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“No, you say it.” I rolled over, a light hand banded around her throat. “Say I’m the best you’ve ever had.”
Heat rose in her cheeks, turning her a gorgeous shade of pink that had me semi-hard again. But her green eyes found mine and stuck. “You’re the best I’ve ever had, Ivan.”
Some unspoken truth floated between us. Saying it would ruin things, so I didn’t. Neither did she. I just stared down at her, watching as her blinks became slower and slower until her eyes stayed closed.
She’s been asleep since then, catching up on the sleep we lost last night.
But I haven’t slept at all. I don’t want to sleep. I don’t want to miss a second of this time where the only thing that matters is the sound Cora makes when I slide into her.
Because, as soon as we step foot outside this room, Cora becomes just another cog in the machine of my life. An asset in a mission. A pawn on the chessboard.
She inhales deeply, her chest rising and falling under the thin sheet covering her chest. It occurs to me, not for the first time, that she knows far more than she should about our family, but not nearly enough for my liking.
There’s so much I can’t tell her.
Murders, missing persons, billion-dollar handshake deals in smoky backrooms. She saw me kill the sniper who tried to hurt her. She knows what we’re capable of.
But she doesn’t know about Katerina. She hasn’t seen the complicated tangle of my past and I can’t even begin to unwind it for her. Not if I’m going to keep my promises.
So Cora can never truly understand me or my motivations, and I can’t be with her without defaulting on the deal I made on behalf of my sister. Which leaves me…
“Fucking stuck,” I mutter.
I reach out and run a finger over her shoulder. Her skin is golden in the late afternoon light. I feel like a demon clinging to the front gates of heaven. I trace the lean muscle of her bicep, tugging the sheet lower and lower.
Her eyes are closed, but her lips curl into a lazy smile. “I’ve never had to say this before, but please don’t give me another orgasm. I now think it’s possible to die from pleasure.”
“What a way to go, though.” I let out a low whistle and curl my hand around the underside of her breast. I cup the weight in my palm. She fits against me so fucking perfectly. “Death by orgasm.”
Her nipples pucker into points. “I’ve never been in this kind of danger before.”
I prop my head on my fist. “That’s a shame.”
“Go figure. The best relationship of my life is a fraud.”
The interaction from the jewelry store rises to the forefront of my mind. I convinced myself it wasn’t my business before so I didn’t get distracted by unnecessary details. But this entire day has been a distraction. Might as well go for broke.
“You and Kieran had met before I took you to his shop.”
Cora winces, then sighs and lets it go. She is still wearing my diamond on her ring finger. It’s the only thing she’s been wearing since last night. “I hoped he wouldn’t remember me. I was in there once. And only for a few minutes.”
“With who?” It’s an effort to unclench my jaw.
“Someone I didn’t want to be dating, let alone marrying.” She rolls onto her side and flips my hand over so it’s palm-side up. Then she traces the lines of my hand with a meticulous finger. “I won’t pretend to understand all of the pressure you’re under, but I know a thing or two about family expectations. I know a lot more about disappointing them.”
“So do you regret it? Not marrying whoever this asshole was?”
She arches a brow. “How do you know he was an asshole?”
I arch a brow in return. “Well, was he?”
“Yes.” She laughs. “He absolutely was. And no, I absolutely don’t regret running away.”
Pieces of Cora click together. Her refined manners and understanding of my world paired with her job as a waitress in that shit heap of a restaurant. She wassomeonein a previous life. She ran away from it…
And I dragged her right back in.
“Earlier, you said you don’t have anyone who cares about you.”
