“No, sweetheart. I’m merely deepening our connection. My blood runs through your veins, just as yours runs through mine, thus tying our fate together. But your life is still very much your own.”
I didn’t fully understand, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to. Right now, all I desired was to feel. To thrive in the sensation of our linked souls.
His life was mine.
My life was his.
At least for the moment.
And I’d never felt more alive.
“Kiss me, Grigory,” I told him. “Please.”
“Mmm, I did promise that you could taste me,” he replied, his tone a sensual caress that heated my blood. “Set the pace, Zaya. Take whatever you want from me, however you want. I’m yours to command.”
I rolled off of Zaya, pulling her on top of me, giving her the control I knew she needed. At least tonight.
A year and a half ago, her body had suffered brutality unlike any other.
And this week, someone had raped her mind.
Whoever it was would pay. I’d make the culprit crawl to her and beg her forgiveness, then watch as she dragged a knife across his fucking throat.
It would be glorious. Bloody. Revenge.
“Yes,” she agreed, seeing the desire in my mind and making me admire her all the more.
“You’re so strong,” I marveled, loving how her warrior spirit had latched onto my comments and held on without questioning my logic.
So many would have succumbed to the darkness and self-loathing, but not Zay. Instead, she allowed herself to believe in her own innocence, to realize that while she’d completed the murderous action, it hadn’t actually been her doing it.
Zaya sat up and straddled my hips, her eyes taking on a turquoise glimmer that made my blood simmer hotter for her. She’d lost her boots, socks, and jacket before sliding into my bed, and I’d followed suit, leaving me in just jeans and a sweater.
“Whatever I want?” she asked, clarifying my statement about taking out her desires on me.
“Whatever you want,” I agreed.
She smiled. “Then I hope you’re okay with us staying here for a little while, because I have a very long list.”
“That’s good, Zay. Because I have quite a list as well.”
She arched a brow, her palms falling to my abdomen. “I thought I was setting the pace?”
“Yes. For now.” I grabbed her hips and squeezed just enough to show her I was still very much in control here. “But when you’re done, it’ll be my turn.”
Her nipples beaded through her T-shirt, her excitement palpable. “All you ever do is taste me.”
My lips curled. “We’re no longer dreaming, Zay. I’m going to do a hell of a lot more than taste you.”
“Why now?” she asked, her pupils dilating. “Why not before?”
“Because I set rules before.” Rules I now despised. “But I’m breaking all the rules now. Why not shatter a few more?”
“What rules?”
“Rules that told me you were off-limits.”
“Because of my past?”