Page 37 of Fierce Pursuit

Except that I needed to leave.

Now.

And yet…

I couldn’t seem to walk away without checking one more time.

Not because I had to.

But because I needed to.

Because it was…Kostya.

I had always thought Kostya was handsome.

So tall, the kind of height that made you feel small in the best way. The kind of broad, powerful shoulders that made a girl want to crawl into his arms and bask in the warmth and safety of them.

Veronika had never seen him that way.

And I never understood why she hadn’t.

I would have given anything to have him for myself.

For years, I had indulged in secret, forbidden dreams. What if it wasn’t her? What if it had been me? I would never have treated him the way she did.

The disdain Veronika had for him never made sense to me. But it had never been my place to say anything.

I was her sister.

My job was to support her.

Not lust after her husband.

But how was I supposed to fight this?

This wasn’t some childish crush anymore, not after discovering the way it felt when he kissed me.

When he touched me.

Now, I knew.

I had never been saving myself for a manlikeKostya.

I had been saving myselffor him.

How was I supposed to go on living my life now?

Knowing that someone could make me feel this alive, could electrify every cell in my body. How was I supposed to experience that for one fleeting moment and then never feel it again?

And it wasn’t just his touch.

It was all of him.

His intensity, the kind only truly powerful men could pull off without it turning creepy.

The way he looked at me.

The way he saw me.

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