“From killing all those fuckers at the port?”
Viktor hummed a low laugh. “Yes, that.”
“I didn’t need to escape from what we did that night. Anyone who wanted the Sambinis at their table had it coming.”
“That was your motivation for fighting with us?”
“Among other things.”
Viktor spun me around. “What other things?”
“These, for one.” I stroked my thumbs along his cheekbones. “And I was bored hanging out down south. The Kings are good people, but the family shit gets on my nerves.”
“Why?”
The answer stuck in my throat. I forced it out. “Cos it’s something I’ve never had. Like, I don’t want eight people in my face asking about my day. Leave me alone.”
“You are not used to people caring about you?”
“Not that many at once.” I took a chance and pulled him closer. “Rubi’s like a fucking rash.”
“What about Ivanov?”
I dragged my face up from where I’d been about to bury it in the crook of his neck. “Alexei? He’s all right. Except when he wants me to sit in a wet puddle all night.”
“You did that for me. Many nights.”
“You’re hotter. Why are you so interested in Alexei?”
Viktorsniffedme, his gaze hazing out for a second. “That is a story for another time. Can I touch you again?”
“You can do whatever you want to me.”
Viktor’s gaze flared. “While you were sleeping, I felt—” He rubbed his fist to his chest. “—like I needed something else. It was nonsensical, but I craved it. Now you are awake and we are here, I realise that all I needed was you.”
The track oozing from the speakers morphed into another. It sparked a memory I couldn’t fucking grasp, and I let it dance through my mind as I sank into Vik’s words. I didn’t know him as well as I wanted to. But I knew enough to believe he would never look at me like that and say this sweet shit if he didn’t fucking mean it.
He was wrong, though. He didn’t need me. No one ever had. Not like I needed him.
“Asher.”
My gaze had slipped to the floor.
Viktor found it and dragged it up, coaxing me back to those wicked-warm green eyes. He slid his hand over my hip, easing me closer to him. Then he ghosted that hot palm higher, gliding over my skin, testing himself or teasing me—I couldn’t tell as his light touch reached every part of me.
I tried not to feel my dick. I pictured it cut off and slung into the ocean. But Vik was stronger than my imagination. Heat throbbed in my gut and a sound I didn’t recognise loosed from my unhinged mouth.
Viktor kissed my neck, tilting my head to make room for himself, the goosebumps littering his skin the only sign he wasn’t in complete and utter control. “Lie down with me?”
On the wide, squishy couch I’d just vacated. The one that had sucked me into a nap I’d woken from with my heart in my throat.
It was back in my chest now, thumping up a storm, and I let Vik lead me to the sofa and push me down.
I pulled him on top of me.
Chickened out and folded my hands behind my head.
Viktor released them. “There is nothing you could ever do to make this not perfect. If it goes wrong, it is all me. It will always be me.”
