I carry Lina up to my bedroom, ignoring her protests that she’s fine. The sight of blood in her hair has made me insane.
“I told you to stay here.” I don’t release her to get us into my suite, kicking the door shut and flicking on the master switch for all the lights. “I should punish you.”
“I had to know you were okay. I had to see you. Ohhh, I like your bathroom,” she says as I push into the white and green tiled room with chrome fittings. I sit her on the edge of the freestanding bath that I bought because it was long enough for me to lie properly in, even though I’ve only used it once. Maybe I’ll get Lina in it with me.
“Don’t change the subject.” From the medicine cabinet I pull out the necessary equipment.
“I thought no one would see me,” she tries, and I shoot her a dark look. “I’m sorry.”
“Better.” I move her hair out of the way, and she winces. “You might still get punished. You were lucky. The bullet just skimmed past you.” There’s blood, but it’s beginning to clot as I clean it up with an alcohol wipe.
“Is it going to have a brag-worthy scar?” she laughs. Despite her defiant words, she’s shaking like a leaf in a gale beneath my hands.
“Not unless you shave your head.”
The relief that she’s okay is unspeakable. Seeing Vlad point his gun up to where I knew she was hiding was the worst thing that has ever happened to me. Hundreds of times worse than any other bullet I’ve ever fired or had dug out of me.
I’d have never lived with myself if Lina had been seriously injured. And I’m never letting her go.
She heaves a shuddering sigh and grips me tight.
“I was scared.”
“I know.” I was too. Terrified I’d lose her because I was an idiot who didn’t insist she went with Crosse. That she wanted to be with me was too alluring. The implication that she’d take the risks required to be a mafia queen, and stand by my side, was heady.
But I’m not sure my heart rate will go below two hundred again.
“I don’t like it,” she says as I put healing gel over the cut, sounding almost angry. Rebellious and stubborn, same as when I found her touching herself and using a vibrator in my bed.
“It won’t. You’re not going to be hurt again,” I promise.
“That’s not it. I don’t want to remember him every time I’m scared. I like…”
“What is it, kisa?”
My little kitten digs her nails in and whispers furiously. “I like the hint of fear. I liked being caught by you, and that you’re intimidating. But now what I fear more is that every time I feel that twinge of fear, I’ll think of that arsehole and be really afraid, rather than think of you, and be…”
Turned on.
Blood surges to my cock.
“Say it,” I demand, my voice gravelly and harsh.
A second ticks past.
Another.
A third.
I grip her hair, careful of the side of her head, the silk tightening over my clenched fist, and pull her head back to look into her eyes. She gasps but meets my gaze.
“Squirmy and hot and needy,” she admits, half embarrassed, half defiant.
My cock responds in the only way I know and dragging her to her feet, I wrap my arms around her and kiss her.
“I thought you were going to die,” she says into my mouth.
“Not anytime soon,” I assure her as I kiss over her cheeks and down her neck. “I’ll never leave you alone. And I’ll never let anyone hurt you.”
“I thought I might die without having you inside me.” She’s grasping inexpertly for my belt, her movements hasty and panicked. “I thought you might die, and we’d never have been together. All I could think is that I wanted you, and you might be shot, and I’d be alone.”
“I’ll erase that memory.” I cover her hands with mine, stilling them. “I promise.”
“Make me.” Her breath is hot on my jawline. “Chase me.”
That makes me pause. Chase her?
I lower her down until her feet touch the floor, having to peel off her hands from my chest. She looks up, excitement on her face, and trust. And something else I can’t bring myself to name.
It takes all my control not to snatch her to me and rip off her dress right here.
She’s mine.
The possessive pounding through my arteries makes me want to claim her for my own. Permanently. I could rut her on the bathroom floor. But that’s not what she wants. Lina needs to erase the memory of true fear.
She needs me to change the terrifying to merely scary and exhilarating. She needs me to be her monster. I take a step backwards, putting space between us.
“When I catch you, kisa, I won’t be so nice.” I make my voice low and menacing. “The things I’ll do to you…”
The threat hangs in the air.
“Run.”
She hikes up her dress and takes off, not holding back, rushing out of the bathroom. Fast.
I move to the door and take a moment to watch her. She’s beautiful running, hair flying behind her, strong and smart. But I don’t wait for long.
What she needs is to be wanted. Desired to the point of obsession. She has to feel my power and that I’m swifter, stronger and more determined to catch her than she is to escape.
I love that. I love her.
This must be proof that I’ll protect her and keep her. No more compromise. No more denial.
So I sprint after her like my life depends on it—because it does. She does. At the door she pauses, casts a look over her shoulder, and when she sees me, a smile curves her lips before she yanks open the door to my bedroom and dashes into the next room of the suite.
It’s a sitting room that I more often use as a corridor to get to my private study at the end and she casts her eyes from side to side, figuring out which might be the better way to go. She can’t decide, pausing at the door that leads to the hallway.
“No,” I growl, and my good girl dashes past to bring me around in a circle, slipping through the plush sofas I’d love to tumble her onto. I get closer, but although I could easily catch up, I want her to enjoy this fully. I ease my steps, keeping a short distance away.
She has a burst of speed, and throws the door to my private office open wide. I grin and follow. Because what I know that she doesn’t is that room only has one way in and out. And I can shut us in.
I slam it behind me, and she comes to a screeching halt in the middle of the room as she looks for an exit.
“There isn’t one.” I turn the lock and drop the key into my pocket. “Now. My pretty little prey. I have you, and no one can disturb us.”
She feints, then runs the other way, and I pound after her, relishing the hunt. We do laps of my desk, me allowing her to tire herself out and burn off the adrenaline of the evening. It’s been a lot.
I’m wired too, on high alert, following her every dodge and enjoying her surprised squeal as I hurdle a sofa to get closer.
We play this game for minutes, me never drawing quite close enough to grab her up, always allowing her to escape.
Until she slips and nearly falls, and no way. No more hurt for my girl. After that I’m not messing around. My muscles burn as I accelerate, getting to her before she has even fully recovered and run.
Catching her by the waist, I snatch her into my arms, propelling us against the nearest wall. She struggles, clawing, and I grab first one wrist, then the other, pinning them above her head.
She tries to knee my balls and I dodge just in time with a chuckle. Then I use my hips to hold hers. She pushes back against me, and my cock responds by going from erect to furiously hard. Running after her means blood is pumping through my arteries, my cock filling to bursting.
“I won’t stop, kisa.” I keep her in place, helpless and in my power. “You’re mine.”
Her mouth falls open and those green-blue eyes widen. So damn pretty.
Grinding myself against the gap between her legs, I leave no room for her to think of anyone but me. Her beautiful hair is soft against my forehead as I savagely press my face into her neck and bite.
“Feel what chasing you, catching you, and holding you does to me.”
She lets out a whimper and writhes against me.
“Tell me,” I order.
“It makes you hard,” she pants out.
I roll my hips, pushing against her softness so much it must hurt. But she doesn’t complain, just whimpers with need. Keeping her wrists pinned in one of my hands, I sweep the other down her body in a blatantly possessive show. “I caught you. You’re mine, Lina. I want to claim what’s mine.”
She jerks her hands and I tighten my grip.
I search her face for fear, and yeah. It’s there. It sends a thrill down my spine and right to my cock, which responds to her struggle with a twitch.
Releasing her, I slam my palms each side of her head. “Do you need to run again?”
She grabs the back of my neck and yanks me to her, smashing our lips together then scratches over my shoulders so deep I hiss. I hope there’s blood. I deserve it for what she went through this evening.
“Take me.” Her words are muffled.
My groan is lost. Fuck, she wants it. My little prey is hot for me. I press her into the wall, covering her, telling her with my body that she’s safe with me, kissing her ravenously as she tries to devour me while my mind whirrs. Can I really do this?
Drawing back, I grab her chin, forcing her to look at me. I’ve always known that if I cross this line, that’s it. But if she thinks we’re faking, that ends now. She has no idea what a possessive monster she’s allowed to catch her.
“If I slip into this wet pussy, it’s mine. You understand that, Lina?”
A smile lights her face, the easy and bright contrast to my dark and serious expression. “Yes.”
Her hands go to my belt, and I let her, dragging up her skirt by the fistful as our eyes continue to be locked. I’m shaking with need as she frees my erection and I push her knickers down before pulling her to me, kissing her. My cock presses to her core, and she’s wet. I groan as we so perfectly notch together. She already feels impossibly good.
“I’ll never let you go.” I have to make her understand, and yet I cannot stop. I’m so close—the tip of my cock is settled right at her entrance, in her soaked folds—I’m mad with need for her. “I’ll keep you, breed you, care for you. I’ll fuck you every day.”
“Artem. Please.”
Her begging undoes me.
“You’re going to be my wife.” I groan as I sink just the head of my cock into her.
She lets out a sound of surprise and pleasure and perhaps a bit of pain too. A shuddering moan with a hint of squeak. She’s so wet, but did I do that too fast for my virgin girl?
“Yes.” The word is panted out. “I want to be your wife.”
“It’s going to feel good,” I promise her, easing out and pushing in the same inch, slower this time, careful. No further. Just a taste, enough to get her used to the stretch of my substantial girth. “Trust me.”
“It does, it does. I…” And she tilts her hips, trying to get more.
“Uh-uh.” I draw back, even as my cock is begging me to take everything my innocent girl is offering.
“Now.”
“I will. I will as soon as you relax.”
“Stop teasing me!”
In answer I give her the smallest thrust in and out, still barely inside her, stretching open her entrance. “Like this, kisa?”
She sobs with frustration.
“Or do you need more?”
“More!” She scrabbles at my back. “More. Please.”
“Mm.” I grin at how desperate she is. That is true magic. I thought I was insane, but we’re mad together, the ideal fit. “More of your future husband’s cock?”
“Yes.”
“Say it. I need to hear the words.”
“Please?” She keens, and I take pity, grabbing her thigh and easing it up mine. My good girl wraps it around my hips, opening herself to me.
“Not the right words.” I ease a little deeper and she gasps.
“Artem, that’s…” Whatever she was going to say is forgotten as I give her more shallow thrusts, sliding over her clit before slipping into her.
“Whose is this pussy, Lina? Who do you belong to?”
“Yours,” she sobs, moving with me, finding my rhythm without a single missing beat. “I’m yours. I love you, I love you.”
“Good girl.” Possessive glee fires in my chest and I ram all the way home. The hard thrust draws a cry from her and a deep grunt of contentment from me. “I love you too. I love you so very much.”
I push her more firmly into the wall, driving into her and she meets me every time. Fuck, she’s a sex kitten. So beautifully responsive. I reach down, cramming my hand between our bodies to find her clit, and stroke.
“You feel amazing. So tight and wet. You’re my perfect virgin wife-to-be. Come on my cock, Lina.”
I press just a little harder and then, as I instructed, she’s gripping my length as she comes, the sensation rippling over me, as sweet as if it were my own.
Breaking off our kiss, I keep up the firm slide of my body into hers, both because I need it and I think she does too because with every thrust she shudders with pleasure.
“I loved you coming on my tongue. But this way, on my cock, I get to watch your pretty face. It’s even better.” I love the feel of her, clenching on the most sensitive part of me as she pulses again and again, sobbing and shaking. And she’s beautiful as she comes, utterly gorgeous, those fathomless eyes closed, overcome.
“Good girl,” I say as her climax ebbs away. “So good. Now you’re going to take my seed and get bred.”
