Chapter Thirty
Rodion
I needed to prove to myself it was just lust, an obsession, an itch that refused to leave. Alessia wasn’t special. She was like every other woman, to fuck and forget the day. I lifted her, her legs curling around my waist like she was made for it.
We didn’t break the kiss as I stalked toward the hallway. I wanted her in my bed where I could ruin her. But getting there wasn’t easy, not with her mouth claiming mine and her fingers digging into my shoulders like she owned me.
In the dim hallway, I stopped and shoved her against the wall near the door to my room. She whimpered. Her hands moved to my shirt, fumbling with the buttons like she needed my skin on hers or she’d burn alive.
I kissed her like I was starving and she was the only thing that could satisfy the ache. Her breath hitched. She moaned softly, and the sound twisted something inside me. Her hands clutched at my shoulders, tracing over my bare skin, her touch igniting a heat deep down my spine.
My hand found the door handle. I pushed the door open and stepped inside. Kicking it shut behind us, I pinned her back against it and finally broke the kiss. My lips hovered over hers, both of us breathing like we’d run a marathon.
I set her down and peeled off my shirt. Her gaze followed every inch of my body that I revealed, as if she wanted to etch it into memory. I wasn’t the kind of man to be wanted. I would ruin her. No, I would destroy her.
Reaching for her, I locked one arm around her waist as I leaned in. I kissed her neck, dragged my mouth up her throat, across her jaw, and to the lips I couldn’t stop kissing. Her mouth met mine again as I brought her to the bed, lowering her with me.
My tongue pressed into her mouth as my hand slipped beneath her oversized tee. She gasped as my fingers brushed over her skin. When I grazed her nipple, I broke the kiss and stared into her eyes.
The hunger in them pushed me to grip the fabric and pull it over her head. Her breasts lifted with every breath, bare and offered to me. I claimed her lips again as my fingers moved to the waistband of her shorts.
She let out a breathy sound, lifting her hips in silent submission. She lay beneath me, skin warm and eyes full of something darker than lust. My hand slid down her thigh, fingers coasting over soft skin until they reached the heat between her legs. She was already wet.
I rubbed her clit, watching how she responded to my movements.
She gasped, her gaze dropping to where I touched her.
I kept my eyes on her face, reading every flicker of surrender.
She bit her lip, looked up at me again, and I moved faster, watching her try to keep eye contact while pleasure took over.
Her head fell back on the pillow, and she cried out, arching beneath me.
A breathless moan escaped her when my finger slipped to her entrance. She was so ready, and I was painfully hard.
Her hand slid to the back of my neck, holding me close. She didn’t speak, but whatever was in her eyes made something wild surge through my chest. I pushed one finger inside, slow but deep. Her lips parted, as my name escaped with a fragile breath.
Fuck! I pulled out and stood to strip off the rest of my clothes. Alessia didn’t look away. Her eyes dropped to my cock as I released it. She swallowed, chest rising fast.
I wanted to fuck her until her legs gave out. I dragged her toward the edge of the bed, parting her thighs and stepping between them. I leaned in for another kiss before positioning myself at her entrance.
Her hands came up to frame my face, and I clenched my jaw. She wasn’t supposed to look at me like this was anything more than sex. But I saw the truth in her eyes—fear tangled with desire. This wasn’t just a fuck to her. She needed more.
I kissed her harder, full of everything I didn’t want to feel. “I’ll ruin you,” I breathed into her mouth. “Fuck, I will.”
Her breath faltered against my lips, and I stared, watching tears build along her lashes.
One blink and it slid free. My hand moved before I could stop it, wiping it from the corner of her eye.
I shouldn’t care. She was just a girl in a war she didn’t understand. But something cracked open inside me.
She wasn’t supposed to mean anything. This wasn’t supposed to matter. Still, I held myself back and gave her the power.
“Push me away,” I said, my voice lower than it had ever sounded. I sucked her lips slower this time, and whispered, “Tell me to stop and I will. Say it, or you’ll be mine.”
She blinked again, and another tear fell. I caught it with my thumb. I should have ended this, taken what I brought her here for and walked away. But I didn’t. And she didn’t stop me. Instead she nodded, her fingers threading into my hair, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to stop again.
I wrapped my hand around my cock and ran the head along her entrance, feeling the slick heat. When I pushed inside, she cried out, and I pulled her close, refusing to let go—not now, not after this. She was mine, and I didn’t know if that would save me or destroy me.
Her tight walls stretched around me to take me in.
She had never been touched, and I fucking knew it.
With every inch I sank into her, she clenched tighter, her breath faltering as she cried again.
I didn’t slam into her like I thought I would or tear through her to make a point.
I slowed, not out of kindness, but because she needed to feel everything.
Restraint burned through my body as I pulled out with a growl and slid back in, deeper this time. Her soft gasp had changed. It wasn’t pain anymore, it was my name, shattered and like a prayer on her lips.
“Rodion...”
God. I kissed her as she moaned into my mouth, but I kept going. Her pussy relaxed around me, her body adjusting, taking me inch by inch, and I felt every part of her up in my spine.
It wasn’t only good. It was lethal. Everything about this was wrong in the exact way that made it feel like it could kill me.
I didn’t recognize myself. I thought I was proving that it was just a release.
But now I was inside her, deep, stretched, and buried, I knew this wasn’t the last time. I couldn’t fuck her out of my system.
She was my system now.
I pulled out again and rubbed her clit, watching her eyes flutter open, dazed and glassy. When I slid back into her, she didn’t flinch. She welcomed it, tight but ready.
She felt like home and sin, wrapped in the same breath. I didn’t want her. I needed her, and I would keep her. My thrusts came harder, deeper, one hand sliding to her thigh and yanking her closer as I slammed in. My fingers found her clit again and rubbed so fast that her whole body jerked.
Her walls clamped down. She clung to me like she was breaking apart, hiding her face in my neck as she came. She trembled beneath me, her eyes wet, and her body caught between pleasure and pain. Her arms didn’t let go. And I didn’t move until the shaking faded.
Then I pulled out, still aching, and slid against her soaked heat. She kissed me before I could move. I rocked against her, chasing the high while her mouth opened to mine. And then my own release rushed and I pulled out immediately.
My body stilled, and a grunt tore from me as I spilled onto her thigh. I kept stroking myself until I was empty. I looked down at her. The fucked-up truth was, this hadn’t come from lust. It had come from something darker. She was mine now. And God help whoever tried to take her.
“I will keep you.”
That wasn’t a threat or a deal. It was a vow. And if that drunk Alessia ever asked me to call her Little Gem again, it wouldn’t be about deals. It would be about ownership. I rarely offered promises, but I always kept the ones I gave, no matter the cost.