Page 67 of Jewel of the Assassin
The fence isn’t high. I shed my coat, getting a firm grip with my hands. He might be stronger, but I’m fast as hell.
“Get away from there!” His voice booms as my boots slap the frost-hardened ground on the other side.
But I’m already sprinting into the tree line. And then?—
Click.
I freeze, heart seizing mid-beat. Just. Pure. Split. Second. Terror.
“Valentina!” Roman’s shout cuts the air—raw, ragged.
Then the world blurs.
He crashes into me like a battering ram, wrapping around me just as the landmineexplodesbeneath our feet.
We hit the ground hard, rolling. Moss and leaves burst around us like confetti. The blast is muted but jarring—earth jumping, ears ringing, pressure clapping the air from my lungs.
He shields me. All of him braced over all of me.
And still, I see red.
“Youinsane bastard!” I shriek, pushing at his shoulders,clawing at his face. “Maybe a heads-up next time?! Like, I don’t know,‘Stop, wife, before you step on a goddamn landmine!’”
He growls but doesn’t move. “It was astuncharge?—”
“Oh, great! What else have you got out here? Acid pits? Guard wolves? Bombing drones?!”
He grips my throat, choking, enough tostillme. Eyes molten. Something primal in him has snapped. Something I saw in the dungeon when he first fucked me.
Voice like thunder smothered in velvet, he snarls, “Yes.” He cocks his head, nose skimming my cheek. “And anything else I need to keep you safe.”
I struggle in his grip, rasping out, “Safe from what? Justtell me!”
“No.”
He rises slowly, looking down on me. I prop myself on my elbows, hair tangled, face flushed with fury. My body still shakes…not just from the cold or the explosion. But by the devil in his eye.
“God, you’re such a control-freak psycho,” I snap, breath still heaving, bones still rattled.
His eyes drag over me. He scrubs a hand down his face. Exhales. Then chuffs a low, dangerous laugh. It’s worse than the devil. It’s a calm devil. He knows exactly what he’s going to do, how he’s going to punish me.
“You look good beneath me, Valentina,” he says, voice rough with restraint. “But you’ll look even betterupside down.”
My brow scrunches. “What the hell does that?—”
Snap.A low hiss.
A sudden rope lashes out from the moss-laced tree beside me and whips around my ankle in a brutal arc. I’m hanging upside down. Just like he said. The flared ends of the dress gather at my hips, exposing my black stockings where they end at my thighs, but the rest of the fabric is still snug, preserving what little dignity I have.
“Roman, you mother fucking jackass. Let me down!”
I spit fire and fury, swinging with fists balled, knowing it’s invain. Especially when he’s circling me like a predator, stroking his jaw, amused.
“Ungh, all the blood is rushing to my head,” I groan.
“Likewise.”
He grins, and I want to punch him in his stupid, ridiculous, inhumanly beautiful face. I shouldn’t. Oh, I shouldn’t. But my eyes flick toward his breeches. Yeah, he’s bulging steel, alright. He chuckles darkly, knowing what I just did.
