I strode over to the stove before she could grab the tray, and threw one in my mouth. The muffin tasted ashy and chunky, yet somehow it was the most wonderful bite of food I’d ever had. The look in her eyes as she watched me chew certainly added to the effect.
I couldn’t believe she’d made it for me. I don’t think anyone had ever given me anything without expecting something in return.
“Thank you,” I said.
Alisa stared at the muffin tin as if she was hallucinating. She took a bite of one, and nearly spit it into the sink.
“Why are you thanking me? It’s terrible!” she said, laughter falling from her lips and spreading across her entire face.
I just watched her for a moment, enjoying the tinkle of her laugh. Unable to resist, I wrapped my arms around her waist, and brought her in close.
“My oven heats up faster than most,” I said. “It’s not your fault.”
Alisa tossed a glare at the oven like it’d attacked her, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
“I checked the recipe three times! IknewI did everything right.”
She looked so fucking adorable like this.
That possessiveness from last night felt like a distant dream compared to what I was feeling now… I wanted to taste her. Own her. Never let her run.
I understood why I’d avoided Alisa for those two years. After I’d caught the look in her eyes when she’d defended her brother, I’d known that those beautiful eyes would haunt me. The flash of love and protectiveness was so rare inside our world that I hadn’t even realized it existed.
Our world was full of people like my mother who’d murdered my brother, because she thought he was weak. Or the men who ordered their mistresses killed when they grew tired of them.
I never expected someone to tell me to kill them instead of their family member. To be willing to die for love.
Loving so fully was dangerous.
Deep down, I knew it’d eventually get Alisa killed. No one could survive in our world with that type of love. It made you too vulnerable.
She gaped at me while I started chowing down on her burnt muffins, and I felt a primal urge to protect her from anything that might harm her.
I might not know what love was—shit, I probably wasn’t even capable of it—but as she bit down on her lip while watching me, I knew I wasn’t letting her go.
There wasn’t a force in this world that could tear Alisa away from me.
Not even her.
I opened the door to Alisa’s shitty apartment, surprisingly full from her experimental muffins. I hadn’t let her throw a single one away.
She’d gone off to meet up with her father. I’d taken the opportunity to organize the one thing that ensured she’d always stay.
I flashed a smile at her slumlord, and his complexion paled as he took me in. One of my loyal men, Nikolai, shot him a flat look that told him to not even think about running.
The chill of the drafty apartment greeted me as I closed the door behind us. Anger filled me as I thought of all nights Alisa must’ve shivered under her threadbare blanket.
Whenever we stepped outside into the cold, she shook like a leaf that was fruitlessly clinging onto the dead branches of a tree. For her to not even have a warm sanctuary to come home to….
My anger must’ve manifested on my face. Alisa’s slumlord took an unsteady step backwards.
Heshouldbe scared. Any displays of apologeticness would be far too little, too late. The time for him to make amends was when Alisa begged him to repair her heater.
I sat down on her holey couch, and nearly sunk to the floor. It would have to go once Alisa was officially living at my house. My kitten deserved better than this.
Farbetter.
“Give me his phone,” I said to Nikolai.
