Read Online Kholodov's Last Mistress by Kate Hewitt - Free Book Online

dry and aching. ‘I guess I’m more of an idiot than I thought,’ she finally said, trying to sound wry although her voice was little more than a croak. Still she tried to smile. She didn’t know what else to do.
    ‘Yes, you are,’ Sergei returned, his voice a savage hiss. Hannah jerked back at the fury in his tone. Even though he’djust pushed her away from him, she hadn’t expected it. Yet as she stood there, conscious of her tousled hair and swollen lips and rearranged clothing, her mind started to catch up to where her body had been blazing ahead. And she wondered what would have happened if Sergei hadn’t stopped … and if she would have regretted it.
    Even now with her clothes in disarray, her body aching, the only sound their still-ragged breathing, she didn’t think she would have.
    ‘Sergei, why—?’
    ‘Don’t.’ He raked a hand through his hair once more, then dropped it to his side. ‘Go to your room,’ he told her, as if she were a naughty child. ‘Grigori will deal with you tomorrow.’
    ‘
Deal
with me?’
    ‘Your passport. Your flight.’ His lips curved in a grim smile. ‘You can be out of this country this time tomorrow night,
milaya moya.
’
    She recognised the Russian.
My sweet.
And Sergei had never sounded more cynical than when he said the endearment. ‘Why did you push me away?’ she asked quietly.
    Sergei’s nostrils flared, lips thinned. He looked so angry, yet minutes ago he’d been kissing her. Touching her. His
hands—
    ‘Don’t, Hannah.’
    ‘Don’t what?’
    ‘Don’t be so bloody naive!’ He took a step towards her, his eyes blazing. ‘You want to know why I pushed you away? Because I don’t do virgins,
milaya moya
, especially not ones who barely know how to kiss.’
    Ouch.
Hannah blinked, swallowed again, and lifted a chin. ‘I don’t believe—’
    Sergei let out a sharp bark of laughter. ‘Believe it.’
    ‘You’re just saying that,’ she insisted, because Sergei wastoo angry to have pushed her away out of boredom or even disgust.
    His mouth twisted in a sneer. ‘There’s optimistic and then there’s deluded. You’re leaning towards the latter.’
    Hannah folded her arms. Sergei’s sudden rejection didn’t make sense. She knew she was inexperienced,
he’d
known that, but she wasn’t so naive that she hadn’t felt the evidence of his desire. She’d felt it in his kiss too, in the way he’d reached for her. She’d felt the answer in herself. ‘I’m not deluded.’
    He arched an eyebrow, so coldly in control. ‘Really?’
    ‘Really.’ Although she was starting to feel that maybe she was. She was so out of her element, beyond her experience, yet she still felt instinctively that Sergei wasn’t telling the truth. He hadn’t pushed her away because he’d stopped wanting her, so why?
    Because he didn’t want to hurt her.
    The thought popped into her mind like a translucent bubble, shining and perfect. Fragile too. For if
that
wasn’t a deluded thought …
    Sergei was surely the coldest, most cynical man she’d ever met.
    Cynical about himself.
    ‘I don’t believe you,’ she said slowly.
    He let out a harsh laugh. ‘You really are some kind of Pollyanna, always wanting to believe the best of everyone. Well, don’t believe it about me—’
    ‘You’ve been kind—’ Hannah insisted, because she knew, deep down, it was true.
    ‘There is no such thing as kind,’ Sergei cut across her. His eyes blazed into hers, icy and hot at the same time, and full of fury. ‘I said everyone has a motive, remember? And usually not a very nice one.’ He took a step towards her, the action menacing. Threatening. Hannah held her ground. ‘You know what my motive has been,
milaya moya
?’
    ‘Don’t call me that—’
    ‘But you are very sweet.’ He touched her cheek, lightly, and Hannah flinched. There was something ugly about his actions, his words, and she knew he was ruining it all on purpose, even if she didn’t understand why. ‘My