Chapter One-Zero-Four: Dare

"Strangers..."

He repeats as a scary feeling takes over his aura.

A slow, rich laugh escapes him as he undoes his tie roughly.

I squelch the throb of my core because despite the sensation asking me to run, he looks sexy, especially as he tosses the tie to the living room couch, and it slides to the floor.

"What are you doing?"

I ask as he approaches me; his pace is too fast for him to be eager for my sauce.

"I'm thinking..."

"Thinking?"

I repeat, unable to form another thought as an eagerness to escape his field of view claims me.

"Father, mother, even my stepmother, are all dead.”

He utters as he removes his black coat and scarf, yet again tossing the two on the couch.

“I am the only Ivanov remaining, and you…you made me that by walking away from this, from me. You keep finding new ways to run from me; frankly, I am tired!”

"Oh, ‘you’re tired’? Marko, you don't give me a choice! You never give me a choice; running from you is easy because being in love with you is agony!"