Episode 42

Gavril

I answered the texts in rapid-fire succession as the car sped through the familiar streets of LA toward the mansion. Naomi was silent beside me, and I wondered if she had apprehensions like I did about being back.

What we had in Russia or even in the jet was far different from what we had here, and surely she had to be worried about it.

Hell, I was worried about it, about losing that laughter in her voice, the look in her eyes whenever she looked at me.

Last night, I’d thought she was going to tell me that she loved me. When the words had left her mouth, for a moment I had felt the elation sneak in. It wasn’t because I had finally won; I had taken everything she could give me.

No, it was because I thought she had found a way to love me, to break down my barriers and worm her way into my fucking heart.

Hell, she was already there.

Instead, she had said she loved me pounding into her.

Any other man’s ego would have been blown, but I wanted more. The disappointment had threaded th