Jessica
The moment his lips leave mine, reality crashes back in hard enough to make my legs want to give way.
I take a small step back, more for my own balance than to put space between us. My skin is buzzing everywhere he touched, my mouth still warm, my pulse loud in my ears. For a second, I can’t tell which way is up. Desire and fear twist together so tightly they’re almost indistinguishable.
This is dangerous. Not in a thrilling way. In a real one.
I’ve heard the rumors. Everyone in Vegas has. The Korolyov’s aren’t just wealthy. They’re untouchable. People don’t cross them and walk away. People don’t say no and get second chances. They don’t build empires like this without blood in the foundation and people in their pockets.
My mother ran in those circles. The truth settles into my bones with a sickening weight.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” I say, my voice unsteady despite my effort to control it.
He watches me closely, like every reaction is data. “You didn’t stop me.”
“I didn’t think—” I snap back, biting off my words before I say something too close to the truth.
I didn’t think you liked me like that. I didn’t think I would lose all control around you. I didn’t think I would find myself in aroom with a man who terrifies me and wakes something up in me all at once.
I move away from him, needing space, pacing toward the far side of the office. The windows stretch floor to ceiling, the Strip humming below in that unique way only Las Vegas does.
“My mother was a criminal,” I say, the words bitter and familiar. “She lied. She stole. She charmed people and destroyed them without looking back. I grew up hearing whispers. Feeling doors close without knowing why. I worked my ass off to make sure none of that touched me. Even when I went into the system, I didn’t stop working every way I knew how to just get through it and come out on the other end as far removed from her as possible.”
I turn to face him again. “And now I’m standing in your office realizing that none of it ever mattered.”
His jaw tightens. He doesn’t interrupt.
“That kiss doesn’t change who you are,” I continue, my chest tight. “Or who I am. Or the danger I’m in right now because I thought I could outpace a past I had no hand in creating.”
He takes a step toward me, like a man who knows exactly how much space he’s allowed to claim before I’ll bolt.
“You’re safer here than anywhere else in this city,” he says quietly.
I laugh, sharp and disbelieving. “That’s what men like you always say.”
“And men like me,” he replies, “are usually right.”
The certainty in his voice sends a shiver down my spine. “You don’t get to decide my fate just because my mother made enemies,” I say. “I didn’t choose her. I didn’t choose you.”
A grin flicks over his mouth. “You may not have chosen your past,” he agrees. “But you did choose me the moment you agreed to meet.”
I open my mouth to argue, then stop.
He’s right. If I had been thinking like a businesswoman, I’d have insisted on seeing all of the partners again, that’s all five brothers and Jasmine. I was stupid to think that this meeting would have ended any other way.
I don’t know when my fear shifted into something else. Something heavier. Something that makes my body lean toward him even while my mind screams at me to run.
“I don’t want to be known as her daughter,” I say quietly.
“You’re not,” he replies. “Not yet.”
He steps towards the window and stands beside me taking in the view like he must do every day. His presence presses against my senses until it’s hard to think about anything else.
“You feel something,” he says.
His eyes drop to my mouth, then lift again. “That’s why you agreed to meet me alone. You wanted to test if I felt the same.”
My breath comes shallow now. My body betrays me again, aching with a need I don’t understand and don’t want to examine too closely.
