I watch her turn around and walk back the way we came. She doesn’t question the condition as I expected her to. Does she think that she will find her way out of the maze before I find her? It doesn’t matter either way. I’m already confident that she’ll kiss me before long.
When I said that it would be impossible to know the way out of here, it wasn’t strictly true. It would be difficult of course, but not impossible. I made sure to lead her to the middle of the left branch of the maze, but the question is, was she paying attention?
I wait between the hedges and gaze at the sky.
I can’t hear her footsteps. The maze was designed so that, once inside, people could not call for help or go their separate ways and yell out instructions to each other. But I don’t need to see or hear her to sense her determination to win.
She has been waiting three days for me. Three days left alone with her thoughts and the feel of my tongue in her mouth, wondering why I didn’t take advantage of her. She will no doubt have experienced a cycle of emotions.
Shock.
Confusion.
Anger.
Perhaps even disappointment.
But above all, I will have already sowed the first tiny seed of trust within her heart against her will. I could’ve overpowered her, and she’d have been powerless to stop me, but I chose to walk away without even gazing at her nakedness.
I didn’t need to see her pussy with my own eyes to know that it is beautiful. The swell of her breast in the palm of my hand was enough to tell me that nothing about Gianna Sedric’s body could ever disappoint.
My cock grows warm and hard, and I force myself to concentrate on the matter in hand.
Do I allow Gianna to win today, or do I claim my kiss? If she wins and reaches the exit before me, it will reinforce her trust in me when I’m forced to forfeit the condition. But allowing her to win will also give her hope. It will provide her with a finish line, an arrangement that will end the day I return her to her family.
There is also the little matter of wanting to taste her again to consider.
But perhaps today’s forfeit will make the inevitable reward that much sweeter.
I set off in the same direction as Gianna. I can’t see which path she chose at each fork in the maze, but I can smell the jasmine scented body wash she has been using, and I can see the imprint of her footsteps in the spongy grass. I can see each wrong turn she has taken, and where she has backtracked on herself.
Smiling to myself I stroll leisurely around the maze, taking my time, and imagining Gianna coming to me naked, right here between the dense hedges, with the sun beating down upon her golden hair. And in the image, her legs are spread wide, and she has that mischievous glint in her eyes.
Even so, I’m waiting at the entrance when she arrives, slightly breathless, her cheeks pink with a combination of the day’s warmth and frustration at getting lost.
She stops abruptly when she spots me. “I… How did you…?” Her eyes narrow, accusing me of somehow cheating. “You’ve got a plan of the maze on your phone, haven’t you?”
“I can assure you that I haven’t. What would be the fun in owning a maze with no secrets?”
Her eyes drop to my mouth, and she swallows hard. Then, she steps closer, her gaze never faltering, and my cock starts bobbing along to its own tune. It’s a game, I tell myself. Only, I’m starting to lose track of my own rules. Either that, or Gianna is rewriting them as she goes.
She comes so close that I breathe in the smell of her, mingled with freshly mown grass and dewy leaves. Gianna is nothing like the women I meet in the casino. Or the trophy wives at the golf resort who flutter their eyelashes at me, praying that I’ll give them the attention they so desperately crave while their husbands practice their swing. Everything about her is fresh and raw and honest, and I’m already rethinking this war against Xander Amory to include the Irish pank Seamus.
Her eyes hold mine. The turquoise is deeper in the shade of the hedges, like the ocean as the sun sinks behind the horizon, and it takes all my self-control not to order her to lie down on the grass and beg me to fuck her.
Her lips part, and I’m mesmerized by them as they come closer, closer, her pupils dilating until the turquoise almost disappears. I can almost taste her when I grip her wrists and hold her at arm’s length.
What the fuck am I doing? I was supposed to secure the asset, hold her prisoner, and corrupt her as quickly as possible to get the job done and send her back to Xander. But here I am driving myself crazy by delaying the inevitable.
She blinks slowly, confusion dancing behind her eyes. “I lost,” she says, her voice husky.
“I’m going to give you a second chance.” I don’t miss the flicker of mistrust in her eyes and wonder if I have perhaps misjudged this tactic, but I force myself to stay on track.
“Why?”
Does she want this?
“Because this is my game, and I can change the rules whenever I like. We’ll try again tomorrow. Best of three. It will allow you time to think about where you went wrong.”
She shakes her head. “Tomorrow, you’ll take me a different way, and I’ll be in the same position as I am today.”
“You have my word that I won’t.”
“Your word?” Her eyebrows shoot upwards.
“Gianna, you and I both know that if I wanted to kiss you, I would.”
I realize, too late, how that sounds when she lowers her eyes and sucks on her bottom lip. And I can’t stop myself. I pull her closer, her hips pressed against the bulge in my pants so that there is no mistaking how much I want her, and I lower my face so that our lips are almost brushing.
“Same time tomorrow.”
Then I release her and watch the curve of her butt cheeks beneath the dress as she walks back to the entrance.
“Gianna!” I call her back on impulse. I don’t want her to think that I’m going soft in the late morning sunshine. “Tomorrow, the condition changes.”
Her smile fades.
“Tomorrow, if I win, I get more than a kiss.”
Her eyes flash, but she quickly recovers and tilts her chin towards the sky in defiance. “More than a kiss? How much more?”
“I haven’t yet made up my mind.” Here is where I blow it, I think to myself. “Do we have a deal?”
She nods once and walks outside to rejoin Sergei and Tamara.
The following day, Gianna is wearing a black and white polka dot dress with a full pleated skirt that sways around her hips when she walks. The dress has a low neckline that reveals a glimpse of her pale breasts, and she seems totally oblivious as she walks along between Sergei and Tamara.
For a couple of moments, I get to study her without anyone questioning why, and without her expression clouded by the knowledge that I am solely responsible for her captivity. She seems to glow in the sunshine as if she and the sun are connected in some way that no one else understands. Her long curls glint like molten gold.
Then she notices me and smiles, and that twisted serpent inside me uncoils just a little.
“Game on.” She slants her eyes at me and moves closer so that Sergei and Tamara can’t hear her next words. “I thought you might not show because you’re afraid of losing.”
“I never lose, Gianna.”
Her lips quirk into a lopsided smile. “Fighting talk, huh?” Then, “Have you been out here all night learning the shortcuts?”
It’s my turn to lean closer. “You will have to find out for yourself.”
We step into the maze together. I can almost feel Sergei’s eyes boring into the back of my skull, and I don’t even want to think about what Tamara would like to do to the little printzessa. But I also know that, whatever happens, they will never question my methods or motives.
“Do you ever not wear a suit?”
“No. I have special wetsuits made for the shower.”
She keeps her eyes fixed straight ahead, but I catch the smile tilting the corners of her mouth. The silk skirt swishes around her legs, and I can see the mound of her pussy through the flimsy fabric out of the corner of my eye.
I lead her deeper into the maze this time. When we eventually stop, she turns three-sixty trying to get her bearings.
“Ready?”
She takes a deep breath. “Do I get a head start again?”
“I will count to ten before I follow you.” She walks off, her pace picking up, as I call out, “May the best man win.”
“Or woman…” Her voice is like a light switch being flicked as she disappears around the corner.
I count to twenty. Gianna won’t win because she wants it too badly. She is desperate to beat me, and desperation breeds panic and bad decisions. Her father should’ve taught her that the only way to win is to imagine yourself the victor, and the universe will do the rest.
Sure enough, I’m waiting for her just inside the entrance when she arrives, a fine sheen of sweat on her upper lip and collecting in her cleavage.
Her shoulders drop when she realizes that she has lost for a second time. “Did you cheat? You must’ve cheated. How did you get here without me seeing you?”
“I took my time, Gianna, like the tortoise and the rabbit.”
“Hare.” She shakes her head, her curls tumbling around her rosy face. “The tortoise and the hare.”
“Come here.” I hook my finger at her, and she walks towards me, her expression unreadable. “I believe you owe me more than a kiss today.”
She moistens her lips with the tip of her tongue but, unlike over breakfast, this reaction isn’t calculated. “I haven’t kissed you yet. You might not want more when you realize that the reward isn’t up to standard.”
Does she really have no idea how beautiful she is? She is worth so much more than a bartered bride for an Irish mob leader who hasn’t even put the feelers out on the streets of Chicago for his missing bride-to-be.
“Maybe you should let me be the judge of that.”
The silence closes around us like a cocoon as she leans against me. Standing on tiptoes, Gianna wraps her arms around my neck and presses her lips against mine.
I know I can’t force this. I’m not an asshole who goes around taking women by force—any man who does that deserves to get his cock chopped off and shoved down his own throat in a ball sandwich—but I need to do this at Gianna’s pace, or the entire mission might as well be aborted right now.
But the instant her tongue slides between my lips, my body reacts. I entwine my fingers in her hair and crush her lips with mine. I push my tongue into her mouth, her soft groans only fueling my urges. I can’t get enough of her. I want to be inside her, filling every part of her with me, blurring the lines between our bodies until I no longer know where my body ends and hers begins.
“Leonid…” She pulls away long enough to breathe my name against my lips before I smother them again.
I might be aching to dip my cock inside her, but I’m not so blind that I know she isn’t squirming. She isn’t struggling to get away from me. She wants this as badly as I do.
“We have a deal, Gianna.”
“What do you want?” The question is barely audible above the blood pumping around my veins and into my cock.
I want all of her. I want to taste every inch of her. I want to hear her scream out my name when I ram my cock into her sex and then take her some more. But at the same time, I’m conscious of how precious Gianna is. She is more than an asset to be used against Xander Amory. She is more than a bored mafia wife looking for the kind of passion her husband reserves for gunning down any enemy that stands between him and his next billion.
When this happens, I want her to beg. I want her to desire me more than she has ever desired anything or anyone in her life. I want her to feel like she can’t live another day without feeling me inside her.
I unwrap her arms from around my neck and lower my head to gaze directly into her eyes. “You can’t give me what I want.”
The instant I can no longer feel her lips on mine, I realize how much I miss them, but I tell myself this is the only way.
She blinks hard, tears collecting on her bottom lashes. “I don’t understand.” I can see faint teeth marks around her mouth from the violence of my kisses and resist the urge to lick them better. “I thought…” She’s fighting the emotions inside her head.
Perhaps she came here today resigned to lose. Perhaps a tiny part of her wanted to lose so that she could see how far I would go. But I’m walking a fine line between needing her to want me and satisfying my own urges to bend her over and fuck her from behind, and I’m in serious danger of crashing and burning.
Fuck! How far do I go before my mission comes tumbling down around me?
It’s one thing to tease her but outright rejecting her is a different thing entirely. At least that’s what I tell myself.
Before I can talk myself out of it, I place an arm around her back and crush her against me, feeling her swollen nipples through my shirt. Then I slide my free hand beneath the voluminous skirt and find her naked sex. She’s wet. My finger comes away slick as her eyes widen. But she doesn’t pull away.
She doesn’t fucking pull away.
“You’re dripping, Gianna.” My voice is husky, and she only nods, the movement so fleeting, I can’t be sure I didn’t imagine it. “Is that for me?”
Another nod. I can feel her heartbeat thudding against my chest.
I slide my finger inside her gently, probing, feeling her wet tightness swallowing my finger whole while I caress her pussy with my thumb. Her sex clenches around me, and I find her clit, rubbing her own slickness into it.
Gianna’s breathing becomes ragged. She leans heavily against me, hiding her face, as my finger works back and forth, in and out, her juices flowing down my hand. I work her until she can barely support herself on her own two legs, and then I pull my finger out, holding her upright while her breathing regulates, ignoring the way my balls throb.
Eventually, I tilt her head backwards and hold my slick finger to her lips. “Taste it.”
She licks my finger tentatively to begin with, watching me the whole time. Then she curls her tongue around me and closes her eyes.
“This is what I want, Gianna.”
I turn around and walk out of the maze, nodding at Tamara and Sergei as I pass, and hoping that I haven’t pushed her too far.
Tomorrow, I tell myself.
