Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 83195 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83195 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
I frantically reach for a cloth and drop down to my knees to start cleaning it up.
Why? Why am I feeling like this? Wasn’t I trying to convince myself it was only attraction? Shouldn’t I be satisfied now that we’ve scratched the itch?
He says my name, but I ignore him. He crouches down and puts his hand on mine. “Lena,” he repeats, and I have no choice but to look up at him. “I want to be honest with you. I need to do this.”
“Okay,” I reply, averting my gaze and going back to wiping up the mess. I manage to get it all and then stand and throw the rag in the sink. “You can leave now.”
“Lena, I want you,” he says, and I’m certain it sounds like he’s pleading.
“Leave.” My tone is a cutting edge. “Thanks for the coffee,” I mutter and then turn to head to the shower. “Lock the door on your way out.”
I slam the bathroom door in his face and turn the shower on scalding hot. I steady my breathing before I burst into tears, hating that I let him in so deeply. How? When?
When I climb into the shower, the water burns my already red skin where the coffee splashed me. I hear the door open but don’t even look; I know it’s him.
“I don’t want to be a part of that life, that world. You get that, right?” I blurt out with my back turned to him. “Enjoy your dancer, Alek. Because you’ll most likely get yourself killed trying to chase her, and I won’t watch that or be a part of it. You’ve already done enough damage here.”
The tension ripples through the bathroom, and I close my eyes, wishing him away. I hear the click of the door, and when I turn to look, he’s gone.
CHAPTER 32
Aleksandr
Cinita sits on the couch every fucking day, complaining about God knows what. I don’t know because I block her out. It’s been a week since I’ve taken her in. A whole fucking week that I’ve been starved for Lena.
She was right to kick me out. But, fuck, it doesn’t mean I don’t fight against myself every day, trying not to hunt her down and claim her as mine all over again. I’ve been branded by her in every way, and I can’t get her off my fucking mind.
The only reason I even have Cinita here is because there was a fourth man who was toying with her—who is still on the loose—and Will is currently tracking him down. After I find him and kill him, I have every intention of kicking her out of my home.
“Alek,” Cinita yells as I walk in. I was trying to sneak by her, but she heard me. Which is uncanny, considering I can be very fucking quiet. “Please come here.”
Sighing, I walk into the living room, which only reminds me of Lena sitting there.
Her plump ass has filled the very same spot where Cinita is all but lounging and snapping her fingers at me.
I stop in the doorway, and she stands from the couch and turns to look at me. She has on a barely-there white cami that skims the top of her thighs, and I have a feeling she’s wearing it for a reason. But I really couldn’t give a shit. The only woman wearing particularly revealing things I care about is Lena. And that’s because I want to be the only one to see her that way. My jaw clenches, thinking about what she’s wearing now and who might be seeing her.
“You haven’t touched me. Why haven’t you touched me?” Cinita asks. “Do you not want me anymore?” She sounds a little deflated but hopeful as well. She pouts out her bottom lip. I knew her personality was rotten to a degree, and I thought I recognized something of myself in her. But things have shifted since Lena. I tolerate Cinita less.
“I’m not sure I ever wanted you in that way,” I say truthfully. Perhaps I mistook it for loving her as I let her consume me. I thought even someone as pitiful as her deserved saving since she was dealt a shitty hand just like me and my sister. But in reality, somehow she latched onto me, exploited what little good I had in me, and then used it to manipulate me into protecting her.
I don’t regret protecting her. She would have been dead a long time ago if it weren’t for me.
And I like the dead. The dead don’t talk back.
But I had to try to save her.
Killing is the only thing I’m good at, and if I can at least get rid of one more monster for her, then I will. Before I turn my back on her forever.
“Why?” She moves closer to me. “You’ve always protected me. You wanted me to stay. Hell, you found me halfway across the world, Alek. You wouldn’t do that for just anyone.” She lifts her hand to place it on my chest, but I take a step back before she touches me.