I didn’t.
“Vadim.”
“Yes?”
“If I stay here today, it is not because I accept being locked away.”
“I know.”
“If I let your men guard Petya, it is not because you own my brother.”
“I know that too.”
“If I want you—”
My voice caught.
Vadim’s hand closed very carefully around mine. “Say the rest.”
“You don’t get to make that a debt.”
His eyes burned down into mine. “Never.”
The answer came too fast to be polished.
I believed it before I decided to.
I pulled his hand toward my mouth and kissed the bruised place below his knuckles.
Vadim stopped breathing.
The sound in the room changed. Or maybe I did.
I kissed him there again, slower.
His fingers flexed once, then stilled. Held back. Always held back until I crossed first.
The knowledge moved through me warm and fierce.
I had crossed so many lines because men had cornered me. Signed because men had hunted me. Stood under lights because men had priced me. Last night, I had crossed a different kind of threshold with him.
This morning, I wanted a choice that didn’t arrive shaking.
I wanted to make it with my eyes open.
I looked up at Vadim and let the robe fall open.
His gaze dropped.
Not like Gennady’s. Not lazy. Not greasy. Not a hand before a hand.
Vadim looked at me like seeing me cost him control.
My nipples tightened in the cool air. The inside of my thighs warmed. I stood in front of him naked under the open silk, marked by sleep and sex and his mouth. Fear came with the heat, but I didn’t step back.
I was alive.
“I want you,” I said.
