Page 82 of Doctored Vows

“You don’t know shit.”

“I know you,” he repeats, moving closer. Prowling closer. “I know that even though your heart is telling you that testifying is the right thing to do, it is also cautioning you against it because it knows I wouldn’t have done as accused unless I believed it was necessary.” He hits me where it hurts. “Just like you know your daddy wouldn’t have done what he did unless it was necessary.”

He continues approaching, stealing the air from my lungs with both words and a soul-stealing stare that’s full of silent apologies and begs for forgiveness.

“I know that you’re upset now, but you won’t be when you step back and assess things properly.” He pins me between the elevator wall and him before angling his head so we’re eyes to eyes, lips to lips. “And I know you’re too smart to ever believe the connection we have could be staged. Fireworks, Doc. Tension so dangerous it broke through all the lies they told to try to keep us apart. Lightning on a pitch-black night. That’s you and me.” He licks his lips like his insides are burning up as furiously as mine. “Shit that potent can’t be made up. Dynamite that powerful can’t be manufactured.” He tucks a strand of hair fallen from my bun behind my ear while murmuring, “You’re just too scared to admit that right now, but you’ll get there. Eventually.”

“No, I won’t,” I try to deny. I say “try” because I need to work on the strength of my headshake and the confidence in my tone to make it more believable.

“Still a shit liar, Doc,” Maksim murmurs a second before he seals his mouth over mine.

My insides naturally contract, my body choosing its own response to his kiss, but I keep my mouth sealed shut, refusing to give in. I’m hurt he lied and that his excuse mimics the ones my father issued when he was arrested for the murders of the men who brutally assaulted my mother. But more than anything, I hate myself that I still want him after everything he did.

“Don’t.” I moan the word instead of yelling it as planned when Maksim slides his hands behind my back and gropes my ass. “I don’t want this. I don’t want you.”

My body calls me a liar long before my heart. It melts into his embrace when he curls my legs around him before he rocks his hips forward, grinding against me. My panties are so damp, not even my scrubs can hide their wetness. My body is attracted to this man, and so is my heart. It is just my brain struggling to keep up.

I guess that’s nothing new.

Maksim licks my lower lip, and my resolve buckles. When his tongue slips inside my mouth, tingles race across my skin, making all logical thoughts nonexistent. Electricity races through my face as my skin burns with heat. I’m dragged into a lust storm I’ll have no chance of surviving if I don’t keep the playing field even.

“Promise me.” His lips dust my ear as I fight to replace my moans with words. “Promise me you won’t hurt anyone else to protect me. Promise me you will always pick me first.”

“Always first,” he murmurs into my neck, his pledge given without a second thought.

Even with me pushing him back so I can check the honesty in his eyes, the throb between my legs grows, becoming unbearable.

There’s a glint in his eyes that announces I don’t need to hear his words to know I will always come first, but it isn’t enough.

“When my sister died, my parents promised I’d never experience that type of pain again.” Maksim’s eyes bounce between mine when I choke on a sob. “They lied.” I speak faster before he can interrupt me. “My mother had no choice. She was taken from me. But my father could have chosen to stay. He could have picked me over vengeance.”

“No, Doc. He wasn’t given a choice.”

I act as if he never spoke. “Promise me, Maksim. Promise you will never do anything that will put you in a predicament where you could be taken from me as well.”

“That won’t happen?—”

“Promise me!” I shout, my words on the verge of a sob. “Or I’ll walk out that door and go straight to Myasnikov PD.”

The slap mark on his face reddens when anger engulfs him, but he tries to downplay his fury. “Shit. Fucking. Liar. Doc.”

Heartbroken, I push him back with enough force he crashes into the brash steel doors with a thud before I jab the emergency stop button. “And as I said, you don’t know shit.”

As the elevator jerks back into action, Maksim glares at me like it is taking all his restraint not to retaliate with the same level of violence I instilled on him. His fists are balled at his sides and his jaw is so firm it appears seconds from cracking, but the only time his resolve breaks is when the elevator dings, announcing it has reached the penthouse.

He blocks the exit with his burly frame for several heart-thrashing seconds before his standoff is broken by the person responsible for half of the confusion swamping me. “Missy Moo, the only sunshine in the world is you.”

When I peer past Maksim’s shoulder, I’m given an excuse for the wetness on my cheeks. My grandfather is no longer bedridden. He’s seated in a bulky hospital chair only the wealthy can afford, smiling larger than the oxygen mask covering half his face.

Maksim stops me from racing to his side by snatching up my wrist. His hold isn’t firm, but it announces his struggle to let me go is as tortuous as it was for me when I threatened to walk out of his life.

His chest inflates and deflates numerous times before he presses his lips against my temple and talks through their sternness. “Our vows said until death do us part.” He inches back to ensure I can see the honesty in his eyes before saying, “But not even he is stupid enough to come between us. Remember that before you ever try to downplay what we have again.”

He guides me into the foyer of my grandparents’ apartment before he returns to the elevator and selects his floor.

When he raises his eyes, there’s so much pain—so much angst. I almost race for him, but before I can, the elevator doors snap shut, and I’m left alone to battle through my confusion for the umpteenth time in my life.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

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