“I can’t stay away from you, Aurora.” I let her see it in my eyes, I let her see it all because I’m not sure I have any other choice. “Ineedto protect you. I needyou, do you understand?” I feel the ground we’re standing on shaking. But it’s not the ground. It’s me and it’s got nothing to do with the rain.
“No.” The word is barely a whisper on her lips as she’s shaking her head. But her eyes can’t lie.
I tug on her arm, and her body willingly falls into my arms as she stares up.
“I think you do, Lychik. I think you understand it very well, but you’re afraid. You’re so damn afraid, so let me make it clear. You’re mine…you’re mine and no one can take you away, do you understand? I need to protect you. I need to protect Emett. You’re both mine. Mine! If they take you away…” My chest heaves with each heavy breath. “One cannot survive without a heart. And you have mine, Aurora. Where you go, I go.”
I cradle her shaking head, smearing the tears dripping down her cheeks with my thumbs while stomping out my own need to take her and run. It’s almost maddening, these feelings inside me are choking me. Overwhelming me.
“I-I have your heart?”
“You shouldn’t. But you do and I tried very hard to keep it away from you. God knows, I tried.” I tip my head against her forehead, closing my eyes and inhale that soothing scent of her. My own personal blend of calm.
“What does that mean?” Her words whisper across my lips. So close. Just a breath away.
“It means I’m fucked.” Because I never seem to learn my lessons. I seal my lips over hers, swallowing her gasp and fall of the cliff I’ve been toeing all these weeks, taking her along with me because I’m a selfish bastard like that.
“Please, Lychik, end my misery,” I whisper into her mouth, kissing her puffy lips softly.
I’ve never begged for anything in my life, but every last piece of my soul demands I beg and plead and if that fails, that I make her give us that one chance.
I don’t know when it all happened. When I stopped breathing without her, but I did, and I need every last drop of this oxygen.
I can’t breathe when she’s not around. She’s my personal drug that I’ve never planned to get addicted to. She’s the one woman I shouldn’t have but tell it to my heart that’s been drawn to Aurora from the moment I’ve set eyes on her.
“Only if you end mine. Just once. Just this one time, make me feel. Make me feel alive,” she says and crushes her lips against mine to the sounds of ruckus thunder, and something inside me clicks into place.
I slip both hands under her thighs, lifting her into my arms, and without breaking our kiss, I carry her toward the truck, opening the backseat door.
“Get in, malysh.” I hoist her inside the cab.
“I’ll get your seat wet,” Aurora protests, but it cuts off when a low growl leaves my lips.
“You think I care about that? Get insidenow, Aurora.”
“So bossy,” she mutters, and I fight the urge to show her just how bossy I can be. She’s not ready for that. At least not tonight; not after everything.
I climb in after her, leaving the storm and the two assholes outside. They will be dealt with later.
“Why is there still a car seat here?” Aurora asks.
“Because my little man didn’t miraculously grow out of it in the few weeks I didn’t see him. At least, I hope he didn’t. Right?” My brows furrow, genuinely curious. I’ve missed Emett as much as I have his mom.
Aurora’s lips part, whatever resistance she was still carrying dissipates, and I’m about to ask what I did when she straddles me, her soft, pruned palms cradling my cheeks and kisses me. All the questions fly away.
My arms wind around her body, my fingers digging into her hair and the soft flesh of her ass as she rocks her hips, and a guttural moan leaves my throat. I’ve lost countless hours of sleep dreaming of holding her like this again.
Of feeling her body, her lips, her softness and silk against my rough edges.
She needs to stop. She needs to stop doing this, or I won’t be able to. But her lips don’t leave mine, her body shifting closer asour wet clothes sticks together and I feel her every heartbeat as it rocks against mine.
It’s maddening. It’s dizzying. It’s everything I shouldn’t have but won’t give up.
“Aurora, malysh, if you don’t stop—”
“I won’t,” she interrupts. “I won’t stop, Sava.”
My chest heaves with the restrain I’m forcing upon myself, but my fingers dig harder into her ass as my eyes lock on hers, translating every savage, primal thought running through my head. “I won’t be able to do soft and sweet right now, Aurora. Not after tonight.”
