Fate was surely giving me a shelling. I know I fully deserved it, but this time I was battle ready to meet it head-on. Bring it. Bring that motherfucking fight on…because I can win it. I want to win this war. Need to, even. It all makes sense now. I know what I want and she’s right in front of me.

This meet-up with destiny finally felt right. Right place. Right time. Right… person.

I studied her in all her divine goddessness, the flavor of her porcelain skin still detectable on my tongue. Her mahogany hair, silky soft beneath fingers possessively laying claim to her elegant neck, for which I had a particular obsession. Green eyes showing me exactly what the manifestation of my destiny would look like if I had my way.

I’ll be getting my fucking way.

“Oh, it works, kitten.”

Then I took her mouth beneath mine and thanked her with some kisses. Rough ones and gentle ones, my hands touching wherever the hell I felt like putting them on her beautiful body. I showed her what her answer meant to me by kissing her. To her lips, her neck, her throat, and behind her ear. Needing the intimacy, and yet it couldn’t possibly be enough to soothe all the wild desires I had whenever I was with her. Pulling a fistful of her hair back and exposing that gorgeous fucking neck for me to devour, I plundered her mouth with my kisses until I hoped she might understand just how pleased I was with her answer.

The view of Gabrielle’s lush arse as she climbed the steps ahead of me, made it damn difficult to keep my hands off it. Doubted I’d last much longer but hoped to get us both safely to the top of the stone stairs before I risked it. The trip down into the catacombs, as I affectionately called it, where more art was held in various states of storage, had been rather uneventful for my beautiful conservator. There wasn’t much to see beyond some carved marble statues Gabrielle guessed might be antiquities—not without unboxing crates and crates of God knows what, which wouldn’t be happening today in any case.

She announced it was impossible to know what all was down there until every last crate was opened and inventoried. An “enormous undertaking” in her words. All good news as far as I was concerned. Enormous undertakings took a very long time to complete. Just as I’d hoped.

“I’ll go down there tomorrow and note the number of crates and their approximate sizes for an estimation in my report, and just leave it there for the moment. You have a ton of art, Ivan. I’ll be focusing on what’s already on display in the house for now. This project will have to be done one step at a time. I know it sounds ridiculously cliché, but it’s the God’s honest truth.”

“Sometimes cliché is dead-on though, Miss Hargreave. For example, ‘lies will get you nowhere, but honesty will get you everywhere.’” I delivered a playful smack to one tight arse cheek and directed her toward the right just as we reached the top of the stairs at ground level.