جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 50

AsherIs it too reckless to burn a whole city to the ground?That’s what I’m wondering as I flip through my piles of paperwork in the library. My eyes scrape over the notes I’ve kept for the last few months. Plans upon plans exist in my esoteric scribbles. Some are in code, others meaningless drivel to the untrained eye.But for people like me—a man neck-deep in a bloody war—it’s an instruction manual. Except it didn’t work, I remind myself furiously. Meticulous planning, yet nothing has come to fucking fruition! None of my men have reported movement by Yannick in the last week. Other than sending someone to shoot up the studio, he seems to have vanished from the face of this earth.I have to dig him out of his hole. My fingertips crimp the edges of my notes. I imagine the paper is his throat and start crushing it into a ball. It’s not like I need these documents anymore. They haven’t done me any good.There’s a light knock on the frame of the library door. My head jerks up. Camila is

AsherThe sound of laughter rolls through the partially open door of the small building. Beyond the crack, I can see multiple men loitering around a table. Their attitude is relaxed—for the most part. My brigadiers know that when I call them for a meeting, something important is happening.“Everyone is in there, pakhan,” Nikolai speaks beside me.He’s wearing a navy-blue jacket over his taupe slacks. He was the one I instructed to gather the other brigadiers here. Ever since I caught him gossiping with Kostya, he’s intentionally kept the two of them separate. I suspect, on some level, that his goal is selfish. Men are quick to do whatever it takes for their own success. Nikolai wants to climb the ladder and be seen as worthy, which means he thinks I consider Kostya to be pathetic.He’s wrong.While I might have relegated Kostya to less glorifying work like guard duty far below what his rank deserves and I kept him from attending the wedding, it’s not because I don’t respect him. In tr

AsherA walk under the stars doesn’t bring me clarity. It’s a spontaneous decision, one made from a desperate need to recalibrate my emotions. I don’t have a jacket on, and the night air scrapes over my skin, worming into my bones. It’s awful, but it’s still not enough to distract me from the chaos in my soul.I should have apologized sooner. Or more enthusiastically. Regrets are useless. I can’t escape them. The memory of her face, the way she shrank on the stairs, sends shame coursing through my soul. I kick the gravel on the path aimlessly as I wander through the grounds. I don’t watch where I’m going because it doesn’t matter.The only place I want to be is at her side.A sound reaches me. Looking up, I see that I’ve made it to the separate room on the other side of the mansion grounds. There’s light emanating from the window, and wind carries the sound of multiple voices to me.When I get closer, I recognize a few of my men through the glass. Nikolai, Iosif, and Mikhail are insid

AsherThe instant Camila leaves, I fall limply into my chair.Fuck ...This news is a bombshell. The emotional part of me is concerned that she stormed off, calling me a liar, but the logical side of me is busy racing to think of ways this changes everything.Because everything has changed in an instant.Yannick is her father, I think, drawing my hand down my face. That explains everything. Why Yannick was hanging around her family studio after Stepan’s death. Why Yannick called to threaten me when he knew I took Camila. Why Yannick never showed up at the wedding.He’d never dare risk Camila in any potential crossfire. He’d rather slink back into the shadows than risk his own daughter’s life.How could I have been so stupid to not see this?But that’s when another thought hits me, and I sit forward with a start. Camila’s relationship with Yannick makes her powerful. She’s no longer “just a nobody,” as my brigadiers thought. Their opposition to my plan no longer holds weight.My frown

Nipping her earlobe until she writhes against my fingers, I nuzzle her jaw. “I don’t care. I don’t think you do either.”She doesn’t respond. I can’t abide by her silence—I crave her voice, even if it’s just her crying out. Yanking on her hair like the reins of a filly that needs to be broken, I begin to move my hips, feeling the tight wetness inside until the first cry of pleasure bursts from her lips.Perfect.Pleasure rages inside me like a hurricane. But somewhere under the potent cloud of lust is the jagged dagger’s edge of reality. Camila doesn’t trust me. She thinks I’m using her … that we’re enemies.Perhaps she’s right.Maybe we always were.“M-mo—” she mewls.“What was that?” I growl into her hair, inhaling her sweet scent. I keep my thrusts nice and slow. My hand reaches down and spreads her pussy lips further apart as my thumb rubs her clit simultaneously. Her muscles ripple and flutter against my cock.“I said … I said m-more.” Camila stands on the balls of her feet, desp