Love is hard, but blood is everything.
My love for him would never come with cruelty. He could trust me with his heart, just as I was putting my trust in him to keep this promise between us.
His jaw remained tight, not soothed by my declaration. “What was that bastard doing at your house?”
I pressed my hand more firmly over his heart, trying to ground him in the present moment with me before darkness could claim him once again.
“He wasn’t threatening me or anything,” I said hastily. “But I wasn’t comfortable with him showing up at my place. Thank you for taking me away from there.”
“What did he say to you?” Max clearly wasn’t ready to let this go.
I bit my lip, hesitating for a moment. I didn’t want that murderous glint to return to his dark eyes. The harsh slash of his mouth warned me not to hide the truth from him. And if I tried, he would probably think something much worse had happened.
“He asked me out on a date.” I winced slightly on the admission when Max scowled. “I told him I wanted him to leave.” I pressed my palm more firmly against his chest. “I don’t want to be with him, Max. I never did. I only want you.”
His black eyes flashed, sharp and hungry. “Only me,” he growled. “You’re mine.”
His hands bracketed my hips, firm fingers flexing into my skin to leave possessive marks.
I relaxed into the harsh hold. “Yours,” I swore, surging up onto my toes to capture his lips in a kiss: a fierce declaration of my ownership of him as well.
We belonged together, just like this: our bodies colliding in a rush of heat and raw need. Flames licked at my veins, igniting me with the passion that burned away worry and reason. There was only Max, and nothing else mattered.
His lips sealed mine, until we exchanged every ragged breath as our kiss grew more frenzied. My fists furled in his shirt, my nails raking over his rippling abs as I urged him to strip for me. He tore the shirt over his head, and my hands flew to his sculpted chest, greedily tracing the contours of his defined muscles. He was so strong, but he would never harm me. Despite the rough way he was handling me, I knew he would only turn all that raw power on anyone who dared to threaten me.
The memory of his knife at Niko’s throat briefly shadowed my lust, but it quickly cleared away. I realized that the unnerving incident hadn’t dulled my love for Max. It didn’t make me fear him. He only wanted to keep me safe, and in my rapidly darkening world, I would cling to him like a lifeline. And maybe he truly was. He’d protected me from his family. He hadn’t let Niko anywhere near me, and I was more suspicious than ever that the handsome billionaire really did have Bratva ties.
I softened and sighed in his corded arms, pouring all my love and trust into our passionate kiss.
Bracing one hand at the small of my back, he stepped toward me, urging me back a few steps until my butt hit the wall. His big hands grasped at the hem of my form-fitting forest green dress, shoving it up to my hips and baring my black thong.
Thick fingers shoved the scrap of lace aside, testing my arousal. He groaned into my mouth when he found the wetness at my core. I was slick and ready for him, my inner muscles contracting in desperation to be filled. My clit throbbed in time with my racing heartbeat, and I whimpered against him in a wordless plea.
He bit out a curse and freed his cock, hastily sheathing himself with a condom from his pocket. His long fingers ensnared my wrists, roughly pulling my arms over my head and pinning them there with one hand. His other hand cupped my ass, lifting me up until I was forced to wrap my legs around his waist for support. He held me as though I weighed nothing, his massive body overwhelming my much smaller form. He made me feel achingly delicate but powerful at the same time; all this ferocity and strength was mine, his full focus on my pleasure.
Max was mine.
I jerked against his hold on my wrists, desperate to touch him. His warning growl rumbled into my mouth, shuddering down to my core as his teeth nipped at my lower lip in rebuke. He tightened his grip on my wrists, holding me exactly where he wanted me.
He pulled back slightly so that he could stare into my eyes, into my soul, as he drove into my wet heat in one brutal, possessive thrust. I cried out as my core rippled around him, struggling to adjust to the sudden penetration of his hard length.
He brushed tender kisses over my cheeks, my brow, pausing inside me until I began to quiver with need rather than pain.
“I’ve got you, angel,” he promised, coaxing me to relax further.
“Please, Max,” I panted, my words hot on his neck as I grazed my teeth along his throat. “I need you.”
With an animal snarl, he began to thrust into me, jarring my body against the wall with each harsh claim. He stretched me to the edge of pain, but it mingled with waves of pleasure as his cockhead rubbed against my g-spot. I tightened around him, gripping his shaft greedily. He groaned and crushed his lips to mine, our tongues tangling in a rush of maddened lust.
Ecstasy gathered low in my belly, tension coiling my entire body. My legs clamped around him, and I writhed against his firm, steady hold on my wrists. He pounded into me, losing himself to the same primal abandon that’d claimed me. I screamed into his mouth as the pleasure crested, ripping through me in a tidal wave. My core contracted around him as the orgasm claimed me with blinding force. White washed over my vision, bliss bursting across my mind so that my entire being sang with it.
My release triggered his, and he shouted against me as he drove deep one last time, surrendering to my claim over him. He was mine: his pleasure, his body, his heart. He might not be ready to speak the words aloud, but I knew it deep in my soul.
Max loved me just as fiercely as I loved him.
CHAPTER 4
Max