Chapter 16 Aleksander
ALEKSANDER
She hits my chest like a bird slamming into glass and for a second I think she’ll try to dart away again.
She doesn’t. She just freezes.
Her eyes are wide in the dark, lips parted, chest rising fast. I can feel her pulse under my fingers where I’m still holding her arms. She’s trembling, but she’s not weak. She’s coiled, like she might kick me and bolt if I slip up for even a second.
I drag her back, deeper into the trees, away from the light spilling from the house. My back hits the rough bark first, then I turn her, pinning her between me and the trunk so she’s facing me, nowhere to go.
“Running again,” I murmur. “You’re getting predictable, Bella.”
“Let me go,” she gasps. Her palms are flat against my chest now, not really pushing, more like she’s trying to hold me off and pull me closer at the same time.
“Not happening,” I say.
I shift my grip, my hands sliding from her arms to her waist, her hips. I shouldn’t touch her more. I know that. I came here to get her out, not to lose my head. But she’s warm and shaking and very, very real, and I haven’t stopped thinking about her in four years.
The house noise is muffled out here. We’re half in shadow, half in moonlight. Close enough that I can smell her shampoo, that soft, familiar note that has no right to punch straight through me.
She sucks in a breath when I press her back into the tree. “Aleksander,” she whispers, warning and plea tangled together. “What are you doing?”
“Checking you’re not a ghost,” I say. My thumb traces the line of her hip through the dress, feeling the shiver that runs through her. “You keep disappearing on me.”
Her fingers curl into my shirt. She looks up at me like she wants to bite and bolt in the same second. “There are people inside who want to kill you,” she hisses. “This isn’t a joke.”
I can’t help it. My mouth curves into a slow, wolfish grin. “Is that concern I hear, solnyshko?”
She glares up at me, but her body betrays her, pressing closer, chest rising with each unsteady breath. My fingers trace the line of her jaw, then drop to the hollow of her throat. She’s soft and warm, alive under my hands, everything I’ve wanted and everything I can’t afford to lose.
“Maybe I should let them try,” I murmur, leaning in until our lips nearly touch, my breath mingling with hers. “Would you miss me if I was gone?”
Her answer is a gasp, a tremor that runs straight through her. My grip tightens on her hip and I crush my mouth to hers, swallowing any thought she has left.
I expect resistance. A shove. A slap.
Instead, she inhales sharply and kisses me back.
That sound alone almost breaks me.
Her hands curl into my jacket like she’s afraid I’ll disappear again, and that’s it. Whatever restraint I had left snaps clean in two. I deepen the kiss, slow and claiming, tasting her like I’ve been starving for years because fuck, I have been. She’s warm and frantic and so familiar it hurts.
I pull back just enough to look at her. Her pupils are blown, lips swollen, chest rising fast. She should tell me to stop.
She doesn’t.
I drop to my knees in front of her, the damp grass biting into my trousers, my hands already pushing her dress up her thighs. She gasps, one hand flying to my shoulder.
“Aleksander—”
I hook my fingers into the waistband of her panties and rip them down in one sharp pull. Fabric gives way easily. I don’t care. I want her now, raw and real and trembling above me.
“God,” I breathe, spreading her thighs with my hands. She’s already wet, already open, like her body has been waiting for mine even while her mind tried to run. The scent of her hits me full force and my cock throbs painfully in my pants.
I look up at her once more, giving her one last chance to pull away.
She looks down at me, flushed, eyes dark, and nods.
I don’t waste another second.
I press my mouth to her, slow at first, savoring the first taste like it’s sacred.
She cries out, head falling back against the tree, fingers tangling in my hair.
I lick her deliberately, learning her again, drawing my tongue through her folds, teasing, taking my time even though every nerve in me is screaming to take more.
She shudders, hips jerking forward, trying to chase my mouth.
“Fuck,” she whispers. “Aleksander…”
I grin against her and flatten my tongue, licking her properly now, deep and unhurried, like I intend to ruin her. I know exactly what she likes. I remember every sound, every reaction. I circle her clit slowly, then suck it gently, and she almost collapses.
I keep my mouth on her, slow and deliberate, like nothing else exists while I keep her upright, pressing my body into her.
I kiss her there, open-mouthed, lingering, then lick her again, deeper this time, my tongue sliding over her slick heat until her legs tremble.
She makes a sound she’s trying to swallow, hips rocking helplessly against my face.
I grip her thighs, holding her exactly where I want her, breathing her in.
Her scent fills my head, grounding me, cutting through everything else like a single point of focus.
I circle her clit again with my tongue, sucking gently, then harder, listening to how her breathing changes, how her fingers dig into the bark behind her.
I slide two fingers inside her slowly, curling them just right, feeling her clench around me.
She’s soaked. Desperate. Mine in this moment, even if she won’t admit it.
I hear movement behind me.
A heavy footstep that doesn’t belong to the night.
I don’t look back.
I press her harder against the tree, my shoulder braced against her thigh, my mouth never leaving her. I increase the pressure with my fingers, steady and relentless, fucking her with my hand while my tongue keeps working her clit. Her body arches, a broken plea falling from her lips.
My right hand slips to my pocket, fingers closing around the grip of my gun. I flick off the safety, aim behind me, and fire.
The sound tears through the garden. There’s a scream, startled and terrified, followed by the sound of someone falling back. I don’t wait to see where it landed.
That’s when she comes.
Her entire body locks, then shudders violently. She cries out, head thrown back, thighs clamping around my head as pleasure rips through her. I keep licking her through it, slow and possessive, riding her orgasm until she’s shaking so hard she can barely stand.
Only then do I pull back.
I lick my lips as I rise to my feet, tasting her, feeling the echo of her on my tongue. I turn calmly toward the darkness, gun raised, eyes cold and clear.
The scream hasn’t even finished echoing before the night explodes.
Footsteps rush the gravel path to my right. Too many. Too fast. They thought they could corner me in the dark.
Idiots.
I shove Bella fully behind the tree, my body blocking hers without thinking. “Stay,” I murmur, low and hard. Not a request.
She’s shaking, breath ragged, but she nods, hands clutching the bark. Her eyes are blown wide, stunned from the aftermath of what I just pulled out of her and what she just witnessed me do.
I don’t look away from the shadows.
Two shapes break from the hedges. Suits. Guns up. Nervous.
I move first.
I fire twice, controlled, center mass. One drops immediately, the other stumbles, screaming, collapsing into the shrubs. Leaves shake. Birds scatter. Chaos blooms.
I don’t wait.
I grab Bella’s wrist and drag her low, moving us into deeper shadow, keeping the tree line at our backs. I keep her head tucked to my chest as we move, my hand firm at the base of her skull.
“Lily,” she whispers, panic slicing through her voice.
Another gunshot snaps past us, cracking bark inches from my shoulder.
I pivot, fire blind into the darkness, then roll us behind a stone planter as bullets chew into the earth where we were a second ago. Bella gasps but doesn’t scream. Good girl. She’s learning how to survive my world whether she wants to or not.
I pop up, shoot again. One more goes down.
The garden lights flicker as someone inside realizes something is wrong.
Too late.
I grab Bella and move fast now, cutting diagonally through the hedges where the light doesn’t reach. I know this terrain already. I walked it the moment I arrived. Old habit. Always map exits.
Bella grips my sleeve, panic wild in her eyes. “Lily—” Her voice cracks, desperate, raw. “I hid her, behind the hedge, near the big stone planter—please, Aleksander—”
The world narrows. I see the direction she points. I see nothing but the need to get that little girl safe.
“I’ll get her,” I promise, my voice so cold I barely recognize it. “Don’t move.”
I leave Bella pressed to the tree and dart through the darkness, keeping low, using every shadow and shrub for cover. My breath is harsh in my ears; my focus is a blade.
A figure steps into my path. I don’t hesitate—one shot, he drops, never even seeing me coming. I keep moving, heart racing, eyes darting to where Bella pointed.
There. Behind the stone planter, a small shape is curled in the darkness, silent and still.
I sprint.
The night is mine now. The dark swallows me whole.
A man lunges from behind a cypress tree. I meet him head-on, driving my shoulder into his chest and slamming him into the trunk. His gun skids away. I put one round into his leg and let him drop, screaming.
I crouch. “Lily,” I whisper, urgent, quiet. She looks up, face pale and tear-streaked, and throws herself into my arms, her little hands fisting in my jacket.
“It’s okay,” I say, scooping her up, shielding her with my body. “I’ve got you, kotenok.”
A shadow moves to my left—another attacker. I shift Lily to one arm, gun in my free hand, and fire two quick shots. He crumples, gone.
No one touches her. Not ever.
I hurry back to Bella, dodging through the hedges, bullets snapping at my heels. She’s waiting, crouched low, her arms open, wild with fear.
When she sees Lily, she sobs and grabs her, holding her tight, murmuring into her hair.