Page 57 of Forced Bratva Prisoner

“I’m not.”

He is still holding my hand, so I start pulling him to his feet. “Stand up,” I demand.

“Why?”

“Stand up. I need to look.”

He grunts and pushes himself off the chair, letting me try and help by pulling him up, too. Then he stands dutifully still while I pull the side of his shirt up, peeling it away from the blood to see the gash across his ribs.

I shake my head. “I know how this happened,” I sigh.

“How?”

“You shielded me when the car rolled. You used your body to shield me when the windscreen exploded, and the glass cut you.”

He shrugs. “Maybe, I don’t really remember. It all happened so fast.”

I shake my head again. “You shouldn’t have risked your life like that to save mine.”

“Funny, seeing as you did the same for me only seconds after the crash.”

He is staring down at me with such force behind his blue eyes that I am frozen staring up at him.

He reaches out and runs his hand across my jaw. “Thank you.”

His deep voice vibrates through me.

I feel my body responding to his touch and force myself to look away.

Chapter 17 - Leon

Her fingers gently trace the gash on my side. She bites her lip as concern floods her eyes. “You shouldn’t have risked your life like that to save mine.”

I find her comment amusing, because she seems to think it’s fine for her to risk her life for me, but when it’s the other way around, she is against it.

“Funny, seeing as you did the same for me only seconds after the crash. Thank you."

She looks up at me, eyes bright from crying and her brows knitted together. She might even be annoyed with me for protecting her like that.

She pulls her mouth to the side and takes a sharp breath. “I guess we are even, then?”

My heart is breaking for her, and all I can think is that I had her all wrong. I misread everything right from the beginning. She isn’t anything like I thought she was. She isn’t some spoiled princess living a life of luxury off her father’s money.

She is as much a victim as every single person who encounters Danil Balakin. She didn’t deserve anything that he did to her, anything that he put her through. I can’t even imagine the life she’s had, growing up with a man that sadistic. It’s strange to me that I never even considered this. I just assumed she was his little princess. But clearly, he has no heart whatsoever. Not even for his own flesh and blood.

I trace my fingers along her jaw, noticing again just how beautiful she is.

“Thank you for saving my life,” I say again, because I really mean it. She did save my life tonight. I was caught off guard and could easily have been taken down by those men.

Whatever her reason, whatever her goals, she still saved my life.

For a moment there is an intense intimacy in our gaze, and I can swear she is about to kiss me.

“Do you have a first aid kit?” she asks, looking away from me.

Maybe I was wrong.

“Yes, in the bathroom.”

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