Page 87 of Forced & Owned By the Bratva Boss

She’s alive, standing here in front of me, and I know that’s a greater gift than I deserve.

I take a slow step toward her, with a lingering ache burning the walls of my chest.

Here she is, talking about doing irreparable damage, when she has no idea what would have truly destroyed me tonight.

It’s time to tell her the truth, one that I never intended to share.

“Audrey,” I say her name the same way I feel it in my chest, with an awareness of the weight of something hanging between us. “I never intended to punish you for working with Serrano.”

She blinks, startled.

“I’ll admit: knowing you were working with the enemy to bring me down did sting. But even after discovering your plans to betray me…not once, but twice, I still couldn’t bring myself to harm you.”

I close the distance until I’m towering over her, looking down into her wide eyes.

“Killing idiots like Serrano is simple, like making a cup of tea. It requires nothing but a steady hand and a good plan. But hurting the woman who owns my heart? That’s just not possible.”

A tear slips down her cheek, but I don’t stop. I need her to understand.

“My hesitation to make an example of you was never weakness. My men might have expected it, advised it even, but they don’t know what I do. They haven’t experienced you the way I will. And they sure as hell never will.”

She chuckles, and I swipe a thumb at the tears under her eyes.

“My reluctance to harm you was proof. Proof that you’d already claimed a place inside me that I couldn’t ignore, no matter how much blood I spilled to protect what’s mine.”

I strip away the final layer of my armor, and choose to stand completely unguarded before her for the first time in my life.

“I’m a man, Audrey,” I say, then exhale a shaky breath. “And as a man, I know that running away from something never truly makes it disappear. So I choose to confront this...this thing between us.”

She looks up expectantly, and I brush a thumb across her soft lips.

“I love you,” I say.

And the room falls silent.

The words feel heavier and more permanent than any execution command I’ve ever given.

The tears spill over her lashes.

This time, there’s no fear in her eyes. The stark, paralyzing panic that hung above her head when she asked for forgiveness vanishes like a cloud of smoke, and is replaced by relief and a raw, breathtaking vulnerability.

She stares at me, letting the truth finally sink in. “Even after all of this?” she asks like she doesn’t believe it.

I reaffirm my admission with a simple nod. “Yes.”

I hope she realizes that the man she feared, defied, and loved has been completely, helplessly in love with her all along.

I close the remaining distance between us, my hands coming up to cradle her face, my thumbs sweeping away the moisture on her cheeks.

When I lean down, she pushes up on her tiptoes, arching her back, and our lips meet in a slow kiss.

“Igor,” she whispers against my mouth, with her eyes closed.

“Yeah?”

She dives in this time, leading as she covers my lips with hers with an intense passion. “I love you, too.”

Her words settle in my chest with a fierce drive that makes me pull her into me. Every soft press of my mouth against hers seals a forgiveness more absolute than any words could ever articulate.