Given to Madness Read online

  Ilya rested himself comfortably on one elbow, facing her; before tipping the bottle to his parched mouth. Then he offered the bottle to Liselle, who took it and drank deeply. He couldn’t help but smile at her seemingly new-found comfort in being naked around him.

  “What?” She asked him, her eyes narrowed in mock suspicion.

  He took the bottle which she offered back to him, and he shrugged. “You just seem a lot more relaxed than you did earlier.”

  She blushed, and he felt himself start to get hard all over again, as his eyes followed the pink color which bloomed across her flawless skin.

  “What happens now?” She finally seemed to find her embarrassment—tugging the sheet over her body, and using her arm to pin the edge above her breasts.

  Ilya rolled onto his back, staring at the roof. I have no fucking idea.

  “You should get some sleep. We both should,” he said.

  “He’s going to go crazy isn’t he?”

  Ilya didn’t need to ask her who she meant. “He’ll be too fucked to even remember we exist by the time he gets home. It’ll be tomorrow before we feel the sting of his retribution.”

  He felt her amber eyes roaming across his naked body, and he turned his head to look at her. She was sitting up—wrapped in the folds of the bedsheet—her hair was a just-fucked mess, and her eyes told the story of a girl who was hungry for more.

  He arched a brow at her, and she hastily lowered her eyes. “You could kill him in a heartbeat. Why do you put up with it?” she asked quietly.

  Ilya wedged an arm beneath his head so that he could tilt the rum to his mouth without spilling any. Her question irritated him. “Because the second I lay a finger on him, my family die. I thought you understood that.”

  “But if he’s dead, then he can’t give that order,” she pushed.

  Ilya growled. He felt as though she was questioning his lack of balls, and it royally pissed him off.

  “There are three expertly trained assassins who live in the same city as my family. They only exist on Mariusz’s payroll to watch my mother and sister’s every move. And if Mariusz dies on my watch—even if I don’t kill him—they will execute my family without hesitation.”

  He couldn’t quite understand why he was telling her all of this. Nobody but Ilya, Mariusz, and the three men in Russia knew anything about Mariusz’s hold over his Lieutenant.

  Her eyes widened. “So you’re trapped. What, forever?”

  “For as long as Mariusz feels it takes for my debt to him to be repaid.” Ilya finished off the bottle of rum, but it wasn’t enough to dull the memories which she’d forced to return and torment him in the surface of his mind.

  “What debt?” She asked softly.

  “Stop.” Ilya growled.

  “What do you owe him?” She kept pushing.

  “Milaya, I suggest you shut the fuck up. Unless you want my cock at the back of your throat to silence you.”

  She turned hurt amber eyes on him; before standing up to retrieve a pair of jogging pants and a vest from the closet. “Was that really necessary?”

  He sat up to swing his legs over the edge of the bed, his feet landing on the cold floor. “What? Do you think that just because I fucked you, I’m going to turn into Prince fucking Charming?”

  She quickly tugged her clothes on. “You’re fucking disgusting, do you know that?”

  He snatched his boxer shorts off the floor, suddenly feeling as though he would feel much more comfortable if he wasn’t completely naked. He walked toward her, and grabbed hold of her slender arms.

  “What are you doing?”

  She glared up at him, trying to pull her arms away. “I’m leaving. I’m tired of being forced to sleep in a bed with a stranger.”

  His grip was iron. “If you walk out of that door and Sava sees you; or worse Mariusz, you’ll regret it.”

  “Why, because they’ll fuck me? Yeah you’d never do that, would you, Lieutenant,” she spat.

  Anger swirled through his black soul, darkening his eyes, murderously. “I asked you if you wanted me to stop. And I would have stopped.”

  Temporarily frozen by the look he pinned her with, Liselle cowered in his grip. “Would you, Ilya? Because you confuse me. One minute you’re darkness itself. Then the next you’re acting as though you give a shit.”

  Taking a deep, calming breath, Ilya let go of her arms. He almost felt a twinge of guilt as his eyes caught sight of the red imprints left by his fingers on her delicate flesh; before she quickly covered the marks with her hands.

  Fuck, he wished he had more alcohol.

  “Listen to me, milaya.” He forced his voice to sound calm. “I wish that I was capable of giving a shit. Really I do. But I told you, I’m not a good person. I’m not even really a bad person. I’m beyond anything that you would recognize as human, Liselle.”

  She staggered backward until the backs of her legs hit the bed, then she fell down into a sitting position. “Don’t say things like that. It’s terrifying.”

  Ilya looked down at her small frame. She had her arms wrapped protectively around her body, and she was trembling. Taking pity on her, he crouched down in front of her, to place his large hands on her sparrow-like knees.

  “It’s the truth, milaya. I was trained in a very unusual way, and I have no real capacity for empathy, or sorrow. I’m cold, empty, and I’m a killer. That’s all I am.”

  She shook her head back and forth. “You’re more. I can see it, even if you can’t. I wouldn’t have given myself to someone like that.”

  He gave her a dark smirk. “You didn’t really have much of a choice, even if I let you think that you did.”

  She frowned at him. “But your family. If you’re as evil as you say that you are, then you wouldn’t care what happens to them.”

  He shrugged. “My family were there long before I started training to become what I am. Nothing on this earth would stop me from loving and protecting them. But I don’t give a fuck about anyone else, Liselle. Not even myself.”

  She laid her hands gently over his. “Then why have you protected me since I arrived here?”

  He stared at her fingers as though they were foreign objects, which hadn’t only five minutes earlier been wrapped within his hair while he was buried inside her warm, willing body.

  It was a fucking good question. Why had he protected her?

  He pulled his hands away from hers, and stood up quickly. “I’ve been in a strange mood lately, wanting to piss Mariusz off. You were the perfect way to get to him.”

  She stood up angrily, her tiny hand shot out to grab his arm, and he turned to face her with murder in his eyes. He hated being touched uninvited. He managed to stop his raised hand inches from her pink cheek, and she cringed away from him fearfully.

  “Go on,” she goaded. “Hit me like the monster that you are.”

  He let the hand drop back to his side, sighing defeatedly. He knew he shouldn’t have invited a woman into his bed. This was exactly the sort of shit he’d tried to avoid over the years.

  “I’m not going to hit you, milaya.”

  She glared at him for a moment longer; before turning on her heel, and heading for the door. He lunged after her, grabbing her arm in the same way that she had grabbed his. He pulled her back so that she was facing him, and used his body to forcefully press hers against the door she had been reaching for.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” He leaned down to growl in her face.

  “Getting away from you. You’re worse than Mariusz, at least he doesn’t pretend to be nice just because he wants to fuck me,” she hissed in response.

  “You’re not going anywhere.” His body pressed harder against hers, and she squeaked at the pressure.

  “I don’t belong to you,” she yelled.

  She was drawing attention to them. If any of the others were back from the club yet they would hear her histrionics. He needed to shut her up, or Mariusz would be up here to drag her into his room for god only
knew what sort of abuse.

  He reached up and slapped the side of her face in a controlled way—designed to hurt her just enough to silence her for a moment. She turned hurt eyes on him as she pressed her hand to her cheek.

  “You just said you wouldn’t hit me.”

  The worst thing was, his cock had gotten harder when he had hit her.

  He sighed in frustration. “You’re going to wake the dead if you don’t keep it down, Liselle. Do you really want Mariusz to remember about you tonight?”

  “I don’t want him anywhere near me,” she whispered.

  He tried his best to sound calm. “Then come back to bed.” She stiffened against him at that, and he shook his head. “Not to fuck, milaya. To sleep.”

  She considered his proposal for a minute—looking up at his face through her long, dark lashes. “Okay,” she finally conceded.

  He stepped back from her; letting her slip past him, and followed her to his bed. She climbed underneath the covers—fully-clothed—with her back toward him, as he got back into bed. Only this time he didn’t stay as far away from her as possible. He brought his body up close behind hers, and wrapped his thick arm around her waist. Pulling her back firmly against his chest.

  She wriggled and turned her head back to look at him questioningly. “What are you doing?”

  He closed his eyes. “Insurance. I don’t want you trying to run away in the night, and winding up somewhere you won’t like.”

  “I’m not going to do that,” she hissed.

  Keeping his eyes closed, he huffed out a deep, and relaxed breath. “I don’t trust you, milaya. Now shush, go to sleep.”

  She burrowed her head angrily back into the pillow, and he was almost certain that he heard her mutter, “I don’t trust you either,” just before he fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.

  16

  Liss

  I felt my mind pulling sluggishly out of the soft, warm land of dreams in which I had been comfortingly enveloped. My body began to reemerge into the real world, my senses began to register the softness of the bedcovers around me, and I became quickly aware of the solid warmth of the man whose arm was wrapped possessively around my waist. My eyes flew open as I remembered the events of the night before.

  I fucked him. Willingly. Shit.

  He shifted behind me, leaving me suddenly deeply aware of the hard length of his cock pressed up against my ass. And I couldn’t help the natural response of my body—my fucking traitorous body. I wriggled, pushing myself harder against him.

  His husky growl told me that I had awoken the beast, and he pressed his lips against my ear. “Do you need something, milaya?”

  I whimpered, and tried to scoot away from him across the bed. I was a hell of a lot less confident this morning than I had been last night; when I had been under the influence of three glasses of champagne and a shared bottle of rum.

  But Ilya had other ideas.

  He grabbed a hold of my wrist, and rolled me onto my back, pinning me beneath him. I whimpered as he pressed himself between my legs, and even through both of our clothing I could feel his excitement against my warm sex.

  Leaning his head down he nipped the flesh of my neck with his teeth, biting and kissing at me. His hands found mine, pinning them hard against the mattress, letting me know that I was going nowhere until he was finished with me.

  I cried out quietly at the sudden rush of heat which blazed between my thighs as he ground his body against mine. And he moaned in reply, grazing his teeth across my collarbone.

  “You’re like a drug, milaya,” he murmured against the soft mound of my breast, which spilled over the top of my vest. Then he sank his teeth into the yielding flesh, making me yelp in shock, and surprisingly also in pleasure.

  “Ilya, please?” I whispered.

  He looked up at me with darkness raging behind those black eyes, and he smirked with a heart-stopping blend of lust and wickedness.

  “What do you want, baby? Tell me.” Then using his teeth, he gripped the material of my vest, and yanked it down, exposing the hardened peaks of my nipples to the cool air of the room.

  “Ahh,” I groaned, as I arched my back in uncontrollable desire.

  “Tell me,” he demanded, as he sucked a nipple into his mouth, rolling it between his teeth.

  “I want…” My voice trailed off, as he moved to repeat his assault on my other nipple. The teasing pleasure was unbearable when coupled with the pressure of his hard cock pressing between my legs.

  He paused to look up at my face, my nipple still pinched between his teeth, and the look he gave me undid me completely. He was staring at me as though I were the most beautiful woman in the world. There was a look of something like awe on his face, which almost made me certain that he couldn’t quite believe that he had me at his mercy.

  In one swift movement, his hand trailed down my body to slip beneath my jogging pants. His thumb found my throbbing clit instantly, and without giving me a second to prepare myself, he began to rub small frantic circles across the tingling bud.

  Discarding my nipple, he raised his face toward mine; until his lips were only a hair’s breadth away from my own. I gasped as his thumb pressed against my most sensitive part, and my body involuntarily bucked so that our mouths met fleetingly; before I fell back to the bed, panting hard.

  Continuing his attack with his thumb, he focused his black eyes on mine, and whispered into my mouth. “Shall I tell you what I want, milaya?”

  “Hmm, yes,” I managed to whimper.

  He didn’t hesitate. “I want to fuck you again.”

  A cold voice from the doorway caused us both to freeze. “Again? So, you’ve already fucked my fiancée, Lieutenant?”

  Ilya’s hand was gone in an instant, while I scrambled to pull my vest back up over my exposed chest. Ilya was off the bed by the time I was covered, standing sheepishly in just his boxer shorts. We both watched Mariusz warily, as Sava and Anatoli moved to flank him in the doorway.

  “You abandoned your post, leaving your korol with a known threat, so that you could bring my fiancée back to your room, and fuck her. Am I right, Lieutenant?”

  Ilya shrugged casually. “More or less. Although I brought the girl back for her protection, not her pussy.”

  I blushed at the way he spoke about me as though I weren’t even there.

  “But you did fuck her. And you were just about to fuck her again, da?” Mariusz paced the room as he spoke, getting increasingly closer to where I was sitting on the bed.

  Ilya turned to follow Mariusz’s progress across the room. “Da. But you did give me permission to play, korol.”

  Stopping just in front of me, Mariusz reached forward to lightly stroke his fingers through my hair. “I did, didn’t I.”

  I wanted to relax at the calm tone to his voice. His gentle touch almost lulling me into an idiotic sense of security. But every single muscle in Ilya’s chest tightened as Mariusz touched me, and I tensed in response to his concern.

  “I shouldn’t have left without telling you, Mariusz. For that I apologize,” Ilya conceded, gruffly.

  Mariusz made a show of studying my face. “It’s not as though I can blame you, Lieutenant. She is outrageously beautiful.”

  Ilya was silent, but his jaw was clenched, and his hands fisted rhythmically at his sides. I knew he was furious.

  “How went the rest of your evening,” Ilya asked, through gritted teeth.

  “Nowhere near as well as yours I don’t think.” Mariusz started to wrap his fingers through my hair; twisting the strands around his hand.

  “Give me a minute to get dressed, we can go and discuss the Colombian over breakfast, korol,” Ilya suggested, snatching his jeans from the floor.

  I couldn’t help but yelp in pain as Mariusz lifted his arm, dragging me off the bed by my hair. Ilya turned around at the sound, but made no move to intervene.

  Mariusz hissed into my ear. “Take yourself to my bedroom. Wash the scent of my Lieutenant from your bo
dy, and wait in my bed.”

  I wanted to argue. I wanted to tell him to fuck off. But, how could I? He was going to be my husband—he had greater justification for my presence in his bed than Ilya ever would.

  My eyes flickered to the heavily tattooed man, who was standing sedately at the side of the bed he’d not long ago fucked me in. His dark eyes met mine for the briefest instant, before he quickly looked away.

  Bastard.

  “Did you not hear me, Liselle?” Mariusz’s hands were still wrapped in my hair as he snarled at me.

  “Yes.”

  “Then what are you waiting for?” He let go of my hair as he spoke, before nudging me toward the door.

  Sava made a move to try and grasp my arm. But I was surprised when Anatoli beat him to it; wrapping his large hand around my wrist. I blushed in shame when I noticed the purple blooms on my skin beneath his fingers. Tell tale signs of my manhandling by Ilya.

  “Come on,” Anatoli began to tug me after him.

  “I’ll take her.” Sava’s voice made my blood run cold.

  Nope. Nope. Nope.

  Mariusz’s voice was a roar. “I’ve had enough of you fuckers fighting over my woman. Sava, take your fucking hands off her. Anatoli, get her out of my sight.”

  “Yes, korol,” Anatoli murmured as he pulled me out through the doorway behind him.

  I had no choice but to follow Anatoli, and I studied him warily while we walked. He was tall and broad—a recurring theme with the guys in Mariusz’s employment—and he was very good-looking. His tattoos were not quite so many as Ilya’s, but a few of the inkings looked very similar to the ones on the Lieutenant’s body.

  I suspected that all of the members of the Five had been trained in the same “unusual” way which Ilya had told me about, and I shuddered as I recalled Anatoli standing in our home after Mariusz had killed my parents. I did not want to be alone with this monster—with any of these monsters.

  Not even Ilya?

  We arrived at Mariusz’s room, and Anatoli opened the door for me; before gesturing that I go inside. I stepped into the ornate room—the scene of Mariusz’s brutality—and stood in the middle of the floor, looking and feeling quite forlorn.