Page 11 of You Know I Love You

“Willa,” I hear him say. “Shit.” I start walking faster down the hallway. I barely make it past the threshold of the bedroom, and my feet leave the floor. The next thing I know, I’m back in the bed with Vasily over me. “I’m sorry.”

“What did I even do?”

“Nothing, Princess.” Vasily leans down, getting closer. “I’m an asshole. I thought you were trying to sneak out on me.”

“And you don’t want me to leave?”

“Babe, I just told you I want to wake up to you every morning. Of course I don’t want you to leave.”

“I didn’t want to leave.”

“Didn’t?” His hand finds my wrists, pinning them above my head. “Now you do?” Vasily takes possession of my mouth. I melt under him, surrendering. I sigh into his mouth, enjoying the sweet apology.

He’d been so pissed when he thought I was leaving. The realization of what that means sends a thrill through me.

“Say you forgive me,” he orders when he lifts his mouth from mine. A soft smile graces his handsome face.

“I forgive you.”

“Good.”

He can go from so intense to charming and sweet in a blink of an eye. Vasily has two sides to him. They feel like polar opposites but equally pull me in. “We have a full weekend of rebellion to get to.” He kisses the tip of my nose once more, eliciting a smile from me before pulling me from the bed with him. “And your phone.” He retrieves it from his pocket.

“You had it?”

“Thought I should let a few people know where you were.”

“Oh.” I take it from his hand.

“You crashed last night.”

“And you took care of it.”

“Told you, Princess. Stick with me, and I’ve got you.”

That might be the problem. If I keep sticking with him, I may never want to let go.

Chapter Seven

KING

Irun a hand down my face, still on edge. I really need to be more careful. I tend to be calm until I’m not. When those elevator doors opened and I thought Willa was trying to hurriedly leave before I got back, I almost lost it.

The thoughts I had about how I’d keep her here were barbaric and beyond anything I thought I’d ever do. It hadn’t helped that it took all my willpower to pull myself from the bed and away from her earlier. I’d been on edge since then.

When I step out of the bathroom, Willa is walking back and forth at the end of my bed with her phone pressed to her ear. I know she’s talking to Teddy. I also knew if she didn’t check in, Rich and Teddy, along with the new Haven that has popped up since the last one went six feet under, would be at my doorstep.

I could tell West Haven has a temper too. He beat the shit out of that punk Derrick. He isn’t the only one that will be leaving the island. Derrick's entire family is in the process of packing up and leaving town. I made sure of that. It would be easy to pin something on Derrick, and I had a few of my men make that clear to his parents.

What I worry about more is Rich. I don’t think Willa would take too kindly to me handling him if he showed up here. Thething is Rich has a card up his sleeve, and I’m not sure if he’ll use it. It would expose him as much as it would me. Except he’s her brother. She'll likely forgive him in the end.

Willa might want to rebel, but the girl is still soft and sweet at the center. I don’t even think that it's really that she wants to rebel. She wants a taste of the world. To experience things in life without people telling her if she can or can’t. She wants to make decisions for herself.

After she slipped off to sleep, I’d gotten back up to not only use her phone to contact Teddy and Rich but to pull up more information on her. There wasn’t anything on her, probably why she wasn’t on the map for me. She basically keeps to herself besides her family and Teddy.

“I know I have school on Monday,” I hear her say. Willa peeks over at me.

Fuck me. I really am fucked up in the head. She may be eighteen, but she is still in high school. Who would have thought such a little thing would have me by the balls? I’m not going to fight it. Only a dumbass goes into a fight thinking there is a chance they’ll lose.

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