Chapter 35
When I came back to reality, my whole body was sore.
It wasn’t an unbearable pain like after I’d gotten surgery on my shoulder, but I was aware of every little movement I made and the way it sent aches throughout my body.
Every time I took a breath, every time my shoulders rose and fell, my torso lit up with pain.
I groaned, stretching out my sore muscles and coughing once. That was agonizing, and it took me several deep breaths to finally inhale without feeling like my lungs were on fire, coated in ash.
The fire. Right.
I shoved aside all my memories of that event, not wanting to relive it. Even the thought of those flames trying to get me made me want to hide under the hospital bedsheet.
You’re okay, I reminded myself. Alek got you out. He saved you just like a Prince Charming.
Yes, Alek was my Prince Charming. And he was my villain, too.
But most of all, he was mine.
My eyes slowly fluttered open. I winced at the bright light, a slight whimper slipping past my lips without meaning to.
“Shh, solnyshka,” a soft voice murmured. A warm hand caressed my cheek, stroking it with his thumb.
Alek.
I tried to open my eyes even more, tried to move in the bed so I could see him, hold him. A pair of hands held me against the bed. “You’re all right. No need to rush.”
“Al… Alek,” I said, coughing a few times.
“I’m right here, baby. Take it easy.”
I focused all my attention on the places he touched me, grounding myself in the feeling. I inhaled and exhaled several times. “That’s it. Good girl.”
Hearing those words drove me wild. I knew I should have been focused on the pain, on my slight difficulties breathing, on anything other than how badly his hands pushing me into the bed made me want him. But after going a few days without him, I needed him. I needed more.
My eyes opened once more, and the world came into focus.
It took a few seconds to adjust to the brightness of the hospital room.
There was a slight beeping noise coming from a monitor behind me, and I was covered by a thin bed sheet and an even thinner dress.
The room smelled like antiseptic, cleaner, and a faint whiff of musk.
My gaze found him last, his body stiff in a small chair, leaning toward the bed.
Alek’s hair was mussed as if he spent hours running his fingers through it.
He wore his signature black suit, only instead of being pristine, it was rumpled, some of the buttons undone to reveal his tattoos.
His eyes were dark, and his jaw was tight until I whispered, “Alek.”
“How are you feeling, baby?”
There was something guarded in both his tone and his expression, like he almost expected me to wake up and push him away. But I would never do that. I meant what I said before the fire. I wanted him.
I tried to sit up further, but my movements were constricted by the IV in my arm and the mask over my nose. I pulled that off and set it to the side. Then, I grabbed Alek’s lapels and pulled him to me, crashing our lips together.
His tense body softened against me. Alek brought his hands to my waist and my hair, his tongue thrusting inside of me. I moaned at the taste of him, at the feeling of his tongue practically making love to mine, always dominant.
“I love you,” I murmured against his lips, surrendering to the feelings churning inside of me.
“I love you too, Evangeline,” Alek said before pulling back with a groan. “But fuck. We can’t.”
I stuck my bottom lip out in a soft pout. “Why not? Don’t you want me?”
He slammed me into the bed, his hand wrapping around my throat, and his teeth biting my earlobe. “Of course I fucking want you.”
Alek wrenched himself back, staring at his hand in almost horror. “I could have hurt you. Fuck!” he cursed, shoving himself off the bed. His chest heaved as he placed his forehead against the wall, clearly trying to calm himself.
It took a few tries to stand up, my legs wobbling as if they were still asleep, but eventually, I made it out of the bed, the IV dragging behind me. I felt better than I expected to, which was a welcome surprise. Alek stiffened when I placed my arm on his forearm and pulled him back to me.
“You would never hurt me,” I whispered before grabbing him by the back of the neck and pulling him into me.
Alek didn’t fight me much as our lips met in a gentle kiss that quickly deepened. Heat flared between us like the most natural thing in the world, building low in my core before spreading out to the rest of my sore limbs.
He kissed me like he’d been starved. Slow at first, reverent, his mouth moving against mine with a careful restraint that trembled at the edges.
His hands slid to my waist, thumbs brushing the thin fabric of the hospital gown, as if reminding himself I was alive.
That I was here with him, never going anywhere again.
I whimpered into his mouth, my fingers tightening in his hair. “I need you, Alek. I need to feel you in me.”
His grip tightened, and he pulled back. His lips traveled across my face with tender kisses. “Evangeline… I can’t. You’re in the hospital for fuck’s sake. Your brother went to take a call.”
“Because you saved me. I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you.” I tilted my head, pressing a kiss to his jaw, then his throat, breathing him in. Smoke and steel and something unmistakably Alek.
My hands wandered, slow and sure, relearning him. Feeling the tension coiled beneath his skin. Our time apart was too long. I wanted to memorize the look on his face as he came in me. I wanted to taste the devotion on his tongue.
“I want to feel you. I need to.”
He shuddered when I kissed the corner of his mouth again. “Eva,” he warned, voice rough. “We shouldn’t—”
“Alek.” I pulled back enough to look at him. I tried to display every emotion on my face so he knew this was what I wanted, what I needed.
“Please,” I whispered.
And that was enough.
Something dark and hungry flickered across his face before he mastered it, ice cracking under pressure. He cupped my cheek, thumb brushing under my eye with a tenderness that didn’t match the fire burning in his gaze.
“I will not fuck you now, solnyshka.”
I opened my mouth to protest again, but Alek placed a gentle finger on my lips.
“I will not fuck you now. Not while you’re hooked up to all these machines, not while we’re on a bed with fucking wheels, and not while you’re still recovering.
I won’t risk hurting you right now. But I will make you feel so good, baby. ”
He guided me back toward the bed, his movements controlled, where my breath was not. He helped me gingerly lie down before following after me, settling between my legs. His presence was a familiar weight I welcomed as he braced himself over me.
Alek’s lips traced a path from my mouth to my jaw and down my neck, pausing to bite his favorite spot. Everywhere he touched, he left goosebumps.
My fingers dug into his shoulders as he kissed lower, slower, pausing at my breasts long enough to make my open legs quiver. Alek pulled my hospital gown up to reveal my bare pussy, sucking in a breath at the sight.
He stared at it for several moments, his gaze appreciative. I could already feel the wetness drenching my thighs the longer my anticipation lasted. The world narrowed to the sound of my pounding heart and the steady, devastating focus in his eyes when he looked back at me.
“You’re mine,” he said darkly. “That’s not a promise. That’s a threat.”
And I knew with unwavering certainty the hidden meaning in his words: that my brother would not stand in our way. That these flames had somehow burned our fairytale ending into the storybook. That we would finally be together again.
So I nodded and said, “I know. And you’re mine.”
“Yes,” he said, blue eyes piercing me. “I am.”
The darkness in his eyes made my pussy throb, and by the way his jaw clenched, Alek knew it.
He lowered his head without warning, dragging his tongue up my slit.
I arched at the sensation until one of Alek’s hands pushed my stomach down, the other gripping my thigh as if to anchor himself to me.
Then, he returned, burying himself inside of me, his breath hot and heavy while he tasted the most intimate parts of me.
“Mmm,” he hummed, and the sound sent a vibration up and down my spine. “You taste so fucking sweet.”
My hands went straight to his hair, tugging at the messy strands with so much force that it probably would have brought him to his knees if he weren’t already on them.
“Alek! Oh my God, Alek,” I moaned as he hungrily ate me out.
He worshipped me with his tongue, licking and biting and sucking me into oblivion. I writhed on the bed, the beeping of the monitor suddenly lost in all of the sensations.
“When I die, I want my head to be buried between your legs,” Alek growled. “I want to meet death with the taste of you still on my lips.”
He latched onto my sensitive clit before his tongue darted out and stroked it with a rhythm so fast it almost seemed impossible. My cries died in my throat when one of his hands snaked up my dress to pinch my nipple while the other one buried two fingers deep in my pussy.
The rush of sensations was almost too much. Alek removed the hand from my breast and brought it to my abdomen, where he used it to push me deep into the bed while his fingers’ pace increased. They pumped harder and harder while his mouth leisurely moved against my clit.
“Feel me inside of you. Feel me all the way in your fucking stomach, Evangeline, because that’s where I’m going to be for the rest of our lives.”
“Alek… I need… Alek, please.”
“Shh,” Alek murmured. “I know what you need, solnyshka. You’re taking me so well. Such a good girl. Now come for me.”
I did instantly, my body obeying his every command. My mind was empty of everything but the sparks traveling through my veins. Alek lapped up every ounce of my cum, sighing in pleasure at the taste of my utter satisfaction.
I collapsed against the bed. Normally, Alek would have brought me over the edge multiple times in one night. But I had a feeling that I wasn’t going to be able to push him any farther. Not until I was out of this stupid hospital.
Alek pulled himself next to me and kissed me softly. The smell of my juices on his lips made me dizzy, and I attempted to deepen the kiss before he pulled back with a grin, his eyes bright for the first time in a long time.
“You’re not going to kiss your way into a second round, Evangeline.”
I shrugged, the movement tugging at the still-tense parts of my body. “It was worth a try.”
“You have plenty of time to try later. After you’ve healed.”
“Wow, it’s amazing… I think I’m healed already! Full recovery,” I said, a small smile playing on my lips as I ran my hands over my body, hoping it enticed him enough to dive back into me.
Alek groaned. “Eva. You’re killing me. I can’t keep resisting you.”
“So then don’t. I want you, you want me, and I’m healed enough to have you. What’s there to resist?”
He shook his head, but he was already settling himself atop me, fingers toying with the hem of the hospital gown. “There’s no rush. We have forever, baby.”
I leaned up and kissed him, smiling when he let me pull him back down. “So let’s start our forever now.”