Who better than my roommate and best friend? Make my one ally loyal to him, leaving me even more vulnerable.
I swept her hair aside so I could press my cheek against hers. Her tears spilled onto my own skin. I understood then that she was as traumatized and exhausted as a beaten pony, living in a world of threats and fear.
I couldn’t imagine what Petre had put her through, but I knew she had a long road back to being fully herself.
“I love you,” I told her as she cried against my shoulder. “And we will make sure you get better. I will be here for all of it. I will never leave you again. You are family, Natasha. I will be your family.”
She held me so tightly that it was hard for me to get a full breath, and her sobs came out as agonized wails. Her knees buckled and together we slid down to the floor. Slowly, very slowly, she cried it out and I felt her begin to relax in my arms.
From far away, I heard Vasile’s heavy footfalls approaching. As he came through the drawing room door, carrying a tray of food and tea in his hands, his expression went from hopeful expectation to serious concern. His eyes shot from me to Natasha. I smoothed Natasha’s tangled hair and looked up at him.
“It’s okay,” I told him softly. “She’s okay.”
Vasile crossed the room and set down the tray, the strong muscles of his neck and throat catching the firelight as I watched him sit down on the sofa opposite where Natasha and I sat on the floor.
With his legs parted wide, he rested his forearms on his knees and watched me. For a long moment, neither of us said anything. We simply stared into one another’s eyes. The truth was that life was much, much too short to delay starting my life with him for one moment more. Life was fragile and I would rather face the risks of life by his side than away from it.
Life was, from start to finish, one big gamble. And it was time for me to put my faith in that gamble—in him. In us.
“My answer is yes,” I whispered to him, over Natasha’s shoulder.
His face lit up with such joy, such happiness as I had never seen from him before. Much to my surprise, his eyes glimmered with tears, and he leaned back in the sofa, looking up at the ceiling. Or maybe even at heaven.
“I have something for you.” He said, reaching inside his jacket and pulling something out. “You really must stop losing it…”
“Oh my gosh!” It was my turn for tears. In his hand was my silver cigarette case, lost once again I feared for good as the last time I remembered seeing it was when Vasile and I packed our few belongings to leave his manor and were intercepted by Petre and his gang. “Thank you.” I mouthed as Natasha turned to look at Vasile then back at me.
“Precious things sometimes slip away.” My friend said with a soft smile. “But, things that truly belong to us, always return. Don’t they Mr. Vasile?”
Vasile nodded. “They do. Indeed they do.”Chapter 27VasileShe stood in front of me in her wedding dress. So much stronger now after two months of recovery, I thought as I gripped my knife in my hand. Strong enough to take anything I chose to give her.
When I’d removed her blindfold, I ordered her to close her eyes and keep them closed, but I could tell it was fucking killing her.
The anticipation.
The unknown.
Her excited breaths made her cleavage rise and fall against her white jeweled corset and a red flush covered her neck and cheeks. She looked fucking beautiful, more perfect than ever before, because now she was more than my possession, my cocksleeve, my Queen.
And, finally, she was also my motherfucking wife.
I took a step toward her and pressed the blade against her white satin gown. Our wedding had been small, simple—no church, no bullshit. Just our parents, Natasha, Daniel and the priest.
As soon as we were alone after the ceremony, I’d blindfolded her.
Kidnapped her all over again.
We’d ridden hard, all day in my carriage, and now here we were at the coast, in a mansion I’d bought her, overlooking the sea. But she didn’t know any of that yet, and it didn’t matter. All that mattered now, here, was her pleasure. Her pain.
Though her eyes were still shut, the pressure of my knife startled her. Her long lashes fluttered slightly against her cheeks.
I growled at her as a warning. “Don’t you fucking disobey me. Keep them closed. Or else what?”
“Or else,” she said, exhaling to calm herself. “Or else I don’t get to worship that cock.”
“And is that what you want?”
She nodded and moaned a yes.