Total pages in book: 148
Estimated words: 147734 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 739(@200wpm)___ 591(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147734 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 739(@200wpm)___ 591(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
“It’s—”
“I don’t care if you are married.” My voice is harsh, brimming with rage, and pain courses through my veins. “You’re already fucking mine. Do you hear me?”
He grins wide.
“You think I’m joking? I’ll kidnap you and hold you captive for the rest of your life if I have to.”
“Toxic. I love it.”
“Shut the hell up.” I search our surroundings, holding the gun up. “Where’s your wife? Let me meet her real quick.”
“Aw, you’ll kill her?”
“If she doesn’t divorce you, yes.”
He laughs, and the rich sound stings deeper because now, he’s not all mine anymore.
Someone else has him.
Temporarily.
Just for now.
I’ll make sure to end this marriage even if it’s the last thing I do.
“Stop laughing.” I pull on his hair harder. “Where is she?”
“There’s no wife.” He shows me his empty ring finger. “Will be open to having a husband, though. Not now, but I’m putting it on the table, just in case.”
“What?” My grip loosens a little.
“I didn’t get married,” he admits softly, then he tells me about the switch, that Alina got married instead, and how Levian Markov played a role in it. He recounts the story of how the Boston Bratva was behind the attack that both brought us closer and pulled us apart four years ago.
The alliance with Lukas.
Killing Yaroslav.
My head reels from the onslaught of information, but every word rewrites the last couple of days of hell in my head.
By the time he’s done, my knees almost give out.
I’m now holding on to his shoulders tightly as sharp breaths puncture my lungs. It’s as if I’ve been drowning for years, and I’m finally coming up for air.
He’s here.
He’s not someone else’s.
Yulian is still fucking mine.
“I don’t think I would’ve been able to do it anyway.” He palms my cheek, stroking gently. “Marry someone else, I mean. Knowing me, I would’ve probably dramatically run back up the aisle or something.”
“I love you, Yulian,” I confess with my heart in my throat, my voice slightly choked. “I think I’ve been in love with you since we were teens. I fought it, ignored it, denied it, tried to replace you with someone else, but it never worked. The more I tried to strangle my feelings for you, snuff them out, and bury them, the stronger they became. I’m done fighting you, us, and everything we can be together. I’ll fight for you, kill for you, I’ll protect you from the world with my life, but you’re not allowed to leave me. You make me a better man, baby, and I don’t ever want to see the version of me without you again.”
He lets out a breath, his fingers trembling on my face. “Fuck.”
“Is that…all you have to say?”
“Give me a second. I need to process that and learn it by heart. Tattoo it on me, maybe.”
I smile, stroking his hair. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“I always tattoo you on me, though.” He steps back, forcing me to release him.
Before I can complain about the lack of him, he undoes the top buttons of his shirt, then takes my hand and makes me trace the tattoo right over his heart.
The Cyrillic script disappears beneath my fingers as he says, “Я с тобой (Ya s toboy). You told me this in the cave when I thought I’d die. It was the first time someone other than my mother cared about me so deeply. I’ve been in love with you ever since, Mishka.”
My lips part. “Yulian…”
“I might have been desperate in chasing you, and sure, from the outside looking in, some would think I’m an idiot for always loving you when you could be emotionally stunted and aloof.” He tightens his grip on my fingers, then brings them to his mouth to drop a kiss on them one by one. “But I always knew you cared about me. You might act cold and distant at times, but truly, you’ve always looked out for me, cared about me, spoiled me shitless. When I’m in a dangerous situation, you always show up for me, and that’s what makes me love you more, baby. I don’t want my life without you. I refuse to have it. And I’m never letting you go again. Not in this lifetime, not in the next.”
“That’s what I should be saying.” I slide the gun into my waistband and palm his face. “You’re mine, and I’m yours for the rest of our lives.”
“You’ll never get rid of me.”
I smile. “I’m counting on it.”
And then he kisses me, sensually, passionately, with every morsel of wildness that Yulian is.
And I know, I just know, that our new life starts now.
No more hiding.
No more fear.
Just him and me.
The villain I hunted only to fall in love with.
EPILOGUE 1 — VAUGHN
ONE MONTH LATER
Maybe this was a mistake.
Not transferring to Brighton Island—that was perfect. I get to live with Yulian in our coastal house. But this…this meeting.