Chapter 21
GAbrIEL
Iwake to emptiness—cold sheets, no warm body pressed against my side. No soft breathing in the dark.
She’s gone.
I sit up, immediately alert, my hand reaching for the nightstand drawer where I keep a gun. It all happens by instinct.
Someone took her.
Reason catches up a few moments later.
She wasn’t kidnapped.
I take a deep, slow breath, letting my eyes focus on the silver beams of moonlight pouring into the room.
The solitude is normal for me. But after having Thea in my bed, being alone in this vast room suddenly feels intolerable. We haven’t discussed the matter of her sharing my bed; she just comes in most nights without a word, sleeping next to me and waking up in my arms.
But not tonight.
I throw off the sheets and place my bare feet on the cool tile floor. I check the time—it’s 3:17 a.m.
I pull on some sleeping pants and move quietly into the hallway, then downstairs to the second floor.
I approach her closed door on silent steps.
I pause outside, listening.
Nothing.
I should go back to bed, let her have her space. She’s entitled to sleep wherever she wants.
But I don’t.
Tonight, I need her in a way I can hardly wrap my mind around, in a way that almost scares me.
I ease the door open.
The room is dark, aside from the moonlight filtering in through the curtains. She’s curled on her side in the middle of the bed, one hand tucked under the pillow, her blonde hair spilled across white linen.
Relief hits me. The logical part of me knew she was fine, that she was just sleeping in her own bed. However, I can’t help but worry about her. I’ve been doing it for decades, after all. Keeping Thea safe has been a part of my life since she was just a girl.
I lean against the doorframe, watching her.
She’s beautiful like this—unguarded, peaceful. There’s a calmness in her expression while she sleeps that I so rarely see, and it makes it obvious to me just how much worry she carries during the day.
The burden she bears is more than anyone should be asked to carry. And she’s not just beautiful. She’s innocent in a roundabout way.
Innocent.
The word gives me pause. Perhaps it isn’t the best word to describe her, but there’s still something untouched about her. Something soft and hopeful that this world hasn’t managed to destroy just yet.
And I want to keep it that way.
Even if I know that I’m the biggest threat to it.
Her eyes flutter open.
She blinks at me, disoriented. Then she sits up suddenly, pulling the blanket to her chest.
“Gabriel?” Her voice is rough with sleep, tinged with worry. “What’s going on? Is something wrong?”
“No.” I straighten. “It’s just… I woke up and you weren’t there.”
“So you came looking for me?”
“Yes.”
She studies me for a long moment, then her expression softens slightly.
“I couldn’t sleep,” she says. “In your room, I kept thinking about everything. And I just needed space. To think.”
“I get it.”
She cocks her head to the side slightly.
“Do you?”
I move into the room, closing the door behind me. “You’re trying to process everything that’s happened, everything you’ve learned. You needed to be alone. I understand.”
A pause. “Then why are you here?”
“Because I missed you,” I admit. “I woke up and you were gone and I—” I stop. This is harder than I expected. “First, I was worried. Then I just wanted your company.”
She’s quiet. I can sense she’s torn between telling me that her need for space hasn’t changed and inviting me to join her.
Finally, she shifts, making room in the bed.
“You can stay,” she says softly, “if you want.”
I cross to the bed and sit on the edge. I don’t touch her.
“Are you okay?” I ask.
She turns away from me, staring at the window and the moonlight spilling in for several long moments. I can sense she’s giving the question serious thought.
“Yeah. I mean, I don’t know.” She pulls her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. “I keep thinking about Kolya. About Sylvie. About those men in my apartment. About how close I came to—” Her voice breaks. “I’m scared, Gabriel.”
“I know.”
She shakes her head. “No. I don’t think you do.
” She turns toward me, her eyes glassy with unshed tears.
“You’re used to this. The violence, the danger, people trying to kill you.
I’m not. I’m just a girl who cleaned hotel rooms and read books, and tried to stay invisible.
But that didn’t matter because I have a past and there’s no running from it.
Now I find out I’m Teodora Fetisov, and there’s a psychopath who wants me dead.
How the hell am I supposed to live like this? ”
I reach for her hand. She lets me take it.
“You’re not alone,” I tell her. “You have me. You have Oscar. You have this house. You have security and resources and—”
“But what happens after the council?” she interrupts. “What happens if you can’t prove what Kolya did? Or you can and they still don’t care? What if he escapes? Or if someone else decides that I’m a threat? What then?”
“Then I protect you,” I say without missing a beat. “I protect you for however long you need protecting.”
She lets out a slow exhale. “You can’t protect me forever.”
“Watch me.”
She laughs, but there’s no humor in it. “You’re so certain, so confident. But what if you’re wrong? What if something happens to you? What if—”
I cup her face, forcing her to look at me.
“Nothing is going to happen to me,” I say, my tone firm. “And nothing is going to happen to you. I won’t allow it.”
“You can’t control everything.”
“No, I can’t. But I can control this. I can keep you safe. I can honor the promise I made to your father. And I will. Do you understand me?”
She stares at me. I can sense she’s truly giving my words thought.
Then slowly, she nods.
“I’m trying to trust you,” she whispers. “I’m trying so hard. But it’s terrifying.”
“I know.”
“Sometimes I look at you and see a man who makes me feel safe, who looks at me like I matter. A man who wants to send me to college and show me the world. But other times, I see a man who killed two people without blinking. A man who’s probably killed a hell of a lot more than that. And a man who bought me like property.”
“I am both of those men,” I tell her. “I’m not going to try and tell you that I’m not. But Thea—the man I am with you? That’s real. It’s not a strategy or a manipulation. When I look at you, when I touch you, when I hold you… that’s the most honest I’ve been in my life.”
Her breath hitches.
“I don’t know what to do with that.”
“You don’t have to do anything. Just let me be here. Let me hold you. Let me prove to you that you’re safe.”
She’s quiet for a long moment, her eyes locked onto mine.
And then she kisses me.
It’s soft at first. But when I respond and pull her closer, she deepens it.
“Gabriel,” she murmurs against my mouth.
“Si?”
“Make me forget. Just for tonight. Make me feel something other than fear.”
I pull back just enough to look at her. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Thea—”
“Please.”
The word breaks me. I kiss her again—harder, claiming—and she melts into me, her hands fumbling with the waistband of my sleeping pants.
“Wait,” I say, “let me.”
“No.” She pushes me back against the pillows, her eyes dark with determination. “Let me.”
She strips off her sleep shirt, her gorgeous, heavy breasts now bare. Then she’s sliding down my body, her hands pulling down my pants, freeing me. My cock springs out, already hard. She flashes me a wicked smile as she descends, kissing my stomach, my hips, my thighs.
“Cristo,” I breathe as her hand wraps gently around my shaft.
She leaves a trail of kisses up and down my body. When her lips are at the base of my cock, she glances up, meeting my gaze as she takes me into her mouth.
I groan, my head falling back, my hand fisting her hair.
The sight of her blonde hair falling around her face, her lips wrapped around my thickness, is enough to make me lose my mind.
“Thea—fuck—that feels so damn good.”
Her tongue swirls around me, and I focus on the sight of her bobbing up and down, her lips leaving a wet sheen along my length. When she hums around me, I nearly come undone.
I pull her up before she can finish, kissing her hard.
“My turn,” I growl.
“No.” She pushes me back down. “I want to be on top.”
I stare at her. “You want control?”
“Yes.”
“Then take it.”
I lay back and watch as she climbs on top of me, mounting me with that gorgeous, lush body. She straddles me, spreading her legs enough to give me a view of her perfect, pink slit.
She slowly sinks down and we both gasp as I push into her. I groan hard when she lowers herself to the hilt, all of me vanishing between her thighs.
“Dio,” I breathe. “You feel perfect.”
She starts to move— timid at first. Then she finds her rhythm, grinding hard back and forth, her hands braced on my chest. I grasp the soft curves of her hips, watching as she throws her head back, her body taking what she needs.
I memorize the flush spreading across her skin, the way her breasts move, the soft sounds falling from her lips.
“That’s it. Take what you need, Thea. Use me.”
She moans, her pace increasing. I slide my hand between us, finding her clit, and she cries out.
“Gabriel. I’m… oh God—”
“Come for me,” I demand. “Let me feel it.”
She does. Her pussy clenches around me, her back arching. Before she can catch her breath, I flip her over onto her back. She gasps as I pin her beneath me, driving deeper.
“My turn,” I growl.
I take her hard and fast, thrusting deep with full strokes, claiming every inch of her until we’re both shaking, both desperate.
“Gabriel please.”
“Insieme,” I breathe. “Together.”
I reach between us again, circling her clit, and she shatters. She cries out, wrapping her legs around me, pulling me in deeper until I lose control. I bury myself hard, my cock pulsing as I drain every last drop into her.
I lean down, kissing her slowly and deeply, on her lips, her cheek, her neck, all the way down to her nipples. We collapse together, both breathing hard, both trembling. I roll to the side and pin her against me.
For a long time, neither of us speaks.
Then she whispers one word.
“Stay.”
“Always.”
I pull the blanket over us, holding her until her breathing evens out, until she’s asleep in my arms. As I lie there in the dark, staring at the ceiling, I realize something terrifying.
I’m falling hard for her. Harder than I’d anticipated.
And if anything happens to her, if Kolya gets to her, if I fail to protect her—it will destroy me.
I hold her tighter and make a silent vow.
I will end Kolya Sokolov.
I will protect her.
Whatever it takes.