Page 82 of Shadows of the Past
A slow, devastating smile curves her lips. "Honestly? Me neither," she replies, her eyes holding mine, reflecting the same fierce certainty. "But let's not find out, okay?" She tugs me down toward her, an invitation I can't resist.
I shrug off my leather jacket, letting it pool on the floor beside the bed. Her hands are already moving, impatient, fumbling with the button of my jeans, pushing the rough denim down my hips.
"No, no," I murmur against her skin, a low chuckle vibrating in my chest. I need to slow this down. After hours trapped on that plane, the tension coiling tighter with every mile, all I want is to explore her slowly, deliberately. Savor every inch.
My mouth finds the pulse point at the base of her throat, lingers there, tasting the salt and heat of her skin. I trace the lineof her collarbone, find the small, perfect mole just above her left breast that always draws my eye, kissing it gently before moving lower. My lips brush across the smooth skin of her abdomen, and a breathless laugh escapes her. I know she’s ticklish there, know the exact spot that makes her squirm.
Her skin, faintly olive toned, tastes like honey and sunlight, intoxicating and addictive. This is what addiction feels like, I realize with startling clarity. This desperate, clawing need for the next fix, the next taste, the next touch.
When my mouth finally reaches its destination, her hands instinctively fist in my hair, anchoring me. I lift her legs slightly, guiding them to rest on my shoulders, opening her completely to me. My mouth has memorized the texture of her skin, the specific taste of her. Something sweet and intoxicating. Like a starving man finally granted sustenance, I give her no time for protest, no space for thought, just dive in, my tongue seeking out her clit.
She trembles beneath my touch, a full-body shudder that runs through her. A dark, possessive smile spreads across my face.Sweet.So fucking sweet. A voice inside my head, primal and fierce, screamsMine. That no one has ever had her like this, tasted her like this, made her unravel like this. And no one ever will again. That I am the only one fortunate enough, blessed enough, to witness this, to taste her surrender, to feel her tremble and break beneath my touch.
My tongue presses insistently against her clit, a focused, deliberate pressure. A muffled moan tears from her throat.
"You're killing me," she gasps, her voice low and strained.
I almost laugh, the sound caught in my throat, but then I feel her body begin to tense, her heels digging into my back, the subtle shift that signals she's close. So close. I don't let up,increasing the pressure, chasing that edge. Within seconds, she cries out my name, a sharp, breathless sound, and her body goes lax beneath my hands, boneless and pliant in the aftermath.
My lips are swollen, slick with her taste. She reaches for me immediately, pulling my head up, her eyes dark and dazed. I could never deny her a kiss, not now, not ever.
A guttural sound escapes her as she tastes herself on my tongue, a raw, possessive noise that goes straight to my core. This. This is my heaven. Right here, tangled up with her, the scent ofherheavy in the air.
Eventually, the need for air becomes undeniable. We break the kiss, both breathing heavily. I look down at her, truly see her — flushed, sated, her eyes filled with that same heart-stopping mixture of sweetness, adoration, and lingering wonder that undoes me every single time. And I know, with absolute certainty, that if I had to crawl through every circle of hell all over again just to find her at the end of it, I would. Without hesitation. Because nothing in my godforsaken life has ever made more sense than she does.
"Let's call Tim," she whispers against my lips, her voice regaining some of its usual strength, pulling us reluctantly back to the dangerous reality waiting outside this room. "Let's finish this madness, Max."
?
Minutes later, we're dressed again, the lingering heat between us replaced by the cool glow of laptop screens. It takes me exactly thirty seconds, leveraging networks built over yearsof shadows and blood, to acquire Tim’s untraceable burner number. I make the call.
I introduce myself using the Smert codename, laying out the proposition bluntly: a prototype device and an introduction to Luna Radulescu in exchange for a fast, untraceable $100,000 wire transfer. The pathetic desperation in his voice when he hears the amount is nauseating. There's no doubt in my mind he'd snatch the girl off the street himself for that kind of money, sell his own mother if the price was right. Disgust coils in my gut, but he’s a means to an end. A disposable tool.
"Julia," I say, turning back to her, the cold focus of the mission snapping back into place. "I want eyes on Roman and Luna for the next few days. Constant surveillance. We can't afford to let this lead slip away."
Luna is the key. She's the one who will help me finally close Ivan's account on this earth. And even if I can't be there physically to watch the light fade from his eyes, it has to happen this way. Clean. Undeniable. Natural causes printed neatly on the official medical report.
Akim stayed behind in Moscow for precisely this reason. To ensure someone trustworthy is in place, ready to "facilitate" the right kind of…stress…for the old snake's compromised heart once Luna gives us the kill code for that device. With the defibrillator disabled remotely, his engineered heart attack will be swift, inevitable.
The taste of vengeance is sharp on my tongue, metallic and addictive. I don't care who I have to threaten, bribe, or eliminate. I will settle this score.Soon.
I just hope my identical twin brother, the legitimate son living the life I was denied, doesn't become an unforeseen complication in my carefully laid plans. Because I have toomany people depending on me now, too many lives hanging in the balance based on my decisions, to allow a bond forged in the womb, a connection of blood I never asked for, to shatter everything I’ve fought so hard to build. He's either on my side or he becomes another obstacle. And I can’t afford one. Not this close.
Chapter 31
?
Julia
I watch the recording, a familiar hollowness spreading behind my ribs. Lupe and Amalia, sipping frappuccinos, heads bent together over Lupe's phone, bursts of laughter escaping them. They're nineteen now. So grown. More than two-thirds of their lives have passed while I’ve been gone.
No birthdays. No holidays.
The tightness returns, squeezing my chest, the price I pay every time I let myself dwell on them.Soon.Soon, I'll be able to reach out.Ay Diosito, what if they hate me? What if they look right through me?
A week in Chicago, and Tim, our contact, has vanished. Just gone. Two days ago was the SensorLife acquisition party. Afterward, nothing.
A notification alert pops on my screen. One of the monitored security cameras flagged movement, and when I pull up the feed, I see Tim being dragged into a car behind the office building. It was clear as day that he was made.
