She smiled a little, like she could read his mind and all the craziness that was happening up there. Without looking away from him, she reached back and shut the hotel door. It was only then, right before the door closed, that he could hear the familiar voices of her brothers filtering out in the hallway.
He didn’t care about them.
Not right now.
Viktoria pulled off the leather gloves keeping her pretty hands hidden and worked on undoing the buttons of her tweed jacket. Pav took that moment to check her over, his gaze drifting over the column of her neck, and the lines of her face. She was bruised—makeup did wonders, but he could see the odd yellowish and blue tints where she hadn’t been able to cover the color entirely.
His rage danced again.
His hatred flared.
Still, he swallowed it back.
“He hurt you,” Pav murmured.
Viktoria looked up from the buttons on her jacket, whispering, “Only a little.”
“Not only a little. Too much, babe.”
“I’m okay.”
Was she?
He would soon find out.
“Did he—”
“No,” she said quickly, like she already knew what he was going to ask. “No, not again.”
Pav was back to feeling like a fucking animal again. Like the one thing he wanted was just beyond the bars of his cage. He could smell her—that vanilla and pear perfume she wore that made him think of innocence and sin at the same time. Perfect for her.
He was able to wait just long enough for her to remove her jacket, but then his control snapped. He’d already waited too long as it was to get her back in his arms again. He’d been stuck in his head for days, thinking constantly about every horrible thing that might be happening to her because he hadn’t been able to help her.
The second Pav had Viktoria in his arms, the world felt slightly better. Like the axis titled just a bit, and the world was starting to turn again. It wasn’t completely right, but it was getting there, which was better than nothing.
It was made perfect when she kissed him.
So fucking perfect.
“I felt crazy,” he muttered against her lips. “An animal.”
Even with that admission, she kissed him again, and her fingers came up to drift over the tense muscles of his face. With every swipe of her fingers, his clenching jaw relaxed, and he breathed a bit easier.
She helped with everything.
Did she even know that?
“It’s okay,” she whispered. “I’m okay.”
“Was it okay that I wanted to rip your brothers’ throats out with my bare hands because they made me come here, and I just wanted to be there?”
Viktoria let out a little laugh and her thumb caressed the spot under his eye. “I love you, Pav.”
“Good thing.”
Nobody else would.
She smiled, then, bright and sweet. A smile that she didn’t give to anyone else. He knew because he saw the way she smiled at other people, when she very rarely did. And it did not look like the smile she reserved just for him.
“I just …”
“What?” she asked.
“It’s been a bad … time,” he said lamely.
His head was dark.
His mood, too.
All of it.
She seemed to understand without him saying it. Thankfully.
“What do you need?”
“Shouldn’t I be asking you that?” he replied.
Viktoria kissed him again, harder than before and he loved it. Her lips still grazed his when she pulled away just enough to say, “We’re not a me thing. We’re an us, right?”
“Are we?”
“That’s what I want to be.”
Pav nodded. “Then, that’s what we are.”
Whatever she wanted.
He was going to say that for the rest of his life.
“I’m fine,” she said, stressing the word hard. “But you’re not. So, what do you need?”
“You. I need you.”
“Whatever way you want me, I’m here.”
That was easy for her to say.
“I’m not in the right headspace,” he told her, trying to be honest. “I’m worried I’ll be too rough, or that I won’t know if—”
“I’m not scared of you.”
Pav gave her a look, then. “You should be.”
He didn’t miss the shiver that wracked her shoulders, or the way her lips curved into a sinful grin. That was the thing about this woman—she liked the darker parts of him as much as she enjoyed everything else.
“Never, not anymore,” she swore.
Maybe that was what he needed the most. Maybe he just needed her to say it, confirm that together, she knew that she was safe with him and always would be. Because the moment those words left her lips, the careful control he had over his darker urges was gone in an instant. Like the chains broke and the monster was free.
He was her monster.
Just not one that hurt her.
Pav dragged Viktoria as close as he could get her, his body pinning hers to the wall when he backed her into it, and then he kissed her. A bruising kiss, but she didn’t shy away from the force or the desperation behind it. If anything, she answered him back just as hard. Her tongue found his, and warred.
A battle he loved.
He needed that.
Needed her.
Viktoria didn’t shy away from the harshness of his hands driving over her body. Her sexy little moans when he yanked the clothes away from her body to get her naked as fast as he possibly could only urged him on further.
It was only once she was naked but for her black cotton panties and standing in front of him that he took a moment. Just a moment to lean back and let his gaze drink her in. He didn’t miss the marks on her body—the fingerprints on her throat, and the bruises on her sides. His fingertips drifted over those same spots, rage festering and burning
