Page 30 of Surrender: XXX Maxim
“Yes, sir.” Tomas leaves, followed by two men.
“Fuck!” Maxim rakes a hand through his hair, his shoulders hunched away from me. When he finally looks back, I can’t read his expression. I don’t want to.
It’s funny in a sick way. These past forty-eight hours have desolated my sanity. My security. My sense of self. But out of all of the twisted revelations I’ve been forced to reconcile, only one lands the heaviest blow.
“He is your brother.” Like a broken record stuck on repeat, I can’t stop blurting it out loud. “You have abrother—”
“No,” Maxim growls with barely concealed restraint. We’re alone now, and his voice echoes to the furthest reaches of the club floor, easily dominating my hollow whisper. “My father had abastard. Vadim is nothing more than a mutt. Look at me. Fuck, you’re still bleeding—”
“You never mentioned him,” I point out. God, I sound so dazed. Like I’m sleepwalking in a nightmare, half convinced that none of this is real. “I’ve told you everything about me. Everything about my family, but I didn’t even know you had a brother—”
“Vadim is not a factor in my life.” He snatches a handkerchief from the breast pocket of his suit and grabs my chin, keeping me still. “Yourfamily is my only concern. Stay.” He dabs at the wound above my eye, his eyes narrowed. “Your pupils are dilated. You could have a concussion.”
“I’m fine.” I try to turn away, but his fingers skim my hair regardless.
“The doctor will examine you—”
“Just stop!” I cringe from him this time. Alarm renders him frozen, and he doesn’t reach for me again. “Please…”
“Alright.” He tosses the bloodied cloth aside. The fact that he backed down at all shocks me. Almost as much as how he stands there awkwardly, his fingers clenched into fists. “Lucius sent for a doctor,” he says after a second of silence. “When he gets here, let him examine you—”
“I need to go home. I need to… Ainsley was crying. She needs me.” More tears spill down my cheeks, startlingly hot. All this time, they’ve never stopped falling. “I need to make sure my family is okay. I need to comfort my baby sister, who had a bullet whiz past her head. I need to…” A sudden urgency spurs me to stumble for the doorway. “Take me back.”
Maxim doesn’t move. “I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because…” I look back, and his gaze reluctantly meets mine. “They’re already on a plane.”
A tattered laugh escapes my throat as I stagger, my knees trembling. Before they give out, my back strikes the nearest wall, and I cling to the cool surface.
“So, you’ve just kidnapped them.” At the back of my mind, I know I’m overexaggerating. Logic can’t pierce this fog of sheer, fucking panic. I can’t stop shaking. My chest feels like a brick is balanced on my ribcage, crushing it. No matter how quickly I breathe, I can’t find enough air.
“You’re hyperventilating.” Maxim places his hand on my shoulder, but I wrench away from him, and I have to brace myself against the wall again just to keep from falling.
“Don’t touch me! You’ve kidnapped them because that’s what it’s called when a stranger takes your family members away, isn’t it?”
“Kotyonok—”
“I don’t know you!” I bury my face in my hands, blocking out the sight of him. Something Vadim said serves as a morbid fucking key, unlocking the twisted, horrible memories I’ve done my best to lock away. “Is that why you wanted me to go with you?” I have to grit my teeth to keep from gagging. Vomiting. “You knew what he’d ask for. You said it—I would fascinate him. Was that it? You wanted… You wanted to w-whore me out—”
“Look at me.”
“Don’t!” I throw my hand out, keeping him at bay. “I don’t know you. I don’t know your past. I don’t know who your friends are. I didn’t even know until five seconds ago that you had a brother. Maybe it’s best if you don’t marry me.” I stare at my bare finger. This pinching, aching sensation in my chest, could be relief—not agony. “I think I’d rather be your whore than your property—”
“Enough!” Eyes flashing, he moves in on my position. Despite how I cringe from his touch, his hand sinks into my hair, forcing me to face him. “Vadim is no one. You care for your siblings, and I respect that. But him?Hewas a tool. One of my father’s many bastards. If anything, he was a whip that Anatoli used to punish me, serving as a reminder that I could always be replaced. Our relationship extends to nothing more than the shared blood of the monster who sired us. Do you understand?”
His nostrils flare when I don’t respond. Readjusting his grip, he wrenches my head to the side, and his opposite thumb traces the space above my left eye.
“You want to know why I brought you? Because if I didn’t, I would have lost my fucking mind, and I would have killed him. I would have lost control…” His voice breaks, followed by a laugh and then a sigh. “You say you don’t know me—but you do. You know when to ask me fucking questions I wouldn’t tolerate from anyone else. You know how to use those fucking eyes so that I can see myself reflected in them. You keep me here.” His tone deepens with unsaid meaning.Here. In the present, away from the horror of his past.
“And I know thatyoudon’t panic easily. I know when I’ve pushed you too far... And I know that I won’t lose you like this. Not because of him.” He releases me, only to grab my chin and coax me into meeting his gaze. “I want more than protection for you,” he admits, lowering his lips to the uninjured side of my forehead. “I want…”
His nostrils flare, inhaling me, and he says nothing else as if the act speaks for him. He wants my scent—skin and sweat and a hint of blood.
“You want your normalcy?” He finds my earlobe with his mouth, nipping it with gentle pressure. “Then you will have it. No matter what it takes.”
But, as if to counter that promise, slow, heavy footsteps advance on our position from the direction of the entrance hall. Maxim tenses just as the newcomer appears in the doorway. Dressed in an ebony suit crowned by a blood-red tie, the man cuts a striking figure against the gray backdrop.
