Used by the Russian Mafia Boss: A Bad Boy Mafia Romance by Bella Rose

said quietly. His cheek rested against her chest and each time he exhaled she felt the air whisper over her sensitized breast.
    She certainly couldn’t argue with his assessment. “Yes, it was.”
    “So every time I make you mad, you just want to fuck me?” He seemed to be thinking that through. “You do realize that is the most powerful incentive to piss you off there is, right?”
    Toni laughed. “I guess that’s true enough. I don’t know what comes over me. You say something or do something that bugs me and I just feel this overpowering urge to take it out on you in a very physical way.”
    He waited a moment, but she could sense the question brewing. “What did I do to make you mad?”
    “When Katya caught us kissing, you dropped me so fast I nearly fell flat on my face, Dimitri.” She couldn’t believe he hadn’t even noticed what he’d done. “You don’t remember doing that?”
    “I suppose I didn’t realize it, no.” He seemed to be thinking it over.
    Toni took a shaky breath. “Are you ashamed to kiss me?”
    “No.”
    “Are you ashamed for your family to know that we’re in a physical relationship?”
    “No.”
    Okay. His answers were even more frustrating than the not knowing. She felt off balance and maybe even a little rejected. She’d felt rejection plenty of times before. Her father always rejected her. When he wasn’t parading her around like a trophy, he was angry with her that she wasn’t the boy he’d wanted. Now she was sleeping with a man who made her feel the same way. Apparently she had some serious psychological issues.
    “Toni, that wasn’t what I intended to do at all,” Dimitri assured her softly. His fingers gently stroked her cheek. “I’m a little sensitive around Katya simply because she’s been through so much. I don’t want to alienate her any more. And yet I feel like every time I open my mouth I’m badgering her for more information. I suppose I just didn’t want to make her uncomfortable.”
    “I can appreciate that.” Toni was at least making an attempt to be empathetic here. “But the next time you reject me like that will be the last. I’m tired of not being enough for the people in my life. I don’t need another opportunity to be a disappointment or an embarrassment.”
    He seemed to be digesting that. Then she felt him stiffen. “Wait a minute. Who says you’re not enough?”
    “My father wanted a boy more than anything else in the world. Or didn’t you notice?” she said bitterly. “I was never good enough for him because I wasn’t that boy. He was happy enough to pretend I was the apple of his eye when it made him look good in public, but he never lost an opportunity to tell me what a disappointment I was in person.”
    “Your father needs a beating,” Dimitri muttered.
    Toni snorted. “You have your own reasons for feeling that way and they have nothing to do with me.”
    “So you just gave me a whole new set of things to hate Boris Rustikov for.” Dimitri rolled to his side, taking her with him.
    Toni tried not to enjoy being in his arms quite so much, but it was almost impossible not to soak up the heat and the sheer, wonderful acceptance that he was so willing to offer. How could he make her feel so good one minute, and so awful the next? It was like being on a roller coaster and she wasn’t sure if she should get off the ride or not.
    “Get some sleep, Toni.” Dimitri began rubbing soothing circles over her back with his strong hands. “We’ll talk some more in the morning.”
    She roused herself just enough to ask the all important question. “Shouldn’t I go to my own bed?”
    “No. I want you right where you are.”

Chapter Eleven
    Dimitri opened his eyes. It was pitch black in his bedroom and he had no notion of what time it was. He only knew that something had awakened him. The sound of Toni’s deep even breaths were comforting. She was curled up against his side as he slept on his back. He put his arm around