The kiss tasted like vodka and danger and something devastatingly addictive.Heat surged through her body.She should stop this.Lena could still pull away.
She should remind herself exactly what he was.An unrepentant killer, but instead she kissed him back passionately.This heat between them ...she realized it felt even more dangerous than the guns had, but at that moment, she didn’t care.
Maksim made a rough sound low in his throat before pressing his forehead briefly against hers, breathing hard.
“You should be afraid of me,” he murmured.
“I am.”
The truth hung between them, and somehow it only made the tension worse.
Maksim tightened his hand slightly in her hair, only to kiss her again.It was slower this time, as if he was savoring the taste of her, but it was certainly no less intense.
Outside, the city remained violent and hungry.Inside the small safehouse room, Lena forgot everything except the feel of his mouth on hers and the terrifying realization that she no longer wanted to run nearly as much as she should have.
Chapter Seven
Morning soon arrived.Lena woke first, and for a moment, she didn’t move.The events of the previous night returned in fractured pieces.She remembered the sound of gunfire, the blood, rough hands dragging her away.Most of all she recalled Maksim cutting through men like death itself to get her back.
Her pulse quickened faintly at the memory.Then she became aware of the warmth beside her.Maksim lay half on his stomach beside her on top of the blankets, one arm stretched near her waist like even asleep some part of him refused to let her drift too far.His dark hair was slightly disheveled, his breathing deep and even.
The sight unsettled her more than it should have.
She had never seen him asleep before, not truly.Awake, Maksim was all sharp edges and controlled violence.Even when calm, he carried tension beneath his skin like a loaded weapon waiting for an excuse to fire.
Sleeping stripped some of that away, but not entirely.Even unconscious, he looked dangerous.He rested one hand close to the gun on the bedside table by instinct alone.His brow was faintly furrowed, like his body had forgotten how to fully relax years ago.
But there was exhaustion there too now.Bruises darkened his ribs beneath the edge of the blanket.The fresh bandage at his shoulder stood out starkly against tattooed skin.
There were scars everywhere once she truly looked.Thin white lines, older injuries, evidence of a life built on violence.Somehow, despite all of it, he saved her life last night.Lena stared at him longer than she meant to.
Last night kept replaying in her mind.The moment those men grabbed her.The sheer certainty that she was about to disappear into something terrible, and then Maksim turning toward her instantly.
Her throat tightened unexpectedly.Maksim had looked at those men like they had committed something unforgivable simply by touching her.The memory sent heat curling low through her stomach before she could stop it.
God, that was dangerous.As if sensing her staring, Maksim shifted slightly.He opened his eyes immediately.Maksim looked alert, predatory awareness snapping into place in under a second.
