Page 46 of Bride of Vengeance

The seductively sinister smile that follows his statement turns out to be the most accurate warning I’ve ever received.

We lie tangled together in sheets that smell like sex and possibility. My head rests on his chest, and I can feel his heartbeat gradually slowing from the frantic rhythm it maintained while he showed me exactly how thorough his imagination had been.

Holy hell.

I knew he'd be skilled - a man doesn't reach forty-two without learning how to please a woman. But this was different. This was worship. A long wait channeled into making me come apart in his hands until I was boneless and breathless.

Claimed.That's exactly how I feel.

And he belongs to me too.

"Any regrets?" he asks quietly, his fingers tracing patterns on my bare shoulder.

"Only that we waited this long."

His chest rumbles with quiet laughter. "If we'd done this two years ago, you would have arrested me afterward."

"If we'd done this two years ago, I would have been too busy planning round two to remember I was supposed to arrest you."

Round two.The thought makes heat unfurl in my core despite the fact that he just spent an hour turning my body into liquid fire.

"Is that an invitation?"

"It's a statement of fact." I lift my head to look at him, noting the satisfied expression on his face. "You look pleased with yourself."

"I should. I just made Special Agent Mariana Castillo scream my name loudly enough that if I had neighbors, they would have already called to complain." He pauses, a slight smile playing at his lips. "Though of course, this place is built to withstand missile strikes. The soundproofing means no one outside these walls heard anything."

No one heard anything.The reminder that we're completely isolated in his fortress makes the intimacy feel even moreprivate, more ours. A world created where nothing exists except the way his hands felt on my skin and the way he murmured praise in Russian while he made me come apart.

"What were you saying? In Russian?"

"That you're beautiful. That you feel perfect. That I've been wanting to touch you like this since the first time I saw you."

"Mikhail?"

"Yes?"

"When this is over, when we clear our names and expose Harrison's corruption..." I trail off, not sure how to voice the question that's been building in my chest.

"When this is over," he says quietly, "I want to take you to dinner. Somewhere expensive and public where I can watch you eat and pretend we're a normal couple, and after that, I want to bring you back here and spend the entire night learning new ways to make you say my name."

The promise sends heat spiraling through me despite my exhaustion. "Just your name?"

"Or God's name if I do it right. You might even end up learning some Russian."

If he does it right.Based on the evidence of the last hour, he definitely knows what he's doing.

I laugh. "That sounds like a plan."

"Good." He pulls me closer, until we're pressed together from chest to hip. "Because I'm not letting you go, little wolf. Not now that I finally have you."

And just like that,he's making the choice to be with me, despite every reason this shouldn't work.

"Even if it gets complicated?"

His lips brush against my temple, a soft kiss that feels more intimate than anything we just shared. "I've been alone all these years. I'm not going back to that."

The words settle in my chest like a warm weight. He tilts my chin up so I'm looking at him, and the honesty in his dark eyes makes my breath catch. "The thought of losing you now makes me want to eliminate every threat in a thousand-mile radius."