Page 181 of Shattered Altar (Makarova Bratva Duet)

He grimaces and passes a hand over his face. “I didn’t know you were listening,” he sighs.

I can’t help scoffing at that. “Would you have said something different if you knew?”

“Maybe. Fuck, I don’t know.”

I raise my eyebrows, waiting for him to offer me something else. But he stays quiet. I take a deep breath, trying to find common ground where there’s none. Where there’s never been any.

“So the question is… did I hear the lie this morning?” I wonder out loud. “Or did Jennifer? Which side of the door saw the truth, Aleks?”

His anger doesn’t look quite so frightening anymore. He’s not sure of it himself.

He reaches for me again, but this time, it’s tender. He cups the side of my face. The gesture is so alarmingly sincere that tears spring to my eyes.

I don’t even care that he can see them, because under no circumstances am I breaking away from his touch. There’s magic in this wordless moment. I’m not too proud to admit that, despite everything, I’m falling into it.

“You are beautiful, you know that?” he says softly.

“Another lie?”

“No, kiska. I’ll never tell you another.”

Our bodies gravitate closer to one another. Magnetic. Chemical. Every bond on every level that says this is right.

But inside, something is screaming at me to tear away.

Didn’t I just make up my mind that I was going to try and be brave? I was going to try and escape? Because—despite my attraction to Aleks, despite the fact that my feelings for him are slowly evolving into something indisputably dangerous—I know we have no real future together.

How can I have a future with the man who threatened my family? Abducted me and forced me into marriage? Held me at ransom so that he could control my brother?

Sure, he may be innocent of the crimes my brother is accusing him of. But he’s still guilty of other crimes. Do I really want to be tainted by association? Do I really want…

My endless, scampering thoughts taper off when I look into his eyes. My heart thuds violently against my chest and all I want to do is kiss him.

Maybe, if we maintain this intoxicating eye contact long enough, he’ll kiss me the way he kissed me last night. With that all-consuming desire that made me feel like a queen.

Like his queen.

I’m about to throw caution to the wind. And so is he. I can see it in his eyes, in his quickening breath, in the heat emanating from his body.

Which is why, when he drops his hand and steps back away from me, I’m so surprised I almost tip forward. I catch myself just in time to stop from falling.

“I wouldn’t encourage a relationship with my mother,” Aleks warns me. His voice is gruff and cold once more.

“What?” I blink in confusion. “Why not?”

“She’s a lost soul. And she’s not in any position to be giving advice.”

“What makes you think she’s giving me advice at all?”

He just shrugs, as though that heated moment we shared only seconds ago never happened at all. He’s back to his normal self, all business and no emotion. “It’s in her nature.”

It makes me want to scream. But it’s a good reminder: the fairytale is only in my head. The reality will always be a disappointment in comparison.

“Is it in your nature to be so cold?” I demand. “So heartless?”

“Yes,” he says without batting an eye. “It’s how I was molded.”

“Then I feel sorry for the woman that ends up with you.”

“Careful,” he warns. “You might be that woman.”

“You promised to let me go eventually,” I remind him.

“If I am to live up to the low opinion you have of me,” he says, “then I may just have to break that promise.”

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