Page 34 of Vengeful Princess

By the time we were done, I was exhausted. Eden’s car still had a dent in the door, but I decided I no longer gave a shit. If she unfriended me, then so be it. I’d pay for the damage repair and hustle on with my job here. All being well, I’d complete my assignment and be back home for Christmas.

“Thanks for…um…helping.” Kyril locked his 4X4 and turned toward me. The light over my head flickered and died, plunging our cozy corner of the parking garage into darkness. If this was a horror movie, I’d be shitting myself. But my life was way scarier than any horror movie, so I barely registered the danger.

If the Russian bastard wanted to try anything nefarious, he’d had ample opportunities while we were out on the moor.

He moved close enough that the tang of fresh sweat tickled my nose. Man sweat was normally abhorrent to me. I associated it with Torrance’s lessons in the training room. The many fun hours I spent fighting him while he beat me senseless and called me a pathetic whore.

Being this close to Kyril didn’t trigger me.

“You’re most welcome, my littlegadyuka,” he said. “Our first date has been most entertaining.”

My head snapped up. “First date?” What the actual fuck was he on about?

“Yes, littlegadyuka.Now go get some sleep and wash the evidence of thatmudakfrom your skin. Next time, I’ll take you out for a nice dinner and you can wear something pretty for me.”

“Pretty?” I repeated. Pretty wasn’t really my aesthetic.

Kyril traced a finger down my cheek, pausing when he reached my bruised, swollen lip from where the dead guy had landed a punch shortly before I knifed him to death.

“Yes, pretty. Just like you.”

I scoffed loudly. “I’m not pretty.”

He leaned in, pressing me against the door of Eden’s rather battered car. The heat of his body ignited a raging fire in my veins, burning away all traces of exhaustion.

“Yes, you are. More than pretty, littlegadyuka.”

Any other man would be on the floor by now, screaming as I broke his arm, but Kyril had me frozen, like a rabbit facing down a fox.

He was a bigger predator than me, but he didn’t scare me. Far from it. He’d willingly implicated himself in my crime this evening. If the body ever came to light, DNA from both of us was all over it.

I wasn’t worried about my involvement since I had no intention of sticking around, but he didn’t know that. And he’d helped me despite the risk when any sensible guy would have driven away at one hundred miles an hour and reported me to the police.

Kyril was my kind of guy.

Before I could voice any further objections, he kissed me. Like him, his kiss was hard and unapologetic, and I melted. My lips parted willingly, letting him in.

Kissing Kyril was nothing like my stolen kisses with Dar back when I was an innocent 15-year-old.

Something told me Kyril wasn’t sweet in the bedroom. He was a man who took what he wanted when he wanted it.

He was exactly the kind of man I needed to stay the fuck away from.

18

Kyril

“Where have you been?” Cassian stared at me over his laptop screen. I hardly ever saw him sleep these days. His dad had been pushing him harder than ever, eager for him to step up and enter the world of politics.

He’d already begun parading him around at political functions, which the press loved. And why wouldn’t they? Cassian was handsome, intelligent, and excellent at public speaking. Like his father, but without the psychotic tendencies.

“Burying a body.” I slipped my jacket and shoes off, intending to take a long, hot shower. We’d been careful when handling the body, but it paid to be thorough. Thankfully, there was a washing machine in the apartment, so I didn’t have to traipse down to the laundry room in the basement to clean my grave-digging clothes.

Cassian’s eyebrows shot up as I stripped off in the living room.

“Body? Who did you kill this time?”

Rolling my eyes, I bundled up my dirty clothes. He made me sound like a serial killer. “I didn’t kill anyone,mudak. I merely assisted with the burial.”

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