Page 105 of My Dark Horse Prince

I start to place mine on it.

He shakes his head with a smile still broad across his face. “The keys, sweetheart.”

Something about the way he says ‘sweetheart’ makes my knees weak. I toss him the keys.

And finally, Adriana and my mother climb into Kris’s truck. Grigoriy climbs into the driver’s side, and I take the passenger seat. And then we leave this horrible place, while Martinš hides inside and four men crawl toward their car, slowly.

Without asking any other questions or even saying another word, Grigoriy drives Mom and Adriana back to Liepašeta. He helps Mom carry her things into my house. “What about you?” he asks Adriana.

“I’ll collect my stuff later. It’s at another friend’s house.”

“Grigoriy and I need to talk,” I say. “Get settled, and I’ll be back in a moment.”

I march to the old barn without stopping to see whether he followed me. I can hear his footsteps behind me, after all. But once we reach the old barn, I spin on my heel and face him. “Engaged?” I roll my eyes. “That was pretty high—”

He steps closer then, right into my personal space. “You didn’t say we weren’t.” His eyes are on mine, intense and focused. And then they drop to my mouth.

My heart hammers inside my chest, and my breathing becomes shallow. “There were too many people and too many things going on.”

“No one else is here now.” He’s definitely thinking about kissing me. He’s even leaning closer and closer and. . .

I shake my head and take a step back. “Which is why we can talk, finally. We’re clearly not engaged. You’re not even spending any time as a human man. Remember?”

“But your mother and your sister—”

“I’ll tell them we broke up,” I say. “It’s fine. They won’t even be surprised.”

“They’ll be disappointed,” he says. And then his voice drops lower, and it’s husky and rough. “Are you sure they’re the only ones who’ll be sorry to hear it?”

My mouth is dry. My knees are weak. “I. . . Yes. They are.”

“Really?” His eyes drop to my mouth again, as if I’m some incredibly distracting supermodel or something.

“Look,” I say. “You and I both know that everything you said back there was a lie.”

“What part?” He straightens, his eyes shooting back up to mine. “I didn’t say a single untrue thing.”

I inhale sharply. “That I leashed you?” I snort. “Please.”

“That’s true,” he says. “I realized that’s what you want—no, it’s what you need. After the miserable men you’ve been around your whole life, you don’t feel safe unless you’re the one calling the shots. So that’s what we’ll do.”

“You’re saying that from now on, you won’t do anything violent or bad unless I tell you to do it?”

He nods slowly.

“That’s nuts,” I say.

“It’s my offer.” He steps a tiny bit closer, and it reminds me of this kid’s game we used to play. Mother May I. It’s like he’s trying to follow all the rules, but reach the front of the line so he can collect his prize. “I want you to feel safe around me, safer than you’ve ever felt. And if the only way to do that is to let you decide how I act, then we’ll do that. Consider me your pet, if you’d like.”

“You are my horse.” My hands long to touch his cheek. But that’s insane. He still makes me nervous. Too nervous.

“I want to be your everything,” he says. “Your ride. Your protector. Your man.”

What can I say to that? “You can’t really stand aside and do nothing if I ask you to, though. Obviously, you’d stop listening to me and do whatever you want. Like going with me to my mom’s today.” Ha. Now I’ve got him.

“I didn’t say I’d become a doormat.” He shakes his head. “Nothing matters more to me than your life. That’s why I killed those men. It’s why I want to kill your lousy stepdad. I wanted to kill your idiotic ex, too. But I didn’t do either of those things.” He lifts one finger and touches the side of my eye. “I didn’t even beat him until he was bruised and broken. Because you didn’t want me to do it.” He runs his finger downward, trailing it along the side of my face to my neck.

And then he stops.

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