Page 96 of Lethal Torture

I gulp my drink.

Luke’s blade against my skin, cutting through my underwear, steel on silk.

Luke’s huge hands spreading me wide, teasing me until I can’t fucking breathe.

Luke filling me so completely even the thought of it makes me gasp.

“Oh, wow.” Taking in my flushed face, Darya grins at me. “I will absolutely take that as a yes. Which probably means it was for him, too.”

“I wouldn’t know.” I stare at my drink, avoiding her eyes. “We literally haven’t spoken a word about it since. And it’s all so damned complicated. I mean, technically, he still works for me—”

Darya’s sudden laugh stops me mid-sentence. “Did Roman ever mention to you how he and I met?”

Rather taken aback, I shake my head.

“No.” She tilts his head. “I doubt he will ever tell anyone. However, since we’re way past secrets at this point, I will. Roman employed me. As his au pair.”

“Heemployedyou?” My eyebrows nearly hit my hairline.

“Uh-huh.” Darya’s mouth twitches. “Mind you, this isafterwe’d been playing eye tennis for five months over the counter of the coffee shop where I worked. Not to mention after I’d delivered coffee to his office, where he had... um... semi-ravished me, shall we say, in broad daylight. Yup,” she says, giggling when she sees my face. “Then he presented me with a contract. One that included quite a bit more than just looking after his children.”

I almost choke on my drink. “He offered you a sex contract?” I say. “Roman?Mr. GQ Cover, I-can-have-any-supermodel-I-want, all-about-the-honor-code Roman Borovsky?”

“Yup.” She raises her glass to me. “And if you ever breathe a word to him about knowing this, I will personally murder you. Or Roman will. Actually, to be fair, Roman will get there first.”

I shake my head in amazement. “Consider my lips completely sealed.”

But that doesn’t stop my head from reeling. I’ve known Roman for a very long time. And I know exactly how out ofcharacter all of this is for him. “He must have loved you very much.”

Darya nods. “He did,” she says simply. “He does. And I love him so much it still terrifies me. But neither of us knew it back then. So I get it, with you and Luke.”

“Me and Luke?” My glass pauses in midair. “Oh, no. I don’t think it’s anything like that kind of serious. Not between... No.” I shake my head.

Love? Luke and me, in love?

Christ.

What does that even fucking mean?

“Do you know how Roman and Luke first met?” Darya is watching me, a slight smile on her face.

“Please tell me that wasn’t a sex contract too?” Jokes are about all I can manage right now.

“Ha. No. It was in Miami. Luke was part of the team who went in to rescue our daughters, Masha and Ofelia.”

I nod. “Yes, I do remember Roman telling me that. He said that Luke took a bullet for his family. I could tell it meant a lot to him.”

“More than one bullet.” Darya’s face is somber. “When it all went down, Roman could only spare three men to guard the girls. One was Dimitry, obviously. Another was a man called Matthew. The third was Luke.” She takes a deep breath and a long sip of her drink, and I can tell that even recalling that day is hard for her. “Dimitry and Luke stood at the door, and Matthew stayed with the girls. Dimitry told Roman later that he genuinely thought he and Luke would never make it out of there. The Orlov men just kept coming, in numbers they weren’t expecting. Dimitry said that Luke took out two men for every one of his, that he’d never seen anyone fight with such lethal precision. Then Dimitry’s gun locked, and Luke threw him his own and started taking the men out by hand. That was when he got shot.”

I flinch. I can see it, too clearly.

“Luke took a bullet in the leg,” she says somberly. “Then one in the side and one through his shoulder. It was only when he took the third one that he ordered Matthew to take his place and retreated to protect the girls. Ofelia told me afterward that even though he was bleeding, and there were bullets flying everywhere, Luke stayed gentle with them, never once raised his voice. And when it looked like all hope was lost, he literally covered their bodies with his own. Luke didn’t just take a bullet for our girls. He made himself a human shield between them and death, without a second thought.”

Darya’s voice cracks slightly on the last words.

“When the girls got out of there, Luke was one of the first people they asked for. You’d think that after something like that, they’d never want to see another reminder of their ordeal. But neither of them would calm down until they’d seen Luke for themselves and knew he was alright.”

It’s difficult to hide my shock.