Chapter 16 #2
His voice drops, almost like he regrets saying anything at all. "I'm interested in you."
I couldn't explain it, but laughter bubbled up from my chest—a dark, humorless sound that escaped when the absurdity became too much.
I pushed off the windowsill and tried to brush past him toward the bathroom, needing space.
He grabbed my wrist. Not with force, just enough to make me halt.
His gaze locks onto mine, pleading for me to say anything at all.
But I remain silent.
I didn't pull away. Instead, I yanked my wrist free and closed the distance on my own terms, stepping into his space until my bare chest brushed against his suit.
I felt his sharp intake of breath, the tension radiating off him like heat.
I lifted my chin, challenging him with a glare.
Go ahead. Tear the towel away. Claim me.
Yet my voice is as cold as ice. "Mr. Ivanovich, it's quite inappropriate for you to keep pursuing me," I state smoothly. "I have no interest in mixing business with pleasure."
His mouth twitches, hinting that he might respond, but I press on.
"You claim to like me, to have feelings.
But genuine suitors don't go so far as to sabotage their potential partners' vehicles to keep them away from their friends.
And when you finally let me go, you shoot him on the first meeting.
Instead of remorse, you turn the gun on yourself. So forgive me if I feel no sympathy."
I stepped back, severing the contact. "You think I'll still want you? That I'd throw myself into your embrace as if none of this matters?"
He didn't try to stop me this time. He just stood there, his chest rising and falling rapidly as I walked toward the closet, turning my back to him.
And then, I let the towel slide down.
The silence that followed was deafening, heavy enough to crush bones. I didn't rush for a robe. I didn't hide. If he wanted to look, let him look. I stood tall, my back exposed, my heart hammering a frantic rhythm against my ribs as I reached for a shirt.
"If this is your test," his voice came from behind me, vibrating through the floorboards. "To tear me apart with your words and then stand there, naked, tempting me with what you think I can’t have…then I hate to break it to you, Iris…"
I felt his warmth before he even touched me.
"…but I will fail. Woefully."
I gripped the edge of the vanity, refusing to turn.
He was right behind me now, bending down until his breath tangled in my ear like smoke.
"Since you know just how much of a villain I am," he whispered, brushing my hair over my shoulder, "let me give you the full picture.
" His tone drops cold, to my ears. "If I can't have you, Iris, then no one will. Ever."
A sharp chill ran down my spine. I shifted, trying to step away, but his hand found my hip, fingers digging in as he yanked me back against his solid frame.
"I will hunt down every man who so much as looks at you," he whispered, the promise dripping with malice.
"I won't give them the mercy of a bullet, kotyonok. I’ll dismantle them.
Fingers first. Then hands. Then arms. I will make them watch as I peel the skin from their bodies, keeping them conscious and screaming until their minds shatter. " His grip tightened, bruising my skin.
"I'll carve your name into their chests with a dull knife so they bleed out slowly. And when they beg me to kill them, when they're sobbing and pissing themselves, I'll laugh. I'll tell them this is the price for coveting what belongs to me."
I couldn't move. I was paralyzed by the darkness in his voice.
"And their families?" he continued, his voice dropping to something inhuman. "I'll kill them too. Mothers, fathers, children—I don't give a fuck. I'll make sure everyone they’ve ever loved dies screaming, and I’ll make sure they know it’s because of you."
My hands trembled against the cold marble of the vanity.
"I pity any man stupid enough to date you," he breathed, his lips brushing the shell of my ear.
"Because I'll bury him alive. Six feet under in a coffin filled with rats.
And I'll leave a little air hole just so he can hear me fucking you right above his grave.
So his last thought before he suffocates is of me claiming what was never his.
" He pauses, letting his words sink "And if you ever spread these legs for another…
" His hand slid from my hip to my thigh, rough and possessive, before he kicked my feet apart.
With a sudden, bruising force, he shoved my chest down until my front collided with the cold marble of the vanity, leaving me bent over and completely exposed to him.
"I will make you watch as I gut him," he murmured, his voice dropping an octave as his middle finger grazed my center, coating itself in my own desire.
He swiped his thumb over my clit, slick and hard.
I choked on a gasp, my body betraying me, arching into his touch despite the monster standing behind me.
"I will spill his insides onto the floor," he hissed, his fingers circling, teasing, playing me like an instrument while he promised death. "And when he is nothing but meat and gore, I will fuck you right on top of him."
The image was horrific, but his touch was blinding. Friction and heat and terror collided, sending sparks dancing behind my eyelids.
He ground his hips against me, his fingers moving faster, mercilessly wringing the pleasure out of me. "I'll fuck you until you're covered in his blood and my cum," he snarled into my ear. "And you will never forget the feeling of me inside you."
I couldn't breathe. I couldn't think. I was drowning in him.
His other hand slid up my waist, fingers digging into my ribs, claiming me even as I tried to escape. I managed to twist away, scrambling toward the bed, but escape was fatal. He followed, closing the distance in two long strides.
"You think shooting your friend is cruel?" He grabbed my arm and spun me around to face him. His eyes were blown wide, swirling with a darkness that terrified me. "That was mercy, Iris. That was me showing restraint. But the next man who touches you?"
He loomed over me, trapping me in his shadow.
"I'll cut off his eyelids so he can't look away while I break every bone in his body with a hammer.
I'll shatter his kneecaps, his elbows, his ribs.
One by one. And I'll make you hold the flashlight so you can see every detail.
Every fracture. Every drop of blood that spills because of you.
" His hand moved to my throat, his thumb pressing into my windpipe just enough to make me gasp.
"And if you try to run from me..." he whispered, his thumb stroking my pulse point, feeling the frantic rhythm of my heart.
He cut himself off by slanting his lips over mine.
The kiss was slow, deep, and terrifyingly intimate.
He groaned into my mouth, his hand tightening in my hair, tilting my head back to grant him deeper access.
It was a kiss that promised ownership, a kiss that said he knew exactly how my body betrayed my mind.
I whimpered, my body melting against him despite the fear.
He ground his hips against mine, letting me feel the hardness of his erection, letting me feel exactly what he wanted to do to me.
When he finally pulled back, his eyes were dark with lust. "I'll find you. I don't care if you go to the ends of the earth. I will find you, and when I do. I’ll make sure you never see a ray of sunlight again.” He shoved himself away from me, putting distance between us as if he were afraid of what he might do next.
I stumbled backward, my legs giving out, and I sank onto the bed, staring at him with wide, terrified eyes.
He picked up the robe I had discarded, walked over, and draped it over my shivering shoulders.
Then he crouched down, his hands resting on my knees, his expression shifting from monster to protector in the blink of an eye.
"Sleep well, my love," he murmured, his thumb brushing my knee.
"We have a long flight tomorrow. And I want you well-rested. "
He stood and walked to the door, pausing with his hand on the frame. "Oh, and Iris?" He glanced back over his shoulder, a genuine smile curving his lips—a smile that made my blood run cold. "I mean every single word."
And then he was gone. I sat there on the edge of the bed, gripping the robe until my knuckles turned white, my body shaking uncontrollably.
He isn't bluffing. He is completely, utterly insane.