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I twine my fingers together behind his neck. “Sounds like it doesn’t matter either way then.”
“It does matter. It is the only fucking thing that matters, Cora! I could choose Katerina and then get you out of the city the way I wanted to from the start. I’ll make you disappear. You’ll be—”
“Dead. I’ll be dead. If you send me away, I won’t survive it. I’ve been away from you before and I can’t do it again.” I kiss his jawline, trailing my lips to his ear. “I’m yours, Ivan. Please don’t make me leave.”
He growls and his hands tighten on my heated skin. My nightshirt is around my waist and I yank it over my head so only the tiny scrap of fabric between my legs separates us.
His eyes trail over my body possessively. “That’s why I have to send you away. Because you’re mine, Cora. I have to protect you.” Ivan kisses my chest and circles his tongue around my nipples until my toes clench.
“You can’t. I’d… I’d… I’d marry someone else.”
His fingers dig possessively into my hips. “Excuse me?”
“I’d find some man I don’t really love,” I continue, “and I’d marry him. It would be out ofloneliness. Because I needed a distraction. Being without you and knowing you were with Katerina would drive me insane and I’d marry someone else. It would be like none of this ever happened.”
With every word, Ivan’s hold on me grows tighter. He’s crushing me against his chest so I can barely breathe.
“Is that what you want?” I pant.
He doesn’t answer. Instead, he lays claim to every bit of my skin he can touch and taste. I lift myself up and reach between us. His breath is hot on my neck and my collarbone as I unbutton his pants.
We’re barreling towards something. A cliff, a waterfall, a breaking point. We’re going to go tumbling over—that much is guaranteed. The question is whether I fall alone or we fall together.
I wrap my hand around his dick and he catches his breath.
“Do you want to send me away?”
His eyes darken. “I want to keep you safe.”
“So you’re willing to give me up to someone else?” I slide my hand up and back down. “You’re going to let me marry another man? You’re going to let me touch another man like this?”
Before the words are even out of my mouth, Ivan stands up and sits me on the edge of his desk. He wraps my legs around his hips, shoves my panties aside, and fills me in one thrust.
I can’t give this up. I won’t.
When he’s seated deep inside of me, Ivan grips my chin and looks into my eyes. “You can’t be with anyone else. Ever. You’remine.”
“I’m yours.” Tears burn in my eyes. I blink them back. “I’m yours and you’re mine. There isn’t anyone else. There can’t be.”
Ivan kisses me until I’m lying flat on the desk in front of him. Splayed and vulnerable, he drives into me again and again. He circles my clit with his thumb and palms my breasts. The sex is fast and greedy and desperate. He touches me like he owns me, heart and soul.
Because he does.
I fall first, clenching and crying out until Ivan follows a minute later. When we’re finished, he scoops me up off the desk and holds me in his lap again. “We’re back where we started,” Ivan says, kissing my bare shoulder.
“Yeah. Except I think I might know what we need to do.”
He arches a brow. “You were thinking of a plan through all of that?”
“I’m a great multitasker.” I grin. “I just need to know one thing. Do you still have my engagement ring?”
55
IVAN
I meet Katerina at the top of the driveway in front of the mansion. Just like I told Konstantin I would.
She’s wearing a satin gown that must have fit her at some point, but it hangs off of her frail shoulders now. Her arms are thin and her cheeks are sunken in. It is definitely Katerina walking towards me, but all I see is Cora.
