Page 98 of Owned Bratva Bride

“Maybe later.”

My shoulders slumped.

“Eduard…” I uttered, rising on my toes to bring my lips to his.

Just when I thought he wouldn’t move away, he side-stepped. He was out of the bedroom before I turned around.

The impact was too intense for me to process.

I dropped the pryanik on the stool and went to bed.

The look on Eduard’s face was on my mind when I woke up the next morning.

He looked like someone who had been wronged. He had totally changed toward me, but it wasn’t just distance; I was sure of it.

I sat up against the headboard, my mind spinning with possible reasons for Eduard to be angry toward me. I thought of what I might have done to annoy or upset him and came up with nothing. I couldn’t remember him asking me to do something, anything.

Maybe it’s not me.

Then I remembered how vulnerable he seemed when he asked me for patience, when he told me he wasn’t a simple man.

My resolution when I left the bed was to give him the grace he asked for.

***

If I were called desperate, I wouldn’t deny it.

As I waited for him to get back, I was clad in the scarlet silk robe Eduard had gotten for me the week before. Beneath it was nothing but my black lace lingerie.

When he stepped inside the bedroom, I stayed by the entrance of the closet. The element of surprise was one of the tips I found in the book I had recently read on seduction.

I strutted toward him when he got to the foot of the bed.

I licked my lips as his eyes landed on me. Too determined to let the cold look in his eyes deter me, I leaned closer, my hand sweeping over his chest.

“Hello, husband,” I slurred, my eyes not leaving his.

Eduard took a step back and removed my hand.

I was confused and hurt, but anger was preeminent.

I pushed his chest with all the force I could gather without thinking.

“You all are the same. You, Lucien, all of you. You’re all two-faced, cold bastards,” I bit out, my voice low but venomous.

I pushed his chest again, and instead of him falling to the bed like I hoped, the force only made his upper body falter a bit.

“I hate you!” I yelled, angrily blinking away the tears in my eyes as I walked away from him.

His large arms came around my wrist before I took a second step. He shoved me against his chest, almost stopping my breathing. My heart beat rapidly, my desire now stained with fear.

“The full picture is bigger than you think; betrayal can be the simplest thing,” he chided through clenched teeth.

What the hell does that mean?

I yanked myself free with a grunt and left him standing there, the flash of pain beneath his fury haunting me.

I violently wiped the angry tears that left my eyes with the back of my palm.