“I am sorry for this outcome,malyshka.”
I find myself softening at the sincerity in his tone. But not enough to forget the crimes committed against me and my only family.
He rises to his full height and several things compete for my attention at that moment. All those bulging muscles flex with irritation and coiled anger. I know because it’s showing all over his face and the banked fire in his eyes when they land on me sing the truth loud and clear.
The first time I saw him an aura of power emitted almost like a shield. Now that I’m this close to him it seeps into me and I can feel the energy as if it’s my own.
I also notice he hasn’t uncuffed me yet as promised. “Hey?” I rattle the cuff but his attention is on the phone in his hand. “You made a promise.”
Maybe it’s someone’s darkest fantasy to be tied up by this man but all I want to do is find the nearest weapon and use it to get the hell out of here.
Ares gives me a look as if to say how dare I question him. “And I will keep it.”
But he doesn’t move to unlock the cuff. To his credit, he didn’t leave the room either.
“Rage.”
Pause.
“Brother, we have a problem.”
From there he breaks out into fluid Russian and I’m left wondering if I’ve made a terrible mistake. His tone is dry no matter the language which makes him hard to read.
The back and forth continues when he puts the phone on speaker and places it at the end of the bed. I don’t think he’s worried about me listening in on the call knowing I have no clue as to what they are saying.
I look on as he takes his vest, hangs it over the back of a nearby chair, and then strips off his Henley.
All those muscles I caught a hint of beneath cotton are just as defined as I imagined. I want to look away but God help me I can’t. Deeply tanned skin is marred with puckered white crisscrossing scars over his back when he turns away from me and heads toward the walk-in closet.
His physical scars match my emotional ones—layered, deep, and ugly. I don’t know where that thought comes from but it sinks in and takes root. But yeah, someone in his line of work is bound to have a body that matches the job description.
Savages. The name of their gang rolls across my mind.
Fitting, I realize. He steps from the closet and pulls on a clean shirt. He tugs it down his chest and it drapes over all those planes and dips. He shoves up the sleeves revealing his thick forearms.
The man on the other end of the call says something Idounderstand and pulls me back to the conversation. Polaris.
“What about my sister?”
Electric gray eyes meet mine.
He snatches the key off the nightstand and I tense.
This is it, Nova. Get ready.All my nerve endings are firing and sputtering. My whole body is on fire. The next seconds of my life determine if I save my sister or not. I need to remember that. Because I know myself, I bite my tongue and watch every move he makes.
My mind stutters. Truly I was ready for him to walk out the door and leave me here indefinitely.
Instead, he keys the cuff holding my right wrist, but not the other. The bed dips as he lowers his massive body next to me and gone is the man ready for battle with me and in his place is one showing compassion.
I’m thrown off balance and instead of fighting him for the key and bolting, I sit there, my wrist between his massive hands as he massages the pain away.
“What are you doing?” I ask but the ire is seeping from my tone the longer he works.
“No more pain?”
I shake my head. Not only at the idea of this monster caring for my comfort but the impossible suggestion of him not being a monster at all.
“Do not look at me like that.”