Page 81 of Emerald

“I’m sorry, old man,” she teases.

“I fucked you within an inch of your life, woman, you know there is nothing old about me.”

This makes her giggle. “You did. And I can feel you stirring again.” She grins as her hand slides between us and over my cock. How can I not when she is wrapped around me?

“Can I ask you something?”

Her hand stills on me. “Sure, anything.”

“Can I ask you about the guy you were seeing who thinks you’re dead?” Morbid curiosity gets the better of me as she doesn’t talk about him much.

“Oh,” she says, removing her hand from my cock. “I don’t still love him if that is what you’re worried about.”

I shake my head. “I’m not. I just want to know who I am protecting you from. It’s always best to know your enemy.”

Elena stares at me in surprise. “You want to protect me from Dimitri?”

Reaching out, I cup her face. “Yes and everything else that wishes to harm you.”

“I can look after myself …” she starts to say but I stop her words with a kiss.

“I know you can, kitty, probably a hell of a lot more than I can, but you need to know I’ll always have your back.”

“I’m not used to relying on people.”

“I know.” Leaning forward, I kiss her again. “I won’t ever double-cross you. I don’t know how you sneaked past my defenses, but you have.”

“You seem to have obliterated mine. You make me feel safe, something I’ve never had before. I don’t know what is going to happen between the two of us, especially once we grab Pearl and hightail it back to Ibiza. What I do know is you’ve brought back some of my humanity.” A single tear falls from her cheek, and I rub it away. “See, you’re making my eyes leak, and I never do that.” She chuckles before snuggling herself back into my arms, and I feel her body relax against me as she lets out a deep sigh. “With hindsight, what I had with Dmitri wasn’t love, it wasn’t anything. But I guess I was so desperate in this world to feel something other than hate, disgust, and hopelessness that I fell into bed with the devil.” I let my hands rub up and down her arms, reassuring her that I’m here. “His uncle introduced us and explained to him that I was their secret weapon in to getting favors for them. We started off working together, he and his cousin Nikolai. And when my services weren’t needed, I used to hang around with the two of them. We became friends as much as you can in this business. I never saw their monstrous side, and that should have been my warning, those two devils were well disguised. But over time, things between Dmitri and I turned from friendly to flirty. I pushed him away a lot because of what I did, who would want to date a whore?” I feel her body stiffen, and I pepper feather-light kisses on her skin reassuring her that is not how I see her. “Before anything could happen between us, I was sent away by his uncle for a couple of months to work at a different branch of the Bratva. We stayed in touch on the phone and talked all the time, and the next time I saw him, that was it. We couldn’t hide how we were feeling about each other and fell into bed together. It was the first moment Ihad been happy since being kidnapped, and I guess when you’ve been starved of happiness for so long and someone gives it to you, you don’t want to ever let it go. What I didn’t realize was he got me hook, line, and sinker, and I was now his plaything. He had his own weapon to do his dirty work for him, and stupidly, I fell for it because when everything was over, he would soothe my aches. He would reassure me that he loved me, that he never saw the monster that I was, and in return, I never saw the monster he was. Stupidly, in my mind I thought we were two lost souls, dealt a shitty hand in life, trying to make the best of a fucked-up situation. I was wrong. All Dmitri ever wanted was power, more power, and being able to control me was his way of getting more especially after the death of his cousin, Nikolai. Which I’ve only recently found out was because of Zoe. Nikolai was obsessed with her, but I had no idea who she truly was. I didn’t know that both Nikolai and Dmitri were dating Zoe and Grace as if they were normal members of society until recently. I thought they were like me, mainly because that is what they both told me. I was also kept away from the jewels a lot of the time, but Dmitri told me it was so it wouldn’t interfere with everyone’s orders. I consider myself an intelligent person but when it came to Dmitri, I wasn’t,” she explains.

“You are a young woman thrust into an underground world. You were trying to survive. You never had a choice it was either kill or be killed,” I tell her.

“I could have opened my eyes and seen the real horror these men were doing to women. How can I ever forgive myself for not helping these women? I protected those fucking men at the expense of them,” Elena says as she sobs into my chest. I wrap my arms around her and hold her tightly.

“Please don’t blame yourself. How could you know the people who you thought you knew were monsters?”

“Everyone around me was a monster.” She sniffles. “I let my heart rule my head.”

“I get it, truly I do. I nearly got my entire team killed because I fell for the enemy. The woman I thought I was saving had set me up and lured me into her web so that she could destroy me. I never thought it would happen to me,” I tell her.

“We’re messed up, aren’t we?” She turns and looks up at me.

“Yeah, kitty, we are.” Elena leans forward and kisses me slowly, I let my fingers dig into her hair.

“This isn’t fake what’s happening between us. I need you to know that. You weren’t supposed to happen,” she tells me.

“I’m not using you for power either, kitty. In all honesty, I hate sharing you. You’re mine. And I protect what is mine.”

“If we can pull off saving Pearl, I’ll be yours and only yours for however long you want me,” she confesses.

Her words surprise me. “I think I can handle that, can you?”

Her face lights up. “Yeah, I think I can handle you.” Her legs slide over my thighs, and she wiggles herself until she is straddling me. “I don’t want to share you either. You’re mine too,” she declares, running her hands up over my bare chest. “I wish we could stay in this bubble forever.”

“We can once you save Pearl.”

“Promise?” she asks me, holding out her pinky to me.

“You want me to pinky promise you?” I stare at her finger.

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