Page 71 of Pageant

There’s a vivid red burn around her throat. She wipes her streaming eyes and draws in a struggling breath, and instantly I let go of my anger. Of course she did it. I was furious with her, pushing her to relive the worst moment of her life and she couldn’t bear it.

I pull her into my arms and rock her against my chest, anguish filling my heart. “Prosti menya.”Forgive me.“Solnyshko, I am sorry.”

She’s alive. Thank all the fucking stars in the sky, she’s alive.

“Don’t, Elyah. Please. It’s over.” She pushes against my chest, trying to move away from me, but I won’t let her go.

“What do you mean, over? Nothing is over.”

“Your honor has been satisfied. You said you would kill me, and you did. You brought me back, so now you have to let me go.”

My jaw hardens and my eyes narrow. I have to do no such thing. “You are still in love with me, Lilia Aranova. You would not want to die unless you still loved me.”

She starts to laugh, a weak, choking laugh. “That is what your love does to a woman? It drives her over the edge?”

Maybe it does, but she drives me insane with her love, too. “I do not know. I have only ever been in love with you. I will only ever be in love with you until the day I die.”

Lilia gazes at me, her eyes welling up. Tears slip down her cheeks as I lower my head toward hers. My lips burn to kiss her, and I capture her face in my hands and press my mouth to hers. The tears make hot, wet tracks on her cheeks, and I brush them away with my thumbs as my tongue caresses hers.

She gives in, her mouth softening against mine. She welcomes the gentle invasion of my tongue. She breathes when I breathe. Her hands tighten on my shoulders.

Then she wrenches her head to one side. “No. I don’t want this. You’re filled with so much anger and hate it scares me.”

I take her hands and press them over my thundering heart. “It is gone now. All my anger is gone. There is only love in here and it is all for you.”

She hesitates, staring from her hands pinned against my muscles to my eyes, her brow knits with uncertainty. It’s the same expression she wore when I was coaxing illicit kisses from myPakhan’sbeautiful young wife.

I shouldn’t, that expression says.

We can’t.

But I want to…

She’s so fucking beautiful and she’s in my arms once more, heady desire and forbidden love wrapping themselves around us and binding us together. Her lips part and her eyes dilate with passion. My tongue moves against the roof of my mouth like I’m already lavishing her clit. I’m this fucking close to begging for another taste of her. She’s been on Kirill’s tongue. She’s come on Konstantin’s cock. I don’t give a fuck that I’m the last of the three of us. Following these two men into anything is my pride, not my shame.

And it’s different because shelovesme.

I slant my head toward hers and drop my voice to a coaxing murmur. “You like it when I am sweet to you. Let me be sweet,solnyshko. Only for you.”

She almost pulls back, but I slide my hand around the nape of her neck, holding her in place.

“Lick your lips for me, Lilia,” I whisper, my mouth a fraction of an inch from hers.

As if she’s hypnotized, she draws her lower lip into her mouth and sucks on it. When she releases it, it’s shiny and pink. I nip it with my teeth and she breathes unsteadily.

I groan and gather her body closer to mine, laying down on the carpet with her. Her body is tight against my hard cock. I know she can feel me. I undo several buttons on my shirt and reach behind my head to pull it off. Lilia traces shaking fingers over my flesh, following the same paths as she once did across the tattoos on my shoulders and down my chest.

“All I’ve wanted is to love you, protect you, make you feel good. Does my body please you, Lilia? This is all I have to offer you.” Not fourteen million dollars of pink diamonds. Just my muscle. Just my arms. My cock. My heart.

“Elyah, this can’t happen. You just tried to kill me.”

But she clings to me as her protests grow feeble.

I lower my head and press my mouth against her jaw, her throat. I find the rope burn and plant soft kisses over the injury. “I should have tried harder to find you. I should have known that you would never have done anything to help the people who killed your baby. I am so sorry.”

Lilia is nearly sobbing once more. “It doesn’t matter anymore. You have to let me go.”

My teeth clench and I nearly growl a refusal. I have to do nothing of the fucking kind.

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