Chapter 29
Alexei
The silence in the loft echoes louder than that sniper’s rifle. From the shadows, I watch Aurora’s silhouette darken the window against the city lights, her shoulders curved inward and arms wrapped tightly around her body.
Ice cold fury continues to circulate in my veins.
The enemy touched her today. Not with a bullet, but with fear.
They marked what’s mine.
Images cycle through my mind on repeat. Glass on the floor. A plastic, headless bride. Several .308 casings that Kolya will have already collected for analysis by now. Aurora, huddled on the floor behind me in shock.
A failure.
My failure.
Someone got close enough to take a shot. At my fiancée. The woman I publicly claimed as my own.
Chyort vozmi.
Aurora drifts toward the master suite as if on autopilot. My bedroom, not the guest room where she’s been sleeping. An emotion dangerously close to concern stabs my chest at this silent choice, this unconscious seeking of safety within my territory.
I follow her as the red silk robe she wore home following the chaos whispers around her calves. The image of her in the middle of the boutique surrounded by flying bullets and shattered glass is imprinted on my brain.
So red.
So vulnerable.
So close to being taken from me.
She flinches when I appear in the room behind her, the small, frightened motion another blow to the chest. Proof of my failure.
I prowl closer as she peers into the bathroom mirror. “That will never happen again.” Not words of comfort, but a vow.
The green eyes in the reflection are dull. Vacant. “It will always happen. Things will always go sideways. There’s nothing you can do, Alexei.” Her voice hitches on my name, piercing me with a sharp spear of regret. “That’s just life.”
A mix of fury and pain flares beneath my sternum. “I can do something.”
“What?” She crosses her arms and hugs herself.
I pull her into an embrace, leaning down so my lips brush the shell of her ear. “I can keep you safe.”
Her gaze searches mine in the mirror. “What happens when someone comes gunning for me again? How can you protect me from every threat?”
“I won’t let you out of my sight.” Not until I’m certain that all threats are neutralized.
“But…” Her eyes flutter shut, and her chest rises with a deep breath as if she’s trying to ground herself. “Do you really plan to stick to me like a leech twenty-four seven? I’m sure you have plenty of other things to do. It’ll get old fast. Trust me.”
“If you doubt my ability to keep you safe,” I stroke my thumb down her belly, and her eyes fly open, “to be with you every time we leave this building, then you sorely underestimate me, lyubimaya.”
Aurora flushes at that last word, and the sight reroutes blood straight to my dick. “I don’t…doubt your ability.”
She starts to say more but snaps her mouth shut.
“You’ve been through a lot today.” I draw lazy circles on her hip. “Let me take care of you.”
She bites her lip, flushing an even deeper shade of pink. “Okay.”
My hand stills. Several beats pass as we study each other in the mirror.
Her head tips back, resting against my collarbone. Silent communication passes between us. She needs me.
No one has ever needed me like this.
No one has ever leaned into me the way she does, not after witnessing the darkness inherent in this life I’ve chosen.
Slowly, deliberately, I slide the robe up her leg. Past her knees. Her thighs. She doesn’t resist or encourage. Instead, the reflection shows her watching me with parted lips and lustful eyes.
I press a kiss against the side of her neck, nipping just hard enough to elicit a sharp intake of breath. “Touch yourself.”
Her eyes widen, and she unpeels her fingers from their death grip on her own arm.
“Show me.” I tug the silk robe open, exposing her beautiful body. “Show me what’s mine to protect.”
With a tentative breath, her hands flutter up to graze her breasts and tease her nipples.
The rush of desire that slams through me mirrors the desire hazing her expression.
I watch her fingers as they trail up her neck to touch her face, her lips, even her tongue as it darts out to meet them. “More than just that. Show me what’s mine to enjoy.”
Her lips tilt into a wicked little smile that suggests she knows exactly what she’s doing.
She repeats her movements in reverse, journeying over her throat, breasts, and then lower.
With growing confidence, she slides her fingers beneath the top of her panties.
With her eyes trapping mine in the mirror, she bends at the waist, spreading her legs and grinding her ass against me as she pushes her panties down.
She straightens with a seductive sway, her every action teasing my cock.
Fuck.
I grind my teeth. “What else?”
Another devious smile. Aurora cups her pussy, the last of her shyness vanishing. She rubs herself with two fingers before they disappear from view.
A groan escapes me. I’m half tempted to spank her sweet ass for splintering my control.
“You want to see?” Her fingers splay open her pretty pink skin, exhibiting the glistening folds.
She’s already wet. Soaked.
My dick throbs, and once again, I curse our no-sex agreement.
My grip tightens on the fabric bunched at her waist. The other hand roams down to free my aching erection and position it between her thighs.
She gasps, pulse fluttering in her neck.
Though every instinct shrieks at me to move her fingers and plunge inside, I restrain myself. I will honor the boundary of our agreement.
But I will toe the very edge of that line.
I slide against her, shivering as I glide through the wet heat of her arousal.
Heaven. She’s fucking heaven. No penetration, yet I’m already addicted.
When her movements falter, I growl into her ear. “Don’t stop. Show me.”
She resumes her stroking, breathy little gasps escaping her throat in the process. Her hips begin to rock, and I catalogue every flutter of her eyelids in the mirror. Whenever her fingers skim my cock, a sharp burst of pleasure steals my air from my lungs.
This is mine.
She is mine. To possess and dominate. To protect from all threats.
Her knees quake as if she might collapse.
I snake an arm beneath her breasts, holding her upright. Moaning, she tightens her thighs around me and squeezes.
Hot, urgent pleasure builds. Her movements grow more desperate and less controlled. She winds one hand around my neck and digs her fingers in with bruising force.
I welcome the pain. Want her to mark me. Let her leave her signature on my skin and claim a piece of me in return.
“That’s it, lyubimaya.”
Her body tenses, signaling her impending orgasm. “I’m so close…”
“Let go for me.” I bite the spot where shoulder meets neck, then soothe the hurt away with my tongue. “Show me you’re alive. That they didn’t steal anything from you today.”
She comes with a cry torn from somewhere deep inside her. Her body shudders against mine, eyes closing as ecstasy overwhelms her.
The sight and sound of her bliss, the way her thighs clutch and tremble on my cock…it’s all too much. One more pump and my release hits with unexpected force, pouring down her thighs to mix with her own wetness.
We stand locked together, quivering in the aftermath.
Once the last wave ends, her eyes open. She glances down at the mess painted across her skin. Her fingers move, touching us both.
We groan in unison.
I guide her to the shower and flip on the water while she sags against the cool tile.
She’s quiet as I lather soap on a cloth and gently clean every inch of her body. I ignore my cock’s renewed interest, content to take care of this woman who’s thrown my life off balance.
The dynamics have changed. Some barrier’s crumbled. We’ve crossed a line that has nothing to do with the physical act we just shared.
“Who’s MJ?”
The question catches me off guard like a bullet I didn’t see coming. I consider lying or pretending I didn’t hear.
But I can’t lie. Not about him.
My shoulders lift and lower. “Someone I killed.”