Page 23 of Fierce Pursuit

There had always been a strange tension between us from the moment we met, but I’d always assumed it wasin my imagination. Wishful thinking. A stupid crush on a handsome and powerful brother-in-law. Something to be felt in silence, too forbidden to even think of.

“And you see how well they protected you from me,” he sneered, as if I had just proven his point for him. “Speaking of home, we are leaving. Now.”

I crossed my arms over my chest, forcing my spine straight, but the heat creeping up my neck betrayed me. My cheeks burned with anger and something else I refused to name. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”

His expression didn’t change. If anything, he looked bored. “You can come willingly, or you can throw a fit like a child and I’ll throw you over my shoulder and take you anyway. Your choice,moy zaichonok.”

My stomach clenched at the pet name.

My little rabbit.

I hated it.

Hated how easily it rolled off his tongue, how effortlessly he made it sound like I belonged to him.

“I’m not leaving.”

I jutted my chin up, defiant, and then I stomped my foot like the child he was accusing me of being.

Kostya inhaled deeply, his chest expanding beneath that infuriatingly perfect suit.

Oh, shit.

The nerve I had managed to summon vanished instantly as I remembered exactly how big he was.

How intimidating he could be. His sheer size. The way he took up space. The way he could take if he wanted to. How easily he could grab me, lift me, pin me against any surface he wanted.

I swallowed hard.

It was the thing I had fantasized about most before…No.

I couldn’t go there.

“I will not tell you again,” he said, his voice terrifyingly calm. “We’re leaving.”

Panic took over.

“No.”

And then, in a moment of sheer, idiotic survival instinct, I bolted.

I ran upstairs and slammed my bedroom door behind me, locking it. My back hit the wood as I squeezed my eyes shut and panted, deeply regretting my lack of cardio, mentally kicking myself.

Every horror movie I ever watched where a girl ran upstairs instead of out the door I had screamed at the screen, “Why would you do that?”

Now, I understood.

Adrenaline replaced intelligence in a crisis.

And I had just trapped myself.

Kostya’s heavy, deliberate footsteps echoed down the hall. Unrushed.

I had no doubt he was enjoying this.

I ran to the window, shoved it open, and looked down.

The Chicago air was sharp, cutting straight through my sweater, but I barely felt it.

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