He growled.
I sighed. “So what if I lied,” I whispered defiantly, tilting my chin up. “It’s how I’ve survived this long.”
“Then why now?” he demanded. “Why admit to the truth?”
“Because I had no choice!” I shoved at his chest, but he barely budged. It was like pushing against a brick wall. “What was I supposed to do? Let him take Mira? Let him hurt her thinking she was me?”
“You could have told me!” His voice rose, echoing in the small space. “You could have trusted me!”
A bitter laugh built up deep in my chest. “Trust you? The man who kidnapped me? The man who works for Grey? The man my brother hates? Why the hell would I trust you?”
“Because I cared about you since the moment I found you!” he roared.
That stopped me short. “What?”
Apparently, it surprised him, as well. He sighed, then ran a hand through his hair, frustration evident in every line of his body. “I’ve been doing my best with what I’ve been working with. I just needed some goddamn time to figure out what game he’s playing.”
I stared at him, trying to process his words. Did he really care? Or was this just another manipulation tactic? “Well, now you know,” I said, my voice suddenly tired. The adrenaline was wearing off, leaving exhaustion in its wake. “He wants Iset. He gets me.”
“Why?” Ivan demanded. “Why does he want you?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. I’ve hacked dozens of organizations, exposed countless operations. Stolen some money. Maybe he was involved in one of them, or maybe he’s got a job to offer?”
Ivan growled. “This feels personal,” Ivan murmured more to himself than for me. “The way he looks at you—at who he thought was you—it’s obsessive.”
I shrugged, tried to ignore the chill his words sent down my spine. “I’ve made a lot of enemies.”
“And he’s not following Paraskia Syndicate procedure.”
Paraskia Syndicate? Who the hell was the Paraskia Syndicate? The ones running this place? The ones Grey and Ivan worked for?
“And now you’ve gotten caught.” Ivan stepped closer again, looming over me. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done? What he can do to you?”
“I did what I had to do,” I said, refusing to be intimidated. “I’ve spent my entire life protecting those who deserved to be protected. I’m not stopping now just because things are getting hard.”
Something shifted in Ivan’s eyes then—the anger giving way to something else, something darker and more dangerous. His gaze dropped to my lips, then back to my eyes.
“God, woman,” he growled, “you’re robbing me of my goddamn mind.” And then, his hands were on my face, rough and demanding as he crushed his mouth to mine.
The kiss was brutal, angry, a clash of lips, teeth, and tongues that had nothing to do with tenderness and everything to do with possession. I should’ve pushed him away. Should’ve slapped him. Instead, I found myself responding with equal ferocity, my fingers digging into his shoulders, pulling him closer.
Heat exploded between us, his anger transformed into something primal, and my need to disappear into him, to feel him around me, was suddenly overwhelming. His hands slid down to my waist. He lifted me effortlessly, walked with me until my back hit the wall.
I wrapped my legs around him instinctively, pressed against him, my body betraying every rational thought.
His lips moved from my mouth to my jaw, then down my neck, leaving a trail of fire in their wake.
I gasped, let my head fall back against the wall. This was madness. Pure madness. But I didn’t want to stop, couldn’t stop, couldn’t pull away from the intoxicating heat of his touch. I moaned, and that moan was enough to snap us both out of it.
We broke apart and were both breathing hard, staring at each other with a mixture of confusion and hunger. His hair was mussed where I had tangled my fingers in it. My lips felt swollen, bruised from the force of his kiss.
“Do you know what happens next?” he asked, his voice rough.
I touched my swollen lips, could still feel the imprint of his kiss. “Next in now that you know who I am, or next in now that you’ve kissed me?”
A ghost of a smile touched his lips. “This changes everything, Shorty.”
He still hadn’t clarified what he meant exactly. But whatever he meant, everything had changed. Because in that moment, with my heart racing and my body still humming from his touch, I realized the most dangerous thing right now might not be Grey or his threats or even being exposed as Iset.
