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Chapter Forty-one: Being Useful
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The Mafia King’s Pawn Chapter Forty two: Bad Cook
Andrei should have known not to make her cook.He’d thought that Illyra, at age twenty-eight, might have improved her skills. No. If possible, she’d grown even more hopeless in the kitchen. The attempt had been a complete disaster, even before the raw yolks had been flung all over—perhaps a merciful end before they could be added to the burned, lumpy mess in the sauté pan.Cleaning up, he dumped it all out and started fresh. Forty minutes later, he sat at the table on the patio and tasted his finished soufflé, and gave a satisfied sigh.He would not ask Illyra to make food again.Andrei knew how to cook. He just preferred not to. When he was growing up, his family had had nothing. His father tried his best to keep up the six-hundred-acre homestead, but he’d had his head in the clouds—the kind of man who would be mulling over a book of Russian philosophy and not notice that their newborn calf had just wandered away from its mother to die in a snowdrift. Andrei's mother, a former wait
The Mafia King’s Pawn Chapter Forty three: Broken Victor
An hour later, Lyra was in the tent, bathed, comfortable and wearing clean clothes. And more determined than ever to escape.Okay, so her phone didn’t work and her impulsive escape attempt had been laughable. But she couldn’t stay here. Whatever Viktor thought, she couldn’t just be patient. She had no intention of abandoning Illyra for weeks in her ex-boyfriend’s clutches and trusting all would be well.Why had Viktor even insisted on keeping her here? There was no reason he couldn’t have her sign some kind of letter of intent or something, promising to give him the property. Something just didn’t add up. She felt as if she’d become almost as much a prisoner as Illyra was. Two prisoners for two brothers, she thought grimly. Could their lives get any worse? And yet...Lyra brushed her long brown hair until it tumbled softly over her shoulders. Somehow, he’d also made her feel free. As if she, of all people, could be daring enough to travel around the world, learn to drive on a Lambor
The Mafia King’s Pawn Chapter Forty Four: Dinner With Her Captor
Lyra looked for him now, turning her head right and left. She pictured his handsome face, so intense, so ruthless. No wonder, under the magneticforce of his complete attention, she’d once felt infatuated—at least before she’d realized he was a liar and kidnapper. Her brief crush wasn’t anything to be embarrassed about. With Viktor ’s chiseled good looks, electric-blue eyes and low, husky voice—and the sensual stroke of his practiced fingertips, rough against her skin—any woman would have felt wildlyattracted. But her crush was over now. Her hands tightened. She wasn’t going to let him stop her from doing what she needed to do.But it couldn’t hurt to be fortified with dinner before her escape. Her stomach growled. Calories would give her energy, which would give her ideas. Lyra looked around for the dining tent. The sun was setting at a rapid pace.A man in an indigo turban bowed in front of her. “Princess,” he said in accented English.Princess...? She blushed. “Oh. Yes. Hello. Co
The Mafia King’s Pawn Chapter Forty Five: Revenge Plans
She looked in shock at the vulnerability in his eyes. Since she had known him, she had never seen him that way before. Something had changed in him somehow, she thought.The warm, generous man sitting across from her in exotic Moroccan garb seemed very different from the cold tycoon in a black suit she’d met in Hawaii. Had the desert really made him so different? Or was it just that she knew too much about the manbehind the suit?“I don’t like that you lied to me about Illyra,” she said slowly. “Or that you brought me out here against my will. But,” she sighed, taking a bite ofthe tajine as she looked at the sunset, “at the moment it’s a little hard for me to be angry.”He swallowed. Reaching across the table, he briefly took her hand. “Thank you.”"It's just a lot that you're apologizing. I didn't think you would ever do that."She shivered as their eyes met. Then he released her as the servant returned with a samovar of filigreed metal. He left it on the table in front ofViktor ,
The Mafia King’s Pawn Chapter Forty Six: Feeding His Eyes
ANDREI AND ILLYRAThis dinner wasn’t going at all as he’d envisioned. Growling to himself, Andrei left the dinner tray on the table and raced inside. Taking the stairs two at a time, he went down the hall and shoved open the double doors to the master bedroom, knocking them back against the walls.Illyra whirled around with a gasp.Andrei took one look and his mouth went slack. His heart nearly stopped in his chest.She stood half-naked, wearing the expensive lingerie, a pale pink teddy and silk robe he’d had a servant buy for her in Kailua. “Make it tacky,” Andrei had instructed. “The sort of thing a stripper might wear.”He’d meant to humiliate her. In spite of Illyra’s corrupt, hollow soul, she’d always dressed modestly. She never showed any skin—ever. Even when she’d done her best to entice the men at the poker game, she’d lured them with her words, with her electrifying voice, with her angelic face and slender body. But she’d been completely covered from head to toe, with jeans
The Mafia King’s Pawn Chapter Forty Seven: Naked And Desired
Her expression changed as he said that. Snatching up the frayed sponge, she grabbed the bucket of cold wash water from the floor and, in a posture of clear fury, knelt down. He watched her slender, delectable body, wearing only the tiny slip of pink silk, moving back and forth on all fours as she scrubbed the floor. His mouth went dry.Illyra looked up.“Enjoying the show?” she said coldly. "I hope you are."Without a word, Andrei turned and left the bedroom. He returned a moment later with his own dinner tray and red wine. Still not speaking, he sat down in a cushioned chair near the marble fireplace. Calmly he unfolded his fine linen napkin across his lap.“Now I am,” he replied. "I need you to scrub efficiently."Sitting back comfortably in his chair, he took a sip of merlot. He had the satisfaction of seeing her eyes widen, of seeing her scowl. Then she turned back to her work, and he had the even greater satisfaction of watching Illyra on all fours, her body frosted with silvery
The Mafia King’s Pawn Chapter Forty Eight: Nothing Special
“Leave it alone, Lyra,” he said harshly.Lyra knew she should just be quiet and drink her mint tea but shecouldn’t stop herself from replying in a heated tone, “Maybe if you justtalked to him, explained how he’d hurt you—”“He’d what, apologize?” Viktorground out. “Give me back my half of his large cartek wrapped in a nice gold bow?” His lips twisted. “Theremust be limits even to your optimism.”She looked up quickly, her cheeks hot. “You keep telling me to be honest,to be brave and bold, but what have you done lately that was any of thosethings?”He looked at her.“If I weren’t bound by my vow,” he said, “I’d do the bravest, boldest,most honest thing I can think of. And that’s kiss you.”She sucked in her breath.Exhaling, Viktor looked up, tilting his head back against his chair.“Look at the stars. They go on forever.”Lyra stared at him, her lips tingling, her heart twisting in her chest. Thenshe slowly followed his gaze. He was right about the stars. They had neverlooked
The Mafia King’s Pawn Chapter Forty Nine: Sharing The Bed
“Are you joking?” His hand tightened over hers. “How many womenwould have spent their last money to cross an ocean—and agree to marry aman like me—just to save an older sister who’s perfectly capable of takingcare of herself?”Lyra’s whole body was shaking. With an intake of breath, she pulledaway. “Anyone would have—”“You’re wrong.” He cut her off. “And that is what’s different about you.You’re not just brave. Not just strong. You don’t even know your ownpower. You are—” he kissed the back of her hand, causing a flash of heatacross her body as he whispered “—an elemental force.”Her body felt as if it was on fire. A breeze blew through the desert night,cooling her skin. Her heart pounded in her chest. She looked up at him.The wind caught at his black hair, blowing it against his tanned skin,against his high cheekbones that looked chiseled out of marble in the silvermoonlight and flickering glow of the lanterns.“Now do you understand? Now do you believe?” he said softly.
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