had since that overwhelming unwanted arousal hardly abated even while I watched him open a safe in the wall. He placed my phone and gun inside. Then he tossed the destroyed remnants of the trackers and SIM card into a small trash can from which he lifted the bag and twisted it closed.
Having finished his tasks, he stalked toward me, a leonine presence. Without another word, he tugged me up, and I held my purse as a safeguard in front of me.
He walked me out of the large room into a corridor and clicked on a light while I tried to get my bearings. Through the hallways and toward a beautiful staircase, he marched me. I continued to be surprised by the fact he didn’t live in a scummy building in the underbelly of Boston. In fact, the place was well-appointed and designed with luxury finishes everywhere the eye looked.
But grandeur and money did not make Arkady any less of a savage. The Bratva brute had every reason to make me just disappear. I’d admitted I wanted his brother dead—and if that death didn’t come at my hands then I hoped someone else got to him.
Steeled against the weird swirls of attraction that would only weaken me, I glared at Arkady. “Where are we going?”
“Up,” was all he said.
Up we went, and I used the polished cherry banister to steady my steps because I was on such uneven footing with this man that I felt like I might lose my life at any moment.
Upstairs on the second floor of what appeared to be three, we stopped in a bedroom. Again, the room was clean, sharp, and expensively furnished. The masculine area smelled of him—dark and spicy, exotic and criminally tasteful.
I hadn’t noticed anyone else in the house. There was no heavily armed presence of soldiers, which was odd given his high rank in the Bratva. The fact that he was capable of protecting himself without guards made him even more dangerous.
No maid and no wife going by the fact he wore no ring.
I was utterly alone with him.
Swallowing the lump in my throat, I watched as he removed his jacket, tossed his tie away, and shrugged off his shirt. The entire time, he kept one hand at my neck. His light touch nearly felt like a caress, and my pulse again sped.
The heat of desire and the flame of hate battled within me even more as I took in his bare chest. A multitude of scars denoted his notorious lifestyle while black ink represented his prominent stature and family allegiance. His muscles rippled and gleamed beneath a tantalizing smattering of black hair that marked him as a completely virile man, and I had trouble looking away from all that honed flesh.
He removed his holster, kept the pistol in his grip, and a foreign glimmer entered his strangely hypnotic eyes that became as potent as a lover’s kiss.
Again without words, he motioned me toward a second doorway, his gun leading the way. We entered a huge bathroom, and Arkady shut and locked the door behind him.
Is this the end?
I supposed it was the perfect place to commit a murder.
Easy cleanup and all that.
My gaze flying to his, I gulped down a bubbling hysteria.
I expected to meet a quick death and there was nothing I could do about it now, not even as I glanced around for any escape or some type of weapon. I backed into a corner between the long marble counter and the big tiled shower with Arkady tracking me across the floor.
He shoved the pistol into the back of his pants, bunching and flexing muscles glistening beneath the shine of recessed lights.
His gaze roamed over me before he ordered, “Get naked.”
“What? No way, stronzo.” I thrust my chin out. “I’m not making any of this easier for you.”
He snorted, taking one step closer. “Get undressed so I can see to your injuries, Lucia. Or don’t, and I’ll be forced to tear that lovely outfit right off of you with my bare hands, which wouldn’t pain me at all.”
His broad shoulders blocked my view of anything else as I removed my clothes with jerky motions. When everything lay in a puddle at my feet, I stood defiantly before him.
Let him stare.
He’d been attracted to me. I’d felt his erection earlier. I wasn’t above using my body to distract him. I’d do anything to get my hands on his gun so I could kill him.
His face hardened as a muscle