Exhaustion started weighing heavily on me, and I found myself sagging against him.
He made quick work walking us back to my prison, and once in the room he set me gently on the bed, then took a step back and crossed those beefy arms over his chest, stretching that dark T-shirt impossibly over all those muscles and pissing me off even more because I noticed.
I saw streaks of blood on his arms, little cuts from him chasing me through the woods. I looked down at my own arms and legs, seeing they were covered in scrapes and dirt.
And as the adrenaline faded and I could think rationally, I realized my feet throbbed, the soles so battered I hissed when I lifted one leg to look at my heel.
“You tore yourself up,” he said matter-of-factly. “And for what?”
I felt my nostrils flare as my anger surged again.
“There it is,” he murmured, his eyes growing heavy-lidded.
“What?” I said through clenched teeth.
He took a step closer and let his gaze travel up and down my body. And damn my traitorous hormones for lighting me up at the way he made a low hum of pleasure, at how his focus lingered on my thighs, which were on full display because my sleep shorts had risen up damn near to my hips.
“Getting all angry, talking back to me…” He looked into my eyes. “Pretending you’re not afraid of me when everyone else is.” He leaned in and braced his palms on the mattress, all up in my personal space. “Mmm, no one ever acts the way you do to me. They are too afraid.”
I refused to respond, just glared at him.
“Yeah,” he groaned. “There it is.” His voice was husky and low. “That fire I remember so well from all those years ago.” He leaned in even more, and the concentrated masculine scent of him filled my head. “That spark of life that I no longer have.” He stared deep into my eyes and I held my breath as every synapse awakened in me. “The flare of everything I no longer am that turns me on, makes me so fucking hard, sweetheart.”
The air left me violently, and I hated that I saw the pleasure and amusement in his eyes.
I reached out and pushed him back, my hands on his shoulders, but it was like moving a mountain.
And then he was gone, standing on the other side of the bed, his arms crossed again, that apathetic mask back in place.
He acted like he hadn’t all but admitted to doing lewd things with my panties. He acted like I hadn’t just tried to escape this imprisonment. He pretended like he wasn’t just saying obscene shit to me and causing my body to get aroused in this totally screwed-up situation.
“Don’t try and run again.” His voice was cold. “I’ll find you. Always.” A long moment of silence stretched out. “You think I haven’t known where you’ve been for the last ten years? You think I haven’t watched you more times than you’d feel comfortable knowing about over the years?”
My breath caught, and I gripped the blanket on either side of me.
“You think I would ever let anyone have you?” He shook his head and I saw his jaw clench. “You’re mine. Not his. You’ve been mine since before you even realized it.”
I stared at him, really let those words sink in, trying to make sense of it. What did he mean he wouldn’t let anyone have me? A thick lump formed in my throat as I thought of Ivan, this deranged, twisted hope filling me.
Had Kostya… had he done something to Ivan that would have canceled the engagement?
God, what was wrong with me that I was even contemplating that as a positive scenario in this already fucked-up situation?
“I’ll get the first-aid kit to fix those cuts. Take the pills and drink that bottle of water, baby. I’m not going to ask you again.”
He turned and left the room and I sat there watching him retreat, hating the fact that I liked the endearment.
What was wrong with me that even after everything, my body still refused to catch up with my mind on the fact that this was a dangerous situation. This wasn’t the boy that I once loved. He was a murderer.
He was something far worse, I realized.
Chapter
Fifteen
Ruin
When I came back into the room with the first-aid kit, I could tell she was going to give me problems. It was in the hard set of her features, the narrowing of her eyes.
Even after leaving her alone for a couple of minutes, she’d already played this scenario out in her head.
So I just stood there and watched her as I cocked my eyebrow. “Whatever bullshit you’re about to do, just do it. The sooner we get your wounds cleaned up, the sooner I can tell you what’s happened for the past ten years.”