Page 40 of Hidden Empire
It’s a private request, not made for anyone else’s ears. But someone hears.
“I will do it for you.” The offer sends chills up my back, prickling at the hair on my neck.
“Mystery man,” I breathe, looking up to find that gorgeous face. “You’re here.”
Chapter 13
Jade
Dmitri nods in response and my stomach flutters. I want so badly to talk his ear off, to ask a million questions, but time is close to running out.
“You’ll help me then?” I ask, chewing on my lip. “We don’t have much time?”
A small hum tells me he understands. “How do you want me?”
My mouth waters at the sound of his voice. There are so many ways I want him. Fuck, think about the game!
“Um, how do you feel about taking your shirt off?”
Smooth as can be, he lifts an eyebrow and sheds his shirt with one hand. The fabric glides off of him with no issue, and my eyes widen. Rippled muscles decorate his torso, along with several jagged scars ranging in size. Is it wrong that I want to trace them with my tongue?
He smirks at me, recognizing the desire in my eyes no doubt. “Time,” the mystery man reminds me, tapping his watch.
“Right!” I bristle. “Thank you. I have an idea, do you care if I write on you? It’s just lipstick, totally washable.”
“Okay,” he says simply.
He has an accent that I can’t quite place, but I assume it has to do with him being Russian. English must be his second language, and I’m curious to know if that’s why he’s more on the quiet side. I’m curious about everything to do with him if I’m being honest.
With little time to spare, I shake out my hair, rustling my blowout so it’s a bit mused. Using the same shade of red on my lips, I carefully begin to pen on his chest.
The red letters are creamy and fluid. Perfection.
Unbuttoning a few of my blouse buttons, I perk up my cleavage and peak up, finding his eyes blazing down on me.
“And in three, two, one… pose!”
“Loom over me and put a hand in my hair,” I tell him quickly, scrambling to my knees at his feet. “You can’t touch my skin but they said nothing about hair.”
He complies, threading a hand into my brown locks behind my neck. His thumb drags along the skin of my nape before lifting off. A secretly shared touch—hopefully one of many to come.
Whispers float around us as party-goers observe the posed couples. I look up at my mystery man and drown out the noise around us. In my writing, his chest reads one simple word.
Mine.
I want that word to be true so badly, but I’ll take it even as a lie. Right now, when it’s just us, he is mine, and I want everyone to know it. He offered to do this with me, and god, I want to kiss him for it. He made me look perfect with so little work.
We remain still as the judges and Clara find us, already having seen her pose at the five-minute mark. I didn’t have time to see it myself, so I have no clue what I’m competing with, but given the shock on her face, I assume I did pretty well.
“Fuckin’ hell,” Cole says, observing the pair of us from the side.
Without so much as a visible muscle twitching, Dmitri’s hand tightens in my hair. With that, my eyes get drawn back to him, and my thighs clench closer together when I get a look at him. His heated gaze says what he can’t loud and clear.
Eyes on me.
“You can drop the pose now,” Javier tells us, and I release a long breath.
Dmitri offers me his hand, helping me climb to my feet. The simple contact lights me up, and my heart begins to race. I don’t want to let his hand go, drawing out the release of the touch. Our fingers brush until they part, and we both turn to the guys.