Page 35 of Bratva King

Natalia struggled. "Get off me."

"You shouldn’t have grown attached to him. This would be a good lesson for you,” Emil said, lifting the blade.

Then Alexei hit him, and Emil was thrown sideways. Natalia rolled away, scrambling for her knife.

Alexei stood between them, and his breathing was hard.

“Alexei,” Natalia gasped.

Emil rose slowly. He looked at Alexei, then at Natalia. Alexei simply stepped closer to Natalia.

"Can you stand?" he asked her, and Natalia nodded. “We’ll take care of him, together.”

She got to her feet. Blood ran down her forearm. Alexei looked at it, and his expression darkened. Emil attacked. This time, Alexei moved first. He caught Emil's arm, but Emil twisted free. Natalia came from the side. Her knife struck, but Emil blocked.

Alexei grabbed him from behind. For one precious second, Emil was trapped. Natalia drove forward. Emil jerked sideways, Alexei stumbled, and Natalia followed. Their blades collided. Emil's knife nicked her shoulder. She ignored the flare of pain.

She drove her elbow into his jaw, making him stagger. Alexei struck him from behind, and Emil fell to one knee. Natalia didn't hesitate. She cut his throat. Natalia stared as Emil’s body went limp and life left his shocked eyes.

“Thank God,” Alexei said.

Natalia looked at Emil one last time, then moved her gaze to the two fallen guards, and finally at Alexei. Blood stained his shirt. Her heart slammed against her ribs. She could’ve lost him today, and that shook her to the core.

"You're hurt,” she whispered.

"So are you." A faint smile touched his mouth, then he added, “I’m fine."

She reached for him anyway. Alexei caught her. His arms closed around her with enough force to make her realize how badly he'd been shaken. Natalia pressed her face against his chest, grateful that both of them were still alive.

Alexei lifted her chin with her fingers, searching her face. Then he slanted his mouth over hers. The kiss was hard and desperate. Natalia curled her hands into his shirt as she kissed him back. Her heart was still racing from the fight, but now it was racing for an entirely different reason.

When Alexei finally pulled back, he rested his forehead against hers.

“Let’s try not to do that again,” Alexei said.

Natalia breathed out a shaky laugh, then she kissed him again. Emil had taught her that love was a weakness. That attachments got people killed, and made you vulnerable.

But as Alexei held her close in the middle of those silent woods, Natalia realized something her master had never understood. Love could make you vulnerable. It could also make you fearless.

Chapter Eleven

Alexei woke before the sun rose. Usually, Natalia was already awake by the time he opened his eyes. Sometimes he found her in the kitchen with a cup of coffee, sometimes standing by the window, sometimes simply sitting in silence as though she were listening to the house breathe.

This morning, however, something was different. Alexei opened his eyes and found her asleep beside him. For several seconds, he simply stared.

Natalia was tucked against his side, one hand resting loosely against his chest, her face nestled near his shoulder. Her dark hair had escaped whatever arrangement she'd attempted before bed, spilling across the pillow and partly across her cheek.

She looked utterly peaceful. It was a sight he wasn't accustomed to seeing. Natalia had spent too many years sleeping like a soldier, ready to wake at the smallest sound. Even now, there were nights when Alexei could feel the tension in her body despite the softness of the mattress beneath her.

Not this morning, however. She had curled toward him without thinking, as though he were home. The realization settled somewhere deep inside his chest. Alexei smiled.

Carefully, he shifted closer and slipped an arm around her waist. Natalia made a quiet sound in her sleep and instinctively moved toward him. That nearly undid him.

He tightened his embrace, drawing her against his chest until there wasn't so much as a breath of space between them. He pressed his face briefly into her hair, breathing in the familiar scent of her shampoo and skin. His woman. The thought still carried a strange warmth.

A week had passed since Emil had found them in the woods. Seven days since Alexei had watched Natalia fight the man who had trained her, the man who had shaped so much of the person she had become.

Afterward, Alexei had done what he knew best. He had found the man responsible. Natalia's former client had turned out to be the head of a small but ambitious Bratva family, a man apparently convinced that removing Alexei would create an opening for his own rise.