Page 94 of Fierce Pursuit

Didn’t back down.

A slow, knowing smile curled the edges of her mouth, and fuck if I didn’t want to devour her all over again.

“Did you know my sister was cheating on you?” she asked suddenly.

The conversational shift hit me like a punch to the ribs.

I exhaled slowly, carefully.Tread lightly.

I had told Marina I would give her the truth, at least as long as it didn’t put her in danger. This truth wouldn’t. But I also wasn’t in the habit of speaking ill of the dead. Especially not someone she had loved.

But she hadn’t asked if Veronika had cheated.

She had asked if Iknew.

Meaning she already did.

What else did she know?

“Yes,” I said, watching her carefully, measuring her reaction. “I knew she was with other men. I knew she wasn’t even discreet about it, despite our agreements. And I know that’s what got her killed.”

Marina didn’t flinch. Didn’t hesitate. “Tell me the truth. No lies. Did you do it?”

My answer was immediate. “No.” My voice was steady, unwavering.

I hadn’t loved Veronika. I hadn’t even been faithful to her—not in the ways that mattered. Not in the way that counted. Because from the moment I first saw her little sister I had been a fucking traitor.

I never touched Marina.

Never crossed that line.

Not when she wasn’t mine, when she was too untouched, too fucking off-limits. Not when she looked at me with those big, curious eyes.

But it hadn’t stopped me from thinking about her. Hadn’t stopped me from wondering how her lips would feel wrapped around my cock. Hadn’t stopped me from watching, from waiting, from wanting. And now, years later, after she had run, after she had fought me at every turn, I had her exactly where I wanted her.

In my world.

In my hands.

And no matter how much she tried to play coy, tried to pretend she wasn’t affected, I saw the way her pulse ticked at the base of her throat. I saw the way her breath caught when I leaned in.

She wanted me. The way I had always wanted her.

Marina inhaled slowly, her fingers curling against her lap as if she were bracing herself.

Because sheknew.

Knew the answer as well as I did.

Because Veronika might have been my wife, but Marina had always been my obsession.

And now? Now there was no one left to tell me I couldn’t have her.

No contract to keep us apart. No thin veil of morality stopping me from taking her the way I had wanted to for years.

She belonged to me.

She just didn’t realize it yet.

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