Page 19

“Well, we can’t always get what we want.” His eyes darkened with each word he said. “Now, be a good girl and do as you’re told.”

I slapped his face with such force that my hand went numb, a tingling sensation spreading up my arm. "Don’t tell me what to do!" I demanded, my voice shaking as anger spilled out of me like a torrent of water bursting through a dam.

I expected him to retaliate, but he just stood there with a smile. One that unsettled me.

His eyes searched mine for a split second. I had no idea what he was looking for but then I realised. He was hoping for the smallest hint of approval. I didn’t get the chance to answer because his lips collided with mine in a ferocious crash, a violent clash of heat and fury. There was nothing loving about it. It was as though we were fighting a war with mouths instead of fists, the pair of us so desperate to come out on top.

His anger and frustration poured into me like lava, dangerous and destructive. My body began to betray my mind as I kissed him back with the exact same venom. I couldn’t see or feel anything other than us. Not that there would ever be an us. I vowed to myself that I’d never lose my power to him, never give him what he wanted. Yet here I was, doing the opposite.

He fisted my hair tighter, wrapping one braid around his hand and possessing me with every stroke of his tongue. And although I felt nothing but hate for this man, desire crept through the cracks in my invisible amour. I tried to drown out any unwanted thoughts that played on my mind but the way he controlled me was making it so hard.

He teased my lower lip between his teeth, breaking the skin. All I could taste was my own blood, metallic and warm. He wasdraining the power from me second by second, and I couldn’t let that happen.

“You keep surprising me, Ana,” he growled, my blood painting his lips too.

“What were you expecting? A timid princess who was trained by her family to be the perfect housewife?” I whispered. “I’m not my mother, Lorenzo. You don’t get perfect.”

“Perfect is overrated.” He sucked my lip into his mouth before devouring me again. His lips moved to my neck, roughly sucking on my skin as I let out an unexpected moan. “You’ll never escape me, wife. You are mine until I say otherwise.”

“Your say is irrelevant to me.” I scoffed.

“My say is everything. I chose you, and you’re going to obey me. No matter how long it takes, you’ll obey your husband.”

“You’re deluded if you think that will ever happen,” I snapped back, my breathing rugged. My words were thick with hate and cut through the air like a whip.

He yanked my face back to his, his lips colliding with mine before I had a chance to say anything else. As he overpowered me, I kissed him back with every ounce of resentment I was holding onto and the bastard knew it. He kissed me with more aggression and force than before as I felt the heat of his body seep into mine. My body pulsed with anger, there was no grace, no gentleness, just us fighting for dominance.

I dug my nails into his back with as much force as I could. The sound of the hiss leaving his lips filled me with satisfaction.

“Stay away from me.” My chest heaved as his eyes dropped to my breasts. “Whatever that was will never happen again.”I whispered, as I found the strength to shove him away. I couldn’t give in to him. I couldn’t let him think kissing me would be as easy as this or that it would change anything. It changed nothing.

“Put your ring on,” he said, making it clear he was still wearing his own by lifting his hand and twisting it around his finger with his thumb.

“Idi poigray v probke, chertov zasranets.” I smiled, knowing he had no clue what I just said. “Ya zastavlyu tebya podavit'sya etim kol'tsom.”

I yanked the door open, coming face to face with the men who Lorenzo sent out not that long ago.

“He’s all yours.” I smiled sweetly as I left the team in my wake.

That man had another thing coming if he thought I’d obey him.

I didn’t even know the meaning of the word.

7

“Red, get the fuck in here,”I ordered as he hurried back into the office, trying to hide his smile the best he could. “Translate what my wife just said to me.”

“Well, for starters, she told you to go play in traffic, you fucking asshole.” I narrowed my eyes at him as he held his hands up in surrender. “Hey, her words, not mine.”

“Next thing.”

“I'll make you choke on that ring,” he translated.

“I’m going to need you to teach me some Russian, Red.” I smiled, always ready to get one up on my new, pain-in-the-ass wife.

“Gladly.” He patted my shoulder with a look I wasn’t quite sure of. “She’s keeping you on your toes, isn’t she?”

“She’s something, that’s for sure.”