Page 76 of The Bratva's Christmas Bump

“Hollie, I’m alright.”

“No, look at you!” She wrenches herself out of Stu’s now relaxed grip and stumbles toward me. “What happened? What the hell was that?”

“I’m okay.” My words mean nothing to her as she grabs both my arms and skims her eyes over me, then she whimpers.

“You’re bleeding!”

“Boss,” Stu warns. “We gotta go.”

“I know. I know.”

“Go? We have to take you to the hospital, oh my God!” She clutches at me repeatedly, trying to lift my arm to examine the wound, but I don’t let her.

Instead, I take her by the arm and we start hurrying back through the fair to where we parked.

“This is insane,” Hollie gasps. “Who was that? Was he trying to kill you? How did that even happen? Maxim, you’re bleeding! Oh God, it looks so bad!”

Her frantic flurry of desperate pleas warms my heart as adrenaline pours through me like molten metal. My heart’s pounding, my body’s so hot that the winter chill is a distant thought, and as we approach my car parked in the vacant lot, I can’t take my eyes off her.

“Hollie, I’m fine.”

“Don’t give me that!” She pushes against me, a single tear escaping her eye as she shoves me again. “I can see you’re bleeding! You’re hurt, and that man could have killed you. What even was that? How can that happen? Why did everyone just stand around and?—”

The only way to calm her, the only way to end her tirade, is to kiss her.

So I do.

As soon as we reach the car, I shove her against it, cup the side of her neck, and kiss her deeply while my heart pounds like a drum in my ears. I’m trembling. Pain doesn’t exist right now. Only relief that I spotted him before he could do any real damage to me or her.

“Maxim—” Hollie groans against my lips, then her gloved hands land on either side of my neck.

She’s safe.

She’s fine.

Nothing else matters.

27

HOLLIE

My heart flies a mile a minute, my body burns up from fear and adrenaline while blood soaks into Maxim’s white sweater, but all he cares about is kissing me.

We need to get to a hospital.

We need to get somewhere safe.

I don’t want to lose him.

It’s a scary thought that a man I was terrified of less than a week ago is now someone I actively want to keep in my life. The truth about him changed everything and now, on what was supposed to be a sweet night, he almost died before I could tell him my truth.

I should tell him right now.

But the words don’t come because Maxim rapidly becomes a man possessed with desire. He winds one arm around my waist, pulls me away from the car, and then dumps me on the hood. The ice-cold metal seeps through my pants in seconds, a sharp contrast to the boiling heat pouring off Maxim as he presses medown with deep, desperate kisses. I slide on the hood of the car until his hips and thick, muscular thighs block me from sliding any further.

“Maxim,” I gasp, quickly discarding my gloves so I can feel the warmth of his skin against my palms. “You’re hurt?—”

“No,” he growls against me, his hips perfectly slotted in between my legs. “I’m fine.”