Page 10

Amelia

Water-soaked carpet squishes beneath my feet as I walk down the hall toward the stairs. The two meeting rooms in the lower level are still an inch under water, but at least we’ve found the problem.

We’d taken over an old building when we opened the center. Lucas had a thorough inspection done and we’d made a lot of repairs. The pipes had been okay; at least there hadn’t been any problems.

Now, though, the corrosion from being so old was too much and two of them sprang a leak. Thankfully, it’s only affecting the lower-level meeting rooms and we’re able to make do for a little while with the rooms on the main floor.

“Lia!” Sarah hurries to me as soon as I step off the stairs onto dry flooring. “He’s here again.”

“Who’s here?” I brush my hair back from my face, while shaking the excess water from my feet.

My feet are probably all wrinkly from the amount of time I’ve been walking around the water downstairs.

“The big one.” She raises her eyebrows. “Dmitri Dragunov.”

My shoulders drop.

Right. I’m supposed to be getting married right now.

“Is he in my office?” I want to ask how angry he looks, but from the way she came running over to me when she spotted me, I think I have a good idea.

Also, there was the last text message that came through twenty minutes ago.

Obviously, another lesson is needed.

“Yes. And he has other men with him, too. Three of them.” She swallows. “And two of them are just as big as him. None of them look happy.”

I sigh.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” she questions after I stay frozen to the floor in silence. “I mean, marrying a man like him… are you sure?”

I grab hold of her hands she’s wringing and squeeze. “He’s not as scary as he looks, Sarah. I promise.”

She walks with me down the hall to my office.

“But there has to be another way. I don’t understand why Lucas did this.” Her voice trembles.

“I don’t either, but I’m sure he had a reason.” I stop at my office door.

It’s closed, but I can hear deep voices inside speaking. They’re keeping their conversation in Russian so I have no idea what they’re talking about until I hear my brother’s name. A moment later, my name is uttered too.

“Do you want me to go with you?” She gives a hesitant look at the door.

“No. Thanks, I got this.” I push on what I hope is a warm smile. “Everything’s going to work out fine. What I really need is the carpet cleaners to get here, the sooner the better. We can keep today’s meetings up here today, but we need downstairs back up and running by Monday.”

She nods. “Got it.”

“Thanks.”

Her expression darkens as her gaze lifts over my shoulder, and then higher still. A cold shiver runs down my back.

“He’s there, right?” I whisper. “Right behind me?”

She nods a little. “Yeah.”

“You should go.” I gently pat her arm. “I can handle him.”

She swallows, then turns on her own water-soaked heel and hurries down the hall, taking one more look back at me before turning into the front office.

“Are you going to be reasonable about this or are you going to be all Dmitri about it?” I ask, still facing away from him.

“The option for reasonable passed an hour ago when I was informed you left your brother’s apartment and came here instead of home.” His hand clamps down on my shoulder and he turns me.

Yep. He’s intending to be very Dmitri about this.

Impending hurricanes have less darkness in them than his features right now.

His jaw is pressed so tightly together, there’s a real chance he’s going to break a tooth.

“A pipe burst,” I explain. “I had to come—wait. How did you know I came here after leaving Lucas’ apartment?” I retreat a small step, out of his grasp. “Are you having me followed?”

“Yes.” He confesses this as though it’s a ridiculous thing that I even asked. Because why wouldn’t a Russian mafia boss have his fiancée followed everywhere she went.

“How? I didn’t notice anyone.”

“You don’t notice anything when you’re rushing off everywhere. Anyone could have hurt you or kidnapped you. You’re an easy target.”

“Who would want to hurt me or kidnap me?”

“You’re changing the subject,” he accuses.

“I’m not sure which subject to deal with first. You having me followed. You showing up here and scaring my staff. Or that you think there’s an actual chance of me being kidnapped.”

“Then I’ll make it easy on you.” He moves forward, towering over me and grabbing my chin.

When he brings his gaze in line with mine, my stomach flips. Several times.

This man!

“First, we’ll deal with the subject of our wedding. Then we’ll deal with the subject of your utter disregard for obedience. Then we’ll deal with the subject of consummating our union.”

“None of those things were on my list,” I say.

“No more delay.” He drops his hand from my chin and steps back, sweeping his arm toward my office.

“You said the marriage first.” I swallow hard.

He’s got that look in his eye like he did at his club. He wants to punish me. And as much as I want to think I can stop him, I can be honest with at least myself that there’s no possibility that I can stop him once he touches me.

“We are.” He stares at me, not even blinking.

“You brought the judge with you?” I step past him and hurry into the office to see who’s all inside.

Sarah was right. Two men just as big as Dmitri stand inside talking with each other. I recognize Nikolai, but the other man is new to me. His resemblance to Nikolai tells me he’s related though.

Then there’s the judge. A smaller man by stature, but just as foreboding as the other men. He frowns when he notices me.

“Ah! We can get started.” Nikolai claps his hands together with a grin aimed at Dmitri as he walks in behind me. “Just a nervous bride?”

“I had something to deal with,” I explain. “A pipe burst downstairs. Actually, I still need to get a few things dealt with. Maybe we should—” My words die when I twist and catch Dmitri’s glare.

“Everything’s already being taken care of,” he states. “My men are on their way to take care of the carpets. You’ll have new carpeting once everything’s done. The drywall that’s been damaged will be replaced by Monday.”

“But I have people?—”

“It’s being taken care of. All you need to do right now is repeat the words the judge gives you.” He comes to stand beside me.

“He’s not even going to introduce me,” the man standing beside Nikolai says with pretend offense.

Dmitri rolls his eyes.

“That is my cousin, Arman. We needed two witnesses,” Dmitri explains then grabs my hand in his and turns me to face the judge.

His thumb runs over my fingertips. Moving things out of the water has left my fingers tender and wrinkled. A low growl rumbles through his chest, but it’s so quiet I’m not sure anyone but me heard it. The man doesn’t even bother to hide his displeasure.

“I’m fine,” I assure him, and he grunts.

“Your fingers are like prunes. You have a full staff here, including a maintenance staff. You shouldn’t have been down there working in the water.” He doesn’t even look at me while trying to chastise me for doing my job.

“And they were helping, too. Just because I’m in charge doesn’t mean I don’t have to do the work here.”

He shoots me a glare that I think means he doesn’t want to talk about it now. Or it means my answer has only fueled his irritation, and I should stop talking.

I haven’t learned all his cues yet.

Dmitri points to the judge who’s now standing in front of us with a little black booklet in his hands. “Go.”

“Are you sure you want to do this here?” I question. “I’m not even wearing a dress.”

Dmitri squeezes my hand, a signal to be silent, I’m sure.

“I mean my shoes are soaked. My clothes are wet, and my hair isn’t even neat. Maybe we should wait until I can change into something more appropriate.” Like a straitjacket for going along with this craziness.

“You might want to get on with it, Judge. This is about as patient as he’s ever been.” Arman moves to stand on Dmitri’s left and Nikolai flanks me on my right.

Are they thinking I might bolt?

Hell, I’m thinking I might bolt.

“Yes. Alright.” The judge opens his booklet and starts to read the first part about what marriage means, but a simple clearing of the throat from Dmitri has him skip straight to the vows.

After he’s read off mine, I stare at him like he’s grown a second head with horns and a furry beard.

“I’m not saying that.” I turn to look up at Dmitri who has one eyebrow perfectly arched.

“They’re your vows.” He squeezes my hand. “Speak them.”

“That’s not the normal vows.” I point at the judge’s book with my free hand.

“No. These are the vows that we are taking. Now repeat what he said.”

“Dmitri. Women don’t say things like that anymore.”

“My wife did,” Nikolai leans forward to say to me.

“Mine, too. But I admit she was hesitant at first,” Arman pipes in.

“See? Now repeat the words,” Dmitri orders.

I shake my head. “I’m not promising to obey and honor you.”

“Then we’ll wait.” Dmitri drops my hand.

He tugs on his sleeves like he’s adjusting them from beneath the suit jacket, looking almost bored. I have no doubt the man will simply stand and wait for his orders to be followed.

“Well, I’m sure your cousins have better places to be than to stand here and watch you be stubborn.” They have to help me. Aren’t these men all about helping a woman in distress?

“Actually, I have the afternoon clear. Anya won’t be home until past dinner tonight.” Arman slips his hands into his pants pockets, clearly taking the position that he’s on his cousin’s side.

“And Charlotte’s with Anya, so we both have time.” Nikolai checks his watch as though he’s going to time me. How long can I hold out.

“You can’t be serious.”

“I’ve never known him not to be.” Arman grins.

“Fine. We’ll just stand here.” I fold my arms over my chest, ready to dig my heels in.

If they want to stand here and stare at each other, I can play that game too.

When I was young and my parents would get into one of their screaming matches, I’d hide in my bedroom waiting for them to stop before venturing back out. I got really good at waiting.

This won’t be any harder.

“Actually, I do have another meeting,” the judge faintly intervenes into the madness.

“They’ll wait,” Dmitri assures him. “If her stubbornness causes them to delay their wedding, you can assure them my wife will have consequences for her behavior.”

My cheeks burn. How can he say such things in front of the judge? His cousins?

Speechless, I turn to look at Nikolai, sure he’s just as appalled, only to find him nodding in agreement.

Arman looks just as satisfied with Dmitri’s threat.

The judge is the only one with any real decency to at least look surprised by his words.

Obviously, even if I don’t promise to obey this man, Dmitri’s going to see to it that I do.

“You’re impossible.” Kicking him in the shin would help deflate the balloon of anger building in my chest, but I have to settle for stomping my feet as I move back into position beside him. “What was the line again?”

The judge glances at Dmitri and waits for him to nod his permission before repeating the vow.

“Fine.” I take a deep breath, steadying myself to spew the words. “As Dmitri’s wife, I promise to honor him, obey him, and… seriously, Dmitri, I can’t.”

He lifts a shoulder. “Then we wait.”

I groan. Maybe if I just rattle it off, it won’t hurt so much.

“And to willingly-accept-any-consequences-he-sees-fit,” I huff after rattling off the last, horrible bit. “And that’s it.”

The judge, who seems unsure if he should accept what I said or not, pauses a moment. Thankfully, he doesn’t try to get me to repeat it more clearly and continues on with the rest.

“You’re now man and wife. You may, uh, well, kiss the bride.” The judge shuts his booklet and lets out a relieved breath.

Dmitri grasps me by the back of the neck and pulls me into him. His lips barely brush against mine, sweeping across a second time before capturing me beneath the most domineering kiss I’ve ever been a part of.

Moving my hands to his chest, partly to push him back, but also to steady myself, I can feel the tension of his muscles beneath the expensive suit. His fingers tighten in my hair as his tongue sweeps past my lips, deepening the already mind-altering kiss.

My mind may have fought the words of our vows, promising to obey him, but my body has no qualms about folding into his embrace.

By the time he breaks the kiss, my lips are swollen, my lungs aren’t sure how to work, and my heart bangs out a heavy metal jam against my ribs.

Fuck. He has to stop touching me. If I can keep his hands off me, I can think better.

“Now we can move on to the second subject.” He presses a soft kiss to my cheek and moves to press his mouth against the shell of my ear. “Your disregard for obedience.”