Chapter 10
EVA
The sun sinks, and the sky goes fully dark as I lie in bed, staring at the ceiling. I’ve been here since I ran back to my room, cleaned up, and flopped down.
My mind is a mess. There are thoughts spiraling, careening, and racing so fast I can barely catch one. Most of all, I’m trying to make sense of what just happened.
I hadn’t even meant to wander into the northern wing of the house. Dmitri hadn’t given me an exact boundary, and when I’d found a hallway filled with art off a random room, I thought I was safe. Bored and looking for something to do, but safe.
How wrong I’d been.
And now? My core still thrums with Evgeny’s heat, with the feel of him inside me. His lips set my skin on fire as he trailed kisses down my body.
My head is still buzzing from the mind-blowing orgasms that ripped through me, blotting out the world, only for it to come crashing back in. I have never, not once, felt that kind of heat with anyone else before.
I’ve never seen a body like Evgeny’s, either.
All taut muscle and sinew, like a jungle cat moving through the trees, power coiled to strike, muscles rippling under his skin.
I wish I’d had more time and more presence of mind to study the scars covering the left side of his body or ask about the intricate tattoos telling a story across his skin.
I was right to call him Mr. Giant for more reasons than one as well.
A flush climbs my cheeks at the thought, my core fluttering and tightening with need in response.
The fact that I gave in to Evgeny galls me to no end.
I should have shoved him away and left before anything happened.
But my body had other plans, and I’d given in to my desperate desire to see what it felt like to have his hands running all over my body.
Yet even though he made me beg, and despite the intensity of our wild sex, Evgeny had been oddly gentle.
He hadn’t done anything without giving me an out first. And for a brief flash of a moment, I thought I’d seen something soft in his eyes as he stared down at me, both of us lost in post-orgasmic bliss.
But he had turned so swiftly, so terrifyingly, into a beast. I can still feel his hand tightening around my throat, the terror that instantly replaced my daze, the knowledge that all he had to do was tighten his grip to kill me.
And it makes me so angry.
On that thought, my frustration pushes me out of bed in search of food. I can’t deny that the afternoon’s exercise has left me ravenous.
I offer silent thanks to Alona as I raid the fridge, falling on the food like I haven’t eaten in days, fueled by anger, spite, and hunger.
“Whoa there. Slow down or you’ll choke.”
I nearly choke at the voice suddenly behind me, coughing until my eyes water. Vasya laughs as he hands me a glass of water.
“Told you,” he says.
I glare at him, cough one more time, and take another bite of food.
Vasya gives me a look over his shoulder as he opens the freezer. “What’s up with you tonight?”
“Just had a bad day.”
“Is Evgeny on the other end of that bad day?”
I say nothing, stuffing half a piece of bread in my mouth to keep anything from slipping out that shouldn’t.
“Ah. I see.” Vasya chuckles as he pulls a bottle of Perrier from the fridge and what looks like an ice cream bar from the freezer, then turns back toward me. “That’s how people usually feel about him.”
“I’m not surprised,” I grumble, swallowing.
Vasya opens the bottle, takes a long drink, then wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. “Yeah, he’s a pain in the ass, but people respect him. In the business and Bratva worlds.”
“Does he bully them into it?”
A sharp bark of laughter greets my quip, and despite myself, I smile.
“Have you known Evgeny for a long time?”
Vasya nods as he carefully unwraps the chocolate-covered ice cream bar.
“Was he always like this?”
Halfway through his first bite, Vasya freezes. He looks unsure whether to finish, but finally does, swallowing the ice cream with a grimace.
“You don’t have to tell me,” I say quickly, realizing I’m asking a personal question about the head of the Kucherov Bratva. Am I about to step over a line I don’t know anything about?
But Vasya waves away my hesitation and sets the ice cream bar down on its wrapper. “Not always, no. He was the only one who would talk to me when we came here from Russia, and I didn’t know any English. Ev was always a serious kid, but he lost his mom in a fire. He changed after that.”
So much in so few words, and it takes me a moment to process. I shouldn’t feel bad for someone who’s probably killed people, but having lost my own mother, I feel a pang of sadness.
“Is that where he—” I gesture to the side of my face.
“Yeah. You can imagine what those scars did to him as a kid. You think it’s bad when people treat you like a monster as an adult? Imagine it as a kid.”
Vasya takes a breath to say something, but his mouth twists, and something flashes through his eyes that sends a shiver through me. Then it’s gone, and he offers me a sad smile. “My parents died in that fire, too. It changed both of our lives.”
“I’m so sorry,” I manage, my throat thick with sympathy.
A shrug is all I get in reply, though Vasya’s gaze lands anywhere but on me. “And once Ev became pakhan, and then CEO of Kucher Enterprises after his father passed away, he got even worse.”
“All the pressure?”
Another shrug, and Vasya picks up his ice cream bar again, taking another bite. “Something like that. He’s also just an asshole.”
I giggle, and a reluctant grin tugs at one corner of Vasya’s mouth. “But if you tell him I told you any of this, I’ll deny it.”
Dragging two fingers across my lips like a zipper, I pretend to throw away the key. “I won’t say a word.”
Vasya winks, then grabs his ice cream and Perrier, and he’s gone.
I clean my plate and stick it in the dishwasher, but I loathe the idea of going back to my room. And, I hate to admit it, I’m nervous about exploring the house again.
So instead, I grab a blanket from a couch in one of the living rooms and sit outside on a plush chaise lounge.
It’s hard to see all but the brightest stars between the city lights and the moon, which forms an undulating silver trail over the dark ocean. For a moment, I imagine myself crossing the path to the horizon and escaping this place.
I feel an odd pull in the opposite direction, and my conversation with Vasya slips back in. I stare at the moon and turn the little bit I discovered about Evgeny over in my mind, comparing it to what I know.
And everything I don’t.
The waves below are soothing, and I’m warm, wrapped up in the soft blanket. My last thought before I slip into sleep is of Evgeny’s body over mine, his green eyes glowing with desire for me, and the beauty of a face that bears a physical reminder of his past.