He nearly smiled, knowing how much she hated a certain group of young women. “Having Romanov placed before his mate was more important than you spending your nights glaring across the street.”
Her temper showed more. “You spend more time there than me. Don’t think for a second that I don’t know you were there again—in that house—in that bitch’s room. You want her, don’t you?”
“I only want you. You know that,” he said, enjoying seeing her jealous even though she had nothing to be jealous about.
She grunted. “You should have let me kill them.”
“Now, now,” he soothed. “You know very well that they’re important to those in charge.”
“Swear to me that The Corporation is planning to make them lab rats again,” she demanded.
He squeezed her thigh to the point she winced. “Keep running your mouth and you’ll be the next one returned to the testing pool.”
She pried his fingers from her thigh and rubbed the area. “You wouldn’t really let that happen. You’d miss me too much and who would you fuck then? Remember that your dick only works for me.”
He chuckled. “Oh, I’m well aware, Olga. And who said I would stop fucking you if I handed you to the higher-ups to finish what they started when you were little?”
Anger lit in her gaze. “I’m valuable. I helped set up this move against Romanov. Without me, you wouldn’t have even known he was showing up in Durham today. I provided that intel.”
“Yes,” he said, skimming his hand up her inner thigh once again. “You did. What else did you do while you were helping to set this into motion?”
She stiffened and lowered her gaze. “You said I could.”
“I told you that you could find someone to play with after this was done,” he reminded. “Not before. But what did you do?”
“Killed a woman,” she confessed before her gaze snapped back to his. “But PSI doesn’t know. The human authorities don’t either.”
“Lucky for you,” he said, inserting his finger into her again.
She squirmed more.
“Tell me something, Olga,” he coaxed. “Did you make the woman suffer?”
A glint of excitement filled her gaze. “I did.”
“Did you push your will on her?” he asked, knowing the answer.
She squealed. “Yes. I made her tell me everything about herself and her job. She didn’t want to, but I didn’t give her a choice. Humans are so weak.”
He added another finger. “And did she beg for mercy?”
Olga nodded.
He winked. “Did you record it all?”
Again, she nodded. “And I journaled about it. I know how you like to read about what I do later.”
“Mmm, good girl. Once I’m done with Romanov, we can watch the video,” he supplied.
She licked her lower lip. “While we have sex?”
“Of course,” he assured, turned on by just how sadistic her nature was. He loved that about her. Loved how her mind worked. Loved how twisted her desires ran.
She complemented him in every way possible. She was right, he wouldn’t really hand her over willingly for further testing. The key word was “willingly” because some things were out of his hands when it came to The Corporation. They’d already issued more than one warning about the trail of bodies she tended to leave in her wake.
Often Pavel was required to risk his cover as a mild-mannered professor to dispose of the bodies and reach out to nefarious characters he’d had contact with in the past. He’d no doubt need to do the same to handle whatever it was she’d done while dispatched on her undercover mission.
He bent in the chair and kissed her knee, inhaling the smell of her sex.
She laughed softly, her hand finding the top of his head. She then ran her hand through his hair in a loving manner. Their relationship wasn’t easily explained to others, so they never tried.
For many years he’d thought the testing he’d done on himself had left him impotent—that his cock had stopped working for good. Thankfully, that had ended when he’d met Olga.
By chance, Pavel’s burning thirst for revenge against Rurik had left him getting involved in some of the genetic testing programs The Corporation had been involved in. Those in charge had known the perfect way to lure him to the testing. They’d told Pavel they had Rurik’s mate in the program.
Pavel hadn’t needed to hear anything more.
He’d joined at once and had tried to accelerate the results.
Of course, there had been some side effects of his attempts to decrease the original timeline. That was to be expected. After a number of the test subjects had expired because of what he’d done, those in charge had yanked his approval on working with any type of radioactive material with the children.
Disheartened but not discouraged, Pavel had simply begun testing on himself. He was a supernatural, so he made the perfect specimen and didn’t require The Corporation’s approval. They’d not been pleased, but they had permitted him to carry on—within reason.
The opportunity and testing on himself had given him a shot of strength, which had been invigorating but had come with a price. When he was worked up, his eyes would now glow with a bright orange. It used to hurt when it happened, but he was used to it now.
Another side effect of the testing was lasting damage to his ability to heal and regenerate cells at the same rate most supernaturals could, as well as a few other odd things. That meant he’d begun to age, slightly faster than even a human would.
When he looked in the mirror, he saw an old man. But he still felt the same inside.
The experiments conducted by The Corporation had yielded fruit but not in the way Pavel had expected. Sure, they had given him direct access to the child thought to
