Pressure began building at the bottom of my spine. When Ilya looked back down, I whispered, “I’m close…”
Ilya’s eyes glittered and his skin glistened with a sheen of sweat. “Yes,” he groaned. I knew he was close, too.
Needing to see his face when I found pleasure. Needing to watch him come apart too, I slid my hands until they palmed his cheeks. Ilya lowered his head and pressed his chest against mine. His warm, quick breath washed over my face. His lower stomach pressed against my bud of nerves, and unable to hold off anymore, I felt my channel contract as pleasure took me in its hold, my scream of release echoing loudly off the cell’s stone walls. “Ilya!” I moaned as the hedonistic feeling didn’t fade.
Hearing his name usher from my lips, Ilya jerked in his movements and, with a final hard thrust, spilled inside me. His eyes squeezed shut as he gave in to his release. Then, like an answer to every wish I’d ever had, Ilya’s mouth opened, and he called out, “Inessa!”
My vision blurred as he crushed his heavy body to mine. His lips found my cheeks and neck, and with every caress, he repeated, “Inessa, Inessa, my Inessa.”
Ilya tucked his head into the crook between my neck and shoulder. I gripped hard and ran my hand through his blond hair. Ilya muttered something against my skin.
“What?” I asked breathlessly.
Ilya slowly lifted his head. When he met my eyes, he said, “I want this.” He inhaled. “I want this every day. I…” His words cut off, but he forced himself to finish, “I want to be forever with you.”
I blinked quickly to rid myself of tears. But my stomach still plummeted. Ilya’s face dropped. “How would that be possible?” I questioned, the cave in my tunneling returning stronger and deeper. “Master will never allow it.” I wrapped my arms around his neck, hanging on with everything I had. I wanted to freeze this moment so it would never end. I wanted to stay here, just like this.
“I don’t know,” he finally admitted. He was as defeated as I was. When I looked at his face, he said, “I thought having a female would make me weak. I thought wanting someone, being with someone, needing her, would destroy my place here in the pit.” He paused, then said, “But since I let you into my heart, since I let you into my soul, you have made me stronger. I want more than fighting and death. I want more than this pit. And I want that with you. Only you.”
“Ilya,” I whispered. The only thing I could give him in response was, “I want all of that with you, too.”
He ducked his head, then lifted it to ask shyly, “You do?”
I smiled and cherished the feel of his warm skin pressed against mine. “More than anything.”
Ilya’s lips twitched. I held in my breath when a full smile spread on his cut lips. I gasped at the beauty. Moving my fingers to his lips, I pressed my fingertips to them and said, “I don’t want Master. I don’t know what life looks like above this place, but with you I wouldn’t care … as long as I could be with you. I would live in perpetual darkness if it meant I got to keep you by my side. We would be you and me. Then one day, we could maybe have more. Children. Laughter … happiness.”
The tension around Ilya’s eyes had softened at my confession. I waited with bated breath for how he would respond. But just then a cool, but angered, voice mused, “Well, this is interesting.”
Ice shattered down my spine when I recognized that voice. I stilled in Ilya’s arms. Ilya’s cold killer expression filled me with dread. Ilya’s arms shook at my sides. When the sound of the cell opening shattered the tense silence, Ilya jumped to his feet and charged for the door. I sat up on a scream as I saw guards run into the cell and push Ilya against a wall. Charged picanas were pressed against his skin, Ilya roaring out as the high-voltage charge ran through his body.
I stared at my warrior, but Ilya was glaring at Master. Master who, when I turned to face him, was storming toward me. His dark eyes were furious. He reached out and grabbed me by my hair.
A rage-filled bellow ripped from Ilya, but before I could even turn around, Master had pulled me from Ilya’s cell, unclothed.
As I was dragged down the hallway, my feet slapping on the stone floor, I could still hear Ilya fighting to be free of the guards.
Tears streamed from my eyes, caused by the pain of Master’s grip on my hair. He wrenched me around a corner and we began to descend some unfamiliar stairs.
Fear cut through me as I lost my footing and slammed against the wall. We landed on the floor of a narrower hallway and my knees gave out. But Master continued to drag me, my skin grazing on the rough stone. I cried out when he pulled harshly on my hair. My body fell forward, causing Master to stop.
Reaching down, he wrapped his hand around my arm and wrenched me to my feet. I cried out as he did, and I found myself being hurled against the wall. My back smacked against the stone, robbing me of my breath.
Then Master was in my face, his teeth gritted hard. “Bitch,” he snarled, and released my hair to wrap his hand around the front of my throat. I struggled to breathe as he squeezed his hand tightly. Moving his face to mine, he bit out, “Bitch whore. Another unfaithful bitch whore.”
I instinctively clawed at his hands. The second my nails dug into his skin, Master let go of my arm, keeping me in place by the hand on my neck. He sliced the back of his hand across my face. I had tried to move with the hit, but Master’s other hand kept me still.
His dark eyes were wild as he glared at me. As he landed another smack across my face, I knew this was it. I had disobeyed the ruler of my life.
A life I knew he was going to take.