The crypt, where we kissed for the first time. Where he gave me an orgasm that created a goddamn addiction I can’t satiate. Where I finally got to spend the night sleeping in his arms, one torturous time.
“When it comes to you, Nik, Malikov has one setting… scorched Earth,” he says before spinning me again.
Damn you, Konstantin. No.
He does not get to coil his way around my heart like this. By being this fucking beast who only exists in fairy tales, tearing the world to the ground to find me. By being the tortured soul suffering in the place where we began.
My back collides with an unyielding, warm body. Konstantin’s familiar scent winds around me, tapping at all the fresh bruises left from my conversation with Logan.
His possessive arm locks around my waist, his hand firmly settling over my belly where I’m sure he can feel the fireworks detonating under my skin.
“Mind if I cut in?”
His breath dances over my ear and my skin burns with a rush of blood, followed by goosebumps marching over my skin to the roots of my hair.
Yes, I mind.
My heart can’t take this. Not tonight. Not after stupidly ripping myself open in a weak moment.
Logan shakes his head. “Not at all. I’ll find you in a bit and we’ll pick up where we left off.”
When he leans in and kisses my cheek, I want to sink my nails into his forearm and force him to stay with me, but then he’ll know. He’ll know the man I spoke of was none other than my godfather and the fallout? I couldn’t even think about the fallout.
Logan disappears into the crowd right as Konstantin gives my hand a firm tug and spins me in his arms.
His eyebrows are nothing more than heavy slashes over dark, livid eyes. His palm burns where he caresses my back, pulling me in so tight and hard, his hard cock drives into my belly, short-circuiting my every defense.
He clasps my chin, the warmth of his fingertips seeping into my skin, and for just a second my eyes sink closed and I absorb him. I don’t have to hate him here. In fact, it’s best if I don’t. Keep up the appearance of adoring goddaughter with endless affection for her godfather, but not so much so that he thinks he’ll ever hold my heart again. And if during the process I pretend for just a minute, just long enough to ease the ache lancing my heart, then so be it.
“Husband hunting, are we?”
The mocking snarl in his words has my eyes shooting open, daggers aiming right at him.
This is the part where everything I do to break free of him earns a lashing from his whip. Where he toys with my splintered heart and shows me all the ways any future without him will be lacking. This is the man I saw in him when he crashed into the commune. The very one who recognized his match as he circled me.
He won’t be merciful. He won’t hold back.
This is where he makes me bleed.
But I won’t bleed alone.
“You want to shop for a husband, I’ll let you get away with it… for tonight, but you’ll be doing it with my cum leaking out of my tight little pussy.”
I squeeze my thighs at his words, everything in me from head to toe winding so tight I’m on the verge of snapping. Before I realize what I’m doing, my tongue swipes my bottom lip, drawing his possessive gaze to my mouth.
He leans in, dangerously—indecently close, his every word branding me.
“You’ll do it, with my cum drenching my supple thighs, keeping those mouthwatering legs glued firmly shut.”
25
NIKOLETTA
Konstantin’s hand locks on mine in a viselike grip as he all but drags me to the stairs. “You can’t just go around hauling me off to God knows where. What will people think?”
He skids to a stop and whirls on me. “Now you’re worried about what they think? You didn’t worry about what they’d think when you dressed in a fucking handkerchief, but this…” He holds up our joined hands and shakes them in my face. “This is what you have a problem with.”
I tear my hand from his, quickly glancing around to make sure no one is watching. Using every bit of patience I can muster, I school my features and keep my voice level. “I have a father. He sucks. I don’t need another one, so back off.”