Page 60 of Fierce Pursuit

The look of corrupted innocence on her face was my undoing.

I drove into her with unleashed ferocity until my balls tightened and the pressure along my shaft became unbearable.

The fire of my release, when it came, was so all-consuming my very bones seemed to melt.

With my seed deep inside her, I stayed buried in her pussy as I reached up to release her wrists.

The moment her hands slipped the bonds of the leather strap, she hauled her arm back and slapped me across the face.

CHAPTER 15

KOSTYA

“Imay have deserved that,” I said, rubbing the sting from my jaw.

“You’re my sister’s husband,” Marina seethed as she wiggled out from under me. As if by separating our bodies she could escape what had just happened between us. What I’d just done.

“Was,” I corrected, my voice edged with something I refused to name.

I could have told her the truth right then. The words burned on my tongue, but I swallowed them down like poison.

Marina and Veronika had been close; how close, I wasn’t sure. I didn’t know what Marina knew about the kind of life her sister led when no one was watching. And I wasn’t cruel enough to take away whatever memory she had left of her.

Or maybe I was just a coward.

Because the truth wasn’t just ugly. It was damning.

Veronika was dead, and I had no one to blame but myself.

I never fought for her. Never fought for our marriage. Over and over, I told myself it was just a contract, a means to an end. She didn’t want to be a wife, didn’t want to warm my bed, didn’t want to play the role the world expected of her.

And I let her go. Gave her freedom as if it were some kind of gift instead of a death sentence, because according to the bratva code, she’d no longer be considered under my protection.

I told myself I was being merciful. That I wasn’t some caveman who thought a woman was property. That I was too busy, too tangled up in both sides of the law, to care about a wife I never wanted.

But the truth?

I wasn’t attracted to Veronika the way I was to Marina.

Every time I looked at my wife’s statuesque, polished beauty, all I saw was the shadow of her half sister, the woman I could never have. The one who set my blood on fire just by breathing the same air.

It wasn’t fair. Not to Veronika. Not to Marina.

So I let Veronika go, and she ran straight into the fire.

She had power, money, the kind of last name that could open doors and command loyalty. She could have spent her days draped in luxury, taken a discreet lover if she needed one, someone safe, someone I could pretend didn’t exist.

Instead, she made herself a target.

She mistook my indifference for permission to play reckless games with men who didn’t know the meaning ofmercy. Maybe she wanted my attention. I’d never know. Because the freedom I gave her is what got her killed.

I had every opportunity to stop it. To step in before it was too late.

I didn’t.

And now Veronika was dead because I never protected her the way I should have.

I wouldn’t make the same mistake with Marina.

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