Page 67 of Owned Bratva Bride

“I thought you’d still be in bed, you know…after…” she went on, her eyebrows wiggling.

“After what exactly? We’re still two strangers,” I dropped, walking over to the fruit bowl to pick an apple.

“Yeah, but you both are not unaffected by each other,” Agatha persisted, coming behind me.

“What does that mean now?” I inquired, rolling my eyes.

“You and Sir Eduard have…chemistry. I saw it yesterday.”

I laughed out loud this time.

“You saw wrong. There is nothing like that between us.”

“So, nothing really happened yesterday? It doesn’t matter; it’ll happen. I know it.”

“I woke up hungry. Let’s talk about that.”

“Okay, Mrs. Yezhov.”

***

Something had changed between Eduard and me. He had done a full 360-degree turn, I could feel it. And it was weirdly ironic, thinking of how I thought we had turned from being an unconventional couple to being…maybe friends. He had calledme baby, and then we ate together, learning small things about each other.

After that, however, he became distant. He was even more closed off than he was before the whole Lucien attack thing. We barely talked the next day.

I screwed my eyes shut as he arrived late at night. The sound of his shuffling around went on for just a few minutes before he collapsed on the bed. He was beside me physically, but it felt like we were worlds apart from each other.

I shouldn’t even notice it; it’s not like we mean anything to each other.

But, as unnerving as it was, I noticed.

I had liked the feeling of doing something as simple as eating together. I replayed the sound of his voice when he pronounced my full name and when he called me baby. I still couldn’t forget that second kiss.

The space between us ached, and I hated it. I hated that I hated it.

It frustrated me to no end that I wanted to kiss the stress evident in his heavy breaths away. It was crazy that I wanted his touch; I wanted him to roll over and put his arms on me.

I hated him for the confusion he wreaked on my mind with his stupid, endearing, and then distant actions.

***

With each passing day, the study was becoming more of a safe haven. I could say the same for the kitchen had Agatha and Sofia not been bent on reminding me of my marital status every time. I wished they were as indifferent as Mila, sometimes.

The two guards Eduard had ‘assigned’ to me weren’t as invasive as I thought, a fact I was grateful for. They just stood at a distance and moved whenever I moved a finger. As I went into the study, they followed me but flanked the entrance door.

I was halfway into the book I was reading when I heard the study door open.

While a part of me wanted it to be Eduard, a part of me prayed it wasn’t him.

The black mane of hair I spotted when I peeked from the corner I sat in told me it wasn’t Eduard.

“Oh, I didn’t know you were here,” Ruslan confessed.

“It’s fine. I didn’t think you were within the house, either.”

“Yes, I wasn’t. We…the boss and I…left the warehouse early. He’s upstairs, too.”

“Hm. Good,” I mumbled, eyes back on my book.