Page 22 of Legacy Of Ashes
"We should go," I say reluctantly.
"Should we?" She steps close again, hand resting on my chest. "Or should we go to your place and finish what we started?"
The offer nearly breaks me. "If I take you home, I won't let you leave my bed for a week."
"Promise?"
Before I can answer, my phone buzzes. Text from Tiernan: How did she do?
Reality crashes back. I'm standing in a warehouse where I just fucked his daughter, and he's asking for a report.
"I have to answer this," I tell her.
"What will you say?"
I look at her—hair mussed, lips swollen, eyes bright with satisfaction and new confidence. She's never looked more beautiful or more dangerous.
"That you're ready to lead this family."
"And us?"
I pull her close for one more kiss, tasting our future on her lips. "That's a conversation for when we're not standing in enemy territory."
But as we walk to our separate cars, I know this isn't ending here. It's just beginning. And God help us both, because once Tiernan learns I've claimed his princess, there will be hell to pay.
The thought should terrify me. Instead, it makes me harder than ever.
She's worth the fight that's coming.
CHAPTER
NINE
"If you gripthat gun any tighter, you'll break the fucking trigger," I murmur without turning around.
Conall stands three feet behind me in the Four Seasons lobby, radiating lethal energy. I feel his fury like flames licking at my spine. All because Valentin Petrov kissed my hand thirty seconds ago.
"He touched you," Conall growls, voice rough enough to scrape skin.
"He kissed my hand, not my ass." I smooth my emerald dress, the silk clinging to curves I chose this outfit to highlight. Heat pools between my thighs at the raw possession in his voice. "Relax before you start a war in the lobby."
Petrov approaches with predatory grace, expensive suit doing nothing to hide the killer underneath. Dark hair, brutal cheekbones, the kind of cold beauty that comes from generations of Russian aristocracy and violence.
"Ms. Kavanagh." His accent wraps around my name like velvet over steel. "Stunning, as expected."
Behind me, Conall makes a sound like a growling wolf. My nipples peak against silk at the barely leashed violence in that growl.
Petrov's gray eyes flick past my shoulder, reading the danger radiating from my bodyguard. "Your guard dog seems restless."
"Conall takes his job seriously."
"Does he?" Petrov's smile shows perfect teeth. "How seriously?"
The question hangs loaded with implication. I let my own smile turn sharp, arousal making me bold.
"Why don't you find out?"
The restaurant table puts me between two apex predators circling each other. Petrov cuts his steak with surgical precision while Conall looms by the wall like death waiting for an invitation. My pussy clenches every time I catch Conall's reflection in the window - jaw tight, eyes burning with fury.
