Page 35 of Dark Possession
God help them. Because I won’t.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Alina
AS SOON AS we’re outside the door of the motel, Lev scoops me up against his chest and strides to the car. He bends without releasing me, somehow managing to set me down on the seat and slide in behind me without removing his hands, and then pulls me onto his lap.
I feel his lips press against my hair. “I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”
I shake my head from where I have it pressed against his chest, the scent of his cologne filling my senses. “It’s okay. We did it, Lev.”
His arms tighten around me. “He had his hands on you.”
“He didn’t hurt me.”
“But he had his hands on you.”
Something warm washes through me, cleansing the last remaining vestiges of the panic I had felt when Sergei slid his fingers down the vee of my dress, stopped at the point just between my breasts, and tore it down the middle.
Sergei had wasted no time once he had ushered me into that rat-trap motel room. He had seated himself in the single pleather chair, legs sprawled out before him, set a gun on the table beside him, and motioned lazily. “Strip.”
Had Lev seen us leave? How far away was he?
Stall.“W-what?”
His eyes were hard when he grabbed his gun and rose to stand in front of me, forcing me to tilt my head back. “I don’t like repeating myself.”
I took a step back. “No need for that. I’m here with you. Can I have a drink first? Get loosened up?”
He tilted his head to the side and slid the gun along the inside of my thigh. “What if I don’t want you loose?” With his other hand, he tore the front of my dress, his eyes glittering with lust and violence as he stared at my breasts. “Turn around.”
Without waiting for a response, he grabbed me and whirled me around, the hand with the gun already bunching my dress up. My mind went blank with fear.
This was not how this was supposed to go.
That was when a knock sounded on the door.
And now Lev is holding me, pressing me to him like I mean something, like he would have cared if Sergei had hurt me…had killed me. “I’m okay,” I whisper, lifting one hand to his jaw. I turn his face to mine, lifting my gaze until I can see the conflict in his. “You were there. You saved me.”
Lifting my chin, I press my lips to his. For a moment, there’s nothing but the faintest of pressures. Then a groan sounds deep in his throat, dark and raw, and Lev draws me impossibly closer, his lips finding mine in a kiss that leaves no space for air or hesitation.
He doesn’t release me until the car rolls to a stop in front of his house, and only then when we’re inside. “Go change,” he orders softly. “I’ll be in the living room.”
Holding the torn remnants of my dress across my chest like a shield, I climb the steps and go to my room to find a pair of pajamas. Despite the intimacy in the car, something feels off now—like he’s distancing himself.
Is this the part where he tells me he’s done with me? I told him, in so many words, that I didn’t want to be his whore. I didn’t want to be anybody’s whore. That in spite of the way it looked, I hadn’t auctioned myself off for that.
But maybe that’s all he wanted.
Tears burn behind my eyes, and I press the heels of my hands into them, shoving them back. I won’t cry over this. I’ve done what I came here to do. If I was stupid enough to fall for the guy…well, I’ll get over it.
Ten minutes later, dressed in pajamas and face scrubbed of makeup, I step into the living room. Nerves buzz under my skin like static electricity. Lev is waiting for me, leaning against the fireplace mantel with deceptive casualness. His eyes give him away, though—they’re heavy with something I can’t place. Guilt? Maybe.
He gestures to the sofa. “Sit, Alina. I need to tell you something,” he says, his voice steady but low. The kind of tone that prepares you for bad news.
My chest tightens, and I nod, bracing myself. “You’re scaring me.”
“Nothing to be scared of,” he replies, then gives a short bark of laughter. “Not you, anyway.”
