“Believe what you want,” I mutter. “Fact is you’re a Bratva princess, and people want you dead. The sooner you accept that, the longer you’ll manage to stay alive.”

“I have nothing to do with that world!” she shrieks, her cheeks flaming with anger.

I close the distance between us, and with a dark glare, I hold her gaze. “Stop lying to yourself, Ariana. You might have been able to stay out of the Bratva until now, but you’re as much a part of it as I am.”

Done with this conversation, I shove past her and head back to the security room.

ARIANA

Since the fall out in the gym yesterday, I’ve been doing my best to avoid Demitri, which is near impossible, seeing as I’m stuck on a damn island with him.

Feeling restless and caged, I open the sliding door and step out onto the deck.

This is the weirdest kidnapping ever.

Fine, so far, I’ve been lucky, and Demitri hasn’t tortured me. Actually, he’s done nothing but feed me.

And he tried to show you how to protect yourself.

As if. He was probably trying to pull some kind of move so I would let my guard down.

Hearing wood splintering, I frown at the direction the sound is coming from and begin to walk toward it. Rounding the corner of the house, my mouth drops open, and my eyebrows slowly lift.

Demitri swings an ax down on a piece of wood, and it splits right down the middle. His biceps strain against the sleeves of the white t-shirt he’s wearing.

Sigh, jerk or no jerk, he sure is something to look at.

I watch as he chops piece after piece of wood, and it makes me forget about my predicament.

Taking hold of the bottom half of his shirt, he pulls the fabric up and wipes it over his face, giving me a view of his drool-worthy abs.

Take it off.

As if he can hear my thoughts, he grabs hold of the fabric at the back of his neck and then yanks the shirt off in one go.

Oh, yeah. That’s more like it.

He continues to chop wood, and watching his muscles ripple while they shine with the drops of sweat beading on his skin is damn close to porn.

Demitri slams the ax down on the wood, and it splinters, and then he takes a step back and slowly lifting his head, I watch as he sucks in a breath of air.

And then our eyes collide, and I can’t make myself move even if I wanted to.

Seriously. It’s not right for one man to be so hot.

Dropping the ax to the grass, Demirti begins to walk in my direction.

My heart starts beating like crazy, and there’s a voice telling me to run, but my feet are glued to the spot.

He stops right in front of me, and seeing his glistening chest up close is almost dizzying. Then he lifts his hand to my face, and his thumb brushes over my bottom lip.