Page 69

Ten minutes later, it’s time to clear the table. I step behind her chair and caress her bare shoulder. “Stay there. We’ll take care of the dishes.”

The dining room empties slowly, the men returning to their posts. I stack the dishwasher while Cora is perched on the counter.

“I should bake something,” she says. “For your men.”

I close the dishwasher and plant a kiss on her nose. “You don’t have to feed them. They have their own kitchen downstairs.”

“I know I don’t have to.” She’s swinging her feet slightly as she considers. “What do they like? Brownies? Cupcakes? I make a really good coffee cake.”

I lean back against the opposite counter and take her in. This woman just fed twelve dangerous soldiers quiche and salad like we’re all going to be one big happy family. She’s been starved of this, I realize. Of people. Of belonging. I can see it in the way she lit up when Ruslan said her dinner was good. The way she collected all their names like they were all new best friends.

“Cora.”

“What?”

“You’re going to spoil them.”

She considers this and nods. “Good. If they’re going to work that hard for us, they deserve treats.” But she pauses, and worry crosses her face. “They’re not actually in any danger, are they? Because of me?”

I dry my hands on the kitchen towel and lean in close, my hands propped on either side of her. She watches me, and her feet still.

“They’re in danger,” I say. “All of them. All the time. It’s part of the life.”

“The job, you mean.”

“No.” I hold her gaze.

I’ve been putting this off.

Now is the time to tell her.

“The life. Do you know what the Bratva is, printsessa?”

Look at me.

Look closely.

It is everything I am, and everything I will never let touch you.

“Well, I…” She trails off, her eyes growing wide.

“The rest of the world calls us a mafia. A syndicate. Monsters in tailored suits who rule the shadows. They are not entirely wrong. We deal in power, blood, and absolute loyalty.”

She blinks. I step closer, closing the final inch between us. My lips hover close to hers.

“But the word itself? It means brotherhood. It’s a world built on sacred vows, unbreakable rules, and debts of blood. Once you are in, the only exit is a grave. It has given me everything. My wealth, my power, my survival. It’s made me the dangerous man standing in front of you today. I have spent my entire life obeying its rules, killing for its honor, and protecting its secrets. I never cared about the darkness of it all, because the darkness was all I knew.”

I watch her face while she takes it in. She’s a woman who’s survived years of her own darkness, and she doesn’t flinch. She just holds my gaze with those green eyes, and her steadiness does what a bullet never has.

She stops me completely.

I draw my thumb slowly across her lower lip.

“By the laws of the Bratva, loving an outsider like you is a vulnerability. A weakness my enemies would use to destroy me.”

My lips ghost over hers.

“But I am going to keep you anyway.”