Page 40 of Wicked Knight 2

“You don’t have to be afraid of me.”

“I’m not afraid.” She gently placed a butterfly band-aid over my deepest cut. “I’m worried about you.”

“Why?” I chuckled.

“Why?”

“I still have seven lives left. Or is it six?”

“Six?” She stopped to look at me. “You mean these attempts on your life have happened more than once? Exactly how many times have you been shot at lately?”

“I can’t remember.” I reached for her waist and pulled her toward me, so she was wedged between my thighs. “It’s over. Boris and his men can’t hurt you.”

“Ivan told me what you had to do. You had to kill those men.” She glanced away. “All of them. In a single night.”

“I let Dominic spew his hate all he wanted. I should’ve handled him when I first got here. If I had, Boris and his brother would probably still be here. I would’ve saved myself and my family a lot of grief. Do you understand? Dominic was my fault. I couldn’t make that same mistake again. I had to cut the cancer at its root before it grew again.” I inched my hand up her back, searching for her gaze. “Don’t look away. I like your eyes on me.”

“Hmm.” She let out a breath. “I don’t know what to do with all this.”

“We can live in the now.” I could tell she wasn’t afraid of me. But something was stopping her from giving into what she wanted. And it wasn’t her family’s would-be wrath over the kidnapping. I was sure it was me. “I don’t understand where this thing between us came from. But it’s too powerful not to see it through.”

She cupped my face, then flashed a light in my right pupil, then the other. “Do you ever get headaches? Maybe dizziness? Nausea?”

“I don’t have a concussion, if that’s what you’re getting at.” I hadn’t hit my head and all of a sudden started having feelings for her. Though I had to admit, my obsession for her began the moment I saw a picture of her. “I think that’s enough doctoring for one night.” I captured her wrists and took the flashlight from her. “Before Alexei showed up, we were in the middle of a conversation.”

She shook her head and pushed away from me. “I don’t know what came over me. I don’t think this,” she pointed at me then her, “is a good idea. Sooner or later, my family will find me. If you return me home, I can convince them not to retaliate.”

I scoffed. “How do you propose I do that? The Italians, your people, have set up a perimeter. We can’t go into the city. It’s some sort of punishment for what happened in Jersey with Alfera’s wife.”

Her eyes went big in surprise. “You remember being there?”

“No, I wasn’t there, but my brother Ivan was. I was in Russia at the time.”

She surveyed my face as if trying to decide whether or not I was telling the truth. And that was the real problem between us. She couldn’t trust me. I was the enemy. A marriage contract didn’t automatically do away with decades of hate and rivalry between our families. She wasn’t wrong about any of it.

I rose to my feet. When she didn’t back away from me, I cradled her neck and pressed my lips to hers. The wave of desire engulfed me instantly. I deepened the kiss. Bit by bit, her body melted into mine. Desperate to feel her skin, I slipped my hand under her long T-Shirt and didn’t stop until I found her bare breast.

“I want you.” I left a trail of kisses from her cheek down to her neck and chest.

Just like in my dreams, I sucked on her taut nipple over the fabric. She tunneled her fingers through my hair and called for me. “I want you too.”

CHAPTER14

If All We Have Is Now

Donata

As far as great ideas went, this wasn’t one of them. Not even close. My brain knew that. But my body refused to see that sex with Maxim would complicate things a whole lot more than they already were. My worst fear was that Luca might never come back to me. But I couldn’t let myself fall in love with this version of him. Because even if Maxim was Italian, he was now a highly-ranked member of the Brotherhood.

A part of me wanted him to stop because in a weird way this felt like cheating on the old Luca. But the thing was, Luca Gallo had always been my own personal brand of heroin. No matter how long we spent apart, I couldn’t get over him. I couldn’t get over how he made me feel. How his touch alone set my whole body on fire. I missed him too much. I had spent too many nights wondering if he was even alive.

We deserved this reprieve.

“Omigod.” I reached for the hem of my T-shirt and pulled it over my head.

I stopped when I realized Maxim had never seen me naked. Or rather he didn’t remember any of the nights we’d had together. Or all the times I slept in his arms. As far as Maxim knew, this was our first-time having sex.

His gaze swept from my face down to my breasts, and then, all the way down to my pussy. The thumping in my chest sent waves of desire-induced adrenaline straight to my core. The first time we were together, he hadn’t even taken my clothes off. At the time, he was still mad at me for ruining his career as a teacher.

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