me?”
“Because if I don’t, then someone else will.”
Oh.
That still left her with more questions than answers, though. Maya found that just as confusing and concerning as everything else that had happened tonight.
Maybe this was just going to be her life, now.
“I’m not going to fuck you,” Maya blurted out. “If that’s what you think you’re going to get by taking me home with you, it won’t happen. My father handed me around to enough people, like I was a toy for them to pet and use, but I never did it because I wanted to, and I won’t start with you.”
Maya had been just a step and a half ahead of Kolya in their trek around the side of the warehouse, but in a blink, she found herself spun around until her back hit the cool metal of the building. Everything was nothing more than a blur until it wasn’t.
Until all she could see was ice-blue eyes locked on hers, dark features drinking her in, and every inch of Kolya Boykov crowding her space to the point she couldn’t move. Hell, she couldn’t breathe like this.
She found he was too close.
And yet, not possibly close enough.
She thought he was kind of beautiful.
But maybe terrifying, too.
Or maybe he can be.
Maya didn’t have the first clue of what was going on with her—this man had spent maybe thirty minutes in her direct vicinity, but he was making her body and mind react like a fucking ping pong ball that was out of control.
She just thought she was gaining ground …
Boom.
He hit her with something else.
“Did he?” Kolya asked.
Maya’s exhale came out ragged, and sharp. “What?”
“Your father—did he share you?”
“What does it matter?”
Kolya’s lips edged a little higher at the corners in what she thought might be a sneer. It was hard to tell, when his face barely flickered with any emotion at all. “It matters because I asked, that’s why.”
Maya dropped his gaze because that was easier. She wouldn’t be able to hide the shame in her voice, but she sure as fuck wasn’t going to let him see the shame in her face, too. “If he needed—”
“Nyet.”
His negative rebuttal came out harder than she had ever heard someone say the word. It was punctuated by him moving just an inch or two closer. Enough to press his much larger form against hers, and cause them both to push harder into the wall. It was punctuated by his hand coming up to slide under her chin, and then his fingers danced along her throat with a soft touch before they gripped there, too.
He would not be the first man to grab her throat.
He was the first man not to squeeze, though.
Still, her natural reaction was to tense, and plead.
“Ple—”
“Don’t beg unless I ask you to,” Kolya murmured, his hand coming up a little higher on her throat to make her head tip back. Now, she was staring at him again, and she was surprised to see the man looking back had real, honest emotion in his gaze. Lost were the coldness and blank irises. Instead, she was staring at the same man who’d shown surprise when he’d turned to see her at the bar, and then rage later on when a man had made her cry. “And do not hide your eyes from me; I don’t like it.”
Maya swallowed hard. “O-okay.”
“Just okay?”
“Not really sure I get any other choice right now, Kolya.”
“You will always have a choice. This is how I’m making sure to give you one.”
What did that even mean?
“Now,” he added, a thickness coloring his tone, “answer my question.”
Yes, about her father.
She couldn’t look away now.
Couldn’t hide now.
“He did.” Her breath caught in her throat when she said, “Not often.”
“Enough, yes?”
Maya nodded. “Yeah, it was enough.”
Kolya’s expression hardened briefly before his fingers tapped a smooth, gentle beat against her throat. She swore she felt the pad