“He did it, didn’t he?” I repeated, just needing confirmation.
“Svetlana started it.” Her words were matter-of-fact, showing me my wife was smart enough to sense that I wasn’t going to back down from this. “But Papa finished it.”
“Don’t call him Papa in front of me. Papas,” I mocked, “don’t do this shit to their kids.” I tipped my chin up as she had and stated, “We didn’t want each other, but we’ll get along well if you don’t piss me off.”
“And what if you piss me off?” She huffed. “Like you are now.”
The spirited question surprised me and had me grinning. “Then we’ll get along even better, won’t we?”
She stilled at that, her eyes darting over my face as she studied my smile.
I noticed Inessa looked at my face a lot. Like she was trying to read my expression… Then, of course, I got it. Call me fucking slow, but I could sense she read a face to read the mood.
Her fucking father was going to pay.
I didn’t give a shit that she’d been his longer than she’d been mine. The second that fucking contract had come to exist between our families, he should have treated her with fucking kid gloves.
She reached up, surprising me further by letting the tips of her fingers trail over my smile.
When she stopped, tilting her head to the side, I asked, “You aren’t scared of me?”
The notion was unusual. Most people were scared of me outside of the family. With good reason. I was a lethal motherfucker. And I’d kill anyone who got in my way.
But this young kid wasn’t.
I mean, she had been. I’d seen that back at the altar.
Especially when I’d taken a long ass time to raise her veil.
Now?
Something had changed.
Because I intended on having sex tonight, I wasn’t going to complain about her defenses lowering, but I was definitely curious.
“You’re not the biggest monster I’ve come across.”
Her words floored me.
Fucking floored me.
And not because I was jealous either.
Our eyes met and held, and out of nowhere, a flame soared between us, arcing into being.
The lust came as a surprise, but the depth of it?
Annihilation.
It razed me to the ground.
Then the doorknob twisted, a knock at the door sounded, and a grumble in Russian clued me in to the fact that the families were out there.
A hearty laugh sounded next, and I knew that was my father. He’d be amused, thinking I was trying to bone my bride before I even signed my life away, but I wasn’t.
I wanted answers.
The doorknob rattled again, and I ignored it, though she didn’t. Inessa tensed, gulping, and that angered me even more.