AllFreeNovel
Share Us
And while I’d spent ten years in New York, Uncle Misha had spent that same time cultivating allies here in Chicago. A chill ran down my ribs.He’s isolated me in my own home. He can replace me in an instant…
“Aleksey?” Elia broke my thought.
“I won’t let him get to you.” I pressed a kiss to her temple. “I will fucking kill him if he so much as looks at you wrong. No one will hurt you, Elia, not while I’m here.” And if I wasn’t, then Boris would ensure her safety.
A heady cocktail of different emotions rushed through me all at once. Were it not for Elia, I would’ve missed this. But now that she’d said it so plainly, it was so obvious.I need her,I thought.I need her more than I ever thought possible.
“Please, Aleksey.” Elia placed her arms around my waist and clung to me. “Please don’t let him do this to me…”
I pulled back to frame her face with my hands, brushing away the tears that had escaped her terrified eyes.
“I swear,” I said softly. “You are safe with me.” I would protect her with my life if need be. A thousand other words rushed toward my lips, but I swallowed them down. Neither of us was ready for those words for right now. “Trust me.”
“I do,” she finally said, giving me a wobbly smile. “I trust you.”
Releasing a painful breath, I pressed my lips to her forehead. “I shouldn’t have kept you here in Chicago after the wedding,” I admitted, hating that I had her worried now. “You belong in New York, where you can be kept safe. I should send you there.”Far from Uncle Misha’s grip.
“No,” she interrupted, pressing her hand to my chest and forcing me to meet her gaze. “If you send me back to New York now, then that will only spook your uncle and let him know we’ve uncovered his plan. We can’t allow that. For better or worse, I must remain here. This is where I belong.” Her eyes locked with mine. “Right here with you.”
“There is another way we can thwart him,” she said, her voice a bit unsteady.
“What is it?” I asked, my heart lurching. I had a suspicion what she was about to suggest, but I needed to hear her say it.
Elia took a shuddering breath. “We can have a child. Our child.”
And there it was.Our child…I knew that was the eventuality. But to hear those words and will it into existence like this…
“Elia…” I started.
“No, listen.” She placed a delicate finger to my lips to stop me. “You asked me to trust you. And now I’m asking you to trust me. This is the only way.”
“Is that whatyouwant?” I asked, grasping her hand in mine.
“When has anyone ever cared about what I want?” she said bitterly. “It might have even happened already, Aleksey.”
There was sadness in her eyes in the way she said it. I saw the tear slide down her face before I could wipe it away. She went silent. I knew her heart was breaking at the thought. She’d been forced to spread her legs for me. And now, she realized that the only way she might keep herself safe from a worse fate was my baby growing in her belly.
“Elia…”
“Stop it, Aleksey.” She pulled away from me and sat on the desk. “Stop trying to feel sorry for me. I don’t want your pity. I don’t want your apologies.”
She opened her legs wide, her stance beckoning me like a moth to the flame. “I want to survive. And if this is what it takes, then that’s exactly what I’ll do.”
I felt a heaviness descend over the room as I stalked over to her, caging her between my arms. My cock came to life as she stared intensely into my eyes. The tears were gone, and in their place was a determination that sent a shiver through my core.
I was staring into the eyes of a she-wolf, one who would chew off her own leg to survive.
“Are you going to just stand there?” she whispered. “Or are you going to fuck me?”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Elia
I gasped as Aleksey’s teeth nipped at the sensitive skin on my neck, not believing how wet I already was. When he had invited me into his office, I had assumed the worst.
In a way, I was right.
It had taken the two of us to arrive at the startling realization. But once it was said, the cruel path that we both needed to take became plainly obvious.
