pleasure.” She reaches for my hair and yanks it, her eyes narrowing playfully. “So what are you waiting for?”
She’ll regret that. The first smash of my body into hers drenches the whole mansion with her scream.
There’s never been room in my life for a woman. At least, that’s what I thought. There’s always been room, just never the desire to take on the responsibility of loving someone. Of protecting them. Of making them my life. Rose is very easy to love. She made me love her without me realizing. And protecting someone you love is natural instinct, therefore very easy. What’s not easy is loving someone in my world. What’s not easy to deal with is the fear that my life and how I’ve lived it could trump all of my intentions to keep her safe. And on top of that, her life and how she’s lived it, though how Rose came to be where she is today wasn’t through choice. She was forced into debasement, whereas I walked into it willingly.
With Rose’s leg thrown over my thighs, her face nestled close to my neck, my arm holding her to me, I stare down at her hand splayed on my chest, the sparkles of the diamond ring twinkling madly everytime I inhale and make her hand rise slightly. Just seeing that ring on her finger does things to me that I could never explain. We’re doing something neither of us ever imagined, and with it, we get everything neither of us ever imagined. Someone to love. Someone to keep. Someone to live for. Peace.
My mobile vibrates from the bedside table, and I reach for it, seeing a message from Brad asking if I’m joining him in the gym. I have no desire to work out. Here is where I want to stay, yet I know I need to talk to him. To update him. I fire off a quick reply telling him I’m on my way and start to gently negotiate Rose from my body, smiling when she clings to me in her sleep.
“I’ll be back,” I tell her softly, stroking her hair off her face and placing a light kiss on her cheek. I go to the wardrobe where Esther has stored my clothes and pull on some gym kit, slip my feet into my trainers, and head out to find Brad. On my way down the stairs, Rose’s mobile rings, and I look down to see “Mom” lighting up the screen. I come to a stop and lower myself to a step, answering. But I don’t speak. Neither does he. We’re just breathing down the line at each other, wisps of air full of threats and danger. Just hearing the arsehole breathe prickles my skin, anger rising.
“So they call you The Brit?” he finally says, his accent thick.
“I prefer the Angel-faced Assassin.”
“I prefer dead.”
“Many do.” I ensure my breathing in steady and quiet, tamping down the heightened rage just hearing his voice has instigated. “Shame many will be disappointed,” I go on. “You’ve tried and failed to kill me three times. I’m invincible, Dimitri. You’re out of your depth.”
He inhales. “You killed my father. My brother.”
“Why do you care? You’re illegitimate. The baby of a whore your father fucked.”
“Yes, my mother was a paid fuck. No, Marius didn’t know about me. But we connected. He recognized my capabilities before I did. Call me sentimental, but I’m really quite sad you stole my chance of having a relationship with my father.”
It’s all I can do not to roll my eyes. He’s out for vengeance? Trying to keep his father’s name alive while building his? “Thanks for the sob story.”
“The girl,” he practically growls.
“You’re not getting her.”
“She has no choice if she wants her son to live.”
Breathe. Breathe. Breathe. “And what would you say if I told you I want to keep her?”
“I’d ask why.”
I don’t need to tell him. He knows. “You want the marina. You want Adams. You want the Russians. You want my guns and contacts.” I wet my lips, noting his silence. “You want power, Dimitri. But do you know what you don’t want?”
He’s silent, his ego not prepared to ask.
“You don’t want me hunting you down, because if you don’t take what I’m offering, that’s exactly what I’ll do.” My promise is thick with malice that no wise man should ignore. “And it will be my most brutal murder yet. Ernie is gone. His money is gone. Your options are limited, you sick arsehole.” Fuck,