Hidden Monsters (Volkov Bratva #4)(85)

While she knew now to call him, especially when he didn’t know what he was doing, she couldn’t check the impulse to pick it up every once in a while just to see if he’d called.

But as she was about to pick it up again, she heard the door open and slam shut.

Alex didn’t mean to seem so eager, but she was out of the bed in seconds, speeding out into the hallway, nearly slipping on the stairs in her haste to get to the ground floor.

“Tiger, I thought you—”

Her words caught in her throat as she got a good look at Luka, and the implications his clothes spoke of his night. He had a cigarette in one hand, not caring that the red from the blood on his hands had stained the filter. It wasn’t just on his hands, however, but covered his shirt in arcs, and even some of the front of his jeans.

There was also a noticeable tension about him that, no matter how many lungfuls of nicotine he drew in, didn’t lessen it. While his body was strung tight, his eyes were wild. A dark hunger swam in their depths, and now that she was here in front of him, all of that intensity focused on her.

This wouldn’t be the first time she had seen him covered in someone’s blood, and like the time before, it didn’t particularly move her. She had long ago accepted that men of the Bratva did awful things. Whether it made her a terrible person, she was more concerned with how Luka was doing than the unfortunate person who had crossed him.

But while she might not have feared Luka hurting her, not in a physical sense at least, she was wary. A distinct difference existed between the person he had been before he left and the person who now stood in front of her.

Laying her hand on the arm of the couch, she felt his gaze on her like a physical touch as she swallowed. “What can I do?” She knew better than to ask him what had happened tonight, but she did hope that she could help him.

His head canted to the side, like a predator sizing up its prey. “Are you afraid?”

The way he asked the question, the accent that he was always so careful to hide now twisting around his words, made her wonder if she should be.

“Of course not.”

“Snow wasn’t either.” Another long drag of his cigarette. “At first.”

Alex licked her lips, turning her face away at the sound of his name. First, the shame hit her, reminding her of what she had done some weeks ago, then came the implication of his words.

“Snow? You were with Snow tonight?”

Luka stubbed out the cigarette, moving—stalking towards her as he blew out a stream of smoke. He came within a hair’s breath of her, his fingers reaching out to stroke along her jaw. Dark emotion radiated out of him, but he was gentle with her.

For now.

“He didn’t last very long,” Luka said almost thoughtfully. “And I probably enjoyed it more than I should have, but…” He shrugged, cupping her face so that he forced her to look up at him. “It was worth it.”

“Luka—”

“I would have killed him anyway. Thought about it, actually. This nameless, faceless person you were spending all your time with. I hated that shit. Hated thinking about it. Obsessing over it. But I would have let it go if he was making you happy. Even if it wasn't me making you happy, I would have accepted it.” His grip on her face grew firmer, but it didn’t hurt. Even in his frenzied state, he wouldn’t hurt her. “But he wasn’t making you happy. And for what he did to you…spending three hours on him wasn’t enough.”

She didn’t have to ask where Snow was now. His presence here with her and the state of his clothes told her everything she needed to know.

But what she didn’t know was why, if he had done what he’d sought out to do, he was still brimming with pent-up emotion.

Before she had the opportunity to question him further, his lips slammed down on hers, forcing her to accept what he was giving. For a second, she was shocked to do anything more than just stand there, but her resistance fled, and she responded in kind, her hands fisting in the front of his shirt.

He kissed her as if he was starved, as if it was the one thing on Earth he needed. She felt consumed by him.

And yet…she could sense that he was holding back from her.

If this were what he needed to bring him back down, she would happily give it to him, so she had to make sure he knew that.

Releasing her hold on him, she laid her hands flat on his chest and pushed. Though he’d barely moved an inch, she widened the distance between them, gazing up at him boldly, waiting to see what he would do next.

His pupils expanded, that same predatory smile spreading. Every instinct inside her told her to run, even knowing that he would catch her.

And as that flood of awareness hit her, she realized that she wanted that too.

Alex refused to give him her back, wanting to see his next move, and the moment she took another step back. She didn’t have to say a word for him to understand.

He knew exactly what she was offering him.

There were no words spoken. Before she had even made it to the foot of the stairs, he was on her, practically tearing her clothes off, the material scoring her skin as he ripped it from her body.

She stumbled, crashing down to the floor, but he’d hooked an arm around her waist, blunting that pain.

His lips were everywhere all at once. Drifting over her jaw, his teeth bit down on the sensitive cord of her throat, wrenching a cry from her, but the sound only spurred him on further.