“All of this,” he murmured, his voice low and deliberate, “is about keeping what is mine.”
Even saying it like that, calmly and unyieldingly, made the air between us thrum as if it were vibrating. My breath caught, and I couldn’t stop the goosebumps from spreading.
His lips brushed my cheek in the softest caress. “Stop tempting me.”
“I wasn’t—” I started, then stopped because yes, I totally was.
“You were. And I have over a decade to make up for, so you better be sure this is what you want.”
I tilted my head, teasing him, testing the line between fear and desire. “So what are you gonna do about it?”
Sasha’s gaze dropped to my lips, and I felt the pull of it like gravity, like there was no distance left in the world he didn’t already own.
“Oh, don’t worry. I’ve got a lot of plans involving you, Little Devil.”
I sucked in a sharp breath, suddenly unable to withstand his piercing gaze any longer. Instead I let my eyes drift past him to the terraces and the ocean stretching beyond the hill, the sunlight sparkling off the waves.
“This all seems awfully well equipped.”
“It is.” His gaze sharpened slightly, but there was something else there too. Something almost satisfied. “You think I would bring you somewhere unprepared?”
His words hung between us, deliberate and pointed. I studied his face, really looked at it, and watched him move through the villa as though it had been waiting for him all along. I saw the way the men deferred to him, not out of submission, and I noticed nothing here was improvised.
“You planned this,” I said slowly.
“Yes.”
“For how long?”
His thumb traced the curve of my hip slowly and absentmindedly, as though he was grounding himself. “Long enough.”
I realized this wasn’t just an escape; it was a careful and deliberate expansion of a system so well-established and broad I couldn’t possibly grasp it yet.
Sasha had come here to build and claim, and somehow, impossibly, he had brought me into it with him. Ten years in prison doesn’t disappear just because you change scenery.
“You’re overwhelmed,” he observed.
“I’m recalibrating,” I corrected, even though my pulse was doing something traitorous in my throat.
Sasha leaned in close but didn’t kiss me. I could feel the heat from his body and the restraint vibrating under his skin.
“Do you trust me?”
That was unfair. He knew the answer.
“Yes,” I said anyway.
Sasha’s jaw tightened for a fraction of a second, like that word had affected him physically.
“We’re here to stay, and everything definitely won’t be sunshine and roses … but I will not let anything or anyone touch you here,” he murmured. “And that’s a fucking promise.”
His fingers flexed at my waist and I could feel the barely contained hunger there. It was more than just desire, it was like he craved me. After a decade of deprivation, all his focus was now on me.
I audibly swallowed and stared into his eyes.
“Are you going to keep looking at me like this in front of your entire … empire?” I asked lightly.
“Probably.”