Page 186 of King of Envy

I thought about it. “Yes.”

“Good.” His breath whispered over my skin. “Nisam sklon kompromisima, srce, ali za tebe bih pristao i na hiljadu njih.”

I waited for a translation that never came. “You’re going to make me look that up too, aren’t you?”

Vuk flashed a cocky grin. “If you give me a kiss, I’ll tell you what I said after.”

He didn’t have to ask twice.

I leaned forward and brushed my lips across his. My mouth lingered, savoring the moment before I pulled away.

“Okay, Markovic, pay up,” I said. “What did you say?”

“I’m not usually a compromise person,srce, but for you, I’d agree to a thousand compromises if you asked.”

Was it possible for a person to dissolve from a single sentence? Because I was certain that was what was happening. There was no other explanation for my weakening limbs or the spill of honeyed liquid oozing through my veins.

“And yet, you won’t translatesrce,” I breathed, trying to restore some semblance of control to my emotions.

“You know what it means,” Vuk said, his voice tender again.

I did. I’d finally looked it up, but even if I hadn’t, I heard the sentiment every time he uttered it.

Srce moje.My heart.

I kissed him again, even more urgently this time. His palm slid over my hip and up the curve of my waist. My skin flushed, and electricity crackled up my spine.

“Wait. You’re still hurt,” I protested half-heartedly. “The doctor said?—”

“Fuck what the doctor said.” Vuk nuzzled my neck. “I pay him, so my orders supersede his.”

“I don’t think that’s…” He kissed a particularly sensitive part of my throat. I moaned, my protests fading.

I slid my hands over his shoulders, eager to?—

A loudmeowinterrupted our makeout session. I startled, and we parted just in time for Shadow to jump onto the bed and plop himself right on Vuk’s chest.

Despite Shadow’s exceedingly poor timing, I couldn’t help but giggle at the scowl on Vuk’s face.

“Get out,” he ordered. “We’re busy.”

Shadow ignored him and stretched with a lazy yawn. He nudged Vuk’s chin with his nose before he made himself comfortable again on his owner’s chest.

After his life-saving turn in the warehouse, he’d returned to a flurry of cuddles and doting from everyone on Vuk’s staff. Fortunately, he hadn’t been injured when Wentworth threw him, and he seemed to have taken his newfound hero status in stride. Shadow entered every room like he owned it—just like someone else I knew.

“You are the biggest pain in my ass,” Vuk grumbled. He scratched Shadow behind the ears. The cat purred, his tail swishing back and forth like the world’s most content windshield wiper. “But I was right. You are a survivor.”

“Did you ever figure out how he followed you to the warehouse?” I asked. I pet Shadow with a smile. His purring intensified. God, he was too cute.

I assumed he’d stowed away in Vuk’s car again, but I had no idea how he’d gotten from the car to the site of the warehouse action without anyone noticing him.

“No. He goes where and when he pleases. I don’t even know how he got into this room since the door is closed.” Vuk shook his head. “Cockblocked by a cat. Unbelievable.”

“Oh, let him have his moment. We’ll have plenty of alone time later now that we’re official and all,” I teased. My tone softened. “Plus, you saved my life. Again.”

I’d been unconscious during the last part of the night, but knowing Vuk had run in to find me despite his past trauma with fire…

A fist squeezed my heart.

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