Page 8 of Chased & Bred by the BRATVA
My jaw clenches. “What were they planning to do?”
“I don’t know,” she says. “And I didn’t want to find out.”
“You got lucky.”
She meets my eyes again. “Did I?”
“Yes,” I say. “Very.”
My fingers move slower now, tracing the curve of her hip, up to the dip between her breasts, then the soft underside of her jaw. She’s looking at me like she wants to fall forward into something. Something reckless. Something warm.
She doesn’t know I’m the fire. Not yet.
“You’re beautiful,” I murmur.
She huffs a soft laugh. “I’m a mess.”
“Still beautiful.”
Her lips part like she’s about to argue again, but I silence her with a kiss. Not as rough as before. Not as demanding. This one is slower. More deliberate. It’s the kind of kiss that doesn’t ask, ittells.
When I pull back, she’s staring at me like I’m the only thing keeping her upright.
“You can sleep here,” I say. “I’ll ask one of the staff to bring you something to wear. And food.”
Her brow furrows. “Staff?”
“Or my sister-in-law, Clara.”
I brush a strand of wet hair off her cheek. “She doesn’t bite.”
Rachel raises an eyebrow. “But you do?”
I grin. “Only when I want to leave a mark.”
She blushes, and it shoots straight to my cock.
I guide her out of the shower and wrap her in a towel, pressing a kiss to her forehead before I leave the room.
She’s safe here. Safer than anywhere else.
Now it’s time to get to work.
Rachel
The first thing I feel is the warmth.
Not the soft heat of the water or the firelight from the night before, but the warmth of the sheets wrapped around me. Thick, expensive sheets. Nothing like the scratchy cheap ones I usually sleep in. These smell like jasmine, cedar, and something that is unmistakably him.
Nikolai.
I blink against the soft morning light seeping through half-closed curtains. The room is too elegant to belong to someone like me. Dark wood furniture, marble surfaces, soft golden accents. It feels like old money. Heavy with history. Dangerous.
And I’m naked beneath the covers.
My heart stutters.
But when I shift, my body aches all over. A dull, delicious soreness lingers between my legs. My skin tingles with the memory of his hands, his mouth, his voice growlingminelike a vow. But jumping out of the car has definitely left a trail of pain, too.
