Page 1 of Kidnapped By the Boss

Chapter One: Vincent

I held Katya’s hand tightly in my own. Considering the fact that I figured I would never even fall in love with anyone, the fact that I was holding my new wife’s hand on my wedding day was kind of surreal. She looked absolutely unbelievable in a spaghetti-strap, V-neck wedding dress, with lace embossments that held onto her waist before pouring out into a tulle and lace skirt that was sheer and showed me slight peeks at her long legs. Her hair was tied back behind her ears with braids and then spilled down the back of her neck in stylized ringlets. Katya looked stunning on a bad day, but done all up for our wedding, she was unlike anything I’d ever seen.

“What are you looking at?” she asked me with a giggle.

“You,” I responded, using her hand to pull her closer to me and give her a kiss. “Mrs. Costello.”

Her smile got a little brighter as she looked up at me with her dark brown eyes sparkling. “I can’t believe we really did it.” Her Russian accent was sexy, even more so with that squeak of elation to it. “We got married.” Then she laughed. “Thank god, too, otherwiseNonawould have keeled over.”

I rolled my eyes imagining my grandmother who committed herself to interrogating Katya every single time Katya and I went to visit her, asking us without ceasing when we would be getting married. Her memory had gradually been getting worse when I met Katya, but when she came into my life and we started visiting more, it had a positive effect on her. Between Katya being pregnant and our upcoming marriage, she just fought harder to keep her brain tethered to reality.

She was able to walk me to the altar today and be there in person when I made Katya my bride, and that knowledge made me almost as happy as having gotten my new bride.

Anxiously, Katya craned her neck to stare around the opening to the tent we’d set up in our courtyard for the wedding. “What’s taking the DJ so long?”

I lifted an eyebrow at her. “What do you mean?”

She frowned. “He’s supposed to be announcing us so we can walk in.”

“Oh.” I smirked at her. “He’s waiting for a text from me, but I was enjoying standing here with you, so I haven’t sent it to him.”

Laughing, Katya smacked my chest. “Come on! They’re all waiting.”

“Fine,” I grumbled, “but first…”

I whipped Katya around, pressing her firmly against the wall, just out of sight of anyone else. I wrapped my hands around either side of her neck and pressed my lips to hers. She didn’t fight me, instead curling her hands around my wrists and leaning into my hold. Our heads weaved as we both allowed our kiss to turn into a brief makeout before Katya finally pulled back from me, her cheeks splashed red.

“Keep that up, and we’ll be skipping right to the wedding night,” she joked.

I shrugged. “I’m fine with that.”

She shook her head though. “We didn’t invite two hundred people to our house to ditch them to have sex.” She gave me a kiss again, looping her arms around my neck to pull me down, but she kept it chaste enough that we didn’t lose any further control. “I love you, Mr. Costello.”

I smiled down at her. “I love you, Mrs. Costello.”

With that sorted, I sent a text to the DJ letting him know we were ready to be announced and immediately the music playing from the tent softened.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” his voice thundered over the sound system, “it is my privilege and honor to present to you, Mr. and Mrs. Costello!”

Taking my hand back into hers, Katya led the way out of the small nook where we were waiting and over to the tent’s entrance. The couple of staff that we had standing by pulled the flaps of the tent aside revealing us to our guests, and showing us the inside of our reception tent for the first time. Katya let out a gasp and even my jaw dropped a little bit. The tent had been immaculately decorated with rose-colored tulle sashes and fairy lights, and the tables were all topped with navy tablecloths and rose and lilac centerpieces. Everyone inside stood up and started clapping, and Katya and I made our way around the tables and over to the sweetheart table designated solely for us to sit and enjoy our reception.

Immediately, people began clinking their forks against their glasses as I pulled out Katya’s chair for her to sit. I wrapped an arm around her waist and threw her into a dip, kissing her as I did so, and all of our guests erupted into applause. For a brief moment, I pulled back from Katya, but kept her held that way, and she smiled at me. All of the love she had for me was bubbling off of her warm expression, and I couldn’t help but feel a little giddy.

This woman was mine for the rest of my life.

Albeit reluctantly, I returned Katya to her feet and helped her down into her chair. Once she was pushed up to the table nicely, I sat in my chair next to her, almost instantly grabbing her hand after that to hold onto it tightly. At the nearest table to us was our small wedding party—Mario, who had been my best man, along with Devrick and Taylor, my groomsmen, as well as Annika, Katya’s mother, her maid of honor, and her only other bridesmaid, my newest capo, Annie. They all held their glasses up to us and smiled, and we nodded back at them, happy that we could have our closest friends and family with us for this special day.

The only people really missing were Maksim and Chloe, but with the way things ended between them and the police, we figured it was safest for themnotto return to the country for the time being. Besides, Chloe was getting on in her pregnancy, and reaching the stages where she probably shouldn’t be traveling. Katya was sad not to have them in attendance, but I planned to rectify that with a post-honeymoon surprise trip to Russia. Katya thought we were only taking the ten-day vacation in Barbados, but I’d secretly extended it to a full two weeks to include visiting our friends in St. Petersburg—I couldn’t wait to see her face when I presented it to her.

Once we were all seated and situated, Mario stood up with a glass in his hand. Both Katya and I frowned, as we’d expressly told himnotto prepare a speech, but it seemed he had decided on his own to completely fucking ignore us.

“Mario,” Katya called out.

He held up a hand. “Okay, okay, I know. You didn’t want me to do a speech, but come on, I’m the best man! What am I going to do, sit here andnotembarrass you at your wedding? That won’t do.” He earned some gentle chuckles for this joke. “In all seriousness though, I’ve known Vincent since we were ankle-biters, and I would have bet any money I’ve ever made that neither of us would get married. Who the hell would want to put up with us?”

I couldn’t help but laugh, and nodded. “Good question.”

Mario turned a loving gaze down to Devrick. “I tricked this one somehow.”