I roll my eyes at their exchange. They’re setting themselves up for disaster by thinking of any woman like that. What can they offer them that won’t end in disaster? They’re too removed from normal life to think of things like love.
Lovedoesn’t protect anyone. It paints a target on their backs.
The plane vibrates as it flies through a patch of dark clouds. I close my eyes for a second, tuning out the surrounding conversation. There’s still so much shit I have to deal with tonight. Only one thing perks up my curiosity, and it has everything to do with the little devil sleeping peacefully behindme. I do wonder when she’ll snap, how long it will take her before her killer instincts kick in and the two of us can have some real fun.
A few minutes later, when we land, Rodion and Niko exit the plane first. I get up to bring Cecilia, only to realize she’s been awake for a while, leaning against the window and staring out at the clouds.
After a full day of travel and intense stress, her wavy brown hair is a little disheveled, eyes hooded with the spell of sleep, lips too plump for me to be staring at. She’s fucking gorgeous, and she just sits there like she has no idea. When she looks up at me, something jolts through my skin all the way down to my cock.
Fuck’s sake.Maybe I should go with Niko to The Hive, take the edge off one of the Matron’s girls.
“Time to go,” I tell her, jerking my head toward the door.
Without a single word, she gets up, making her way around me in a little act of defiance. Our bodies brush, and that jolt comes back stronger, zipping through my ribcage as if I was infected with lightning when we passed through the clouds.
I crack my neck muscles and turn, stalking after her, but by the time the wind hits my face, she’s already stopped, head lowered, arms crossed. She steps back into my chest, the harsh temperature lapping at her naked legs, the skirt of her dress flapping behind her.
Of course she’s freezing. What a nuisance.
I hate that my body moves to fix it before my mind catches up.
I take the jacket from her shoulders and wrap it around her legs. Then, I move one arm behind her knees and the other behind her back, lifting her. My liver sends a sharp pain through my abdomen, and any other wounds I thought were gone resurface.Good. I’d rather go through blinding fucking pain than acknowledge the hard-on currently growing in my slacks.
I don’t look down, but I can feel her eyes watching me before she nestles into my chest. Small. Defeated. Craving my warmth. Her delicate hair hits my face, and with it comes the familiar scent of orange blossoms and musk enters my lungs. It hits harder than cocaine, and I can’t have that.
Fucking stop thinking about her.
“Need a hand?” Rodion asks, throwing me a knowing look as he opens the car door for us.
Ignoring him, I get in with Cecilia, ducking my head, then pull the door closed before more wind can get inside. They can take the other car. I didn’t even ask them to come to San Maleno for me—all I needed was someone to pick us up at the viewpoint so I didn’t have to ride in Antonio’s car. They could’ve just sent a driver.
“Crank up the heat,” I tell Ilia, my brother’s personal driver. I know he sent him just to make sure I was coming home tonight. I’m surprised Wolfgang hasn’t come here himself with a goddamn leash to wrap around my neck.
I still haven’t placed Cecilia on an empty seat, and her fists haven’t let go of my shirt either. Obviously, she’s simply clinging to my warmth, not to me. Her skin is cold, her trembling growing stronger.
I curse under my breath, rubbing my hand down her smooth legs beneath my jacket to enhance blood flow. Big fucking mistake. Just when I thought my erection couldn’t get any bigger, it now pushes against my slacks painfully.
If she notices it, she doesn’t let it show. I don’t even know if she understands what it means. The details of her sheltered life aren’t fully clear.
As the feel of her skin plagues my thoughts, her breathing eventually slows, and her tight grip on my shirt relaxes. Ilia drives us through the winding roads of Alemont City, grim and dreary, on the verge of nightfall.
When he wasPakhan, my father built our home here, close enough to New York that we could go about our business but secluded enough to be safe in an emergency.
It’s a small town surrounded by mountains, forests, and nature galore. If my heart hadn’t been pulled out of my chest when I was a kid, I would’ve thought the place beautiful. Now, I walk through the world hollow.
The people responsible—my parents—are currently in Moscow. They should stay there. I keep telling myself that, one day, if I get my mother alone in a room again, I’ll kill her.
A few minutes later, the big metal gates open automatically, and the mansion I grew up in stares back at me through the window—tall, dark, and isolated on this lot with no neighbors, exactly as it was designed. I peer down at the small woman in my arms, noticing the way her eyes shift across the building with both dread and curiosity.
“Stop by the other entrance. I need to get her to her room first,” I tell Ilia.
As if on cue, Cecilia tenses in my lap, and before I know it, she leaves it in exchange for the empty heated seat to my left, wrapping the jacket around her back. The loss of her warm body against mine makes me realize how cold it actually is. I, myself, am only wearing a flimsy linen something Antonio gave me before we left.
“Pakhansaid to leave you in front of his office,” Ilia says. “I don’t think you understand how pissed off he?—”
“Yada, yada, yada.” I roll my eyes. “I’ve fucking had it with Wolf’s mood swings. Stop by the other entrance—my wife is fucking cold.”
A grimace from Ilia is the only response I get before he rounds up the driveway and stops in front of the other wing.
