Lena frowned.“Last night?Obviously.”
“Not then.”His voice lowered slightly.“When they took you.”
The memory of guns, strange men, and the panic choking her alive tightened her chest instantly.Underneath it all, was overwhelming fear.That Maksim wouldn’t get to her in time.Lena swallowed hard.
“I thought...”She stopped.
Maksim waited silently.
“I thought you might let them take me.”The confession came quieter than she intended.Something shifted in his expression immediately.
“No.”That one word felt certain and absolute.
Lena looked at him helplessly.Maksim stepped closer, he wasn’t quite touching her yet, but he stood close enough that she could feel the warmth rolling off him.
“When they put their hands on you,” he said quietly, “I stopped thinking clearly.”
The air changed between them.Lena felt it instantly.That invisible line they had been circling for days finally beginning to snap.Her pulse thundered now.
“You barely know me,” she whispered.
Maksim moved his gaze slowly over her face, lingering on her mouth and throat.
“I know enough.”The way he said it made her stomach twist hard with heat.
Lena should step away.Instead she moved closer without realizing it.Maksim noticed immediately.He raised his hand, brushing his fingers lightly against her jaw.The touch was almost unbearably careful for a man capable of such terrifying violence.
“You should hate me,” he murmured.
“I probably should,” Lena admitted.
“But you don’t.”
Lena’s breathing turned shallow.
“No,” she admitted softly.“I don’t know what I feel anymore.”
That seemed to affect him more than she expected.Something hungry flickered behind his eyes, desire that had been restrained too tightly for too long.
“You’re dangerous,” she whispered.
Maksim brushed her trembling lower lip with his thumb.
“Yes,” he said.
The honesty of it undid her.There were no lies, and no pretending to be better than he was.Lena liked that he was honest.Lena reached up before she could second-guess herself and touched the cut near his brow gently.Maksim went completely still beneath her fingers.
Was this really happening?Lena thought to herself.
Then Maksim tugged her close and kissed her hard, like his restraint had finally broken apart. Lena gasped softly against his mouth as he pulled her against him, one hand sliding into her hair.The kiss tasted like coffee and smoke and danger.
Heat surged through her violently.She kissed him back without hesitation this time.Maksim made a rough sound against her mouth, deep enough to send a shiver down her spine.
His hands moved carefully despite the intensity between them, like some part of him still remembered how easily he could overpower her.That control somehow made everything hotter.
Lena tightened her fingers in his shirt as the kiss deepened.The world outside the apartment seemed impossibly far away now.In here, there was no danger, no escape plans, only her and him.
Maksim pulled back only enough to look at her, breathing hard.He rested his forehead briefly against hers.
