Page 67 of Paved in Venom
“I would do anything for you.”
I smile and look around the room, glancing between the gorgeous Fazioli grand piano and the much smaller door that leads into this room.
“How in the hell did this get in here?”
He laughs and points at the wall of windows. “A very big crane.”
“Holy shit,” I whisper. “That must’ve cost a damn fortune, and that’s on top of the cost of the piano. Danil, you didn’t have to do all this.”
“When will you learn that I’ll do anything for you?” He smiles and gives me another kiss. “Absolutely anything.” He sets me down and gives my ass a soft smack. “I also had the room soundproofed so you’d feel more comfortable playing.”
“I never told you about my stage fright,” I say, stepping closer and reaching out a shaky hand to touch the beautiful instrument.
“I know you, baby, and I know you wouldn’t want to play if you thought everyone in the house could hear you.”
He’s right. I wouldn’t have. I would’ve been too afraid that I’d be bothering everyone. My fingers run over the line of black and white keys.
“Will you play something for me, sladkaya?”
Nerves threaten to overwhelm me, but I take a breath and sit down, refusing to let them take over. This isn’t a concert hall. It’s just me playing a song for the man I love. I can do this. I can grant him this simple request.
At least I think I can. When I hover my fingers over the keys, I can’t bring myself to play anything. My body stiffens, my heart starts racing, and my mind goes horribly blank, like all the music has floated away. When I finally look up to meet his eyes, mine are wet with tears, and all I can do is shake my head.
Chapter 11
Danil
“I’m so sorry,” she whispers. Her blue eyes are glassy and threatening to overflow, and I feel like a giant ass for trying to force her to do something she isn’t ready to do.
“Baby,” I say, walking over to her and squatting down so we’re eye to eye. “Don’t cry.” I brush a strand of hair off her cheek and tuck it behind her ear. “This is also why I soundproofed the room. I wanted you to have a safe place you could play, a place just for you and all to yourself.”
“I’m sorry,” she says again. “You went through all this trouble and spent so much money, and I’m just fucking it up.”
I give a soft laugh. “I didn’t go through any trouble. I wasn’t out there working the crane or opening the wall of windows. I was in the bathroom fucking your sweet pussy. Remember?” I ask, giving her a wink.
She gives me a small smile, but I can tell she still feels guilty, and I hate it.
“And you certainly didn’t fuck anything up, and I don’t give a shit about the money.” I cup the back of her head and kiss her. “All I care about is you.”
“I really love it,” she whispers, making me smile.
“I’m glad you do, baby.” I can tell she’s dying to play it, and as much as I want to hear her, I know she’s not quite ready to let me in to this part of her life. I can be patient, though, so I give her another kiss and say, “Come find me when you’re ready to eat.”
She smiles and then gives me a kiss that pulls a groan from me and makes everything else disappear. Even though I was just inside her and came so hard it made me see stars, I’m still so fucking hungry for her. God, she owns every goddamn part of me. I’m completely and utterly hers, forever, and instead of it scaring the hell out of me, I’m already making wedding plans in my head.
“I love you,” she whispers against my lips, and hearing her say it has me grinning like a lovestruck teenager. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it.
“I love you too, baby.” I give her one last kiss before standing. “Don’t forget to come get me when you’re hungry.”
She smiles and nods, and I can tell how antsy she’s getting. I can see it in her face and the way she keeps fidgeting and glancing at the keys. I give her a wink and then leave the room, shutting the door behind me. It had cost a small fortune to get the piano up here and soundproof the entire room, but it had been worth every damn penny. We’re going to get a lot of use out of that room, and the piano is only part of it.
Heading back to the bedroom, I get set up at my desk and start going through the rest of Tom’s computer. I’d looked through most of it while Simona slept, but there’s still a few things I need to check. The man has an insane amount of porn, but lucky for me, most of it was just regular shit from the internet so I hadn’t had to comb through all of it. He is sharing videos with another man on the dark web, though, and I did have to look through all that. They seem to enjoy watching each other force their pets to do things, and I can’t for the life of me figure out why.
I’ve long given up trying to understand the inner workings of these fuckers. They like to dominate and hurt and control, that’s really all I need to know. It doesn’t escape my notice that I also like to dominate and control and I do enjoy hurting Simona on occasion, but goddamn it, it’s different. Everything I do with her and to her is guided by my love for her. If she was ever in real pain and terrified and hated what I was doing, my dick would go limp in a second. The very idea of forcing her to do something she didn’t want to do makes me feel sick. So, yeah, I like to wrap my hand around her neck and control her air, and I’d love nothing more than to spank her ass red, but that’s only because I know exactly how fucking wet it would make her and how much she’d love every goddamn second of it.
Putting my focus back on work, I spend the next several hours looking through everything and then researching what Stefan told us. I don’t even realize how late it is until Simona walks in and grabs my hand, pulling me from the computer and making me come upstairs to eat. If she wasn’t here, I’d keep working, probably for the next day or two, but there’s no way in hell she’s going to allow that. I can tell by the worried look she’s giving me.
“You’ve been working this whole time?”
