Page 88 of Claim Me

Yet the usual cool look was something entirely different. A fire burned in his eyes as the desire caused his nostrils to flare. Tension bloomed between us, the rush of electricity completely sexual and I was a heartbeat away from surrendering all of myself.

“I suggest you hurry,” he stated with absolute calmness that left me breathless as his thumb stroked the curve of my cheek. “As you should know by now, I’m not a patient man.” His deep voice became a rough caress that left me tingling all over.

Yet even in the sweet moment where I could easily block out all thoughts and sounds from everyone else in the room, a strange, unwanted awareness crawled through me.

Chills trickled down from the nape of my neck to my spine, my breath hitching.

Someone was there lurking in the shadows.

Watching me.

Waiting.

The sensations were real and nothing like the way I’d felt at my concerts when I’d eagerly awaited the raw vibrations from knowing a stranger, now my lover, was waiting and wanting in the darkness.

This was something else altogether.

And it was very dangerous.

Fighting panic, I leaned against Kazimir and the moment of queasiness disappeared.

Now pinpricks of pain tugged at my heart. For whatever reason, this felt like both a beginning and an end. Yet at that moment as I’d experienced the first time I’d met him, I wanted to feel something other than the cold wrap of the long bony fingers of sorrow and death.

So I did something unthinkable, I pushed the entire tray onto red, number one.

Maybe for once in my life, I was feeling lucky.

CHAPTER 24

Kazimir

Marissa’s fear had been palpable. I’d seen the moment of terror in her glistening green eyes just before she’d tried to hide it.

Fuck me, I was still so furious that I hadn’t noticed her reaction at first. How dare that motherfucker Popov and his clown for a son come into a meeting still believing they were going to leave with a wife for Rurik in tow.

Exhaling, I wondered if the fear I’d seen in her eyes had been her first full comprehension of just how dangerous the situation was.

No, something was still off.

Just the way she’d darted her eyes across the room had been a clear indication she believed someone was watching her. My hackles remained raised.

Orders had been commanded to ensure not a single one of the motherfuckers had remained.

Given her reaction, I’d say a plant had been hiding in plain sight long before the meeting. I’d enlisted Ryker and Simon to investigate. Now it was my responsibility to keep her safe.

The slight ping of the elevator barely registered in my mind. I’d spent the better part of the last thirty minutes with my eyes locked on the most beautiful woman in the casino. Every look at her beautiful face ripped air from my lungs.

Change was never good, at least not in the life I’d created. I preferred everything organized and finite, easily accessible and difficult to manipulate. Yet right now, everything involving Marissa was messy and wild.

Her laughter allowed me another opportunity to see another side of her even though throughout the night, I’d captured whispers of sadness crushing her spirit. Haunted and uncertain, she was behaving like a warrior, refusing to bow down to her grief or the fear I sensed had already come close to consuming her.

As the doors to the elevator slowly opened, I noticed something different in her intense stare. An undeniable spark of deep yearning that required satisfaction.

She wanted to be touched.

Kissed.

Adored.