She lifted her chin and rose to her feet, and he had never loved her more. She might apologize—she was generous enough for it—but it would never be on her knees.
“I made you apologize to me because you were rude and told me I knew nothing,” she said. “Tonight I feel like you were at least partly right. I did trust the wrong people. I created a risk for you and your household, and I will apologize for that.”
Oleg felt his heart soften. “I stand by my apology. I was in the wrong, Tatyana Vorona. As you were.”
She looked him dead in the eye. “But I will never apologize for trying to protect you. I will never be sorry that I tried to keep you from killing another person you care about.” She lifted her finger when he opened his mouth. “Because you do care about him. Some part of you cares about every single one of them. Because you are their brother and their leader.”
“Iwillkill Ivan,” Oleg said. “The pieces are already in place. I have only to give the word and he is dead. I simply did not want to spoil our wedding month with an unnecessary power struggle in Moscow that would distract me.”
She blinked. “So you still want to get married?”
“Did you forget we are already married, volchitsa?” He bent down and brushed a kiss over her lips. “This wedding is only a formality for the world. And don’t forget…” He opened his mouth and scraped his fangs up her jaw until his lips reached her ear, holding her chin in his fingers. “Iliketo see your fangs.”
He kissed her, angling her head so that he had complete access to her mouth.
She slid her arms around his neck and pressed her body to his. In the narrow corridor between the library and the smoking room, Oleg pushed her against the wall, hungry beyond words for his mate’s blood and body.
The anger still burned in his belly, but maybe he could fuck it away. He knew he was as guilty of hiding things as she was.
He might even love her more because of her scheming.
Tatyana tore her mouth away. “Oleg.”
“Yes?” He reached down and unbuttoned her wool trousers. “It’s cold in this passageway.”
“Your hands are always warm.” She ran her hands through his hair and gripped the curls at the back of his neck.
He froze.
Tatyana angled his head so his eyes met hers. There was a slight smile on her face. “You know, I think you might even love me as much as I love you.”
Oleg yanked down her trousers, knelt, and ripped away her panties before he put his mouth on her pussy, knocking her knee to the side so he could open her sex to his hungry mouth.
She draped her leg over his shoulder and braced herself against the wall, pushing her hips forward so he could take his fill of her.
He lapped at her, teasing her clitoris with his tongue, running his fangs across the delicate flesh at the meeting of her thighs.
This was what he’d been hungry for. Not her humility, not her apologies. She had plotted and planned to kill someone so that he could remain blameless.
She would kill for him. There was nothing that could make him want her more.
He put one hand on her ass to lift her body to his mouth, then slid his fingers into her heat, coaxing her to climax on his tongue.
She came quickly, and Oleg stood with her body still clenched around his fingers, opening his trousers and pulling out his cock before he drove into her. The first sensation he felt from his mate was the pulsing of her pleasure around his length.
“Hmm.” Oleg let out a low hum of satisfaction before he lifted Tatyana against the wall and fucked her thoroughly.
Slow retreat, hard thrust. He heard the wall behind her crack, and she let out a hard gasp.
Slow retreat. “Don’t…” Harder thrust. “…lie to me again.”
She threw an arm around his neck and hung on, riding the growing force of his hips as deftly as she rode a horse.
“And you don’t hide things,” she hissed, “from yourmate.”
He closed his eyes and remembered the rise and fall of her thighs as she rode across the chaugan field, the battle cry as she bashed players with her mallet, the whoop of victory when her team scored.
Oleg bent to Tatyana’s neck and sank his teeth into her vein. He fucked her as he drank, and she pulled his hair, gripping the thick curls at his neck as her fingers dug into his skin.
