“I know your world is dangerous.” Her voice softens, but the hunger stays. “Noah told me about the woman tied to you. The risk. Your fears.”
Dread rises. “I should have warned you. Your family would be at risk.”
She kisses the tension away.
“We’ll keep you safe, Vitaly.” Her hips grind down with promise. “All of us.”
Something in me breaks open. Fear and desire and the impossible sweetness of being claimed by a woman who lives like a flame.
“Home,” I echo.
She smiles.
Juliet wraps her fingers around the back of my neck and pulls me in, owning my mouth. Her kiss is messy, hot, claiming. Nothing sweet now.
This is a devouring.
She tastes like sugar and heat and the promise of fucking destruction.
I swallow hard.
In Russia, family is everything. You bleed for them. You die for them. And they do the same. No questions. No hesitation.
She’s offering me that. Not one person. A whole unit.
It terrifies me.
It feels like coming home.
“You’re sure?” I breathe it into her mouth between kisses. “You want this?”
“Vitaly.” She rolls her hips. I feel how wet she is through my slacks. “I’ve been sure.”
Her dress rides up with every grind.
I grip her hips tight, drag her across me again, just to hear the sharp little gasp she makes when I press up right where she needs it.
“Say it again,” I say against her throat. “Say I’m yours.”
“You’re mine,” she breathes. “You’re so fucking mine.”
The last thread of control snaps.
“Waited all week for this,” she says, tugging at my shirt. “Every bite of cake, every time you handed me a coffee with thatsoft fucking smile like you didn’t want to bend me over the damn counter.”
“I wanted to do worse than that,” I growl, biting at her collarbone. “Still do.”
“Then take me.” She grabs my belt and undoes it like she’s done it a hundred times. Confident. Hungry. “I don’t need slow. I need you.”
Permission. She’s giving me permission to stop being gentle.
To be a man, not just a baker.
To take.
My zipper drops. I lift her just enough to shove her panties aside and line us up.
Her nails rake down my chest through my shirt.
