Rated

Chapter 4 Rated

MABEL'S POV

He turned me around with a single move. I shoved at his chest but he didn’t budge. The wall pressped cold against my back while Nikolai’s heat sank into me like wildfire. His grip was tight and he pinned me to the spot.

“You son of a—” I hissed but before I could finish he kissed me.

It wasn’t soft. It was brutal. It was a collision of teeth and lips like we were both daring the other to give in first. I fought to push him away and my hands balled into fists against his chest but then I kissed him back.

God help me.

Everything snapped. All the tension and all the long nights thinking about his smirk when I should’ve been focused on taking him down.

His hands roamed on my hot body. He was possessive and reckless as if he’d been starving and I was the only thing left to devour. I gasped as my head swam. It was not from fear but from the heat curling low in my stomach. The heat pooling up in my pussy.

“Nikolai,” I breathed but it sounded more like a curse. He was cursing me.

“Say it again,” he growled against my throat.

I clawed at him yanking at the fabric between us until my dress was bunched around my waist and he gripped my thighs and lifted me off the floor. I wrapped my legs around him like instinct. There was nothing gentle about any of it. It was raw dangerous hunger as we lost ourselves in each other.

We crashed through the restroom door and stumbled back into the bar’s hidden hallway. He kicked open a side room and neither of us hesitated.

He took me like he owned me. His mouth was everywhere on my body and his breath ragged against my skin. Our bodies moved like we hated each other; like we couldn’t stop even if we tried.

Somewhere between the second kiss and the ripping of clothes I stopped caring about the mission. The world outside blurred until there was nothing but us. The desire took me like a fire burning wild.

His hardness pressed against my thighs and I moved up wanting it inside me. I wanted him inside me.

“I want to fuck you, Mabel." He whispered against my neck. His hot breath made my skin sizzle. He was killing me and he knew it.

He had said the exact words I needed to hear. “What are you waiting for?" I asked, breathless.

He bit my neck at the exact same moment his dick pushed inside my pussy. The world seemed to stop at that moment and his thrusts were all that was left.

My moans turned into cries and rose until we both came down together.

When I woke up sunlight filtered through heavy curtains. My head throbbed and every sound was like a hammer behind my eyes.

The sheets were soft beneath me. Too soft.

Panic rose as I realized I was naked and tucked against a warm yet equally naked body. Nikolai’s arm was slung lazily over my waist. He was asleep besides me, his breathing deep and even.

Oh no.

I closed my eyes tight trying to push through the fog in my skull. The flashes came in pieces. His mouth at my throat…my nails digging into his back…whispered curses against skin…

Shit. Did we fuck?!

I slipped out from beneath his arm careful not to disturb him. Nausea rolled through me the second my feet hit the floor. The hangover was brutal.

I scanned the room and spotted my torn dress crumpled on the floor. I scrambled to pick up the mess.

Nikolai shifted behind me as he murmuring something I couldn't understand.

I froze.

Then his voice sharpened. “What the hell—?”

I turned as he sat up rubbing his eyes. His eyes landed on me and went wide with confusion.

“What did you do?” he barked.

“What did I do?” I snapped. “I’m leaving.”

“Good,” he growled. “Go.”

We stared at each other for one long tense beat before I turned and stormed out of the suite.

The elevator ride felt like it lasted hours. As soon as I hit the hotel lobby the morning news played on a mounted television.

And there I was.

A grainy photo of me in Nikolai’s arms with both of us stumbling out of the bar like drunken lovers was plastered across the screen beneath a headline about Italy’s most untouchable crime lord and a “mystery woman.”

My stomach dropped.

And then the rest of the night hit me like a train. The drinks. The laughter. The heat. His mouth on mine. Oh no…oh no, no, no..

I stumbled out into the street forcing deep breaths as guilt and rage fought for dominance inside me.

I went back to my office and dumped the flash drive with the files I'd gotten so far. I left a note there for Sterling which said: “This is all you’re getting. I'm off the case.”

I couldn’t face him. Not after this.

Hours later when I finally dragged myself back to my apartment, something smelled... off.

Fried eggs. Butter. Someone's cooking.

I reached instinctively for the gun strapped to my thigh. It must be an intruder because there's no one chummy enough to come inside my apartment unannounced. I had just one key. Holding the gun close, I moved cautiously then rounded the corner into my tiny kitchen—

And there he was.

Nikolai stood behind my stove with a spatula in hand. He was shirtless and turned in time to give me that annoying grin of his.

“Hope you like your eggs scrambled,” he said. “Figured you’d need the protein after last night.”