With my mouth on hers and my cock still buried deep, I lower us to the floor, away from the shards of ss, and press her beneath me, wanting it slow this time.


    Her pulse still thunders against my palm as I pin her wrists above her head. Her chest rises hard beneath mine, her mouth parted as if she doesn’t know whether to gasp or scream my name again.


    This woman saved my life for reasons that don’t make sense. And now I’m taking hers, inch by inch.


    I stare into her eyes, in awe of her, still not sure why she risked her life to save me. What did I do to deserve it? And how in the hell can I repay her for that?


    I don’t ever let debts go unpaid, and this one is no exception.


    Blyat. She could’ve gotten hurt!


    Rage storms into my veins. I can’t make the dead suffer again, but the ones still alive? I’ll make them wish for death.


    But for now, my focus is her. This enigma of a woman I can’t seem to rip out of my head.


    Still buried inside her warmth, I circle my hips into her pussy, and her eyes roll back. The way she cried out my name, how good it felt to hear it… I need that again.


    “Look at me, malyshka.” I tighten my grip on her wrists, my hips mming into her with maddening need as soon as she gives me those eyes. “You don’t get to look anywhere else when I’m fucking you. Understand?”


    Her sultry gaze sinks into mine, ssy with zing intensity, but she doesn’t dare to turn away.


    “You saved my life…” My mouth drags along her neck. “Risked your own. Why?”


    I need an answer more than she realizes. I need to understand why she would do this when in one second, she could’ve been dead.


    The very thought of her lying on the ground with blood pooling around her makes me furious all over again. She shouldn’t have done that for me.


    Her thighs tighten around my hips, her gaze narrowing, and I fuck her harder when she doesn’t answer, grinding into her deep until she’s wing at the floor, moaning like I’m both heaven and hell.


    “Tell me!” I growl, throwing her legs over my shoulders and dropping my weight on top of hers, giving it to her until her cries echo through the walls, through the blood painted on them. “Why did you do it, Tessa?”


    Thrust.


    “Why?!”


    “Oh God, fuck…please…”


    Her eyes pinch shut, her back arching, and I take a nipple between my teeth, biting and sucking it until she hisses in pain, yanking my hair in her small fist.


    “Because…” She groans. “You’re my boss and you pay well.”


    Myugh rolls across her flesh right before I catch her wild gaze. “Is that the only reason?”


    Is it not because you feel what I do right now? Is it all in my head? Have I gone crazy?


    Because I refuse to believe this right here is one-sided. That I’m lying to myself, seeing what I want to see instead. Because no matter what I tell myself, I know there’s more between us than maybe she even realizes.


    “What other reason would there be?” Her nails score up my back, drawing a picture of her pleasure that I want permanently etched on my skin.


    As I grab her jaw, my mouth drops lower, feathering across her lips. “Don’t ever put yourself in harm’s way for me again.”


    “And what happens if I do?”


    She kisses me slow, and I growl, my cock jerking inside her, wanting to take her like it’s a punishment.


    “If you do…” My fingers curl around her throat, squeezing until her eyes turn heavy-lidded, a moan slipping out. “I will punish you.”


    “This doesn’t seem like much of a punishment, sir.”


    “Blyat, ty svodish’ menya s uma.” Fuck, you’re going to drive me to insanity.


    My teeth grind, pumping into her with punishing strokes, and her eyes are on me through it all.


    “This is not a game, Tessa.” My body stills. “It is my job to protect you, not the other way around.”


    “That sounds pretty sexist, if you ask me.”


    That bite in her tone? I crave it like sin. She doesn’t even know how rare it is, how rare she is. I’ll keep her safe if only to hear her challenge me again.


    “Not sexist, just protective. There’s a difference.”


    “Mm, if you say so, Marinov.”


    “I like it when you’re agreeable.” My lips skim hers, my hips thrusting slow and deep until a breathy sigh escapes her.


    “Don’t get used to it.” She throws her arms over my shoulders.


    I chuckle, my mouth lowering to her throat, kissing up her neck. “I wouldn’t dream of such things.”


    Her fingers slip into my hair, and for a moment, it’s like she’s breathing life into me, feeding something human I thought died a long time ago.


    Her walls clench around me, and I groan, increasing my pace, wanting to forget all the blood and violence that is my life and live in this moment. Live in her. With one brutal thrust, I take her hard, my mouth ravaging hers, enjoying the way she groans into our kiss, her hand gripping the back of my head, wanting more.


    Words may lie. But bodies don’t. And hers is telling me everything I need to know. She wants this. Wants me. It’s up to me to make sure she never forgets why.


    I slow down just enough to feel every tremor, every tremble in her body that tells me she’s mine.


    She has no idea how much more I n to take. How deep I’ll carve myself into her life, into her flesh. Tessa Monroe belongs to me. She has from the start, and it’s time she knows that.


    I flip her over, dragging her to her knees on the blood-slick floor, reminding her that she’s in this now.


    My hands wrap around her hips, and I drive into her again—deeper, harder, my fingers biting into her skin like I’m branding her from the inside out. She gasps, her forehead dropping to the floor, but I catch her hair and pull her back up.


    “No hiding,” I grunt in her ear. “I want every sound. Every shiver. I want everything. Ti moya.” You’re mine.


    She pushes her hips into me, wanting more, and I give her all of me.


    “Say it. Say you’re mine. I need to hear it.” The desperation ws at me.


    She mutters a curse when I slow down, her voice a ragged whisper. “I’m yours.”


    I know she doesn’t mean it, though that makes no difference. Willing or not, she’s not going anywhere.


    I wind her hair tight in my fist and drive into her over and over, fingers working her clit until she breaks, moaning my name. Her body convulses, pussy mping around me like it was made to keep me inside her.


    “Oh God, yes!”


    “Tessa!” I m into her once more, and everything inside me detonates.


    My release tears through me like rage, coating her walls, until every man who dares to touch her knows who she belongs to. With onest m of my hips, I copse over her, arms caging her in, breath ragged at her ear.


    The world is quiet now. Except for the sound of her heart beating against mine.


    But soon my world will erupt in blood once again. Because when I find the men who sent those bastards, they won’t die because they came for me. They’ll die because they could’ve hurt her.


    For that, I’ll tear their world down, brick by brick, until everything around them crumbles.