“I will keep them busy.” I stare at my watch. It’s past ten, so Lia is probably fast asleep.

Fuck long meetings.

I dial Boris, the one who’s been watching Lia, and he picks up after one ring, speaking in gruff Russian, “Boss.”

“Anything out of the ordinary today?” I ask in the same language.

“It was the usual.” He pauses. “She stopped by a lingerie shop before going home.”

I can’t help the brow that raises or the erection that presses against my pants at the thought of her in lingerie. My Lenochka was buying lingerie.

That’s…interesting.

She’s always worn plain underwear and has never gone out of her way to be presentable for me. Not that I care, but the fact that she’s putting an effort into it now is intriguing me more than it should.

“Anything else, Boris?”

“Nothing out of the ordinary, Boss.”

I hang up, tapping my finger against my thigh. Lia bought lingerie and I wasn’t there to unwrap it—and her. Sergei and Igor have the worst timing ever.

“Sir.”

I lift my head at Kolya’s voice. Yan is smoking and I didn’t even notice when he lit the cigarette. I sigh. “Put it out, Yan.”

“It’s almost finished.” He pauses, then adds as an afterthought, “Sir.”

“Yan.” Kolya elbows him.

“Fine. Whatever.” Yan takes one last drag and throws it out the window, grumbling. “What do you want to talk about, Kolya? By all means, we’re all ears.”

My senior guard ignores him, focusing on me. “Sergei and Igor’s patience can only go on for so long.”

“I know.” I stare at the city lights through the window.

“If you know, why don’t you act on it?”

“Kolya, you bastard! Are you suggesting he hurt Lia?” Yan sounds disapproving. “She did nothing.”

“Whether I hurt her or not is neither of your concern. And since when are you her advocate, Yan?” My tone is more biting than usual.

“She’s…innocent, Boss. She did nothing to deserve…” he trails off.

“Me?” I finish for him.

“I didn’t say that.”

“You didn’t have to.”

And in a way, he’s right, but being innocent doesn’t exempt her of her fate. However, people like Yan will still try to alleviate their conscience. I never had that—a conscience, that is—so I don’t worry about it.

The car stops in Lia’s parking lot, but I don’t step out right away. Instead, I fixate on both of my guards. “I need more men on Lazlo Luciano, as many as possible.”

“We’re already watching him,” Kolya says.

“It’s not enough. I need a full report of his daily habits, of the places he frequents, and even his waking and bedtime. I want to know his meals and his lifestyle and have the hackers dig into his and his wife’s phones and laptops. Don’t let his underboss get suspicious, because he’s more paranoid than Lazlo and would react at the smallest trigger. I want no mistakes.”

“But why?” Yan cranes his head back toward me. “What would that information give us?”

“I’m forming another plan.” And with that, I’m out of the car.

It doesn’t take me long to reach Lia’s apartment. I’m fully prepared for the darkness and finding her asleep. I didn’t ask Boris if she had dinner and I didn’t have the time to check the surveillance cameras during the meeting with Sergei and Igor.

The automatic light goes off in the entrance as soon as I’m inside. There’s low symphonic music playing in the background. I’m surprised to find her small figure lying on the sofa. Lia is sleeping on the side, her hand under her ear, and she’s covered with a fuzzy woolen blanket.

Her lips are slightly parted and her legs are tucked behind her. She looks so soft, so breakable, my Lenochka. She can be marked just as easily, too, and that part of me, the part that I shouldn’t be giving weight to, is demanding that.

I turn off the music using the remote and plan to carry her to the bedroom, but as soon as the sound dies, her eyes flutter open.

She sits upright, and when her gaze meet mine, panic and something else whirls in the depths of the mesmerizing blue.

I hate that look. I want to erase it so that it’s not her first reaction to me.

It’s been more than a month and she still considers me the villain she painted me as that first time. While I didn’t give a fuck about her labels at the beginning, I now want her to let her guard down when around me, without me having to touch her sexually.

Lia might revel in my touch and even crave the depravity, but she’s still surrounding herself with barbed wire and the deadly thorns she mentioned the other day.

Wires and thorns I plan to eradicate.

“Adrian,” she says softly, tucking her hair behind her ears. “I thought you weren’t coming.”

“I’m here, aren’t I?”

Her demeanor stiffens, all softness purging from her delicate features. “For how long? Until the morning?”

“For as long as I please.”

“You can’t come and go as you please. I’m not your whore.”

“Then what are you?”

I can tell my apathetic tone pisses her off since her cheeks turn a deep red. “I don’t want to be your anything.”

“Are you sure it’s not the opposite?”

“Stop putting words in my mouth, you crazy, sick bastard.”

“One strike.”

“For calling you what you are?”

“For being angry at yourself for illogical reasons and taking it out on me. Now, come here.”

“No.”

“Two. If you don’t do as you’re told in the next second, the count will keep going up.”

She glares up at me, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Three. I see that spanking has no effect on you anymore. Have you gotten used to your punishments, Lenochka?”

“You need help, okay?”

“Four. And you do, too, because I can see that anticipation in your pretty eyes.”

“It’s called hatred.”

“Five.” I pause for a second. “Six.” Another. “Seven.”

Her face reddens even further and I can tell she’s fighting her pride to save herself. That she knows I won’t back down and it’ll only end badly for her if she keeps up the attitude.