Page 14 of Echoes of Sin

I sighed and eventually let my gaze meet his. “What would you like me to call you?”

“I want you to stop treating me like a fucking stranger!” He smacked his palm against the desk, the sound loud in the spacious office.

I swallowed the smart-ass comment on the tip of my tongue. “We are strangers. I thought I knew you once, but I was wrong. I think it’s better for both our sakes to pretend as if we just met.”

“Eight years seems rather a long time to hang onto a teenage grudge.”

But it wasn’t some teenage grudge about being abandoned by the person I gave my virginity to. It was everything that followed—the upheaval of my life, the fact that I had to raise my child alone. Though he obviously didn’t know any of this. “Perhaps your past behavior is coloring my impression of you. But I am not treating you any different to how I would treat any new client of mine.”

His jaw clenched and his nostrils flared. “You’d treat a new client so coldly?”

I gave a sharp nod. “I would keep a professional barrier between us, yes. But you insist on meeting whenever the mood strikes, so here we are.” This was getting us nowhere, so I stood, ready to go. “I’ve prepared a document for you to view regarding this week’s activities, including what items are missing. I’d appreciate it if you could get those to me as soon as you can. Well, I think that concludes our business for today, I can see myself out. Thank you for your time.” I turned and made my way towards the door.

“Brooke,” his tone low and menacing. “Stop.”

I didn’t want to stop, but I turned around and Ilya was right there, less than a foot from me. He was so close that every detail of his blue gaze was visible. I held on to my anger because it was more useful to me. If I let it go, then I had no way to fight the attraction I still had for this man after all these years.

“What’s going on with you?” he asked, gripping my shoulder with one hand while the other traced the line of my jaw and down my neck. Across my collarbone. “Just talk to me.”

A shaky breath escaped because holy hell, the connection, the arousal, the sexual tension between us was even more potent than ever. I couldn’t deny that, but I didn’t have to act on it. I looked down at my feet, not wanting to meet his eyes. “Nothing to tell you.”

“Bullshit.” He suddenly grabbed my hair forcing me to look at him. “The open hostility is new.”

My heart was racing, if I was in my right mind I would have pushed him away and told Ruben I wouldn’t deal with him. This was tantamount to assault, yet I couldn’t ignore the heat that rushed through me, igniting something I thought was long extinguished. I fought to regain my composure, “Is it? Or is this just the consequences of your own actions?”

“What did I do to make you hate me so much?” His grip tightened, pulling my head back until my throat was completely exposed to him, and he licked a trail of heat from the hollow of my throat all the way up to my chin.

“Ilya,” I moaned, I tried to push him away, but instead found myself gripping his shoulders tight.

“That’s better,” he practically purred. “Now I am Ilya, eh?” He let go of my hair and I tried to catch my breath.

He clearly enjoyed seeing how quickly I came undone in his presence, and before I could come to my senses he lazily trailed a finger down my neck before his hand came to rest between my thighs. “How quickly the past rears its ugly head.”

Stop this. Stop him. I tried, backing up, to put some distance between us, but Ilya was right there. Feeling his touch once more had opened the floodgates, and the memories of our one night together filled my mind.

“Are you now resorting to running from me?”

“I never ran, you did,” I shot back, and turned away from him as his knuckles brushed against my swollen, needy folds.

“It could not be helped,” he whispered, and took my mouth in a quick, hard kiss that was over far too soon. “But I have never forgotten you.” He dropped to his knees, tossing one of my legs over his shoulder and he pulled my panties to the side. “The taste of you has lingered on my tongue for eight years, Brooke.”

I wanted to believe him, but even as his tongue swiped over my pussy, I couldn’t. My hips bucked and one hand tightened in his blond hair but still I didn’t believe him. Didn’t trust him. I knew what this was, it was the residual chemistry we had years ago. Nothing more.

“Ah, fuck!” My hips bucked against his mouth as he licked me thoroughly, letting his tongue flick over my swollen clit, one finger and then two thrusting into me and pushing me closer and closer to the ultimate pleasure.

Ilya grunted against me, licking me until my legs quivered and shook, threatening to collapse with every swipe of his tongue, but his big hands kept me upright. “You taste just as good as I remember,” he murmured, and stood up so we were face to face once again, “I have thought of you often, Brooke.”

I leaned against his desk trying to catch my breath, my clit was throbbing, and I was desperate for release. I wanted to hate him, but I wanted him inside me even more. “Bullshit,” I said.

Instead of arguing, he just smirked as if he could read my mind and knew just how much I needed him. Though by the bulge at the front of his pants he wanted me just as much. Before I knew what was happening, he was on me again pushing me back on the desk, his mouth crushing my lips, his tongue hungry as his hand pushed up my dress and pulled down my panties. I kicked them off, as I heard him unzip his trousers. I was soaked and ready as he slid deep inside, his cock surged into me until I was completely full.

“Fuck,” he grunted when he was fully seated within me, pulsing until my body adjusted to his size. “So fucking tight.”

Of course I was, I hadn’t been with anyone in a very long time. Long enough that I didn’t even think of sex as a possibility anymore, which was why I was so susceptible to his so-called charms. My body was one gigantic ball of nerve endings as his thick cock pounded into me furiously.

He gripped my ass and pulled me towards him, adjusting the angle so he could fuck me harder. I heard a crash as something flew off the desk. Sex hadn’t ever been a necessity for me like it was for most adults, I’d been too focused on raising my daughter and paying the bills, but holy shit, the way Ilya teased me and played my body was like a drug, dizzying and intoxicating, and soon enough my legs wobbled with the onslaught of pleasure.

“Oh,” I grunted as pleasure raced up my legs and settled in my belly before it exploded out to my arms. “Fuck.”

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