Page 17 of Pageant

But that wasn’t the whole truth.

“I went out and found him and killed her boyfriend. I beat him to death. That kill? I enjoyed it.” I take her hands and place them on my chest, pressing them over my thundering heart. “Every. Second.”

“Elyah, don’t.”

I tuck my lips against her ear. For a moment, I close my eyes and savor the feel of my lips touching a part of her. Then I breathe, “I cannot stop thinking about you, Lilia Aranova.”

She lets me hold her, her body against my bare skin. I haven’t crossed the line. We’re standing on it right now and we can both feel what’s on the other side. I’m living in this moment with her, and she’s going to imagine with me what it would be like if we were to cross it. When we cross it.

I let her go, leave by the back door, and walk around the house to my car. By the time Ivan comes out, I’m waiting by his car, dressed in my usual black shirt. He’s reading something on his phone and barely gives me a glance as he greets me good morning. Lilia didn’t tell him that one of his men stripped half naked and accosted her in the laundry room. I smile to myself as I get into the driver’s seat.

Good girl.

The next day, I pretend like nothing happened. Lilia pretends, too, though her cheeks turn pink when she hands me back my shirt, washed and pressed and as pristine as the day I bought it.

“Spacibo,” I say, taking it from her with a smile.

“Pozhaluysta,” she says.You’re welcome.Her accent is terrible and she puts emphasis on all the wrong syllables, but the word is music to my ears.

My smile widens. “You have never said anything to me in Russian before.”

“Haven’t I?” she says, shrugging as if it’s nothing. But the red in her cheeks burns hotter.

All day, I can’t stop fucking smiling.

Lilia is self-conscious and nervous around me for two weeks. I can feel that she’s hyperaware of me as I sit in her kitchen, and maybe it’s sadistic of me, but I love it. I drink my coffee and ask her bland, innocent questions, and my dick gets harder and harder the more she blushes and falters over her words.

On Friday, she opens the front door and she’s wearing a short, sleeveless dress buttoned at the front, and my gaze travels down her body with naked lust. I don’t try to hide the fact that I’m consumed with desire for my boss’s wife.

Lilia’s eyes dilate, partly in panic, partly because she can feel me undressing her with my eyes. She turns around and walks quickly into the kitchen, stares at the coffee maker, and then flees into the pantry.

I glance around the downstairs rooms and then follow her into the pantry, so quietly that she doesn’t notice me until she turns to come out. I’m right there, inches from her body.

Her soft intake of breath parts her lips and she sucks in a piece of my soul. I take her face between my hands and slant my mouth over hers. She can have my entire soul. Every last drop of me. Her lips open beneath mine in surprise, and I don’t hesitate. My tongue sweeps into her mouth and caresses hers.

A second later, her arms wrap around my neck and she’s kissing me back with desperate hunger. I reach for the buttons on her dress and undo them, one after the other.

“Elyah.” She grips my waist and follows the path of my fingers, like she wants to push me away but she needs me to keep going. I open the dress to her waist and pull it back.

“You want me to stop? You know how to stop me.” I hook my finger in the lace cup of her bra and pull it down. Then the other one. The sight of her dark pink nipples and full breasts makes my mouth water. “Tell your husband what I’m doing to you. Go on, Lilia. Scream out for him.”

If he discovers I’ve put my hands on his woman, he’ll have me beaten to death, my dick sliced off and shoved down my throat.

I lower my head and take her nipple in my mouth, sucking her and rolling it against my tongue. I scoop her closer and press my hips into hers, the hard length of my cock tight against her belly.

“Feel how much I want you,” I whisper along her throat. “I do not care you are married. I do not give a fuck that this could get me killed. I want you with every breath I take.”

I reach between her legs and drag a finger up her pussy over her underwear. I find her clit and rub it quickly, and she moans in pleasure and arches into me.

I have to get out of here, now. Ivan will be coming downstairs at any moment, but now that I’ve got my hands on her, I can’t stop fucking touching her.

I hook my finger into her panties and pull them aside. Her clit is swollen. Her lips are shiny. I run my finger down the seam of her sex and straight into her tight channel.

I groan softly and press my forehead against hers. She’s wet. She’s so fucking wet for me. In the final seconds before I have to tear myself away, I pulse my finger in and out of her, committing the grip of her slick flesh to memory.

“I am going to fuck you, Lilia Aranova. I am going to spread your legs and pound you with my cock until I burst inside you. I am going to own this pussy.”

Lilia stares up at me, mouth open, nails digging into my shoulders.

---