Page 68 of Essence of Fear

Viktoria blinked, but was unsurprised.

It was Kolya, after all.

“But what did you do to him?” she asked.

A part of her just wanted to know … maybe if she did, then she could let some of the anger go about the fact her brothers and father lied to her about Boris still being alive after she’d believed he was dead. Like he should have been. If she’d known the bastard truly suffered for what he had done in the chambers, then the betrayal wouldn’t sting nearly as bad.

Or maybe it would.

Who knew?

“A specific thing or all of them?” he asked back.

Viktoria shrugged. “Something that will make me smile.”

Pav chuckled. “You’re a dark soul, Viktoria.”

“Maybe.”

“I like it.”

“At least someone does.”

It must have been her words that shifted Pav’s mood, because in the next breath, he’d rolled over to his knees, and was pressing in between her legs. His proximity, and the weight of his body, had her leaning back just a bit. She used her hands to keep herself steady as he hovered above her. There was something wild in his gaze as he watched her like that—something dark.

But like him, she liked it.

Only on him, though.

“There are a lot of things I like about you,” he told her, his gaze drifting down to her mouth and then the column of her throat. It was his gaze alone that could get her heartbeat racing and her stomach clenching. She knew exactly what this man could do to her body if she let him, and it would be glorious. “A lot of things I would love to do to you, Viktoria. Things that would make you scream …” He grinned, adding, “But in a good way.”

“It’s always good.”

“With me.”

“With you,” she agreed.

His hand came up to rest against the low V on the neckline of her dress. His warm, calloused palm pressed against her chest overtop where her heart was thrumming hard. There was no hiding the fast beats, but she wasn’t sure if it was from fear or lust.

Both, probably.

She still felt scared with him.

And yet, she trusted him, too.

It was complex and addicting.

“Tell me something you did to him,” she murmured.

Pav wet his lips and his hand drifted higher. It came to rest at her throat, and his fingers curled tightly around the delicate column. It might have scared her any other time, but she couldn’t look away from his eyes, or the way the watched her.

So heady and wanting.

His eyes, she thought. They tell the truth. His eyes told her everything she needed to know, even when she wasn’t going to ask him to say it. There, she found what he wanted the most, and right then, he wanted her.

He wanted her bad.

And he was not going to hurt her to get it.