Blood and Roses (Tainted Hearts 3.5)

When they noticed their boss’s focus no longer with them, their attention quickly diverted to me too. I looked away from Lyov to find both Isaak and Boris staring at me with keen interest.

“I see we have a little stalker of our own, Lyov,” Isaak pointed out with a raised eyebrow. He crossed his arms across his chest, as if waiting for me to explain why I was intruding.

A slice of fear slithered its way into my body. They didn’t look threatening, but I was still caught, watching them behind the doors.

I took a step back, bumping into Lena. She held on to my shoulders, and I watched as Lyov stepped in front of the men. His huge body protectively blocked the path between us.

He growled something incorrigible under his breath, and both men snapped their gazes away from me and stood up straighter.

“You have him wrapped around your little finger,” Lena whispered as she pulled me away from the door.

“I do?” I breathed in both astonishment and confusion. My heart was in knots, and my palms were suddenly sweaty. I clenched Lena’s hand in mine, and she grinned in response.

“You do. It’s about time,” she said simply. “I have been waiting for this day.”

More confused than ever now, I just followed Lena wherever she was taking me. But I couldn’t stop the question from slipping past my lips. “You have been waiting…for me?”

Lena winked in response, and we continued our way down the stairs. “Lyov said you like gardening,” she muttered absently.

My steps halted, and my breath was suddenly stuck in my throat. “He did?”

Lyov and I spent last night and most of today in bed. He made me talk. He wanted my voice and my words. He said he wanted to know me. Not Rose. Or the slave.

He wanted to know Maria. The girl from the abbey, before she was taken away from the home she had come to love as she watched it burn to the ground.

For months, I was forbidden from talking. Only my screams of pain were demanded, but with Lyov—he wanted to learn the depths of me.

It was a dream come true. Stolen kisses here and there. Lyov’s smile and laughter, that I was quickly finding out were only reserved for me.

It was the first time I had been in bed with a man—a man like Lyov Ivanshov—and he didn’t make a move to demand more.

He didn’t demand my body.

His desires for me were kept under wraps as he showed me the gentle side of the monster hidden underneath the layer of harshness and evil.

And in return, he stole my heart. He now held it in the palms of his hand, bleeding and raw for him to study.

He didn’t want me to call him Master—but he had become the owner of my heart and soul. If that wasn’t the meaning of Lyov Ivanshov owning me, then I didn’t know what was.

No collars were needed. His firm presence, his gentle kisses, his full lips kissing me with a touch of possessiveness—they made me his.

“He learned a lot about me this morning. I wish I could say the same about him. He was rather…silent,” I finally shared with a mournful whisper.

She smiled and then shrugged. “That’s Lyov for you. Just observing. I’m sure when the time comes, you will know everything about him.”

“I want that,” I admitted, my heart thumping about the idea of discovering all the hidden layers of Lyov Ivanshov.

I was sure to find dark things—but maybe I could turn them into roses. Maybe I could make his life…beautiful.

Blood and roses. I would make us fit in the most perfect way.

He called me his Angel. If that was truly the case, I would wrap my wings around him and show him a piece of heaven in the midst of hell.

“So Lyov told me to take you to our gardens and let you have fun,” Lena continued, breaking through my thoughts. “Do you want that?” she pushed when I didn’t answer fast enough.

When I nodded, her smile widened, and she clapped her hands. “Perfect.”

We stopped by the door, and I noticed that we were at the back of the mansion, where the kitchen was situated. I had paid careful attention when Lyov and Lena had showed me around. It was a big house, and it was hauntingly beautiful.

Lyov said it was where I would live from now on…and I could make it my home.

Lena opened the large door, and we walked into the back garden. It was enormous, breathtaking, and a dream. I could spend hours outside here.

Free. Not trapped in a cage.

“We usually have someone come in once a week to take care of the garden. But if you want?”

“I will do it!” I quickly cut in before she could continue.

Lena smiled, her eyes flashing with delight. “I’ll help if you need me. There’s nothing much to do. You could pick flowers you want. I’ll have them ordered, and you can plant them.”