That earned the faintest flicker of something from Dmitri—interest, maybe. Approval, for sure.
He was watching me more closely now. The quiet between us felt electric.
“He liked you.” Dmitri said this as a statement of fact.
That surprised a genuine laugh out of me. “Lev? No. He hated me. I was apparently the one person in that whole school who wasn’t afraid of him, and that made me a problem for him.”
“Anger and desire can be close cousins, Kara. Sometimes they occur simultaneously,” he said. Then, after a pause: “But he’s not the only one who feels that way.”
My breath caught in the back of my throat.
He stepped closer, his presence filling the space between us. The sun was sliding toward the horizon, casting long shadows across the deck, and his was the longest of them all. He didn’t touch me, but I could feel the heat of his body, the sheer, unyielding force of his will.
“You’ve managed to get under the skin of all three of us,” he declared. “Roman fell for your charm. Lev fell for your audacity. And I… I find your intelligence and fortitude… compelling.”
My heart hammered against my ribs like a war drum. I wanted to back away, but I forced myself to hold my ground. To meet his gaze.
“Is that what this is between us?” I asked, my voice softer than I intended.
He reached out, his fingers brushing stray strands of hair behind my ear. The touch was light, fleeting, but it sent a jolt of pure electricity through me. His knuckles grazed my cheekbone, a slow, purposeful caress that was more intimate than any kiss. My skin tingled where he’d touched it, a trail of fire left in the wake of his fingers.
“You fascinate us all,” he continued, his voice dropping to a low, intimate murmur. “The three of us. We’ve spent our lives surrounded by people who want something from us. Money. Power. Attention. Protection. You’re the first one in a long time who seems to want something else entirely.”
“And what’s that?”
“Freedom,” he said simply. “The kind that only the Markovs can give you.”
My throat went dry.
“The kind of freedom that comes from belonging to something bigger than yourself,” he continued. “The kind that comes from being… ours.”
Ours.
The word landed in the silence like a stone, sending ripples through the still air.
I looked away, my gaze fixed on the horizon where the sun was bleeding into the sea. I needed a moment to breathe, to regroup, to find the armor I’d so carefully constructed and that the Markovs had stripped away piece by agonizing piece.
“It’s a tempting offer,” I said, my voice a carefully constructed mimicry of his own cool detachment. “I’ve always wanted a different nice, gilded cage with a fantastic view.”
He smiled and chuckled softly. “It’s better than a prison with no view at all.”
He stepped back, giving me space, but his presence still filled the deck, a palpable force that bent the light and the air around him. He picked up his glass of water, the melting ice cubes clinking quietly. He took a sip, his gaze never leaving mine.
“There’s a certain… efficiency… in consolidation,” he said, his tone shifting, becoming more conversational, almost casual. “My brothers and I have always believed in it. In business. And in other things.”
A flicker of understanding, hot and unsettling, sparked in the pit of my stomach. I didn’t want to ask, but I knew he was going to make me.
“Whatotherthings?” I asked, the words barely a whisper.
His eyes held mine, a direct, unflinching challenge. “Pleasure,” he said simply. “Roman enjoys the chase, the performance. Lev prefers the conquest, the fight. I…” He paused, letting the word hang in the air between us, a promise and a threat all at once. “I appreciate the aftermath of victory. The quiet certainty of ownership.”
He was painting a picture with his words, and I was at the center of it.
“So you take turns,” I said, my voice a little too tight, a little too high.
“Sometimes,” he conceded, his gaze lazy and obnoxiously confident. He was enjoying this, the subtle unraveling of my composure. “But it can be more… collaborative than that. An appreciation of oursharedassets.”
Shared assets.
