Page 74 of Endless Obsession

The way he’s looking at me, with a sudden, almost desperate need, wrenches at something in my chest that has nothing to do with lust. My legs slide up around his, tangling around his hips, and he rocks forward, pressing against me as his mouth finds mine. My hands slide down his chest, lower, and he suddenly tenses, groaning with a sound that’s almost pain.

“Are you alright?” I pull back, and he nods, his jaw tight.

“Just my ribs. From the accident.” He tugs up his shirt with one hand, and just above his chiseled abs, I can see the blooming purple and yellow splotches of bruising across his ribcage.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper, scooting back a little. Ivan shakes his head, looking down at me with that same need still in his eyes.

“You don’t need to apologize. A little pain wouldn’t stop me. But—” He hesitates, and I look at him, surprised. I know he wants me. But he looks unsure, and I push myself up to a sitting position, frowning slightly.

“Do you want to stop?”

“God, no.” He barks out a laugh, shaking his head. “But I think—I think I probably should. I think you were right, Charlotte. We should take it slow.”

I’m so stunned I can’t speak. He leans forward, lightly kissing my cheek, and it takes everything in me not to turn my head into the kiss. “I should go,” he says quietly. “Before I make a liar out of myself.”

He stands up, and I want to protest, but I can’t. I did the same thing yesterday, and he let me go without an argument. I can’t do less now. But still—I wish he would stay.

“I can’t wait to see you again, Charlotte,” he murmurs. And then he grabs his jacket, striding towards the door, leaving me there on the couch, stunned.

This wasn’t at all how I expected the night to end.

23

IVAN

I’ve never felt so torn about anything in my life as I do about how I feel when it comes to Charlotte.

What started out as a physical obsession has turned into more. Every moment that I’ve spent with her has changed it, molded it, until it’s grown into something that threatens to take me down, too. I wanted her from the first moment that I saw her, but it’s more than that, now.

I genuinely care about her. I’m more than a little afraid that I’m falling in love with her. And none of that can go anywhere.

It doesn’t matter. I can’t let her go.

I don’t log onto the site when I get home. I don’t want to know if Charlotte is online, or if she got on hoping to talk to Venom after I left. I can’t stand the thought of her getting off to another man—even if that man actually is me. She doesn’t know it’s me, and that’s the part that’s driving me fucking insane.

I get in the shower, turning the water on as hot as I can stand it, thoughts of her soft mouth and body under mine earlier driving away every other rational thought until I’ve made myself come thinking about her. I stand there afterward, shuddering with the aftershocks of pleasure, and I tell myself to let her go. To break her heart now so that I don’t shatter it later.

My world is too violent for her. She wouldn’t want me if she knew half the things I’d done. And she won’t want me once she finds out I’ve lied to her.

In finding a way to have her, I’ve ensured that I’m always going to eventually lose her.

“Fuck!” I slam a hand against the wall, gritting my teeth as hot water runs over me, head bowed and muscles tense. I’ve teased her about keeping her in a cage, my pretty little dove, but I’ve built myself a cell and given her the key. I’m never going to stop wanting her—and the longer this goes on, the worse it will get.

And she’s far from the only thing I should be thinking about. I’ve been putting off meeting with Agent Bradley for as long as I can, but I can’t get out of seeing him the next day. I find myself at the diner just after the breakfast rush, sliding into the booth across from him where he’s sitting with the same cup of black coffee in front of him.

“You look a bit worse for wear, Kariyev,” he says with a raised eyebrow, and I scowl at him.

“My father had feelings about losing Sabrina Petrov. He made sure I was aware of them.”

“Well, I’m sure she’s grateful for your sacrifice. Although, for a girl like her, witness protection might be almost as bad as the fate your father had planned.” He chuckles dryly, as if he’s made a funny joke. “No designer heels and hair extensions where we’re sending her to hide.”

“I’m sure she prefers that to being sold to some billionaire,” I tell him coldly, although inwardly, I can’t help but feel bad for her. It is better, I’m sure of that, but I can’t imagine she’s going to be happy, wherever it is that she’s going. It feels monumentally unfair that our fathers’ private quarrel with each other has turned her world upside down, and now she’s going to suffer for it, if less so than she would have otherwise.

“These are the names of the men who were there that night, that I know of for sure.” I push a piece of paper across the table towards him. “There’s also my brother, Lev Kariyev. But good luck trying to take him down. He’s my father’s heir. You’ll need more than this to go after him.”

“And what about you?” Something cold and dangerous glitters in Bradley’s eyes, as if he thinks he’s about to catch me in a plot. “What happens to you if your brother, the heir, goes down?”

I snort at that, leaning back. “If you think I’m doing all of this to orchestrate my brother’s fall so I can take over for my father, guess again. He has two other sons before me, and they’d eat each other alive before they’d let me have the spot. I want out, Bradley. Not further in.”

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