Page 29 of The Lies Between Lovers

Vera was too caught up in the way he leaned in the same way she had thought about doing. His kiss came fast—just the barest graze of his lips against hers—but the second he felt her mouth move against his to take what he offered; his gentleness was gone. Her back found a wall when he shoved them against it, never once breaking their kiss while his tongue darted past her parted lips to seek what he wanted to find.

Helpless to the way he consumed her in every stroke of his tongue and sweep of his lips, she melted into him. Into the way he smelled, like a man who spent a good portion of his day outdoors. Crisp and woodsy. The weight of it blanketed her as he practically licked the breath from the tip of her tongue.

Vera was breathless when he pulled away, and shuddered from every soft kiss he dotted along her trembling lips and down her chin. Her head stayed tipped back against the wall, but she found it was hard to look him in the eyes again when her heart thrummed harder with each and every kiss.

“Like a little hummingbird, my kisska,” he told her as his mouth traveled down her throat and along the side of her neck. “I can see your heart racing. I can taste it.”

He did, too.

Sucking on her pulse until she exhaled a breathy sigh. It should be shameful how she could feel the wetness pooling in her panties and how an ache started between her thighs. Except she liked it too much to feel anything bad about the way her body responded to his attention and touch.

Then, he grabbed her waist hard enough to snap her attention back to him whether she could stand to look him in the eyes or not. Straightening to his full height, his mouth finally left her body, giving her enough sense to feel steady, but he didn’t move away. She was still trapped beneath him against the wall.

It wasn’t that bad of a place to be.

“We’re not even lovers, we’re barely friends,” she whispered. “You can’t make me be your wife.”

“Would you like it if I took that as a challenge? Be careful, I might have already.”

God.

A shiver chased his threat straight down her spine. She shouldn’t like that—the way he could make a simple question feel like a dangerous promise.

Instead of waiting for her answer, Vaslav licked his lips and said, “Did you see me outside?”

Vera’s brow dipped lower. “With Mr. Anatoly?”

“Before. When I hauled the pail out to the car. Were you watching me act like a fool on your walkway?”

She could have lied.

What would be the point?

“You were coming back ... or I thought so,” she said. “It kind of seemed like you couldn’t decide there for a second.”

He’d been nervous.

She didn’t say that, though.

He nodded. “To thank you.”

“You don’t need to do that. I only listened to you talk about your wife a little. Sometimes that’s all someone needs. Time to talk. Someone to listen.”

“Net, it’s my birthday. And I woke up today wanting to do something because of it. I never thought I’d make it out of prison alive, never mind turning forty-seven. A day I don’t even celebrate felt like an achievement the moment I opened my goddamn eyes. But who was I going to spend it with?”

Vera blinked.

Vaslav pursed his lips, sucking air between his teeth before muttering, “You, Vera. I wanted to spend it with you.”

“You didn’t even stay more than an hour.”

“Maybe the hour was all I needed, no? What I know, I like.”

Without warning, he leaned down and pressed a lingering, but soft, kiss against her still lips. She couldn’t escape the kiss—didn’t even want to—but the rational part of her brain was screaming at her to listen. Dumb, she was not. Vaslav happened to be a dangerous man, who for whatever reason, set his sights on her. It should concern her more that she lost all control of her sensibility when he kissed her.

Vaslav pulled away from the kiss only to pinch her tender chin between his finger and thumb, muttering, “Now look at you—all red and swollen. You’re too soft for me, ballerina.”

His touch brought back the same delicious burn as his beard did scraping over her sensitive skin when he kissed her.