Font Size:  

He throws his head back, exasperated. “Do not play stupid—because you aren’t. You are not stupid.”

“Maybe I need to hear it from you,” I counter, breathless. “So just tell me—”

“Fine.” He advances, backing me against a nearby tree. His fingers find my hair again, twisting in the strands of it. “Maybe I just like when you bite back. When you prove you’re more than Robert Winthorp’s pathetic little wife.”

“Or maybe it’syou,” I suggest. “You’re tired of being the wolf. I’ve seen you with Mouse. Even Vanya said—”

“Don’t.” He tugs sharply on my hair, yanking my head back. “Don’t make pretty little assumptions you can’t back up. You’ll just hurt your delicate sensibilities, Rose—”

“But what if I need to?” It’s a question I’m only brave enough to ask now. Not of him, but of myself. “What if I need to believe there’s more to you than this?” I swipe my thumb across my scarred cheek and watch him eye the marks as well. “What if I need to believe there’s more to you than a monster?”

“And why is that?” he demands, his voice low.

“Because…I don’t want to crave a monster.”

My cheeks sear at the confession, but it’s too late. The words taint the air, spoken aloud, and I’m too exhausted to take them back.

He stiffens, suspicious as always. Narrowed eyes betray his first instinct: fight back. He surges forward, crushing me against moss and bark, and I tense, expecting an assault.

Anything but another kiss, deeper than the first. It’s dangerous to let him in, but my body doesn’t care. It rails against common sense, letting him invade and claim.

It betrays me in every fucking way.

Suddenly, Mischa pulls back, his gaze darting toward the shadows. “Shit,” he hisses.

Dazed, my brain is slow to pick up on his unease. “What’s going on?”

“Shh!” He slams his hand over my mouth, his body rigid. He’s listening for something.

Or someone.

“Your husband might be more tenacious than I gave him credit for,” he snarls into my ear. “We need to move. Now!”

Dirt and brambles crunch underfoot as we race through the dark. His grip on my arm is my only tether to stability, steering me forward.

The farther we go, the more disorienting it is trying to make sense of the swaying branches and uneven terrain.

“Stop!” Suddenly, Mischa drags me behind a tree. “Stay here. I’m going to see if we’re being followed.” He pulls away, slipping into the darkness.

In his absence, the noise of the forest echoes tenfold. Every scurrying creature and gust of wind is a rustling footstep or intruder.

“It’s safe.”

I jump as Mischa reappears between two trees and beckons me with a jerk of his chin.

“Come. It seems we have ‘company.’”

We return to the house, where a black van is parked in the gravel driveway. For a second, I let my imagination play with the scenario that he finally decided to give up and sell me to Robert.

I’ll find him waiting for me in the foyer, his smile smug.

Instead, Sergei Vasilev is there, casting a hulking shadow. “I’ve had some of my men help secure your perimeter. You’re lucky I found your camp when I did,” he says. “I had a feeling you wouldn’t go far, and I don’t mind extending my assistance. In return, I have only one request.”

“Of course you do.” Mischa’s grip on my arm tightens. “And what is that?”

“To talk.” He nods toward me. “Alone. One minute, no more.”

“And if I refuse?”

Source: www.allfreenovel.com