Page 33 of Savage Warrior

She sinks onto the bed. “I don’t know what to think. Except…”

“Except what?” I hitch one hip on the edge of the table.

“Except, I’m not scared of you anymore.”

I raise one eyebrow. “Oh?”

“I think you are a very dangerous man,” she continues.

“Right…?”

“But, not to me. I… I am glad you are here. I feel safer with you here.”

I approach the bed, and this time she doesn’t shrink away. I take her chin in my palm and angle her face up so she has to meet my eyes. “I mean to help you if I can. No guarantees, but I’ll do my best.”

“Thank you.” She gets to her feet, still holding my gaze, then stretches up on her toes to brush her lips across mine.

I wasn’t expecting that. I give her a moment to change her mind, to regain her senses and back away. That would be the sensible approach.

Apparently ‘sensible’ is not what she has in mind. She cradles my face in her hands and repeats the almost-kiss.

I think she’s making herself clear, but I have to check. “Are you sure about this? No crossed wires?”

“I do not understand. Crossed wires…?”

“Misunderstandings,” I clarify. “I want to fuck you, and if you carry on like this, I’ll do just that.”

She looks into my eyes for several seconds, then, “I know.”

And she kisses me again.

CHAPTER 10

Arina

This is madness.

I drop onto the mattress, and he follows me down, never breaking the kiss. He’s twice my size but somehow manages not to crush me. I don’t think I’d mind if he did. I like his weight. I like him.

I want him, this dark, brooding, dangerous man with the face of an angel and eyes that put me in mind of the very Devil himself.

He terrified me at first, with his gun and his threats, bursting in in the middle of the night to drag me from my bed. He was one of them, I was sure of it. The gang who abducted me. He was about to take me captive again. I would die first.

I wanted to die, just briefly. That’s why I ran. But he came after me and caught me. Again.

Even when I believed he meant me harm, I still wanted him. I couldn’t understand why he had that effect on me. Why my body hummed, tingled, moistened, at the same time as I shook with fear.

He could have done what he wanted with me. At any time. I would not have fought him. I could not, I was past that. But, he didn’t. He…he cared for me. He brought me back inside, helped me to get warm, tended to my injuries, allowed me to sleep and recover. I was confused, and that made me even more afraid.

I wanted to believe him when he told me he wasn’t one of them, but I didn’t dare. Men can’t be trusted, that’s what I’ve learned. Men just lie, and punch, and take what they want.

Why was he even here? What did he really mean to do? Why would he offer to help me? What was in it for him?

I still don’t know all the answers, but it doesn’t seem to matter so much now. It doesn’t matter to me that this handsome stranger is bristling with weapons or that he’s part of some sort of Mafia. It’s bizarre that I can set all of that aside so easily, just because he’s kind to me. Is it wrong that I can do that? I was always brought up to obey the law. I’m a good person.

But bad things happen to good people. I know that now. So maybe bad people can do good things. I’m seeing that, too. And when nothing makes sense, maybe it’s okay to just do what feels right…

And this does feel right. His lips on mine, his hands on my body. His breath on my cheek as he buries his face in my neck.

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