Page 152 of Ivory Ashes

I don’t answer because, the truth is, I have no fucking idea.

But I’m going to find out.

55

VIVIANA

My bedroom door flies open like the lock doesn’t exist.

The wooden frame shatters, spraying splinters across the floor. I have enough time to wonder if this is the attack Mikhail was warning me about.

He was right. Someone is coming for us. I need to get to Dante.

Then the thoughts disappear like smoke because it’s Mikhail himself stalking across the scattered shards.

“What the hell are you?—”

He rips the comforter away where I had it clutched to my chest and presses me back into the headboard. His hand is an iron choker cinched low on my throat. His thumb drives painfully into my collarbone. I whimper and stretch away from him, but he doesn’t give me an inch.

I want to say something, but the look on his face makes it impossible. I’ve never seen him like this. Rage is rippling off of him like a physical force. The heat of him soaks through my thin nightgown.

Does he know about the duffel bag I packed?

Does he know about?—

Before I can even cement why I should be afraid, Mikhail crushes his lips to mine. He closes the distance between us in a second and then he’s everywhere.

I can tell myself that I don’t want Mikhail until I’m blue in the face, but all it takes is one touch for me to melt. Need throbs between my legs.

I moan against his mouth and Mikhail hauls me against him and lifts me off the bed like I’m no more substantial than a ragdoll. His arm tightens around my lower back until I’m struggling to breathe. His hold and his mouth are relentless. I have no choice but to give what he wants.

As stars begin to speckle my vision, Mikhail drops me onto the mattress. I fall sideways with a gasp. I’m still a mess of limbs, trying to make sense of what he’s even doing here, when Mikhail grabs the hem of my nightgown and shreds it straight up the seam.

That’s not difficult to interpret.

“Why?” I rasp.

With the way we left things, I didn’t expect him to come back tonight. I certainly didn’t expect this.

“Because you’re mine.”

It’s the only answer I get before he opens the ruined shreds of my nightgown and crawls over me.

He slides up my body slowly. I feel his erection, hard and insistent, over my ribs and between my breasts.

I’m dazed from the surprise of him being in my room—doing this—and from the intensity of how much I want every second of it.

He unzips his pants and his cock rests against my skin, hot and velvety soft. I press my breasts together, creating more friction as he slides between them.

Then he swats my hands away, grabs a handful of my hair, and drives himself into my mouth.

My throat bobs as I take him. He tips his head back and groans when I swirl my tongue around him and suck him deeper.

The last few days have been hell for both of us. I’m pissed at him, but that doesn’t mean I don’t understand that he’s under stress, too. If this is how we both choose to burn off some frustration, I’ll take it. I dig my fingers into his muscled ass and pull him deeper.

“Fuck, Viviana.” He thrusts and holds.

Then in a blink, he’s gone.

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