I press my forehead to hers. “Tell me you don’t regret it.”
“You kidnapped me.”
“Semantics,” I whisper with a grin. “Now, put me out of my misery and tell me you like being my wife.”
“A thousand yeses, remember?”
“But I want to hear you say it.”
“You might have to torture it out of me.”
I’m about to protest. But she shifts beneath me. Bites down on her lip. I’m still hard.Still inside her.And the way she starts to clench my cock with her pussy tells me this conversation is over and we’ve got more pressing things to attend to.
27
NIKOLAI
Something pulls me from sleep.
But not a sound.
Instinct.
That sixth sense that’s kept me alive when I should be dead.
My eyes open.
The room is still and painted in shadow. Holly's warmth is pressed against me, her back curved into my chest, her breathing slow and even.
For a moment, I don't move.I listen. I strain to hear beyond her breathing, beyond the settling of the old lodge, beyond the whisper of wind against the windows.
There.
A creak somewhere down stairs. It’s not the house breathing. Not the cold contracting wood and stone. It’s something out of place.
Footsteps.
Someone is inside the lodge.
Every muscle in my body tenses as a need to protect Holly rushes forward. But I force myself to move slowly so I don’t make any noise.
Carefully, I disentangle myself from Holly so I won’t startle her awake. She stirs, makes a soft sound, but settles back to sleep.
I scan the darkness. The bedroom door is open. The windows are intact. The shadows in the corners are empty.For now.
Another sound. Muffled voices trying very hard to be quiet.
There are two. No, three.
I reach for my underwear on the floor and pull them on in one fluid motion. Then I'm at the nightstand, easing the drawer open and wrapping my fingers around the cold grip of my gun.
My mind maps the lodge like a tactical grid. The handgun behind the dresser by the door. The knife taped beneath the hallway table. The shotgun in the study. The panic room in the basement with its reinforced door and surveillance feeds.
But the basement is too far. I’m going to have to confront whatever is coming face to face.
I move to Holly's side of the bed. One hand reaches for her, the other keeps the gun raised toward the door.
"Malyshka." My voice is barely a breath against her ear. "Wake up."
