Page 37 of Beaten

“But?”

“This seems excessive. You didn’t have to marry me to hurt my brother. Just kidnapping me was enough.”

“True.” He leans into my ear. “But this is more fun.”

Alek is a good dancer, moving around the floor with ease. It’s effortless to follow him and that’s terrifying. Nothing about Alek should be effortless, especially not the way I feel for him.

I catch a glimpse of Nina and Susanna, glaring at us from their table. “Why do they hate me so much?”

“Who?”

“Nina and Susanna? They were mean to me at the shop yesterday and now today…”

“They don’t like change. I’ve been like a father to them for years, especially after their own father died.”

I look at him sharply. “Their father died?” I assumed they never went through trauma but maybe I was wrong. Maybe the trauma they went through hardened them instead of making them kinder.

“He did. When they were only ten and eleven. It hurt them a lot. He was a good man.”

“I… I didn’t know.”

“How could you? They don’t normally like to talk about it and I doubt they would have told you. I know they don’t like you. I know they weren’t happy about me marrying you.”

“Why?”

“Because I was honest with them and said we’ve only known each other for a couple of days now.”

“Because you kidnapped me,” I say point blank.

He gives me a sly look. “I did.”

“But you didn’t tell them that.”

“I did not. They don’t need to know everything.”

“Well, they seem to think I’m some gold digger from the way they’ve spoken to me. If you could help explain to them that I’m not, that would be appreciated.”

“I can do that. I want you three to get along. You’re in my life now, Katya. You should get along with Nina and Susanna.”

“It’s hard when they hate me. When they ruined my dress.” I can feel the rips in the dress along my skin and I fight the urge to cry. My beautiful dress. The one thing I was happy about and they ruined it.

“And I will talk to them about that. But for now, just focus on us. You’re not panicking at the moment. That’s a good sign. I take it the spanking I gave you helped.”

I scowl at him. “It was humiliating.”

“That was the point. To get you in line.”

“I am not a dog for you to discipline.”

“But it did get you to calm down, did it not?”

I can’t argue with him there. But Alek seems to think he’s the right thing for me when I know he’s not. The right thing for me is to be back with my family. Safe and sound in my room…

Except, do I really want to go back to my room?

Everything Alek has put me through has been exhausting, yes. But I’ve lived more in the past few days than I’ve lived in my entire life. I want to be a woman. The whole thing is confusing, between what I want and what I know is right.

And what’s right is to get far away from Alek and return to Dimitri.