I come with a force that pushes the breath from my lungs, my body convulsing as wave after wave of sensation crashes over me.
For a moment, everything else disappears.
The château. Moscow. The drugs. The fear.
All of it replaced by nothing but heat and light and Adrian.
When I finally come back to myself, I'm gasping, my body trembling, and Adrian is kissing his way back up my body.
He settles beside me, pulling me into his arms, and I bury my face in his chest.
"Just so you know," he says, his voice low and rough, "I have never stopped loving you. Not for a single second." He kisses the top of my head. "I love you more now than I ever did before. I love you, Leni."
I pull back and look up at him. "You mean that? Really?"
"Every word," he says, his voice firm. "I love you, and I will protect you for the rest of my life. No one is ever going to hurt you again. I promise you that."
The weight of his words settles over me, and for the first time since this nightmare began, I feel something that's been locked away for so long I almost forgot it existed.
Hope.
"I love you too," I say, my voice shaking. "I never stopped either. How could I?"
Adrian nods and pulls me closer against him.
"Then we're going to be okay," he says. "I promise you, Leni. We're going to be okay."
I nod, and I tuck my head under his chin, settling as close as I can against him.
The survivor's guilt doesn't disappear completely, but it eases enough.
And as Adrian holds me, his arms warm and solid around me, I let myself believe that maybe, just maybe, we're going to make it past this.
23
ADRIAN
Iblink awake, the sunlight on my face.
I stare at the ceiling. Elena is warm against my chest, her breath steady and even for the first time since I found her.
She must have finally fallen into a deep sleep, not the fitful, nightmare-plagued kind where she jerks awake every few minutes.
So I must have passed out too.
Her dark hair fans across my arm, and I don't dare move. Every muscle in my body is tense, locked in place, because if I shift even slightly, I might wake her, and she needs this.
My mind drifts back to last night. The way she kissed me. The way she tasted.
It's a happy thought that doesn't last too long as something else claws its way to the surface.
Cornel Lupu.
I need to find out who the fuck this person is, hunt him down, and make him suffer.
Elena stirs slightly, her fingers letting go of me, and she shifts to laying flat on her back. I freeze, waiting, but she doesn't wake.
Then a sound echoes from the living room, a soft thud, like someone setting something down on the table.