Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 92549 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92549 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
But the truth?
Just because I had never loved Veronika didn’t mean she hadn’t been my wife. My responsibility.
And yet, I still held the shawl up to my nose again and inhaled deeply.
A vision flashed through my mind of Marina standing before me, wrapped in nothing but this shawl.
The soft wool barely covering her full breasts, slipping over the curve of her waist before draping over the swell of her hips and thighs. I pictured her lying back on that bed, the edges of the fabric slipping open, exposing creamy skin, the dip of her navel, the gentle parting of her thighs.
One hand trailing lower.
The other flipping through the pages of one of those dog-eared books, lost in whatever sin-laced story she had marked for later.
My fingers curled into the shawl, tightening, as heat licked through my veins.
Fuck.
This was wrong. And I needed to stop.
I forced myself to release the fabric, setting it back down with more care than was necessary. I needed to focus. I wasn’t here to fantasize. I was here to find out why a Russian bratva boss wanted her. What had Veronika given her?
I searched the room, my movements sharp, purposeful.
No jewelry box.
No loose floorboards.
No hidden compartments in the small desk.
Nothing.
Whatever she had, it wasn’t here.
Which meant the only thing left to do was wait.
She would come back.
She had to come back.
I knew she wouldn’t leave without the shawl.
It was a gift from Veronika.
And as far as I knew, aside from whatever Veronika had stolen from Solovyov, it was the only piece of her sister Marina had left.
I went back downstairs, my boots heavy against the floor. The roommate was still unconscious in the middle of the room.
For a brief moment, I felt the barest flicker of pity.
He was probably just some loser college kid, desperate for a cheap place to stay. More than likely, he had been here before Marina. She had probably taken the room because it was the only thing she could afford until she got on her feet.
Still.
I hated it.
I hated that another man got to see her first thing in the morning, before she had her coffee, her voice still husky from sleep. I hated that he was the last person she spoke to before bed, that he lived close enough to hear the rustle of sheets when she shifted in her sleep.
Even if he was too much of a coward to touch her, the fact remained…he could have.
The thought made something dark and ugly coil in my gut.
The second I met Marina, I knew she was going to be a problem.
She had been barely twenty, all soft curves and sharp wit, and I had known instantly, I shouldn’t want her. So I pulled away from Veronika’s family. I refused to get close. Refused to build those bonds.
Because every time I saw Marina, it was a test.
And I had always known that at some point, I would fail.
I kept my word, though. I never strayed. I never let my hands—or my thoughts—go where they weren’t supposed to. And how was I rewarded for my restraint?
With her ending up here. Living with this dick.
This coward got to be in her space. While she read page after page of filthy books that turned her on, he lived under the same roof. How long until she sought a man to satisfy her?
How long until she got tired of waiting for someone worthy and lowered her standards to him?
No.
I had stayed away because it would have been wrong to fuck my wife’s sister.
It hadn’t mattered that Veronika was never faithful to me. What had mattered was the principle.
But Veronika was dead now.
And she had died because she took a lover and then stole from him.
Why the fuck was I still holding back?
Guilt and lust warred inside me, a violent, intense mix.
I hadn’t been there to save Veronika.
But I was here now.
And Marina was mine to protect.
My eyes dropped to the unconscious bastard at my feet. I considered it—considered putting him out of his misery. It would be easy. Too easy.
And not nearly as satisfying as I needed it to be.
Besides, I had promised Var minimal bloodshed. The more attention I drew before I got Gregor fully up to speed, the worse it would be for me.
No, I would wait.
Marina would come back.
And when she did, we would come to an understanding.
She would be under my protection.
The longer I pursued her, the more I realized there was nothing stopping me from having her under me as well.
The front door creaked open.
“Hey, anyone home? I’m thinking about ordering pizza. Anyone want in—What the fuck happened to the wall?”
Another voice.
Masculine.
I saw red.
CHAPTER 6
MARINA
“Welcome home.”
Two words coming from the darkness.
That was all it took for my stomach to plummet and my breath to catch in my throat as I’d cautiously opened my apartment door, hoping against hope that the place was as empty and still as it appeared from outside.