Page 66 of Konstantin

“This is not a game, Tessa.” My body stills. “It is my job to protect you, not the other way around.”

“That sounds pretty sexist, if you ask me.”

That bite in her tone? I crave it like sin. She doesn’t even know how rare it is, how raresheis. I’ll keep her safe if only to hear her challenge me again.

“Not sexist, just protective. There’s a difference.”

“Mm, if you say so, Marinov.”

“I like it when you’re agreeable.” My lips skim hers, my hipsthrusting slow and deep until a breathy sigh escapes her.

“Don’t get used to it.” She throws her arms over my shoulders.

I chuckle, my mouth lowering to her throat, kissing up her neck. “I wouldn’t dream of such things.”

Her fingers slip into my hair, and for a moment, it’s like she’s breathing life into me, feeding something human I thought died a long time ago.

Her walls clench around me, and I groan, increasing my pace, wanting to forget all the blood and violence that is my life and live in this moment. Live in her. With one brutal thrust, I take her hard, my mouth ravaging hers, enjoying the way she groans into our kiss, her hand gripping the back of my head, wanting more.

Words may lie. But bodies don’t. And hers is telling me everything I need to know. She wants this. Wants me. It’s up to me to make sure she never forgets why.

I slow down just enough to feel every tremor, every tremble in her body that tells me she’s mine.

She has no idea how much more I plan to take. How deep I’ll carve myself into her life, into her flesh. Tessa Monroe belongs to me. She has from the start, and it’s time she knows that.

I flip her over, dragging her to her knees on the blood-slick floor, reminding her that she’s in this now.

My hands wrap around her hips, and I drive into her again—deeper, harder, my fingers biting into her skin like I’m branding her from the inside out. She gasps, her forehead dropping to the floor, but I catch her hair and pull her back up.

“No hiding,” I grunt in her ear. “I want every sound. Every shiver. I want everything. Ti moya.”You’re mine.

She pushes her hips into me, wanting more, and I give her all of me.

“Say it. Say you’re mine. I need to hear it.” The desperation claws at me.

She mutters a curse when I slow down, her voice a ragged whisper. “I’m yours.”

I know she doesn’t mean it, though that makes no difference. Willing or not, she’s not going anywhere.

I wind her hair tight in my fist and drive into her over and over, fingers working her clit until she breaks, moaning my name. Her body convulses, pussy clamping around me like it was made to keep me inside her.

“Oh God, yes!”

“Tessa!” I slam into her once more, and everything inside me detonates.

My release tears through me like rage, coating her walls, until every man who dares to touch her knows who she belongs to. With one last slam of my hips, I collapse over her, arms caging her in, breath ragged at her ear.

The world is quiet now. Except for the sound of her heart beating against mine.

But soon my world will erupt in blood once again. Because when I find the men who sent those bastards, they won’t die because they came for me. They’ll die because they could’ve hurther.

For that, I’ll tear their world down, brick by brick, until everything around them crumbles.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

KONSTANTIN

Two hours later,Tessa’s back in bed and in my arms where she belongs. The blood’s been washed from our skin, the penthouse clean like nothing ever happened.