“Fuck,” he grunted out, nipping my jaw then biting my earlobe.
I saw bright stars just before they burst into supernovas. And Arkady’s ragged breaths turned into heavy grunts as each thrust arched me into a more severe angle.
“Ahhh!” I licked his sweaty neck, bit his throat.
He cursed from the depths of his chest then held me down on his cock that swelled even more just before he blasted my insides with so much cum, I felt like his thick seed might drip from me for days.
I welcomed it because he tore me apart and fucked me to hell and put me back together all at the same time.
I came again, clutched against his front with his cock jerking inside of me so hard I felt him through my tummy and wished he’d plant a baby inside of me.
“Arkady!” I wailed one last time before he pinned me against the wall again.
His cock sunk deep and still throbbing, he leaned against me, his breath swirling raggedly at my ear.
I would’ve sunk to the floor if he hadn’t circled an arm around my waist.
Sooner than I wanted, his heat left me. He withdrew, and my insides shuddered again. I leaned my forehead against the wall while I listened to him wiping himself down and zipping up.
I wondered if that was it, if he was done with me forever now.
Wondered if he thought I’d cheapened myself because I handed myself over to Sabato.
Tears almost sprang to my eyes, but I didn’t know if I had any more to spare.
Carefully, Arkady pulled the dress back over my bottom, as if that could hide what he’d done and what I had wanted so, so much.
When he turned me, his hands were not gentle.
His face was even harder.
“You ever offer yourself up to danger like that again with no regard for yourself and I will beat you for my own pleasure.” His voice came out shredded and low. “Because I love you, Lucia.”
“What?” Shock couldn’t have flattened me more.
Tenderness finally entered his tone, and he took both sides of my face in his hands. “I goddamn love you, dragotsennaya printsessa.”
Those tears I’d tamped down rose up, and I fell against him.
“Kiss me,” he ordered.
I did as commanded, happily, willingly, with a swift lightness to my heart. I kissed him, rising up on the balls of my feet just so I could get greedily closer to him.
His musky cologne, the now familiar feel of his strong body, the way he wove his tongue against mine combined with the salt of my tears and twined between us.
He set me back down but didn’t let me go. “Did Sabato—”
“No, Arkady.”
“What did he do to you?” Carefully swiping my tears away, he cradled the nape of my neck in his palm.
“He made me wear a horrible slutty dress last night—”
I didn’t get to finish telling Arkady because, with a thunderous noise, he pulled me farther into the house.
In the lounge, he barely let me catch my breath before shredding off the remainder of my clothes that had so repelled him. He wrapped my naked form in a soft throw blanket from the sofa, rubbing my arms.
“He touched me a little.” I shrank back when Arkady growled. “He didn’t rape me. Neither did Roberto.”
I watched his Adam’s apple jerk up and down when he swallowed then he pulled me back into his arms as his large hand brushed up and down my back, sweeping some of my pain away.
Hours later, after Arkady had cooked for me and bathed me and dried me off, he carried me to bed. The one in his vanilla bedroom, not upstairs on the third floor.
He lay me down as if I were made of glass amid the luxurious warmth of his bedding.
He’d bathed with me too, and both of us almost didn’t fit in the tub. That was the first time I’d gotten a good look at the damage Roberto had inflicted on his torso. The burn marks looked incredibly painful and would probably blister, but he acted as if he didn’t feel any of it.
Now he passed me a glass of wine and lay beside me. He pulled a blanket over his hip, vodka in hand, and I snuggled deeper into the pillows.
I knew he wanted me again, his rampant cock tenting the blanket made it obvious, but he refrained from taking me again.
For some reason, I found his restraint more touching than anything else.
After sipping my wine, I asked, “What did you have to promise Yury to convince him to help?”
Arkady put his glass down and rolled toward me. “He offered.”
“He did? Why?”
Languidly reaching out, Arkady pulled me to him so my head rested on his shoulder. He played with my hair while nuzzling my neck in such a way I nearly forgot my question.
“He mentioned something about young love.” My Russian licked a pulse point on the side of my neck.
I aimed a look up at him. “He did not.”
“Da. It’s true. He was thinking about Sasha’s mama.” His mouth cruised to my ear, and I shivered all over.
“Sasha told me yesterday that she had died.”
“Mmm. A long time ago. Before Yury took us in.” Arkady plucked a kiss from my lips, leaving me wanting for more. “He has never spoken of her before.”
“I guess that makes us lucky. To be together again when it all could’ve gone so horribly wrong.” Carefully avoiding his burns, I traced my fingertips across the tattoos on his chest to the point where his heart beat so strongly.
“I don’t believe in luck.” Gently rasping fingers down my cheek, he pulled my eyes to his. “But I believe in you.”
He stared at me so intently, it was disconcerting.
“Don’t look at me like that, Arkady.”
“Like what?” He was so intense with those blue, blue eyes and fierce features.
I bent my head. “Like . . . I don’t know.” I sighed. “You know I’m broken. I’m not worthy.”
He brushed his knuckles beneath my chin and drew my gaze back to his. “You’re not broken, dragotsennaya printsessa. You only feel more deeply than others. And for that you are the worthiest woman of all.”
His languorous kiss melted upon my mouth, winding its way to my heart and many more places.
“I told you I love you, Lucia,” he murmured the words that made my heart flutter. “Do you feel deeply for me?”
The weight of the past twenty-four hours finally lifted if only briefly. Something trembled in my belly and made me tingle all over.
He’d come for me. Not to make me his prisoner. Not to use me as a commodity or a bargaining chip.
He had saved me because he loved me.
“I do feel for you. So much, Arkady.” I kissed him ever so softly like the new feelings might melt away beneath more urgent hunger. “I care about you and that was the last thing I ever wanted.”
Folding me into his secure embrace, he released a deep throaty chuckle. “That I understand.”
I looked up, gazing deeply into his eyes, and spoke the words I’d never uttered to any other man. “I love you too.”
24
Arkady
THE FIRST NIGHT AFTER I took back what was rightfully mine, I stayed awake until dawn when the first rays of sunlight fell across Lucia’s sleeping form.
Throughout the night, I held her against my body, smoothing a hand up and down her back anytime she became restless, her sleep haunted by the demons I had killed.