Page 98 of Fierce Pursuit

CHAPTER 27

KOSTYA

Isat in the armchair by the window, watching Marina sleep peacefully.

There was so much I needed to do—calls to make, arrangements to finalize—but I couldn’t bring myself to do any of it.

Because all of it would’ve required leaving her side.

And that wasn’t happening.

The Ritz-Carlton was under Gregor’s protection. It should be safe from Solovyov and his men. But I couldn’t take that risk. If I wasn’t watching her, how could I be sure she was safe?

Not to mention, my little rabbit had a habit of running.

I had hoped we were past that. But then she said it, she thought she’d be free after this.

Free from Russia. Free from the mafia. Free from me.

She wanted to run from it all, and I couldn’t be sure she wouldn’t take the first chance she got.

She understood I wanted to protect her. She knew Iwould never harm her. But after tonight, after the way she looked at me, wide-eyed and stricken, I wasn’t so sure she still believed that.

There was no universe in which I would ever hurt her. But I also had no intention of letting her go.

Her place was here, with me.

How could I make her see that? How did I convince her to stay?

When she admitted to feeling guilty for sleeping with me, I had seen the exact moment the realization struck her.

Her eyes went wide in horror, her face drained of color. The fork she’d been gripping so tightly that her knuckles had turned white slipped from her fingers, hitting the floor with a dull clatter.

She didn’t even notice.

She was too consumed by the storm inside her. Guilt twisting her features, grief darkening her beautiful eyes.

How did I convince her that wanting me wasn’t a betrayal of her sister?

It couldn’t be a sin.

Marriage was till death did you part, and death had parted us.

A heavy weight settled in my chest as I shifted in the chair next to the bed.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. I wasn’t supposed to be like this. Lost.

I was the man with the answers. The one people turned to when they had nowhere else to go. The one who found solutions when none existed.

So how the fuck was I the one without a solution now?

Rationality was my strength. Cold, calculated precision. But there was nothing rational about this woman.

She was impulsive, emotional, reckless.

And I loved that I never knew what she’d do next.

A dull ache throbbed behind my eyes, my stomach twisting into knots. I told myself it was the rich food. It had to be. It couldn’t be her.

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