Chapter Twenty-Four
Igor
I look at Ruslan’s hand, where an ugly black-purplish bruise spreads across his knuckles, and I watch how it turns red when he grips the wheel tighter.
Ruslan notices me staring and the corners of his lips lift, but he doesn’t take his eyes off the road. “I’m fine, nurse.”
“I know you are.” I peel my gaze off the surface injury and fix them on his face instead. “A bullet would have fixed it. The punch was extra, and unnecessary.”
He smirks, then shrugs. “Where’s the fun in that? Plus, the bastard deserved it. And it was for a noble cause.”
At that, Ruslan gives me a brief, knowing look, sending a silent message I immediately catch onto. He takes his attention back to the road while I raise my eyes to the rearview mirror. The glass frames a picture that makes my chest twist.
There, in the backseat, Audrey and Simon are clinging to each other as if the rest of the world has ceased to exist. She has her arms wrapped tightly around him and her face buried in his shoulder, while he leans heavily into her side.
Both of them have their eyes closed, looking exhausted.
Simon looks so damn young. I flex my jaw at Serrano’s imprints written all over the boy’s face: a split lip, a ghastly ink-black bruise swelling over his cheekbones, and dark smudges of dirt and dried blood all over his skin.
In my eyes, he’s just a child caught in a war he had no business being involved in.
I watch the quiet rise and fall of their chests and an unfamiliar throb spreads through me: a mix of fierce protectiveness and bitter guilt. I can’t help but feel that I played a part in all of this. I dragged Audrey into a mess that nearly cost her brother’s life.
I pull my gaze from them and stare out the window instead.
Shortly after, we arrive at the estate, and the heavy iron gates of the mansion grind shut behind the armored SUV.
We’re back, but the adrenaline is still sharp in my bloodstream—a toxic electric current keeping my heart slamming against my ribs.
Ruslan climbs down first. He opens the backseat door, which stirs Audrey awake. Slightly disgruntled, she looks from my brother to me, and I see the relief in her eyes when she finally looks back to Simon, who’s still soundly asleep.
“Ruslan’s going to take him up to see the family doctor,” I say to her. “After you take a shower and eat something, you can go see him.”
Quietly, Audrey watches my brother help Simon out of the car, and I sense she’s going to protest. But she gives me a curt nod and climbs out.
As we move toward the entrance, every muscle in my body is taut, vibrating like a piano wire stretched to its breaking point. My instincts are still red-lined, and my eyes automatically scan the compound, searching for threats that I know no longer exist.
Serrano is dead. Simon is breathing. But I’m still raging inside, like a beast that refuses to sleep.
We step inside the grand foyer and the sudden silence is deafening.
The hardwood floors reflect the soft light from the ceiling as we walk through the hallway to the bedroom.
Once inside, I strip off my vest and toss it onto a side chair, but my eyes don’t leave Audrey.
She lingers near the heavy oak door, her fingers twisting together nervously.
She releases a deep, ragged breath, as if she’s gathering courage she thinks she doesn’t possess.
“Igor.” She speaks softly and looks up, her eyes bright and searching mine.
“Can…can you ever forgive me? For everything? I mean, you have reasons to kick me out right now. You shouldn’t even help me or my brother.
I betrayed you. I wanted to ruin your life, and the crazy part is that I almost did. I’ve caused irreparable damage.”
I stand perfectly still, just studying her face. Guilt is etched into every breath she takes. The dim light shadows the sharp contours of her jawline, and I realize she’s terrified of my answer.
A sudden, unexpected wave of relief floods my chest so violently it nearly takes my breath away.
Even after everything that happened tonight, I didn’t lose her.
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.
She groans against me, so softly, and melts into my arms.
The emotion thickens, pulling us deeper, and the kiss shifts into an aching intimacy. I lift her effortlessly, carrying her away from the door and into the dark warmth of our bedroom.
She wraps her legs around my waist with a silent understanding, and my hands find the zipper on her jeans. She cups my face, moaning into my mouth as I devour hers ravenously.
We’re burning with desperation to explore the depths of our desire, and I’m eager to get our damn clothes out of the way.
As I peel off every layer of fabric covering her, my touch is entirely devoted, tracking every curve of her body with complete reverence.
I lay her down gently on the bed, allowing my eyes to graze her perky tits and perfect body. She breathes heavily beneath me, and my heart does a flip when I see her eyes shining with admiration. For me.
I swoop in, placing a gentle kiss on her lips, before letting my mouth slide to the curve of her shoulder.
“I need you, Igor,” she breathes against my skin. “I can’t wait. The suspense is killing me.”
I don’t bother hiding my smirk. I kiss the side of her mouth and ask her, “You need me to do what?”
She chuckles, blushing like the most beautiful ray of sunshine. “You know what.”
“No.” I shake my head. “I don’t.”
Audrey rolls her eyes, tightens her legs around my bare waist, and pulls me close with a force I didn’t expect. “I need you to fuck me, dear husband, before I go crazy with desire.”
With my cock straining against my cotton briefs, I don’t have it in me to stall a minute longer.
She spreads her palms against my chest and drags her nails down my stomach, not stopping until she sneaks her hands past the elastic waistband and grasps my cock.
A low growl rumbles at the back of my throat and she gasps when I slide into her.
“Igor...”
She shudders, her nails digging into my back.
When we come together, it’s a fierce, breathless consuming of each other, emerging not from a struggle for dominance, but from an absolute surrender to what we both feel.
“Yes, my love,” I breathe against her skin, and suck hard on the spot just beside her taut nipples, knowing it will drive her crazy. She expresses her annoyance by nibbling on my ear and dragging a brutal line down my back.
“Deeper,” she whimpers.
I pull my hips back so slowly I feel every inch of her skin against mine, and then I thrust hard into her once again, moving us up the silk bedsheet. “Is that deep enough?”
I drive into her hard again, a thrill rushing through my veins as I catch her gasp with my mouth and kiss her once again.
She whines. “Deeper...”
I start to move in and out, driving deeper and deeper into her, and she runs her fingers through my hair, teasing and tugging.
A wave of bliss consumes me, and an intense haze clouds my vision as I’m pushed closer and closer to the edge with each thrust. Our connection is primal, yet affectionate in ways I can’t wrap my head around.
It’s not going to take long. I know I’ll burst at any second.
She welcomes every stroke as my entire length dives into her. I kiss her cheek and she wraps her legs even tighter around me, keeping us both grounded.
Gradually, my speed increases, my thrusts growing deeper and more erratic, and I can feel myself slipping, falling into the blinding clouds of passion that imprison us.
My finger travels between her quivering thighs, and I pinch her clit while driving even harder into her.
“I’m...coming,” she chokes out, shuddering with shimmering tears in her eyes.
I kiss her hands, too wrapped up in the moment to even speak.
All it takes is one final thrust to send both of us spiraling over the edge, shattering us at the same time.
I groan loudly, throwing my head back as I jerk inside her, spilling my seed between her thighs, and she clings to me, shrieking as she finds her own release.
Audrey slides her arms around my neck and I collapse onto her, covered in sweat and breathing raggedly as she locks us in a hug.
In the quiet of the night, she holds me firmly against her chest and kisses my hair, and I feel her heartbeat against my chest. Our bodies and hearts are completely aligned in the dark, and it warms me to know I get to call her mine in every sense of the word.
It’s real.
It’s mutual.
And it sure as hell will be forever.
The battles outside these walls are over, the terrible memories of our enemies are finally laid to rest, and what remains between us is a love chosen freely at last.