Midnight Purgatory (Bugrov Bratva #1)(70)

Lev: maternal friendliness.

Uri: fire and brimstone and a pitchfork, if I can get my hands on one.

When I see who it is, I crank up the heat and bust out the sulfur and horns. Until I see the package in Uri’s hands with a familiar logo on the front.

“Is that Kenny’s Shakes and Bakes?”

He walks it over to the coffee table in the sitting area and sets it down. “You mentioned a few days ago that you love their lemon meringue pie and their opera cakes, so I got you a couple of each.”

I squint at him, refusing to let go of my anger. “You’re bribing me.”

“No,” he answers coolly. “I just thought you’d enjoy them.”

“Right. Because you’re just so thoughtful like that.”

He tucks his hands into his pockets. “Why do I feel like I walked into a cage match?”

“Maybe because you’ve got me locked in a cage!” I snap. “I appreciate the sweets, but I’d rather be able to go upstairs.”

Uri’s face flatlines. “Not today. Tomorrow.”

The curiosity is gnawing at me. No, scratch that—it’s the insecurity that’s gnawing at me. Maybe that’s why I’m not willing to let him out of this basement until I get some answers.

“Your girlfriend doesn’t know about the prisoner you’re hiding down here, huh? Probably ruins the whole romantic vibe you’re trying to concoct.”

He narrows his eyes. “You’re looking for a fight, Alyssa, but I’m not biting.”

I grit my teeth. He’s right; I am looking for a fight. I’m looking for a reason to believe he still cares about me. Just one tiny hint. It’s pathetic but I can’t turn off my feelings and right now, they’re shouting a hell of a lot louder than my sense of reason.

“Just go. I’m done looking at your face.”

Uri’s eyes blaze and his eyebrows arrow downward. “That’s not how this works. I tell you what to do, narushitel. Not the other way around.”

I scoff. “What’s the problem? You should be chomping at the bit to go back upstairs to the latest whore you’ve got stashed up there.”

“You’re really in need of an endorphin rush today, aren’t you?”

“What I really need is my freedom!”

“Which you’ll lose the moment I let you out of my sight. Along with your life.”

“Right. Because there are big bad men who are out to get me? Please. Do you think I was born yesterday? There are no bad men. There’s just you and you want to keep me here.”

I’m starting to crack through his restraint. I can see that in the clench of his jaw and his white knuckles. “Why would I want to keep you here?”

I shrug aggressively. “To use me, to control me, to fuck me whenever the urge strikes. You get off on this, don’t you? You fucking love it.”

He walks towards me and my body erupts in tingles. Not the usual response when you’re smack dab in the middle of a fight. But nothing about this is “usual.”

“You have no idea the kind of world you’ve stumbled into.”

“Actually, I do. You’re all the same. You’re just the latest in a long line of powerful men with money to burn who think that those things give you the right to do whatever the fuck you want to whoever the fuck you want. Guess what, Uri Bugrov? They don’t.” I step towards him, pushing myself into his space. “You don’t get to use me and fuck me and then discard me when you decide you want to fuck some other sl—”

“Blyat’, Alyssa!” he roars. “There’s no other woman!” My mouth snaps shut as he glowers down at me. “I’m not entertaining anyone else up there. And since you seem so keyed up about it, I’m not fucking anyone else, either.”

My heart is beating unevenly now. Everything feels uneven, actually. Maybe it was a mistake to get so close. Between his words and his scent, I’m feeling a little weak in the knees.

He grabs me by the back of the neck and hauls my face close to his.

I should be terrified.

I’m not.

“There’s no one else?” I whisper tentatively.

His eyes flash. The next thing I know, he’s kissing me so hard that I feel like my head’s about to explode. When he finally breaks away, I’m in danger of tipping right over. Except he’s still got my neck in the palm of his hand.

“It’s just you and me, Alyssa. There’s no one else.”

Then he pushes me up against one of the basement walls and starts ripping at my pajamas. For the first time, I don’t feel the cold in the basement. All I can feel is him—his warmth, his strength, his desire for me.

How did we end up here so fast?

The little nagging voice in the back of my head chimes in. Because he told you exactly what you wanted to hear.

But I’m not willing to question it now. I’m not willing to stop him, either. His lips come down over mine again and again. He takes the kiss as though it belongs to him. As though he has the inalienable right to.

It’s a blur of kissing and touching and my clothes falling away. In the blink of an eye, I’m naked, with one leg hitched over Uri’s thigh. I’m so wet that he slides in easily. There’s precious little build-up—he just starts pumping hard, banging my body against the wall like he’s trying to punish me one thrust at a time.