Page 118 of Essence of Fear

“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.