The Kidnapping of Roan Sinclair

by Ashlyn Drewek

“No.” He may have looked defiant. He may have sounded defiant. But there was no disguising the fact his breathing was shallow and his jeans did jack shit to hide his growing hard-on.

While he was still investigating, I threaded my fingers through his hair and held the back of his head. Before I knew it, I tilted his face up and pressed my lips to his.

He kept his eyes upward, watching me intently. That look, the lust in his eyes, was somehow better than the things he was actually doing, because it was for me — I was the reason for that desire.

“My God,” he breathed when he was fully seated inside of me. He gave me a minute to adjust before shifting his hips, rocking in and out slowly. “You feel incredible. So fucking incredible.” He bent his upper body over mine and kissed me, as gently as he was thrusting.

For some reason, I could tell he was holding back. I trailed my fingertips along his cheekbone and down his jaw, pushing my hips against him in encouragement. Gritting his teeth, he stubbornly refused to let go. “Stop fighting it,” I whispered. “Nyet.” His face dipped down so he could bite my shoulder, relieving the sting by dragging his tongue across the mark. “I want this to last.”

Once he had permission, Sasha kissed me harder, fucked me harder, and made it that much harder to imagine not having him around.

Swiping his index finger through the last drop, he shifted upward and held it out to me. I leaned forward and sucked his finger into my mouth, tasting myself along with the saltiness from his skin. He pulled his finger free and replaced it with his tongue, kissing me hard and deep.

“You’re mine, Solnyshko,” Sasha said, tearing his mouth from mine and fixing me with one of his piercing looks, the kind that saw straight to my soul. “Yes?” I blinked and nodded, despite the fact I was still trying to work out what, exactly, he was saying. “From now on, you are mine,” he repeated in a growl. The words reverberated from his chest into mine, solidifying that they were real and not just my imagination. “No one else’s. Do you understand?” “I’m yours,” I agreed in a stunned whisper.

I had no idea what it meant to “be” Sasha’s, but the thought was thrilling, another display of his primal possessiveness. To be wanted with such intensity was intoxicating.

“Oh my God,” I exclaimed, pushing him through the door to his apartment. “She’s, like, ninety years old! Leave her alone.” “You don’t know what she said.” “Sticks and stones, man.” “You’re saying I should stone her to death or beat her with a stick?” “What? No! That is not what I’m saying! Jesus! It’s an expression.” I raked a hand through my hair and walked a couple steps away before spinning around again. “Why does everything with you end in killing people? No, don’t answer.”

“Do not leave.” My eyes had barely rolled when he grabbed my jaw and forced me to look at him again, his stare borderline hostile. “Do you understand?”

The realization I was going to die right then and there hit me hard, and there wasn’t a goddamn thing I could do about it.

From the moment it started, I stopped praying for Sasha. I stopped hoping for a miracle. Instead, I prayed for death.

Even if I didn’t physically hurt him this time, it was because of me that Roan was here. I did ruin his life, because I was selfish and weak. He was the one good thing in my life, for however brief a time, and I destroyed it.

It was nighttime already. Already? I’d been out for hours. Brought in unconscious by the ambulance, kept unconscious by the doctors. Time passed. The world moved on. But I was suspended between that alley and the death that had been denied to me. Once again, I was fucking helpless. Weak. Powerless. Pathetic. I couldn’t fight back. I couldn’t die. What the fuck was the point of any of it?

almost caved, but I didn’t. For once, I was strong. I kept my gaze straight ahead, minimizing the sadness I saw in my periphery. Yet another reason I should be dead. The fact a man as strong and proud as Sasha was on his knees, on the verge of tears, over me? It made me sick to see what I’d reduced him to. I didn’t deserve his sympathy. I deserved his anger. I didn’t listen. I never listened. How many times had he told me?

“I’m going to kill them,” Sasha announced, lifting his head. “I promise you, Roan. I’m going to kill every single one of them.” I knew he would. Too bad he wouldn’t start with me.

Seeing Roan like that made me sick to my stomach. I’d left men like that — worse than that — so swollen and bloody, their own mothers wouldn’t recognize them after they healed. But they weren’t Roan. My Roan. Mine. The one I was supposed to protect.

didn’t see red. I surpassed red. I saw fucking black.

“Oh, Karine, baby. I’m sorry. Come here.” I touched her chin, tilting her face toward me. My handprint was as clear as day, red and angry, her tears glistening on the mark. “I don’t have to hit you anymore. I promise. Just tell me what I want to know.”

Gregor’s shouting was completely unintelligible — howling and insults and promises of vengeance. “How does it feel?” I asked, cocking my head as I stepped closer.

I wouldn’t meet his gaze, no matter how intensely he stared. I located a giant fleck in the tile in front of me and latched onto it. My whole existence was in that fleck, and as long as I didn’t look away from it, I’d be ok. I could pretend the rest of the world didn’t exist.

“Solnyshko,” Sasha whispered, dipping his head even lower to try and catch my gaze. “Please.” My breath caught in the back of my throat. In the time we’d spent together, Sasha never said please. Never. Not to me, not to anyone. He might as well have been begging me.

Finally, I gave him what he wanted — I looked at him. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to. The look in his eyes said it all. Fury, agony, despair. Not pity. Not disgust.

“The rest of them die tonight,” he said softly. Any other time I would have balked at his bluntness. I would have been horrified knowing he was en route to murder someone. But now? I didn’t give a fuck. He could kill the entire city and I wouldn’t care. Caring got me nowhere in life, so maybe it was time to try things Sasha’s way.

The Wolf was off the leash and those motherfuckers had no idea what hell was coming for them.

He was dead now, hanging like a piece of meat that would soon make the creatures in Lake Michigan very happy.

If he thought taunting me would make me kill him faster, he was sorely mistaken. Roan wanted it to hurt — I was going to make it fucking hurt.

“Remember what I told you on the phone the other day?” I asked, returning to the steam valve and pushing the lever into the OFF position. Dropping the hose and peeling off my gloves, I unsheathed the filet knife again and strolled back to Yuri. “That I was going to rip your fucking face off?” Yuri’s lower lip trembled, but for once he didn’t have a comeback.

Circling around behind him, I clamped a hand on his shoulder, speaking into his ear. “And you should have known better than to fuck with what’s mine.”

“It’s not who he is, it’s just what he does to stay alive,” I grumbled, staring at the controller. “Once you get to know him, he’s—” “What? A completely different person? A big old teddy bear?” Frankie snorted. “No, he’s still an asshole,” I snapped, but a smile pulled at the corner of my mouth. “But he’s my asshole. He’s actually funny. He cares, in his intense, overprotective way. And he understands people a lot more than I originally gave him credit for, even if he thinks feelings are all bullshit.”

Dying with the memory of his lips on mine was all the comfort I needed.

“I kneel for no one,” I repeated, gazing up at Roan, “except the one I love.”

Was this really fucking happening right now? Not only were we both alive, miraculously, but Roan used our near-death experience to fucking network?!

“You said you loved me,” Roan said in a breathless rush, searching my face. “I do,” I panted, answering the silent question in his eyes. And I did. Against all odds, I loved this kid. I loved his smart mouth, his reckless bravery, and the way he made me fucking ache to touch him, to just be near him. It was crazy, but for once I saw something in my future beyond pain and death — life. Because of him. For me, Roan was the sun, the center of my universe, the thing that gave me life. Without it, without him, I’d surely wither away and die. “I told you, you’re mine, Solnyshko. I’m never letting you go.”