“You can still stop this,” he said quietly.
“Don’t stop,” she told him.
His body pressed against hers fully now, all heat and muscle and restrained power.Lena could feel his heartbeat beneath her palm, steady despite everything.Then he entered her, slowly and steadily, making her gasp at the length of him.
Finally, he was buried balls deep in her.Lena moaned softly, clutching at the sheets above her.Maksim started riding her with slow and sure strokes, making her feel good.
“Faster,” she begged him.
Maksim complied, picking up the pace, and reducing them both to needy and sweaty animals.Each time he entered her, it felt like a piece of her soul drifted out to brush against his.She’d never felt this way with any other man before and it was exhilarating.
He shifted the angle of his thrusts, making her gasp and her body arch as he hit her sweet spot.Maksim grinned down at her as he aimed for the spot repeatedly.She groaned, as the pressure inside her body continued to build.
“I’m close,” she whispered.
Maksim pressed a kiss to her mouth, then pushed inside her again.The room fell away from her line of sight.She screamed out his name as she came, breasts heaving, mouth meeting his.Several thrusts later, he came inside her, and she didn’t even care they forgot protection.
He collapsed onto the bed beside her, pulling her instinctively against his chest as though keeping her close had already become second nature.His body radiated heat like a living furnace, solid and steady beneath her, and Lena found herself curling into him without thinking.
The room still smelled faintly of smoke, sweat, and the lingering traces of him.Outside, the city continued breathing beyond the cracked apartment walls, cold and dangerous and waiting for them both.Here, however, wrapped in the warmth of Maksim’s arms, it felt impossibly far away.
Lena knew she should have been thinking about the future.About the men who had attacked the safehouse, Maksim’s brothers, and what would happen to her now that she had crossed a line neither she nor Maksim could uncross.
Questions crowded the edges of her mind, restless and sharp.What were they now?Would Maksim eventually decide she had become too dangerous to keep alive?Would his brothers come for her?
But exhaustion dragged heavily at her limbs, and the steady rhythm of his breathing against her hair slowly drowned out every spiraling thought.Right now, none of it seemed to matter.
Not when his arm tightened around her in his sleep-like haze, pulling her even closer against him as though his body refused to risk letting her drift away.
Chapter Eight
Long after Lena fellasleep, Maksim remained awake.The apartment was silent except for the occasional hum of old pipes in the walls and the distant murmur of traffic far below.Maksim stared at the tangled sheets wrapped around their bodies while he lit a cigarette to sort his thoughts.
Lena slept with her back pressed against his side.She rested her hands loosely over his arm where it circled her waist, like even unconscious some part of her trusted him enough not to pull away.That realization sat heavily in his ribs.Maksim stared at the ceiling, cigarette smoke curling slowly toward the cracked plaster above.
He should not have let this happen.The thought repeated itself steadily.Beside him, Lena shifted slightly in her sleep, soft curls brushing against his throat.Her breathing remained deep and even.She looked relaxed and, more importantly, she was safe, at least for now.