His little birdie tried to play hard to get, but he wasn’t fooled. She also hid her fear well under layers of sarcasm and a steel will that rivaled his own.
“Tell me the truth. Who are you, really? Don’t lie. Are you really as bad as all the whispered gossip out on the floor of the club?” She paused, a soft smile on her face that held zero amusement. “I guess tonight, all those bodies back at my apartment could answer that.”
“It was them or you. I made a choice.”
Her brows pinched.
“If we didn’t take them out they were going for you. It was an easy pick for all of us.”
“You talk of trust and making sure I’m always protected. Every second I’m close to you I feel like I’m drowning in feelings I don’t understand, Sevastyan.” She scrunched the front of his shirt in her fists, her voice whisper soft. “It wasn’t all lies, you know. When we were at your club, the time we spent on your private balcony…that was real. And then my apartment...all five of us. At least for me. I felt things. Things I don’t completely understand but I can’t ignore anymore. Why do I want you all more than anything? Why did I set aside my agenda so easily? I have the uncontrollable urge to kiss you, taste you, and take you inside me. Yet grief consumes me at the same time. I think I’m broken.” Three little lines popped up in the middle of her brow. “What’s wrong with—?’’ She pulled her lips between her teeth and nibbled.
“Not a damn thing,” he cut her off, answering her abruptly.
“You’re wrong. But there’s nothing either of us can do about it.”
As she spoke his gaze was drawn to the way her lips moved. Words came faster and faster until he knew of only one way to silence her.
“Kroshka,” he murmured before he crushed his mouth against hers. Devoured her scent, her taste, her very fucking essence. Until it filled all of his scenes. The power and heat of his desire for her skated across his skin like a brushing flame. The monster in him roared for him to claim her, hide her away from the world. Keep her safe where only he and his brothers could have her completely to themselves.
He lightened the kiss, nibbled on her plump, bottom lip until she opened her delicate mouth so he could get his fill of her sweetness.
Her fingers tightened in his shirt, pulling the material tight against the wound her bullet left behind, but he pushed the pain aside.
He inhaled the deep moan that slipped from her lips the second he wrapped his tongue around hers. Sharp excitement pierced the brain fog and he could tell her body warmed to the idea of taking him.
“Rhia,” he groaned against her mouth.
“If this is real, Sevastyan, don’t stop. I need you now. I need this.” Her fingers worked over the buttons of his shirt, her lips never leaving his. “I need to feel alive more tonight than ever. I want you to make me feel. You are the only one who hasn’t taken me.”
His thick, hard cock rested against her thigh and before he could protest, she was spread over top of him with a knee on either side, pressing her covered pussy against his hardness.
A soul-deep possessiveness filled him. He tightened an arm around her waist and pulled her closer until he could feel the pebbled hardness of her nipples.
“I need you undressed and under me now.” Sevastyan thrust his tongue into the sweet crevice of her mouth and he groaned into her at the feel of her fingers in his hair, pulling him closer. Breasts made for devouring pressed against his chest, the tiny beads of her nipples excited and eager. She released his hair, running her hands down his neck to tighten a strong grip around his shoulders.
“UGH.Fuck,” he grunted under her unexpected grip over his wound.
She gasped, pulling away. “Oh, God. I’m sorry. Damn.”
He pulled her hands back to his chest, resting them against his pecs. “It’s nothing to worry about.” But he could already see those three little lines across her forehead reappear.
She pulled her hand back, blood covering her palm from where her bullet had done a little more damage than he had let on. But she didn’t need to know the extent of his injury.
Chest heaving, her eyes filled with those endless questions shifting the mood.
“None of this makes sense to me. Your world it’s…it’s.” She huffed out her frustration and he could feel her pulling away from him, fear rising in the small confines of the car. “It’s crazy and I’m not sure I fit in it. I almost died tonight. You. I shot you. What the hell have I stepped into? What if next time Indigo succeeds?” Her eyes went wide, and he hated the fear he saw staring back at him.
She moved to leave his lap, but he held her in place with a hand on either side of her face.
He swore savagely. “Damn it, Rhia, just stop.” He pulled her chin around until she looked at him. Really looked at him.
“Wipe that fear off your face. I’ll die before I let anything or anyone touch you again so forget Indigo.”
“You sound pretty confident in that matter.”
“I should be. I only say what I mean, and I personally guarantee no one will lay a hand on you from here on out. I dare them to try,” he snarled. His smug tone came off as if he had all the answers. While that might not be true, it was pretty damn close when it came to her.
She wrung her hands together between them with a half-smile. “I’d like to hold you to that. You know, given it’s my life I’ve become a little fond of it over the years.”