Page 168 of Dirty Grovel

“Look at me, princess,” he murmurs. I force my eyes to his. “Whatever you dish out, I can take. I can handle it, baby. I can handle you.”

Is this what paradise feels like? Because this has to be the closest thing to heaven that’s possible to achieve on earth.

I was so worried he’d disarm me with charm. But it was never his charisma I had to be wary of. It was his sincerity, his honesty, his loyalty.

In the face of all of that… how can I resist?

“I love you, Oleg,” I say, the admission leaving my body in a torrid gasp. “So much that it terrifies me.”

“Is that why you ran?”

“Partly, yes,” I acknowledge somberly. “But partly because I am worried that I won’t be enough for you in the end.”

He slides closer to me, drawing my hand into his lap. “I’m possessive of my empire, my company, my home. But never in my life have I been possessive of a woman. Until you. That’s how I know you’re enough, Sutton Palmer. You will always be enough.”

Okay.

This is paradise.

It has to be.

My hand finds his chest, the diamond on my finger catching the light like a fallen star. We lean into each other and I give myself over to the ache in my gut.

I can’t fight this anymore. I’m only human after all.

Who am I to turn my nose up at paradise?

And then?—

BOOM.

The world shatters into fire and force and fucking chaos.

I’m thrown. Forward. Backward. I have no notion of where or which direction. All I know is that I’m free-falling.

One moment, I’m breathing air, and the next, I’m swallowing saltwater, pain painting my body in shades of agony I’ve never felt before.

I try to move but my movements are swallowed up by the sea. Every time I thrash, I lose more breath to the icy-cold water.

Darkness claws at my last vestiges of vision. I can feel unconsciousness come for me. It’s a welcome distraction from the screeching pain tearing through my limbs.

I have no notion of where I am. I have no notion of where Oleg is. There’s a moment of fear and panic in the not-knowing.

And then darkness steals its way deeper into my consciousness.

The abyss is here. Reaching. Consuming.

But I have to fight it off.

Because giving up means death.

Even paradise has teeth,I think to myself, trying hard to hold onto the feeling I had just before my world exploded. Maybe if I can recapture that feeling, I can find enough strength left in me to fight a little harder.

I take a deep breath. I kick my legs harder. I pray.

But when I do cry out, it’s not a prayer I’m saying.

It’s his name.

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