Chapter 5

ChapterFive

Anya

None of this college.None of this college?

Didn’t I know something like this was coming? When Sasha said he never intends to leave me, I should have questioned him further. In the back of my mind, wasn’t there always a belief that he couldn’t simply move me into the dorm and drive away? Furthermore, that it would be so…wrong to part from him, after everything we’ve been through?

My mother’s death, high school, my driver’s test, college applications.

Thunderstorms, injuries, loneliness.

My Twilightphase.

Sasha was there for it all. The only one who was there.

Especially now that I know what my body sensed all along wasn’t a fluke…and we are oh - so - freaking compatible…not being with Sasha every day fills me with unimaginable sadness. Not only do I love this man, but there’s no denying he just woke up something inside me. Wild, consuming sensations that I don’t think I can live without. And there’s a beat pounding in my heart, telling me Sasha is the only one in the universe who can give them tome.

But. Oh, there are some seriousbuts.

I stopped trying to make Sasha notice me as something but an honorary niece long ago. No matter what I did, he didn’t seem interested in me beyond my being his ward. A…job. So I threw myself into school work — focused on it hard — and realized a degree is something I want badly. Some day I want to be the one unlocking the library doors and deciding what’s stocked on the shelves. Maybe for a lot of girls, college is a given. But not in my world. If my father had it his way, I would be kept under lock and key until I need false teeth. I fought for this chance to attend school, and I’m not going to compromise one dream for the sake of another.

Currently, one of those dreams is carrying me down a crowded sidewalk like a sack of potatoes, and fine, the caveman routine might work for me a lot of the time. But not today. Not when the future I’ve worked so hard for is at stake.

“Sasha!” I scream through my teeth. “We have to talk about this. Put me down. Rightnow.”

“I do not think this wise,” he says, sounding completelycalm.

“I don’t care.” I bunch a fist and ram it awkwardly into his back. Of course, it ends up making my own wrist throb. “Ouch, dammit.”

Sasha clucks his tongue. “I taught you to punch better thanthat.”

“Excuse me, miss? Are youokay?”

My blood cools, then freezes, at the sound of a strange man’s voice. Not because I feel threatened. Oh no. An angry mob could be chasing me and as long as Sasha was there, I wouldn’t feel an ounce of fear. No, my jolt of alarm has everything to do with the newcomer’s safety. Notmine.

Beneath my draped body, Sasha’s shoulders turn to rippling iron, his step slowing to a stop. I struggle in his grip to get myself upright, and Sasha lets me, remaining still as a marble statue as I slide down the front of him. I can count on one hand the number of times another man has dared to question Sasha — and it has never happened in relation to my well - being. When I catch sight of the deadly intensity he’s directing at the stranger, I know I have to intervene or he’s going to decorate the sidewalk with homeboy’sguts.

“Hey.” I frame his face with my hands and attempt to get his attention, but his neck is stiff, his gray gaze never leaving the stranger. “Sasha.”

“Move…” he rasps, one of his eyes twitching. “Along.”

A nervous laugh. “I was only checking to see if the girlwas — ”

Sasha surges forward with malice written on hisface.

I shoot onto my tiptoes and kisshim.

There’s a long beat of tension. A standoff where my lips work over his stiff ones. Someone questioned my safety. If that man knew how serious Sasha takes my well - being, he would have kept on walking. I don’t like it, either. The insinuation that my Sasha isn’t taking good care of me. A classic tale of “I can yell at my possessive Russian bodyguard, but God help anyone else who does.” And when the fight drains out of him and he groans, the edge is taken off my earlier anger, even more so. One big hand slides into my hair, the other finding my hip as he begins ravaging my mouth. Wait. No. I was only going to distract him from committing murder, but now…what’s happening?

Sasha walks me backward until I feel the familiar shape of his car pressing into my back. There are low murmurings all around us from passersby, but I’m having a hard time making out their words over the chirping canaries circling myhead.

College. He just told me I’m not going to college.

I pull away from his kiss and drag in a gulp of breath. “Me. School. I’m going.”

“Still you believethis?”

Oh, hello, anger. There you are. “Did you ever plan to takeme?”

He tilts his head, like I’m daft. “Nyet, Anya. After five years of making sure no one breathes on you, do you think I could leave you in the care of strangers?” His eyes glitter with malice. “Males. No supervision. Alcohol. Those things mixed together will not set foot near myAnya.”

Fire floods my cheeks. “Then where are you takingme?”

“Get in the car and you will findout.”

I try to push Sasha off, but he only pins me tighter between his body and the car. And…and…my train of thought is busted because his erection is so thick where it lies across my belly. Focus, Anya. You can’t let another man dictate your future.

Isn’t that what it all comes down to? I haven’t been in control of my own life. Ever. Now I’m about to get my first taste of freedom stolen. By the only person who’d tempt me to give it up of my own free will. If he cared about me, he wouldn’t ask me to do that, though. Right?

Right.

“I’m not going with you. I’ll find another way to make it to orientation.”

“Angel.” Panic slides across his expression. “You wouldnot.”

Taking a deep breath, I lift my chin. “I would.”

For a few moments, I can’t read him. Except to know he’s deciding how to play me. Play the situation. And after what just happened in the library, I should have known seduction would be his choice. But even if I had known, I never could have prepared for the power of Seductive Sasha. “Anya. Angel.” His lips press to my forehead, detour down my cheek and open above my mouth, just a hint away, his warm breath coasting over me. “Did you not say you loved Sasha?”

Nine thousand butterflies dance through my stomach. “I might have,” I murmur, squeezing my legs together. “That doesn’t mean you can get away with whatever youwant.”

He handily ignores the second part, sweeping his thumbs along my hipbones. “If you love me, then you must not say such things. Parting from you would turn me into a madman.” There’s a low rumble in his chest as he licks the tips of our tongues together. “Especially now that I’ve finally eaten your pussy. I cannot be away fromit.”

My lungs evacuate in a massive rush. “I can’t even handle you likethis.”

His forehead meets mine. “Likewhat?”

“All sexy or whatever,” I pant. His mouth smiles against mine, and the butterfly wings in my belly beat faster. I can’t believe this. He’s totally succeeded in melting my rage. This is what happens in a game of sheltered virgin versus Russian hit man, isn’t it? “I’m only getting into the car because I have no other ride,” I whisper.

Sasha shakes his head, shaking mine along with it. “You go where I go. Always. That’s the real reason.”

He appears to be debating whether or not to kiss me again. But if I allow that, he’ll reduce me once and for all into a simmering pot of hormones. Already my panties are soaked in public and I’m making out with a man who looks like he belongs in a Guy Ritchie movie. What happened to my common sense?

My hands are shakier than I care to admit as I extricate myself from Sasha’s hold, shooting him a defiant eye roll over my shoulder as I climb into the passenger seat of the car. Like always, he waits until I’ve buckled up to close the door and cross to the driver’s side. With his typical tight control, he starts the ignition and pulls onto the road, coasting through yellow lights like he owns the world.

The turn signal is clicking to bring us onto the highway when he asks, “Are you warm enough?” A pause. “I’m asking because you have both arms wrapped around yourself like a straitjacket.”

He’s totally right, but I don’t give him the satisfaction of changing my position. This is my mad pose, and now that we’re not touching, I’ve managed to remember why I’m pissed as hell. “Did you ever plan to bring me to college?”

A curt headshake, but no further change in his demeanor.

“So you lied? To me? To my father?”

“Nyet, angel,” he answers calmly. “I said I would bring you where you belonged.”

I give a close - mouthed scream. “And where isthat?”

“You will see. Please try and exercise some patience.” Sasha seamlessly joins the traffic on the highway, one tattooed hand resting on the wheel. “Are we having a fight, Anya?”

“Yes, Uncle Sasha,” I push through stiff lips. “We are most definitely having a fight.”

A muscle ticks in his cheek. “Fighting with you disagrees withme.”

“Good.” I sputter for a few seconds. “Have you already canceled my registration?”

“Nyet. It’s on the agenda.” He tilts his head at me. “I’ve been kept very busy resisting my need to touch you. That alone is a full - timejob.”

God, what a frustrating man. One minute I’d like to claw his face off, the next I’m wishing he would pull over and seduce me again. My nerve endings are still quivering from that kiss he delivered on the sidewalk. From what he did to me in the library. Yeah. My attraction to him is seriously putting a damper on my wrath. “When my father finds out aboutthis…”

“Yes?” He uncoils the word like a whip. “Continue. He’ll dowhat?”

“He’ll come and get me,” I say lamely, not even sure if it’strue.

The gaze Sasha turns on me belongs to an otherworldly creature. A male squaring off to fight over his mate. It’s wild. It’s…just the wrong side of insane. And it really should not send a hot thrill snaking around in my belly. It shouldn’t. “His name might be on your birth certificate, angel, and you might call me uncle. But we both know who has been daddy all this time.” His eyes have become slightly unhinged at the suggestion I could be taken away, and they travel over my thighs and breasts now, creating eruptions of need wherever they touch. “Would it please the angel to watch her daddies fight overher?”

“No,” I say, winded. No way. It wouldn’t even be a fair contest.

“David has done much for my family, but the debt has been repaid. Now he is merely a man who cannot read a calendar.” Sasha’s hand drops from the wheel to his lap, where he grips his erection. “Cannot do the math and realize I’ve been counting the days until I can put this big cock in his beautiful babygirl.”

I’m swamped in so much heat by the time he finishes, I have to talk myself down from another orgasm. Right there in the passenger seat, without even being touched. My inner thighs spasm and I can’t seem to draw enough breath, my hips squirming on the leather. Sasha is overwhelming me and I’m already starting to forget why I’m mad at him. He’s bringing me where I belong, and I trust Sasha. Implicitly. What if I just forgot my anger, my outrage, and let him take care of me, as he’s alwaysdone?

Because that’s my job. My dream has been to become an independent woman who calls her own shots, and no matter what happens, no matter how much Sasha threatens to drown my objections with love and lust, I have to keep my eye on the prize.

Which means…I have to get away from the man Ilove.