Lifting a knife I hadn’t seen before, she slashed the side of my lip and blood gushed, filling my mouth. Gagging me.

The cries of her orgasm followed, her hips straddling me, riding the wave. She slid off before grabbing my dick and stroking it until my own body finished.

“Now, you’ll always remember this,” she said, still breathing heavily. “You’ll always remember me.”

I blinked the memories away, all of them disintegrating into the back of my mind. The scar on my lip a daily reminder.

The past may be catching up to me, but I refused to fall victim to it.

I was so fucked up. So fucking broken and I dared touching something so good. So innocent. My eyes met dark chocolate ones, and in them I found peace.

Though she didn’t find the same thing in mine.

Aurora turned away from me, as if she couldn’t stand the sight of me. Not that I blamed her.

It was on the tip of my tongue to tell her it wasn’t her. It was me. It sounded cliché, but in this instance, it was the goddamn truth. But giving her the reason behind it was not an option. I didn’t want her pity.

We were interrupted by the door opening behind us and Igor’s voice.

“I want to invite both of you to my place.”

Aurora tensed in front of me. I slid out of her, my hands on her hips, pulling her dress down. She struggled to fix her flimsy panties, and I instinctively blocked her body with mine, as I tucked myself in.

My hand snaked around her waist and I tucked her closer to me. I didn’t want Igor to get any ideas. She was with me and only with me.

Igor smiled, his eyes hungry on Aurora. I fucking hated it. That voyeuristic motherfucker. I hated anyone seeing my woman as I fucked her. She was mine and mine alone.

Igor leisurely took several steps towards us and my hand tightened around her waist, pulling her closer to me.

Her dark eyes shifted my way, her eyebrow lifting in a silent question. When I said nothing, she returned her attention to Igor.

“We’d love to,” she told him, though her muscles were tense against me. “Right, Alexei?” she added in a sultry tone, those pouty red lips curved into a seductive smile.

“Da,” I said dryly when I actually wanted to tell Igor to go fuck himself and snap his neck. But I knew how much was at stake here if we didn’t get to Ivan. The message was clear. He was after the Nikolaev family and my nephew would be the one to pay for my sins if I failed.

We had to get to him before he got to us.

“Odlicno.”Great. He rubbed his hands together, a gleam in his eyes.

I fucking hated Igor’s guts. The term womanizer and slimebag took a whole new meaning with that fucker. He’d smile in your face and stab you in the back without a second thought. He volunteered to hold me still all those years ago. Jerked off right above my head as he watched that woman fuck me.

It was the reason he worked so well with Ivan. We were a similar age, but unlike Igor, I never enjoyed Ivan’s fucked up shit. Regardless if I was at the receiving end of it or the giving end of it.

“Let’s go,” Igor drawled, his eyes not even bothering to look my way. “You can come with me, Aurora.”

“Ona moya,” I warned in a low, threatening tone.She’s mine.There was no need to say anything else. If he touched her, I’d make him regret ever surviving this long.

“Tvoya.”Yours.Igor’s voice shattered through the memories, a stupid, ugly smile on his face.

He nodded, surprise in his eyes. I had never laid claim on anyone or anything. I learned within the first decade of my life that forming an attachment always ended in loss. In their death. A familiar cold sensation slithered up my spine, and invisible hands squeezed my neck tighter and tighter.

I didn’t give a shit that Igor now knew I had a weakness. He could hold this over my head; except, he knew how brutal I could be. And if he dared to touch her with his pinky finger, I’d destroy everything in his life. His wealth. His clubs. His so-called friends. And leave him for last, so he could wait for his end in agony.

I’d fight for this woman. I’d burn the whole world down. And at the end if she demanded my life in payment for her brother, she’d get it.

It was hers anyhow.

All my broken pieces. My fragmented heart. My fucked up soul. The haunted memories that made it impossible to move on.