I think Ivan must have wanted me to know that, or he wouldn’t have said it. Or maybe he wasn’t aware he did. I feel like he doesn’t waste words, though, like everything he says is designed to hit where it’s supposed to hurt most.
It’s working.
“My brother is not the kind of man who will tie himself to one woman, and he certainly won’t do that with you.”
“What will he do with me?” My heart squeezes, and I try to fight back the burn of tears in the backs of my eyes.
“I’m sure once you stop being his favorite fuck toy, he’ll sell you for a pretty penny.”
Sell me?
Everything inside me freezes in the cold air enveloping us.
Mikhail is going to sell me?
I’m going to be sold. The same terrible fate I feared before. The same terrible fate I thought I’d escaped.
I wish I could believe this man was just taunting me, but why would he do that? Why would he be so crude to rattle my brain if it wasn’t true?
“He’ll sell me?” I can scarcely get the words out.
Ivan reaches out to touch my cheek and lean even closer. The flicker of desire in his eyes confirms there’s no mistake in my prior thoughts about his interest in me.
“Sell you or give you to me. I’ll happily take you, Adriana Alvarez.” He moves to my ear, and his breath whispers over my skin. “Maybe by then you’ll need a hard fuck from someone who can fuck you properly.”
Fear grips me in its icy claws, and I find it hard to move away from his callous words.
It’s the sound of someone clearing their throat behind us that makes Ivan move away from me.
When I see Mikhail standing by the doorframe, my awareness returns, and my first instinct is to run to him.
How could I feel like that, though, if he’d sell me or give me to his brother when he’s done with me?
I’m not safe with anyone or anywhere. That is the only true thing and the only fact I can trust. No matter what he seems to feel for me.
“Keeping my wife-to-be company, brother?” Mikhail asks with a sarcastic edge. He sounds like he’s trying his best to hold it together.
“You know me,” Ivan replies.
Mikhail grits his teeth and starts speaking Russian. I have no idea what he’s saying, but the sharpness and firm timbre in which he speaks suggest it can’t be anything good.
Ivan answers back in the same tone, but a mocking smirk lights up his face.
Mikhail finally sneers and holds out his hand to me.
“Malyshka, let’s go,” he states, with his eyes blazing.
I take his hand again and allow him to lead me away from Ivan.
I feel Ivan’s cold stare on me with every step I take. Even when Mikhail and I get in the car and drive away, I feel it haunting me like a bad dream.
I glance at Mikhail when we get on the open road and wonder how he could call me his in one breath and give me away in another.
Maybe that’s just the type of monster he is.
I need to know what he’s planning.
If it’s what Ivan said, I’m screwed. There will benoescape route for me.
