Chapter 17

Avgust~

I knew Samara well enough to know that she was raging inside; it was there in her eyes. Even though she hadn't uttered a word the entire time that I'd been tending to her, fifteen years had done nothing to lessen the bond that I had with her. I knew Samara Andreev better than she knew herself, so that's why I wasn't going to be surprised by whatever came next.

As soon as I was done wrapping her ankle, I escorted her out of the bathroom, and the fact that she smelled like me was really doing a number on me. It'd taken everything that I'd had not to give into my cravings when I'd been drying her off with the towel, and if Samara as a teenage girl had been a vision, Samara as a grown woman was going to be my undoing. She'd only gotten lovelier, her thick body a work of fucking art.

When we reached the bed, I said, "You'll sleep here tonight."

She quickly turned to look at me, that fire in her eyes fanning dangerously. "No, I won't."

"Yes, you will," I shot back.

"I'm not sleeping in your bed," she spat, that anger of hers licking at the surface, ready to erupt.

"Do not test me, Razh," I warned her. "This isn't up for debate."

"You can't tell me that you don't have a spare bedroom," she bit out. "In a house this big, you probably have twenty of them."

"One or twenty, you will still not be sleeping in any of them," I informed her. "You are sleeping here tonight, and that is final."

"Or else what?" she challenged.

I stepped to her, then grabbed her chin between my fingers. "Have you forgotten about your sister so quickly?"

My face snapped sideways with the force of her slap, and I even tasted a little blood inside my cheek. However, when I looked back down at her, Samara didn't look regretful, horrified, or embarrassed. Instead, her blue eyes were blazing with a fury that almost matched my own. Her chest was heaving, her hands were fisted at her sides, and she looked wildly beautiful.

Before I could do or say anything, Samara's fists began pounding on my chest, her anger finally getting the better of her, and it was a lot better than that emptiness that she'd been experiencing on the drive over here.

"How could you do this to me?!" she raged. "How could you let your men almost rape me?!" Her fists were wild weapons, but they weren't harming me in the least. "What is wrong with you?!"

I finally grabbed her flailing hands, trapping them in mine. "You are what's wrong with me," I snarled down at her. "You are what's always been wrong with me, Samara." I tightened my hold on her enough to make her wince. "You want to know how I could do this to you? The same fucking way that you were able to walk away from me all those years ago." Her blue eyes widened, though they were still filled with anger. "I loved you more than my own life, but that made no difference to you."

The corner of her lip sneered angrily. "Yet you had no qualms about lying to me for years."

"I would have lost you!" I thundered down at her.

"You lost me anyway!' she yelled back. "At least if you'd been honest, that would have meant something!"

I could feel my own regrets crawling up my spine, and since I didn't have many-Samara being the biggest-I did not appreciate the feeling. What she didn't realize was that I was never going to get the image of her inside that cage out of my head for as long as I lived. No matter what I did to Rurik and Vlad, the image of Samara being hurt, scared, desperate, and half-naked was going to stay with me forever. There was also the sound of her voice as she begged me not to hurt her sister, offering herself up to all my men for their use. If she thought that she was angry…well, she wasn't the only one.

"You want to call me a liar? Fine," I snapped as I held her hands captive in mine. "But what about you? How many times had you told me that you would love me no matter what? How many times had you told me that you would love me forever? How many fucking times had you told me that there would never be anyone else for you?" I got in her face, the brutal memories of our love battering the both of us like an unrelenting storm. "You told me that nothing would ever change how you felt about me, Samara. You told me that your love for me was something that you no longer had any control over, and that you were mine for as long as I wanted you." Her jaw ticked as tears sprung to her eyes. "Baby, if I'm a liar, then what the fuck are you?"

"That's not fair," she bit out.

"Oh, it's fair," I taunted. "It's fair because it's the fucking truth. It's fair because you left me , yet you're behaving as if I owe you something. It's fair because you chose to walk out that fucking door tonight to spare your sister." I finally let go of her hands. "Do not play the victim with me, Samara. It's not a good look on someone like you."

"Someone like me?" she gawked. "What in the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"It means that you're just as selfish as I am, or else you never would have walked away from me all those years ago," I told her. "It means that you're still spoiled enough to believe that you could let the Russian Bratva take you and still demand a comfortable bed and room service during your stay."

"You're a bastard," she seethed, refusing to admit her shortcomings.

"Ah, but I know exactly who my father is, and that's what's been the problem all along, has it not?" I mocked.

"While you keep saying that I'm not the victim here, well neither are you, Avgust," she fired back. "You manipulated me from the very beginning, and I can't see how that's my fault."

"That's not your fault," I conceded. "I'm merely pointing out that I'm not the only liar in this relationship, baby."

"We don't have a relationship," she bit out cruelly. "I'm here because you'll kill my sister if I leave."

"Oh, really?" I smirked as I arched a brow down at her.

Her face turned red, and rage quickly turned to lust because I knew this woman. While her pride had gotten her this far, she hadn't been unaffected when she had undressed for me earlier. She hadn't been unaffected when she'd stood before me completely naked before grabbing a towel. She hadn't been unaffected when I had used that same towel to dry her delectable body. She could say what she wanted, and she could rake me over the coals for all my sins, but Samara Andreev wasn't immune to me, and we both knew it.

Though it was pointless, in an attempt to appeal to my softer side, she said, "Your men almost raped me, Avgust."

I stepped back to her, taking her chin in between my fingers again. "And for that, I am going to skin them alive, Razh," I told her. "For daring to touch you, I am going to cut off all their fingers. For daring to even look at you, I am going to carve out their eyes, then make them choke on them. For daring to harm you, I am going to remove each of their organs while they are still alive. I am going to keep those men alive for days, so that I can experiment on them in ways that even Satan would shy away from." I squeezed her chin hard, making her blue eyes widen. "I am going to avenge you in a way that will terrify people for generations, baby."

Samara's lips parted, and I knew that she was turned on. For all her protests, she was still attracted to whatever had captured her attention all those years ago. She could call me a monster all that she wanted, but I'd always made her feel safe back then, and she knew that I was the only one that could keep her safe now. My orders hadn't been clear enough, and that was the only reason that she'd been harmed. However, now that she knew what was going to become of her attackers, she was remembering exactly what I'd been to her fifteen years ago, and nothing turned a woman on more than knowing that she was safe in the arms of the man that loved her, which I still did.

Before she could say anything or fight me some more, I spun her around, my left hand wrapping around her neck, my right hand gripping her hip. With my lips to her ear, I said, "Tell me that your pussy isn't wet, and if that is the truth, then I'll allow you to sleep elsewhere."

"Avgust…" she whimpered, and I closed my eyes at the pure euphoria coursing through my body now.

"I know you, vozlyublennaya," I went on. "I know you, and while your mind might be horrified of the things that I'm capable of, your body begs for the beast that you turned me into."

"You were always like this," she replied breathlessly. "This is who you always were, Avgust. I was just too stupid and blinded by love to see it."

My right hand slid over her hip to snake underneath the over-sized shirt that she was wearing, and her hands automatically latched onto my arm, though not to push me away. Samara was holding on for the ride that she was about to experience, and I couldn't remember if my dick had ever been so hard as it was right now.

"You're wrong, Razh," I whispered against her neck. "I'm far more worse than the boy that you fell in love with, and I'm about to show you just how much."