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All that light. All that hunger.

I am broken out of my thoughts as Hardy appears at a polite distance.

“I have prepared the guest room, Boy.”

Guest room...

I fight back a tinge of disappointment.

“Thank you.”

I follow Hardy down the hall.

“In here,” Hardy says. “I’ll leave you to settle. Have a good night, young Elias.”

“Thank you,” I say. “You too, Hardy.”

The guest room is still twice the size of any place I have rented...

White sheets. A view. A door that closes with a heavy, expensive click.

I set the glass down, sit on the edge of the bed.

I touch the place on my neck where Dmitri’s mouth was.

Then it hits me… I’m meeting Zane tomorrow. The file is in my phone. And I need to figure a way of making that meeting happen because I know that only a fool would dance with Dmitri without an exit plan.

I’ll let Dmitri think I’m all in—and in many ways that’s not even a lie.

But make no mistake… this is about what I want, and nothing will ever change that.

Not even the Russian devil himself.

9

ELIAS

“What the⁠—”

I do not know what wakes me.

Not a sound I can name.

Just hands.

Before I can breathe, the sheets tear away. The guest-room dark breaks into movement and heat and the hard fact of a body over mine.

“Fuck!”

“Quiet, boy.”

It’s Dmitri’s voice. But not the diner charm. The other voice.

He lifts me out of the bed like I weigh nothing. My pajama top is gone before I can grab it.

The shorts follow.

Cool air hits my chest and my nipples harden immediately. Then my stomach, the flesh of my ass.