I hissed out a breath.Fuck.Better to just do it and get it over with. She was either going to reject me or she wasn’t. No use in putting it off any longer.
“Fine,” I growled, lunging to my feet. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
I yanked the hoodie back and leaned down, shoving my ugly, scarred face into hers.
“Meet the Beast.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Annika
I titled my head back and wheeled my chair closer.
And got my first good look at Adrik Volkov.
His entire body tensed, his jaw jutting out almost defiantly, as if he dared me to reject him, and his fists clenched at his sides as he endured my scrutiny. I tried not to let my curiosity show as my gaze roamed over him, taking him in.
A large, jagged scar ran from the top of his left eye clear down that side of his face and underneath his chin. On his right side, his nose was scarred and misshapen. His eyes were slightly uneven, the left protruding oddly. He had a huge fissure in his upper lip that ran up underneath his nose and hadn’t healed together at the bottom, giving him a forked upper lip. Kind of like an untreated cleft palate. His partially bald scalp had tuffs of dark hair sprouting out in uneven places in between the scars.
His eyes bore into mine from behind that thick mane of hair—shining at me with a cautious challenge—so dark they nearly took my breath away.Obsidian.
How many times in his life had he been forced to endure another person’s stare? How many times had he had to put up with teasing and ridicule and vicious name-calling?
My heart pinched. His face wasn’t pretty. I couldn’t image what kind of accident had done that to him. But he wasn’t ugly. He wasn’t hideous. Not at all. I’d seen the beauty of his soul underneath. This didn’t change anything. Not really. I was still fascinated by him. My body still came alive in his presence, aware of him in so many ways. Most women felt physical attraction when they saw a handsome face and a hot body. I’d been attracted to Adrik the instant he’d come into close contact with me, long before I’d seen his face. What did that mean? Seeing Adrik’s face now didn’t lessen my attraction to him at all. Adrik was beautiful in many ways. It wasn’t just his hot body with all those taut, sexy muscles that I found attractive, but also his kind soul, his gentleness, and his sincerity that I found utterly irresistible. What I felt for him went much deeper than the surface. Rather than deter me, seeing his face only made me want to know everything about him.
My secretive protector.
“Come closer,” I urged softly.
He hesitated, eyeing me warily. Then he sent me a hesitant smile, the fork in his upper lip splitting from the movement, Slowly, he knelt before me.
Our gazes locked as I lifted a hand to gently cup his jaw.
He closed his eyes, his breath hitching out. “Do you know what the other soldiers call me?Beast. So, I do my best to live up to the name. I have a reputation to uphold, after all. But I’ve been called much worse over the years. I’ll bet you don’t even know what I do for your family, do you?”
He opened his eyes, his dark gaze boring into mine, a look of defiance in his gaze.
“No,” I admitted. “What do you do?”
His chest rose and fell as he drew in a deep breath and slowly released it. “I’m the Bratva’s interrogator. You knowwhy? Because I’m so fucking ugly, so Goddamnhideous, it only takes one look at my face for people to blurt out the answers to the questions I ask.”
I flinched, my eyes welling with tears. “Adrik.No.That’s sowrong. You’re too…gentle for that.”
Anger flashed in his eyes. His hand closed over mine where it still cupped his jaw, yanking it away. “I don’t need your fucking pity, Annika. I don’twantit. You don’tknowme. You onlythinkyou do. You don’t know all the shit I’ve gone through because of this fucking face. I was simply trying to spare you from having to see me.” He blew out a breath and bowed his head, his anger deflating. “Now you know.”
Oh, Adrik.Did he have any idea how special he was?
I slipped my hand over his, gently squeezing.
He jolted, pulling away. “I said I don’t want your pity.”
I determinedly reached for his hand again, linking my fingers through his. “This isn’t pity.”
He closed his eyes again, drawing in another deep breath.
I pushed myself out of my chair and into his lap.
He jolted, his eyes flying open, and fell back against the wall with me in his arms. I wrapped my arms around his neck and hugged him tightly.