Page 149 of Blood Mosaic

“Why?”

He frowned. “Because that was my job.”

Tatyana narrowed her eyes. “You do that.”

“Do what? My job?”

“You try to make people happy even when you’re pretending to be a bully.”

He said nothing, and his face went blank.

What had she said? She started to step away, but Oleg’s hand darted out and pulled her closer, wrapping around the small of her back as he pulled her to his chest.

Her heart gave a single thunk.

When he spoke, his voice was low and soft. “You think I’m a bully?”

“No.” She forced the words out. “I said you pretend to be a bully.”

“You’re not afraid of me.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Sometimes I am, a little bit.”

“I would never hurt you.” He lifted his chin. “Do you believe me?”

“No.”

Or yes. Maybe hewouldn’thurt her intentionally, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t hurt her.

His hand slid from the small of her back down to her bottom and cupped it, pulling her into his groin. “You think I’m lying?”

“Maybe you’re telling the truth.” Tatyana stared into his stormy grey eyes. “But remember Ivan and the firebird. Even when you start with the best of intentions, things will go wrong. That’s the way of life.”

Oleg reached down and lifted her, swiftly turning them and pressing her back against a wall of sunflowers as Tatyana wrapped her legs around his waist.

She could feel his hard erection against her eager, heated sex.

Take him. Take this.

For as long as you can.

The whisper in her mind seduced her as thoroughly as Oleg did when he took her lips with his own, teasing her mouth open to welcome his tongue and his fangs. She licked out, running her tongue along his slick fang, and felt a shudder cross his shoulders.

Her amnis slid across his, and she tasted her blood in his mouth as he pierced her tongue and sucked hard.

Oleg held her against the wall as she rode his erection between her thighs. Tatyana reached down, struggling with the loose sweatpants she was wearing and trying to figure out how to get rid of them without losing the delicious friction that was already pushing her to the edge of climax.

With a growl of frustration, Oleg put her on the ground, yanked her pants off, and then quickly lifted her again, leaving her naked at the waist.

“Unbutton my pants,” he commanded as he held her against the wall.

Tatyana held her breath as she reached between them and fumbled with his trousers, eventually releasing his sizable erection. She gripped it with her hand and guided him into her body.

Oleg arched his hips and drove her into the wall, but Tatyana braced her hands on his shoulders and took the force of his thrusts as his amnis flooded her skin, heightening the arousal of them both until she felt like she might leave her body from the pleasure.

The smell of singed pine released in the air as his body heated. She drew water to her skin, grateful for the salt-laden breeze that carried the taste of the sea and the darkness.

Oleg whispered something under his breath, something in a language she couldn’t understand. It was heated and fervent. The foreign words reached down into her chest, carrying an aching need that she tried to push to the back of her mind.

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