Chapter 27 #2
His mouth claims mine, bruised and unforgiving. The knife I still hold slips from my hand as his fingers tangle in my hair, tilting my head back to deepen the kiss. I melt into him, my body arching as heat surges through me.
“Need one minute.” He breathes into my ear. “That son of a bitch is trying to get away. I want him to watch. Come with me, Ember.”
My skin crawls as my pulse ratchets higher. I nod and walk with him, the cold night air biting at my skin. Shawn screams and begs as Rodion yanks him around and ties him with the same restraints he used on me.
“I don’t want to hear your fucking voice,” Rodion says before he gags him and slaps Shawn’s cheek. “There ya go, asshole.”
God, I love him so fucking much. I don’t know what that says about me, but I don’t care.
I want him.
I want him to burn the memory of every painful touch I’ve ever felt from my mind. I want him to sear himself into my memory, to break down every wall I’ve constructed and show me what it means to be well and truly loved. I want him. I want us.
I want it all.
Rodion stalks over to me, and just like that first time I saw him, he’s dripping with lethal Bratva energy.
My body sings. My heart soars. When he reaches me, his mouth burns mine with a ferocity that takes my breath away.
He grips my ass, and I shift the miles of fabric to hitch my leg up.
I love the feel of his hot, strong hand on my thigh.
He lifts me in his arms and carries me to the clearing sheltered beneath the pines. His hot skin on mine warms me despite the cold. Moonlight filters through the trees.
Rodion’s grip tightens around my waist. When his mouth meets mine, everything else falls away. His kiss is feral and bruising, the kind that leaves marks.
I feel the rough scrape of his stubble against my skin as his hands grip my ass, pulling me closer.
I lift my leg, sliding the fabric of my dress up, giving him full access to the bare skin of my thigh. He wastes no time, fingers searing into me, teasing until I don’t feel the cold anymore, and I feel the brush of his rough knuckles against the heat between my legs.
I break the kiss, gasping against his lips.
“Rodion.”
His growl vibrates against my throat as he lifts me effortlessly, cradling me in his arms as if I weigh nothing.
The rough bark of a pine scrapes against my back as he pins me there, his body pressing into mine, his breath hot against my neck. His hands roam, dragging down the straps of my dress until the cool night air hardens my nipples.
He steps back, eyes burning into me as he drinks me in.
“I’ll burn everything before us from your memory,” he rasps, reaching for his belt buckle in one fluid motion. He tugs it from his pants in one pull. “Do you understand me?”
I nod, breathless and aching.
His mouth trails down my collarbone, teeth grazing, biting, sucking until I’m dizzy with need and panting for him. His fingers push aside the fabric pooling at my hips, where I’m already wet and waiting.
“You’re so fucking ready for me,” he whispers, voice thick with approval. His thumb circles my clit slowly, torturing me.
“Rodion.” I moan.
He gives me a wicked grin full of promises.
“Beg for me, little queen.”
I can’t stop the moan that slips free as his fingers slide inside me, curling just right. His other hand cups the back of my neck, pulling me into another fierce kiss.
I come apart for him, trembling, gasping his name, but he doesn’t stop. I feel the hot, hard press of his cock against my legs.
“Tell me you want this.” His voice is rough, barely hanging onto control.
“I want this, Rodion. I want you. All of you.”
Pulling back, his eyes meet mine with surprise. He knows as well as I do what that means. Every bit of him, the hardened criminal and wise guy, protector and husband. All of him.
He drives into me in one hard thrust. I arch into him, legs wrapping around his waist as he fills me. I love the way he stretches me to the edge of pleasure and pain.
Rodion doesn’t hold back—he pounds into me, wild and relentless, each thrust pushing me harder against the tree. I’m begging and pleading, wild with need, as we hold each other so tightly we’ll leave marks.
“You’re mine, Ember. My wife. No one else touches you.”
I cling to him, shattered and whole.
“Yours.”
He drives deeper, his hand fisting my hair to tilt my head back so he can kiss the tender skin at my neck.
“I love you,” I whisper. The world and everyone in it has ceased to exist. All that matters is us.
Pleasure explodes in my veins, hot and relentless, as he comes inside me. I gasp for air, gripping him, everything around narrowed to just the two of us.
“I love you,” I repeat as his hot seed spills into me, and I pant through the aftershocks of bliss. “I love you.”
Rodion growls against my skin, his lips tracing down my neck as if committing me to memory. I hold onto him, the heat of his body against mine a shield. The cool night air barely touches us.
His thumb brushes along my cheek, tender in a way only I ever see.
“Say it again,” he whispers, his voice raw.
I cup his face, stubble scraping my hand. “I love you.”
Rodion closes his eyes for a brief second, exhaling like the words loosen something inside him.
“You’re mine now, Ember. No running.”
I smile at him. “I wasn’t planning on it.”
His lips quirk in the boyish smirk I’ve come to crave before he looks behind him.
He tightens his arms around me, shielding me from the sight. But I can’t turn away.
This is me. This is us.
“You know what I have to do.”
I swallow hard and whisper, “Yeah, I do. Bury his body and sleep like a fucking baby.”
He kisses me, hard and passionate, a silent declaration of solidarity.
Rodion presses a kiss to my forehead before slipping his jacket over my shoulders. “Shh, baby. This is almost over.”
He steps back toward Shawn, who groans to himself.
“I told you once,” Rodion says in a low growl. Deadly. “You’d regret laying hands on her, didn’t I? I told you to leave her alone. I told you I never wanted to see you near her again. Didn’t I?”
Shawn begs, his eyes wide with terror, but Rodion doesn’t care.
Neither do I.
Rodion’s gun presses to Shawn’s temple before he looks my way. I meet his gaze, steady and sure. This isn’t just vengeance. It’s cleansing. It’s retribution. It’s ensuring no one—not me, not another innocent girl—ever gets hurt by this monster again.
Rodion pulls the trigger.
The shot echoes through the night.
I don’t scream. I don’t look away. I need to see that he won’t hurt me or anyone else ever again. I watch Shawn’s body fall to the ground with a thud, his blood saturating the earth around him.
When Rodion finally stands, it’s with the slow deliberation of a man who’s made peace with his choices.
I love him for that.
I pull his jacket tighter around myself. It’s warm, and it smells like him. It feels like a symbol of Rodion as my shield.
He makes phone calls before he returns to me and gathers me in his arms.
“Are you ready to go back to the gala?”
I stare at him in surprise but think it over. I swallow hard.
“Let me change into something a bit more comfortable?”
He smirks in the darkness.