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“Then why are you playing so coy?” Mikhail approaches, and I step back until my back hits the lattice trellis. He stops an inch away and once again leans in for a kiss until I shove at him. My heart begins to pound, and the thorns of the bougainvillea prickle against my bare back.
“I’m not playing coy. I don’t want to kiss you—ahh!”
My wrist is enveloped by his hand, and he shoves it above my head, pinning me to the wood with more force than I expect from such a lithe form. My gut twists, and I shift my weight from one foot to the other, testing the grip, but Mikhail is taller than me. He leans in, his alcohol-tinged breath tickling my nose, so I use my free hand to push him away harder.
He barely shifts and a cold smirk stretches across his lips.
“Stop being such a tease.” His voice is low and his eyes narrow. “I want an early taste.”
“No, wait!”
“For fuck’s sake, Alena, I wasn’t asking your permiss?—”
Suddenly, Mikhail is gone. A rush of cold air passes over where he once stood. He crashes back down onto the paving stones with a loud grunt, and a large shadow melts from my left, stepping in between us.
No, not a shadow.
Kristof.
“The fuck?” Mikhail squeaks from where he landed.
Kristof’s shoulders heave with each breath, and what I can see of his handsome face is twisted into anger. He surges forward and grabs Mikhail by his collar, hauling him up from the ground. Being six foot five, he has no issues with holding Mikhail an inch or two off the ground and shaking him as if he were nothing more than a sack of potatoes.
“If I see you within ten feet of Alena ever again, I’ll skin you alive and feed you to the city’s pigeons. Piece by piece. Is that clear?” Kristof’s voice, deep and accented with Russian, is cold and quiet. There’s something terrifying about the slow, calculated way he talks. Mikhail’s eyes are so wide I can see white around his pupils.
He stammers out a noise as he struggles, and Kristof leans closer. Mikhail’s struggles stop immediately.
“That means I will kill you.”
Mikhail’s face turns ashen, and he nods frantically. Kristof releases him the moment he does. I watch as Mikhail hits the ground like a rock, then he scrambles up onto his feet and sprints away as if the devil himself were on his heels.
Through it all, my heart trembles in sheer awe before I remind myself that Kristof and his actions are why I’m out here in the first place. It’s even more humiliating that he has to come and save me.
My cheeks burn as Kristof slowly turns to face me. His silver eyes sparkle like the stars above, and his gaze drags slowly down my body.
Stubbornness rises, and I toss my head slightly, stepping away from the trellis.
“Thanks, but I didn’t need any help.”
I make it a few steps before Kristof’s rough hand catches my upper arm. With a firm grip, he lightly pulls me back and tosses me back up against the trellis, knocking all the air from my lungs. He leans forward, one hand above me, gripping the wooden slats while the other thumbs over his lower lip.
Every breath I drag in is flooded with his scent of sweat and a spicy cologne that makes the back of my nose tingle. I can’t move, pinned in place by his mere presence despite the dying thought to storm away.
He doesn’t deserve my attention or my time, yet my heart thunders, and the air around us feels charged, like the first few seconds before a storm.
This has to be some kind of dream. There’s no way Kristof is really here, this close to me.
“It’s not wise to go around kissing boys in your back garden,” Kristof says, talking softly. He shakes his head lazily.
“I don’t—I wasn’t!” My words tumble over themselves, then I jut my chin out slightly and look him right in the eye. “In fact, I’ve never kissed anyone.”
Kristof’s brow raises ever so slightly.
Then, suddenly, he kisses me and my mind explodes into light.
His lips are softer than I expected, and the scar on his lower lip drags slightly against my mouth. One large hand, his palm rough, cups the side of my neck, and he holds me in place with a light pressure that makes my head swim. The slight stubble around his jaw grazes against my chin as he kisses me deeper, switching his angle without even breaking apart for air. I am utterly and completely in awe.
This is happening!
