When I wake up, my heart sinks.
Adrian isn’t here.
Judging by the darkness outside, it’s still night. Is he going back to leaving my side right after sex like I’m his whore?
I thought he finally believed me. I thought he trusted me—or at least has started to.
Turns out, that’s not the case.
But if he thought I would cower away and cry myself to sleep while he spends the night in his office, he thought wrong. I’m not going to budge from his side until he fully opens up to me.
I’m about to push away the covers when my phone vibrates on the nightstand. I pick it up and check the text.
Unknown Number: You had to go and force my hand, Duchess. Now you’ll bear the consequences. I told Adrian you helped me in his assassination attempt. Rest in peace.
No!
No…
I stumble to a standing position, reading and rereading the text message. If Adrian thinks I helped Luca, he’ll never forgive me. I’ve barely managed to reach through his frigid exterior.
Sliding on a robe, I sprint to the door, but my feet come to a halt when it opens and Adrian appears on the threshold. His face is a blank mask, devoid of emotions.
“It’s not what you think… I can explain…”
“Explain what? That you wanted me dead?” He pulls out a gun and I step backward.
He grabs me by the wrist and shoves the gun in my hand, then points it at his chest. “Do it then. Finish the job, Lenochka.”
My hands shake, sweat covering my palms. “No…no…I don’t want you dead. I love you. I’m in love with you, have been for years.”
“If you loved me, you wouldn’t have plotted my assassination. Go ahead then. Pull the trigger.”
“No…”
“It’s a mere pull of the trigger and you’ll be rid of me.”
“No.”
“Shoot!”
“No!”
A bang echoes in the air and I shriek so loud, my ears pop.
I startle awake in warm arms. Strong, protective arms that surround me in a cocoon.
Adrian.
He’s holding me in a sitting position in the middle of the bed, his palm slowly stroking my sweat-damp hair away from my face.
My shaky fingers feel up his chest and down his tattooed bicep to his forearm, mechanically searching for any injury.
“I’m fine, Lia. It was just a nightmare.”
I still, staring up at him. “A nightmare?”
“Yes. You’re fine.” His lips find the top of my head and they brush over my hair, creating a buzz of comfort, of…safety.
My head rests on his chest as I catch my breath, burrowing into the hard ridges of his muscles, using him as my nook, my anchor.
My husband.
After he fucked me until my voice turned hoarse and no more sounds or orgasms were left in me, I don’t remember much.
He must’ve untied me and cleaned me up at some point, or I wouldn’t have been in this position.
“Are you hungry?”
“No.” I lean my head back but don’t leave the cocoon as I stare at him. It’s night outside and some of the candles are still lit, their red hues casting a warm glow on his face.
I love his face.
I love how he’s more beautiful than a Greek god and just as lethal.
But most of all, I love how his hard granite features only soften around me. As if no one in the world is worthy of his gentle side but me—and Jer.
While he continues to hold me, Adrian reaches back to the nightstand and retrieves a bottle of water, removes the top, and places it at my lips.
“I’m not thirsty.”
“You must be. Drink up or you’ll dehydrate.”
I attempt to take the bottle, but he keeps it out of reach.
“I can drink on my own,” I grumble.
“I know.”
“If you want me to drink water from your hand, all you have to do is say so.”
“I don’t want you to drink water from my hand.” After he takes a swig, he grabs my jaw. His mouth meets mine and he pours the water into it. He nibbles my lip, then his teeth tug on it and he sucks it inside his hot, wet mouth.
By the time he finishes, I’m hyperventilating, my jaw open and my throat dryer than before he gave me the water.
Holy. Shit. Can I drink that way for the rest of my life?
“Go on. Drink, Lia.”
“From your lips?” I ask like an idiot.
Adrian’s mouth twitches in a smile as he motions at my hand. That’s when I realize he already placed the bottle between my fingers.
“Though if you prefer my lips, I can arrange it.”
“That’s not what I meant,” I blurt out, then gulp half the bottle down in one go to soothe my dry throat and the embarrassment heating my cheeks.
“Slower.” He pulls the bottle away. “Or you’ll choke.”
I stare up at him, my heart squeezing behind my ribcage. I’ve known him for six years. Six whole years, but seeing him this close never gets dull.
He never gets dull.
“How did you find me back then?” I ask in a low voice.
“Back when?”
“That…night at the cliff. Rai’s guard was fast, but you still found us in no time.”
“I tracked you.”
“Tracked me…wait a second. You have a tracker on me?”
He taps my cheek. “Dental.”
I try to pull away, but Adrian’s hold keeps me glued in place. “Since when?”
“Soon after I married you.”
“Oh my God. Were you ever planning on telling me?”
“I just did.”
“Wow. You’re…you’re…”
“Impossible?”
“I was going to say a jerk. I can’t believe you’ve been tracking me all along.” Though I shouldn’t be surprised and it did save my life, but the fact remains that he’s been doing it secretly.
“It’s for your safety.”
“Are you sure it’s not for your controlling nature?”
“Perhaps a little.”
“A lot.” I glare at him. “What else have you done?”
“Where should I start?”
“Let’s go back to the beginning. You said you watched me for months before showing up at my apartment building.”
“I did.”
“I can’t believe I never noticed you.”
“You couldn’t have even if you tried. If I didn’t show myself that day, you wouldn’t have known I existed.”
“Why did you show yourself?”
“To kill those Rozettis guards who were watching you.”
“But you could’ve disappeared after.”
He strokes my shoulder blade, his eyes darkening as if he’s taking a trip to the past. “Not after I saw that delicious fear in your eyes, no. I had to explore it…and you.”
“You’re such a sadist.”
“If you say so.”
“And before then? Did you make it your mission to watch me?”
“Correct.”
“Did you attend my ballet performances?”
“Yes.”
“And yet, you said you weren’t a stalker.”
“Stalker or not didn’t matter. I was on a mission at the time to learn your habits, know your life, and eventually become a part of it so I could ask you a few questions about Lazlo. Turned out, you knew nothing and even believed the cover-up surname was yours.”
“Sorry I was useless,” I mock.
“I’m not.”
“Really? I thought I ruined your plan.”
“You did. You shredded my patterns apart and dug yourself a place in the middle of them. You tore through my original plan and I had to come up with another drastic one to get close to Lazlo without getting you involved.”
“I assume it worked?”
“It did.”
“Then why isn’t he helping you to not be suspected by Sergei?”
His jaw clenches. “I see Yan’s mouth is getting loose.”
My hand wraps around his tattooed bicep as I implore. “We’re on the same side. I just want to help. If I were to talk to my father, would that—”
“No.”
“You didn’t even let me finish.”
“You don’t have to. The answer is no.”
“But—”
“No, Lia. I didn’t keep you away all this time to bring you in now.”
“We’re husband and wife. We’re supposed to do this together.”
“It’s because we’re husband and wife that I’m protecting you. This subject is closed for discussion.”
“You’re a dictator.”
“Back to the labels, I see.”
“Well, you are one.”
“And you only figured it out now, Lenochka? If I weren’t, I wouldn’t have been able to bring you in from the streets.”
I pause, staring down. “You…scared me back then.”
“I had to so you’d know there was no way out.”
“I…was also attracted to you.”
“Hmm. You were?”
“So much so that I secretly hated your wife. I wanted to claw her eyes out.”
“You were jealous of yourself?”
I hide my face in his chest as I nod.
“Look at me, Lia.”
I shake my head, too embarrassed to stare at him.
Adrian grabs my chin and lifts it up so I’m once again held prisoner in the storm brewing in his eyes. It’s tamer now, softer, but I have no doubt it’ll erupt any second if need be.
“What else did you feel?” he asks.
“Envious, mostly. I wanted you and Jeremy for myself more than anything.”
“You had us.”
“Not during that first month. But you eventually brought me home. Thank you and I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For lying to you and for earlier. I didn’t mean to use Jeremy to make you commit to the vacation. Kolya said you didn’t react well to that.”
“First Yan is on your side and now Kolya? Are Boris and Ogla next?”
“They just want what’s best for you.”
“Uh-huh.”
I squeeze his bicep tighter. “Was your mother that bad?”
“I told you she was a villain.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m sure she’s more than sorry. She had an ending that fits your Disney movies.”
“What type of ending?”
“She only ever wanted my father and power, and she died with a bullet to the head because of them. It happened when I was ten.”
“Oh, Adrian…” My heart aches for him as if the pain is mine. He might not have been close to his mother, but she was still the woman who gave birth to him and raised him. Her death must’ve affected him in a way.
No wonder he grew up to be an emotional vault. It must be hard for him to feel after everything that happened in his childhood.
“She’s in the past. Both of my parents are.”
“How did your father die?”
“There was a hit against the previous Pakhan, Nikolai, and he protected him with his body.”
I gulp. “Did he have to?”
“Not really, but it’s expected of us to protect our Pakhan.”
“Don’t do it.”
“What?”
“Don’t protect him with your life.”
“I won’t. I have a family, remember?”
“Didn’t stop your father.”
“I’m not him, Lenochka. Never.”
I hug him tight, burrowing my face in his chest. I’ll make sure he’s not his father.
Even if it’s the last thing I do.
