An iron hand clamps around my wrist, yanking me back. My chest collides with something impossibly solid, impossibly strong. Before I can argue, his lips crash onto mine—fierce, urgent, unrelenting.
I don’t fight. I can’t. I melt against him, surrendering to the force of the kiss. His arms are steel around me as he lifts meeffortlessly off the floor. My legs instinctively wrap around his waist, clinging, anchoring myself to him.
For a moment, the world narrows down to just us, the storm of our closeness, the heat, the fire. Maybe tomorrow I’ll regret it. Maybe the consequences will hit like a tidal wave. But right now…right now, this is exactly what I want.
Chapter 6 – Timofey
I’ve faced gunfights. Betrayals. Power struggles that turned brothers into enemies overnight.
None of that feels as dangerous as this.
Valeria Petrova is in my arms.
And I’m kissing her like I’ve lost control.
The tension between us has been building since the moment she walked into Mike’s office—sharp words, defiance, that fire in her eyes that refuses to bend. It was supposed to be strategy. Survival. A problem to solve.
Somewhere along the line…it became something else.
Something complicated.
Something reckless.
I know I should stop.
She’s a responsibility. An assignment. A variable I’m supposed to control, not…this. Letting anything personal bleed into this situation is a mistake. One that could cost more than I’m willing to lose.
But she doesn’t pull away.
If anything, she leans in.
There’s determination in the way she holds onto me, in the way she meets me without hesitation, without fear. It’s not softness. It’s not surrender.
It’s choice.
And that—
That’s what pushes me over the edge.
Because this isn’t desperation.
This is intent.
She knows exactly what she’s doing.
And she’s choosing it anyway.
My grip tightens around her instinctively, like letting go isn’t even an option anymore. My mind is still screaming at me to stop, to step back, to remember what this is supposed to be.
But my body doesn’t listen.
Neither does hers.
And for the first time in a long time, I’m not thinking about strategy.
I’m not thinking about consequences.
I’m just reacting.
