Page 174 of Tarnished Tyrant (Zhukova Bratva 1)

I’ve never come so hard in my life as I do right then. It feels like it comes from my fucking soul and rips out of me with a fury. It burns as it goes.

When it’s finally gone, I’m exhausted.

Slowly, I pull myself out of Belle and step backwards. She turns just as slowly and looks at me warily. One hand stays planted on the shelves like she’ll fall without the support.

I can see it written all over her face: she needed that. She wanted that. She missed me.

And now, she wants me to tell her the same.

I could do it. Those four little words:I missed you, too.It’d be so simple. The polar opposite of the antagonistic headbutting that has been the bedrock of our whatever-the-fuck-you’d-call-this since we met.

I open my mouth to finally say exactly that.

But what comes out instead is, “Get dressed.”

Her face falls. “Nikolai…”

“I have work to do.” I turn away and zip my pants. “Arslan can show you to your room and—”

“What is this?” she demands. “Between us, what is this? Where are we?”

“We’re right fucking here, Belle. I came and picked you up. I brought you back to my house.”

“And what if I wasn’t pregnant?”

The underlying questions aren’t exactly subtle. She might as well be shouting them in my face.Without this baby, would you still want me? Would we still be here?

For the second time in as many minutes, the opportunity to fix all this is right there for the taking.Do it, you bastard,snarls a voice in my head.Don’t be such a fucking coward. Tell her what she means to you.

But for the second time in as many minutes, I don’t.

Hurt flashes across her face. “You owe me an answer.”

“I don’t owe you shit.”

“You kidnapped me!”

“And you begged me to fuck you. You’ve lost the moral high ground.”

She inhales sharply. “Is that what this was? You proving that everything you’ve done is okay because I… because I’m attracted to you? Do you evenhearyourself?!”

“I don’t have anything to prove to anyone. Especially not to you.”

She blinks at me, her mouth set in a firm, angry line. I turn away from her.

“Get dressed and find your room,” I growl over my shoulder. “I have work to do.”

* * *

“Where the fuck are you, Zhukova?” Giorgos yells into the phone.

I’m in my office with the door locked. I heard Belle slam her bedroom door closed twenty minutes ago, and I haven’t heard anything since.

“I’m not at the church,” I answer grimly. “That’s all you need to know.”

“We’ve been reaching out since you disappeared last night,” he says. “You can’t treat my sister like—”

“I can do whatever I want,” I say calmly. “Which is why I’m calling off the wedding.”

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