“That will be the last time you apologize.” And she meant it.
Rhia rose to her feet between Lucian’s thighs. “Thank you. I can’t offer you anything more than my heart, soul, and now my blood.” She grabbed the blade Sevastyan always carried strapped to his belt and sliced the razor-thin edge over her palm. Blood welted to the surface instantly and she pressed it to Lucian’s. “Bonded by blood and love.” She fell to her knees again and Lucian’s mouth found her in a fiery, breathless kiss.
Sharp inhales hit her ears from behind her but the other men didn’t move to interrupt. In fact, she felt them like a protective force around her and they understood her actions on a soul-deep level.
“Do you know what you are doing? What you are offering?” he asked, breaking their kiss.
“Blood bond is a seal of loyalty you can only break by death.” Matteo brushed her hair from her face, his eyes searching hers. “Be careful. Once your blood touches him, you’re ours.”
“Then let us be bound by blood and love.”
She reached for the other men to join her. She made sure to make eye contact with each of them. Holding their gazes as she spoke.
“I love you. I understand the loyalty that goes into a partnership like what you four share.” Understanding all the unwritten rules of their world was no easy task, but this one she had down pat—loyalty begets loyalty.
“And that we share with you.” Roman dragged the back of his knuckles over her cheek and she leaned into it. Sevastyan stayed quiet, watchful of her every move, and uttered words.
They all knelt on the floor and it was Matteo who grabbed the blade next. Metal across flesh and then palm to palm. Afterward, he took her hand in his and pressed a gentle kiss to the slash mark over the shallow wound on her palm. Roman followed suit and then he passed the blade to Sevastyan.
“You’re ours. To protect. To love.”
While he spoke, Sevastyan’s intense gaze never left hers. The muscles in his arms and shoulders rippled with caged strength. The tats peeking out from the collar and cuffs of his shirts flexed as he worked his throat and fists.
She didn’t need reminders of how turned on those tatts made her when he was kneeling over her, hard and ready.
She worked her suddenly parched throat. “Yours.”
He held her gaze and she looked on as he brought his freshly slashed palm to hers and then his lips against her palm completing the ritual. Shuddering pulses of excitement coursed through her at the feel of his lips on her skin. Like the next phase of her life had just been sealed and handed over to these four for safekeeping.
Lucian offered an apologetic grimace on his face. “Brace yourself.”
Before she could ask what that even meant, two hundred pounds of muscle barreled toward her.
Vice grips and steel bands for arms pulled her tight against a strong chest. In a rush, she found herself pinned to the nearest wall, a very possessive king lording over her. Hands on her ass, he bent and scooped her up, winding her legs around him.
“Mine, cariña. No other men but us will ever touch you again,” he roared and took her mouth in a burning kiss. Between them, his heart pounded, his body a hot furnace.
Roman stole her away and she willingly fell into his arms. His ice-blue eyes shimmering with conviction. “We will not be held responsible for what happens if they do.”
Sevastyan came up beside them and one crock of a finger and she belonged to him next. The big Russian mobster pulled on her hand and angled her toward him until he had one hundred percent of her attention.
Her smile slipped. Uh-oh. She knew that look. Sevastyan ran a hand through his hair and pinned her with a hard glare that would send her back a few steps if she didn’t feel so damn attracted to his possessive streak. What the hell was wrong with her?
His open arms encased her and she melted into him. Everyone faded into the background as she stared up at him.
“I guess I’ll be staying after all?”
He cupped her face with a single hand. “I never doubted it. I’m surprised you did. Didn’t I tell you last night you belong to us?”
He had and she’d fought against the idea until he made her orgasm five times one after another.
She wound her arms around his neck and drove her fingers into the long lengths of his hair. This was love. She had no idea it could be so consuming. So addictive. So fast. Maybe too fast. He kissed her and the doubts faded away for the time being.
Sevastyan’s gaze glittered gold, and a deep scowl marred his face when he finally pulled back to gaze down at her. Between her legs his shaft grew hard, and the wetness of anticipation from the promise in his eyes left her panting for air.
“Sevastyan,” she started slowly.
“Hmm, moya kroshka?”