Page 26 of Crowned

With one hand extended, she examines her nails. They’re not the perfect glossy almond shapes they once were, but she gazes at them like they are. “Can’t get enough of me, can you?”

“You will take this seriously soon enough,” Kostya tells her.

The air pressure around us changes and I take a seat farther down the plane, one where I can watch Lilia. Elyah sits beside me with his jaw tight. How it must be tormenting him to hear so much talk of his beloved being torn apart. The only way he can save her is to persuade her to talk, but Lilia has never done as he’s asked even once in her life.

Lilia recrosses her long legs, and we both stare at her slender calves.

I put my head on one side as I appreciate the memory of those legs around my hips. “Give it up. She doesn’t love you.”

“You do not know what you are talking about. Lilia is playing for time right now, but Konstantin will get his diamonds, and I will get Lilia.”

I bristle at his words. “And what do I get?”

His expression darkens. “I listened to you fuck her. Since when did you want anything else from a woman?”

“I don’t know. Maybe I do want something.”

“Since when?”

Since we stood on that clifftop, staring down into the dark waters of Lake Como.

Since we crisscrossed the surface of the lake, hunting for her with a powerful light.

Since I told her she’s mine until she’s dead, and it made her pussy gush against my fingers.

“Maybe she wants me and not you.”

Elyah stares at me and then smiles, showing his strong white teeth. Handsome Elyah who fucks her like she’s a queen and whispers words of love into her ears. Anger races through me as he laughs and shakes his head.

“Sure. Okay.”

“You fucked up two years ago. She’ll never forgive you for doubting she loved her baby.”

That wipes the smile off Elyah’s face. “Fuck you. You do not even love her.”

I never said anything about love. There’s not one scrap of my soul that deserves a woman like Lilia, but I’ve never concerned myself with things likedeserveandearn. Onlytakeandown. Elyah desperately wants Lilia to love him, but I don’t give a damn if I have to lock Lilia in a cage for the rest of her life to keep her.

“For a while there, I thought you were getting all hot over the idea of sharing her.”

Elyah’s frown deepens and he stares out the window.

“Go on, Elyah. Admit it. When I was fucking her just now, you didn’t burst in and rip me off her because hearing her getting railed by me had you nearly blowing in your pants.”

The three of us have been through too much together for us to be split apart by jealousy, and I think we all know that we have our hands full when it comes to Lilia. She’s too much for just one of us to handle.

Elyah passes a hand over his face and shakes his head. “I do not think she will ever give a man what he really wants from her.”

I smirk and draw a length of rope from my pocket and slide it through my fingers. “Don’t worry, my friend. If she doesn’t give it willingly, there’s always plan B.”

5

Lilia

“Choose.”

Elyah grinds the gun into the side of Dad’s head, his eyes sparking with anger. Dad is kneeling on the floor of the plane, his face a bloody mess from Elyah’s handiwork earlier. We’ve landed somewhere outside Paris, but the cabin is still sealed.

I can see how badly Elyah wants to kill Dad, but Konstantin is giving me the chance to choose. I doubt that he’s interested in whether or not I want to show Aran Brazhensky mercy, the man who made and continues to make my life hell. I think Konstantin just wants to see what I’ll do.

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