Chapter 10 Ruslan
RUSLAN
Leaving the door ajar, I turn on the shower, strip the rest of my clothes, and immediately step under the hot spray to breathe.
Ivy’s reaction to the picture Raven found was as I expected.
She really doesn’t know anything. Her father with Kraven is a warning sign, I’m sure of it.
Under the hot water that scalds my skin and leaks across my injuries, causing them to sting, I try to work through what little I know about this crash and Ivy.
But I can’t focus.
I blink and for a cold half-second, I’m sixteen again with my head under water and my skin on fire from the razor blades carving me up.
My heart lurches in my chest.
Another blink and I’m being held down while a shadow from my past burns his initials into my face. He never finished because he was interrupted by my brother, so all that remains is a scar beneath my eye resembling an arrowhead.
I haven’t thought about those days in years, but it all comes back to me now as the lingering effects of my earlier beating simmer beneath my skin.
Back then, I was stupid. Got in too deep with the wrong families and ended up on the chopping block.
My brother died for it, and no one believed me when I tried to tell my uncle that his death wasn’t my fault but the result of his trying to save me.
No one believed me until it turned out my uncle was behind the fall of my family because he wanted that scrap of power for himself.
My entire family was wiped out by the time I was nineteen, my uncle by my own hands, and I drifted for years.
Being alone but with a strong reputation for loyalty toward whoever I was working for at the time made me a prime candidate for the Fifth Suit and ended up working in my favor when the old Ace retired and the spot needed to be filled.
I thought I was over that torture. It was so long ago.
Turns out the trauma of it still rests near the front of my mind, unlocked by the sounds of water and the fear that Ivy would die because of me just like my brother did.
Maybe that’s why I’m so eager to believe her.
Shaking my head, I try to chase those thoughts away with the heat of the shower and focus on Ivy instead.
Valentina is with the survivor of the sewer, and she’ll find out who he works for.
Then we’ll pay them a visit. The attack on me breaks one of the untouchable rules that keeps the Suit working smoothly, and if we don’t act, anyone else with enough arrogance might see us as a target.
As powerful as the Fifth Suit is, this fragile balance in the criminal underworld only works because people put money before power.
All it takes is one greedy psychopath to ruin everything.
Cassian might be able to help. He knows almost everything about everyone, so finding the connection between Ivy’s father and Kraven might be possible with his help.
If she’s really in the dark, then we need to tread carefully because as coherent as her questions were, Ivy’s just as fragile.
I’m not even sure she’s properly processed everything that’s happened to her in just two weeks.
I stay in the shower until my toes start to crinkle, then I step out and spend the next twenty minutes patching myself up.
It’s always easier to self-stitch on warm skin, and the lacerations across my abdomen from those knife wounds close up quickly.
I slather balm over the worst of my bruises, examine my loose teeth in the mirror and decide they’ll be fine, then pull on fresh jogging pants and head back out into my room.
Ivy’s still there.
She’s perched on my bed, only this time, she’s under the covers and she sits up when she sees me. “I hope it’s okay,” she says softly, her eyelids droopy. “I was too tired to move and I wasn’t even sure I could find my way back to that other room.”
“It’s fine,” I say, turning away from her. Seeing her in my bed makes something shoot straight to my lower belly and it settles there, warm and throbbing as I walk toward my dresser for a fresh T-shirt. “You can sleep here.”
“Ruslan?”
Something in her voice makes me pause, and I turn to her.
Her green eyes squint and her full, red lips purse into a small O as she points at me with one pale finger. “You’re bleeding.”
Glancing down at myself, I twist one way and then the next as I try to locate what she’s talking about, but I can’t see anything. There’s no pain other than the dull throb in my abdomen. “Where?”
“On your back,” she says while pushing up onto her knees in my bed. “Come here.”
I snatch the medical kit from my dresser and walk toward her. She doesn’t look me in the eye. She’s completely focused on the wound I can’t see.
Sitting on the bed, I pass her the kit, and she opens it while keeping one eye on me. “Turn around,” she says as she locates what she’s looking for.
I obey, and my back tightens as old pain rises with the expectation of a threat. Turning my back on someone rarely ends well.
Ivy’s first touch against my lower back is soft and gentle.
Two fingers rest near my spine while her thumb sweeps outward, and then something cold presses against my skin.
It’s removed quickly, and then the sting of antiseptic fills the air and attacks my nose.
I scrunch it just as something cold and wet presses to my back, where pain flares immediately.
“Ow.”
“Don’t be a baby,” Ivy says, running what must be an antiseptic-soaked cotton ball along the wound.
“You’re a mean nurse.”
“You want to compare injuries?”
“Nah.”
“Thought so.”
From here, I glimpse her ankle wrapped in that bad cast. I’ll have the doctor here by morning to fix her with a fresh one.
As Ivy continues to work, my gaze wanders up her bare leg to her knee where the leg of her jogging pants scrunches near her thigh.
A few bruises from the plane crash have faded to light yellow shadows now.
Ivy hums softly to herself as she works, replacing the cotton ball with something a little rougher. Dissolvable butterfly stitches are my best guess.
“You really didn’t feel this?” she asks.
“When you feel a lot of pain, what’s one more?”
“True,” she murmurs. “If I focus on the throbbing in my ankle, then the pain inside doesn’t hurt as much.”
Inside.
Her grief must be overwhelming. When my family perished, I sank into a dark mindset where the only thing that brought me peace was causing harm to others. My life as an Enforcer was a bloody one.
It didn’t help, though, not really.
“Okay, I’m done.” The medical kit clicks closed as Ivy finishes up.
I turn to face her and my heart stops for a brief half second. She is much closer than I realized, and she notices the moment she tilts her head up and our eyes meet. Her tongue darts out across her lower lip and she swallows hard enough that I hear the softness.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” she replies with an ever so slight tremble in her voice.
I should move away. I should distance myself and head out to find Valentina and see what she managed to get from that asshole, but something stops me from doing so. It’s like the bed is reaching out and clinging to me with the same warmth I see in her eyes, enticing me to stay just a moment longer.
Ivy doesn’t pull away either. There’s an inch or two between our faces, yet her eyes remain locked onto me. “You should be more careful,” she says softly.
“More careful?”
“When checking yourself for wounds.”
“Hard to see my back,” I reply with a lower tone. “Lucky you were here.”
“Mmhmm. Lucky.”
I can’t.
I shouldn’t.
There’s a floral softness that rises from Ivy even underneath the faint medical scents that fill the air between us. That same warmth in the pit of my belly makes itself known by a sudden increase of pressure that rushes through me.
I need to pull away.
But I’m caught in her gravity. This beautiful woman with such aching sadness in her eyes, a sadness I want to fix now I’m sure she’s a victim and not a culprit.
Ivy’s gaze darts between my eyes, then lowers to my mouth.
My heart jumps and suddenly, kissing her feels like the best idea I’ve ever had. I shouldn’t because the last thing she needs is someone like me throwing myself at her. The longer she stares at my mouth, the harder it is to resist that urge because it’s as if she’s asking me to, with no words.
Her eyes then dart upward and she gazes at me from underneath her long, fair lashes.
My restraint crumbles and I surge forward, closing that inch gap in no time at all and sealing my mouth over hers.
Ivy squeaks in alarm and my shoulders tighten, waiting for the inevitable hands on my shoulders to push me away and a slap for misreading the signals.
Neither of these come.
Ivy’s hands clutch at the sides of my neck and she pulls me closer, drawing me into her until we’re kissing so hard I can feel the edge of her split lip against my own.
I lean into the kiss and brace one hand on the bed behind her while my other moves to her waist and cuddles her close to support her.
Ivy’s eyes flutter closed and she slides one hand up into my long, damp hair while her other slides down to my shoulder. Then she loops her arm around my neck and draws me in closer.
My mind goes blank. The warmth in my lower belly bursts and spreads through me like igniting a fire and suddenly, I’m pressing her down onto the bed and kissing her harder and harder.
Ivy pulls at my hair and moans, arching her body into mine while her free hand turns to claws and she scratches down my back.
I hiss and our kiss breaks, but she drags me back down with a soft moan and sinks her teeth lightly into my lower lip. I kiss her repeatedly and then seal my mouth over hers, thrusting my tongue past the seam of her lips.
I’m burning up. Tightness sweeps up my thighs and settles in my cock, but we’re both far too injured for the sudden lustful thoughts that burst through my mind.
But I want to. My God, do I want to.