Page 95 of Untamed

Because I don’t trust myself. I don’t trust the way my heart beats faster, imagining a life with Rodion, while at the same time, my brain is trying desperately to find a way out of this situation.

What he doesn’t know is… I’m halfway there. I have reservations, yes, but I love being around him. Marrying into that family though? I saw those ruthless men. One of them washolding a gun.

I know what Rodion is capable of, and the thought of—of spending the rest of my life with a man like Rodion makes me melt like ice on a frying pan.

“You said it’s only temporary? Until this blows over?”

My throat tightens, the reality of the situation crashing in on me.

“Yeah.” But he doesn’t meet my eyes when he says it, and I can feel the tension in his body.

Rodion doesn’t want temporary.

And I’m starting to fear that…neither do I.

“Do I have a choice?”

When his gaze snaps back to mine, my heart stutters. I see the raw, ruthless man who’s willing to burn the entire world down if it means keeping me safe.

His eyes darken with something I can’t quite name.

“No.”

I look away from him. I was the one who fell for a man I knew to be dangerous, a full-fledged man of the Bratva. I let fantasy color my judgment, and now…

There’s no turning back.

“I know I’m not a good man, Ember,” he says quietly, but there’s no softness or regret in his tone. Nothing but sheer, brutal honesty.

And isn’t that one of the things I love best about him? “I’ve ended lives and ruined others, more than you’ll ever know. I’m Bratva. I will always be Bratva. And that doesn’t change because I love you.”

I blink. My breath catches. I try to drag air into my lungs. The word hangs between us like a fallen star, brilliant and unexpected.

Love.

“I didn’t ask for this,” I whisper, even as a part of me leans into him, leans intous,and I wonder…

Did I?

“I didn’t either.” He cups the side of my neck in his large, rough palm, his thumb brushing the spot where my pulse races as if reassuring himself that I’m still here. “But here we are. And I’m not letting you go.”

His words are a vow, said with finality and surety. I know what he’s offering me isn’t hearts and flowers, but something deeper,weightier, undeniably bloodstained and dangerous… and bigger than both of us.

“I don’t know how to do this,” I whisper, my words choked.

He leans in, pressing his forehead to mine. “Maybe we learn together.”

I wrap my hand around his shoulder. Bracing myself. “Are yousurewe have no other choice? None?”

“No.” One word that falls like a gavel.

There is no other choice.

I close my eyes, but he lifts my chin up, forcing me to look at him. “You want the truth?”

I swallow. “Always.”

His gaze hardens, something lethal flickering in the depths of his eyes. “If another man ever tried to touch you, I’d break his hands. And if he tried to take you from me, I’d tie him to a chair, making him watch me ruin you—slow and raw, before I cut out his eyes and left him to bleed out, knowing the last thing he ever saw was me owning you.”

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