Chapter 11 #7
I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know how to reassure him, how to warm him, “I… I wasn’t alone,” I tried to reassure him.
“I was with friends, and Kenji…” he cut me off, his lips crashing against mine again.
This time, my eyes closed, and I kissed him back, rising onto my toes.
I felt as though my body was waking up, as though I was finding my bearings again. Finding myself. The real me.
“I missed you,” he breathed suddenly as he pulled back slightly, his lips brushing mine.
My heart skipped a beat. My mind trembled as I pressed my lips together.
You too. The words echoed in my head, in my mind, in my heart, but not from my mouth.
Not from my lips. I held them back. I locked them away.
I hid them. Because they were true. And truths, I hid those.
Because they made me vulnerable. Weak. And I didn’t want to be that in front of him. I… I couldn’t. I just couldn’t.
My heart fluttered when I saw his lips quivered into a discreet smile, “I see,” he murmured, his thumb brushing my jaw in a gentle stroke, and it felt as though he were caressing my heart itself.
“What do you see?” I asked softly, my hands still resting against his warm body, “I see…” his grip tightened around my waist, pulling me closer, and I bit back a moan as I felt his erection press against my stomach.
“That your eyes and your mouth don’t tell the same story, rodnaya,” (darling) he sighed.
The new nickname made me shiver. “Neither your hatred last time nor your silence now reflects what your eyes reveal,” he continued, his blue gaze magnetized to my face, his nose brushing against mine as he breathed me in, my skin, my warmth, my scent.
I closed my eyes, the truth in his words cutting too deep.
The way he could read me so effortlessly was unfamiliar, unsettling.
It proved that Kenji was right, that I lowered my guard where I felt safe, with him and that terrified me.
I didn’t want to get hurt again, especially not by him.
If that happened, I wouldn’t get back up.
Not this time. “Sasha…” I breathed, shaking my head slightly, my fingers clutching his shirt, “Sienna,” he replied, and I opened my eyes to meet his again.
I said nothing, simply held his gaze, my jaw tight.
I felt stripped bare beneath his eyes, he wasn’t just reading my emotions, he was reading my thoughts.
It felt as though he was becoming like Kenji, knowing me far too well.
He finally closed his eyes and sighed before straightening and releasing me.
“Speaking of the wedding… I’m sorry about the CGM,” he said at last, sliding his hands into the pockets of his tailored trousers, “I shouldn’t have done that.
And I shouldn’t have used Selina that way either” he lowered his gaze to the ground, nudging a small stone with his shoe like a guilty child.
My fingers tingled with the urge to touch him, to feel his skin.
The cold that seized me when he stepped back crept into my veins like poison.
It was hard to understand, impossible to explain, but that single step away, that distance he put between us, left me more alone than I had ever been.
Not in that cell nine years ago. Not when I searched for my sister all those years.
Not even when Kenji, the person closest to me, wasn’t by my side.
I sighed softly and crossed my arms over my chest, a precaution to restrain any foolish impulse my body might attempt in front of the specimen standing before me. “Yes, you shouldn’t have,” I said quietly as he slowly lifted his head, his gaze locking onto mine.
“I forgive you, Sasha”. Who was I not to forgive him, after all? The watch I had given Kenji contained a tracker. So did the bracelets my friends wore. I was hardly in a position to judge him for that.
He looked at me suspiciously, clearly doubting my sincerity, but something in my face, something in my eyes, seemed to convince him. He nodded and turned slightly away, the muscles of his neck tightening. The sudden instinct to leave my mark there with my teeth caught me off guard. Stupid hormones.
I nodded as well and turned toward the entrance, ready to join the others, when suddenly his long fingers, now warm closed around my wrist.
“You don’t need anyone to exist, Sienna,” he said, stopping me I looked at him over my shoulder.
He was referring to what I’d said earlier.
“But I hope I’ll earn your trust one day,” he continued.
“So that I can become someone in your life. So that I can at least exist in your world.” He lifted my hand to his mouth and pressed a kiss to my knuckles, those same knuckles that had reddened after the punch I’d thrown him in the dining room.
My breath caught in my throat as he stepped closer, his fingers still wrapped around my wrist, gently tugging until I faced him fully.
His other hand rose to my face, his thumb brushing my injured lower lip before sliding upward to my forehead, tracing the bridge of my nose.
Then he began rubbing a specific spot gently for a few seconds, his brows furrowed, before leaning in to brush his lips against the reddened skin.
“Let’s go inside,” he finally said, tugging me softly along with him as I tried to understand his gesture, tried to understand him.
Chapter 11
Somewhere in New York City
Alia Rasili stared at the woman’s face through her screen.
It had been almost three months now since they had been in contact, and still there had been no progress on their plan.
“Your men screwed up, Alia, even though I gave you the exact route they were taking that day,” the woman on the other end of the call shouted.
“They should have attacked as soon as they left the shopping center and finished off both sisters,” she continued, while Alia slowly shook her head.
“The security was too tight for the attack to succeed,” she countered calmly, memories of her meeting with the remaining men flooding back.
Giuliano, the one who had led the operation and had nearly put a bullet between that whore Sienna’s eyes, had given her his report.
Sienna could have been history if only those men hadn’t shown up.
“You’re saying those men are their Shadows?
” Alia asked, leaning closer to the screen as she gradually processed everything the woman was telling her.
“Yes. Their duty is to protect the Stars,” the woman sighed, and Alia could clearly see behind her dark gaze not only disgust, but burning anger.
Revenge had been Alia’s purpose for nearly ten years now, ever since the death of her brother, whom they had found abandoned in a hotel room.
And only a few months ago, she had learned that his murderer was none other than Sienna Floros, Selina’s sister.
Selina, the Selina she had tortured for years alongside Antonio.
The Selina she had watched suffer. The Selina who had killed her cousin.
The Floros sisters were going to die. And so were the Ivanovs.
“So Sienna is a Star?” Alia asked, a cruel smile slowly stretching her lips.
“A prostitute?” The woman nodded, visibly annoyed, while Alia struggled to believe it.
Sienna was a prostitute. What would happen if the Ivanovs found out?
“I can see exactly what you’re thinking, and I advise against it,” the woman suddenly warned, her English heavy with a strong accent.
“I wouldn’t want the fragile peace we’ve found to end badly, if the Ivanovs find out about the Halo, I’ll fall too and I won’t be the only one, little Rasili,” she continued.
Alia clenched her fists against her desk.
She was acting without the approval of the Cosa Nostra.
Her uncle, Antonio’s father had even questioned her about it, and she had said nothing.
If anyone discovered the truth, it would be her death sentence.
There were laws in the mafia. Laws that could not be broken.
But they were all traitors. They hadn’t wanted revenge against the Russians for the deaths of two Rasili.
They had made a deal with them, sealing it with the blood of her brother and her cousin.
She wouldn’t let that stand. Even if it killed her.
“So what do we do now?” Alia asked, ignoring the threats she had just received.
Once she dealt with the Floros sisters, she would deal with this woman too.
The woman straightened, her gaze fixing on something or someone beyond the screen.
“I’m going to shake the Ivanovs’ foundation,” she said at last, a slow smile curling her lips.
“I’m going to destroy the bond that ties them all together.
And I’ll start with the people around them. ”