Page 61 of Wicked Vows (Suvorov Bratva 2)

“I’ve been doing this for a long time,rodnaya,” I say while stepping toward her. This time, she puts space between us. “That means I know exactly what to do and when.”

Her gaze flutters to the cell. The two brigadiers are still preoccupied with the show going on inside, the doctor and my two trusted men hard at work on saving Kiril’s life. She focuses on me while her back flattens against the wall.

“This isn’t something you were born into.” I rest my hand on the left of her neck. She twitches from my proximity. I can almost feel the heat radiating right off her. “Yet you’re losing the best parts of yourself to a sickness that won’t let up.”

“You have no idea what I’m feeling.”

I raise my eyebrows. “Enlighten me.”

“I’ve always been on the bottom. I’ve always eaten scraps.”

I lean against my hand to pin her in place. I have her. She’ll spill whatever I need her to spill. I don’t have to say anything else.

“It’s not enough for me to be under your wing,” she continues. “I want to be on top.”

My lips tighten together.

What have I done to make Liya feel like less than what she is to me? Is telling her not enough?

“Part of me likes how this makes me feel,” she states stiffly. “Ienjoythis.”

I shake my head. “I don’t believe you.”

“It feels like I was made for this, Pavel.” Her eyes flicker with excitement. It’s the first time I’ve seen any sign of sadism in her. “And I don’t want anything to stop me.”

Despite how much I want to push away from her, I don’t. I have to hold the high ground. I have to make sure she doesn’t get any sort of win out of this. “I want the other Liya back.”

“That can’t happen.”

“The other Liya who can love,” I push. “The one who wants to provide comfort, not fear. Not this one who stands up to brigadiers and threatens doctors.”

She shrinks into the wall. “It gets the job done.”

“It wasneveryour job to begin with.”

She shrugs her shoulders and adjusts her position. Though she’s still pinned, she could easily slide out from under my arm. I watch her for a while to see what she’ll do. But she doesn’t move. So, she must be listening.

“You just want the other Liya back so she’ll stay in line,” she accuses.

I sigh. “I want the other Liya back because that’s the one I fell in love with.”

Her mask breaks.

That’s the ticket. That’s what’s going to get her back.

I raise my hand to her chest, running my thumb over the spot where her heart beats the hardest. And right now, it feels like a hummingbird going nuts inside a cage.

“ThatLiya,” I say so low that she has to lean forward to hear me. “Made me feel and made me believe that maybe there’s more to this life than the Bratva.”

Her lower lip trembles. She’s trying so hard to keep it together, to give away less and less. But the more she denies her true emotions, the more she fails to guard them.

I take a deep breath as I trace her collarbone with my thumb. “That Liya made it worth coming home early. Just to see her. To touch her.”

She shivers.

“That Liya was so much more passionate,” I continue. “That was the one I fell for.”

Her eyelids shudder violently when I rest my hand on her shoulder. Kiril cries out behind us, but we’re hardly distracted. I can feel the tension mounting higher between us as I stare into those amber stones, round and wide with anticipation.

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