Page 13 of Sweet Deception (Savage Vow #2)

ANNA

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When he agreed to bathe with me a few days ago, I was stunned and embarrassed.

I had instinctively covered my breasts, not because I was ashamed, but because he didn’t react. He barely looked at me, and that stung more than if he had stared.

He pulled my hands away, his gaze lingering, not in lust, but something else. Thoughtfulness? Restraint? A muscle in his jaw ticked before he looked away, as if forcing himself to be indifferent.

Did he find me lacking? Or did he want me?

I knew what I felt.

My body ached for him.

But I didn’t know how to say it.

He had been gentle with his touch, careful with every movement, as if I were fragile. He kept asking if I was in pain, still mindful of Antonio’s brutality.

Afterward, I expected him to toss a towel at me and leave.

But he didn’t.

Instead, he dried my body himself, his wet skin gleaming under the dim bathroom light. I watched, helpless against the slow, unrushed torture of his movements.

Did he not want me?

Was my body not enough?

Was my chest too small? My hips not the right shape?

He wrapped the towel around me and lifted me into his arms. I curled against him, pressing into his warmth, desperate to feel closer.

“You’re hard.” The words slipped out.

Gleb stilled.

Then, without a word, he turned and walked to his wardrobe, dressing as if nothing had happened.

I tilted my head, studying him. “You wanted to touch me just now. I saw it.”

Gleb’s fingers twitched at his belt buckle, then he suddenly exhaled, stepping back. “Uncle Antonio had a sick wife he loved... and a mistress he adored. I could kill them both. As his punishment.”

I stiffened. “No. Please, no! They’re innocent. Killing them won’t bring me peace.”

He held my gaze, unreadable. Waiting.

I understood. He wanted me to tell him what he should do.

He wanted permission.

I swallowed. “If you want him to suffer... there are better ways.”

A shadow passed through his gaze. Surprise?

“You think I’d betray my own blood for you?” His voice was quieter now, but the steel beneath it was unmistakable.

My stomach dropped.

I shouldn’t have said anything.

“Forgive my words.” I whispered, burying myself under the duvet. Hiding.

A moment later, I heard him leave.

***

Now

I was sick. Too sick.

Sweat clung to my skin, yet I shivered uncontrollably. Even breathing felt like dragging air through thick syrup. Lifting a finger was a battle I kept losing. The lingering bruises from Antonio’s attack only made it worse. It was getting harder to move.

The doctor had come, given me injections, but nothing helped.

Zoya checked on me every fifteen minutes, fussing like a mother hen.

But she wasn’t who I wanted.

I didn’t know why, but all I could think about was Gleb.

I wanted him here.

Even if he hated me.

I had called him but he dismissed me, making it crystal clear that he didn’t care whether I lived or died from this sickness.

The door creaked open again, and I sighed, not bothering to lift the blanket.

“Zoya, I told you to stop. If you keep coming in, I’ll never get any sleep.”

No answer.

Strange.

I pulled the duvet off my face...

And froze.

Gleb.

He looked wrecked.

Like he had walked straight out of a battlefield. His clothes were stained, dried blood crusted on the cuff, and his knuckles bruised.

But he was here.

Why?

Wordlessly, he turned and walked into the bathroom.

I exhaled shakily. What had he been doing? Where had he come from?

When he reemerged, freshly showered, he didn’t speak. Just crossed the room and placed a hand on my forehead.

I shivered. Not from fever, but from his touch.

“Come here.” His voice was low, commanding.

I didn’t argue. I moved into his arms, pressing against his warmth.

His right hand settled on my back. His body was solid, warm and safe.

I barely noticed when he picked up his phone.

“Her fever hasn’t dropped. Why?”

My eyes fluttered open.

He was talking to the doctor.

His voice turned lethal. “Listen to me, if anything happens to her, if she gets worse, I’ll rip your throat out.”

He ended the call and tossed the phone onto the bed.

I swallowed. “...I don’t understand you.”

Gleb didn’t respond.

I kept going, voice quieter now. “You hate me, but you still take care of me.”

He exhaled sharply. “I...”

I cut him off. “I already know what you’ll say. ‘You’re my wife. It’s my duty to take care of you.’ Right?”

Silence.

I hesitated, then admitted, “Sometimes... it feels like you actually care.”

He shifted. “Girl...”

I pushed him off, scowling. “Stop. I’m not a teenager.”

His hand shot out, but I yanked away.

“Come here.”

“No.”

He tried to turn me toward him, but I resisted, using what little strength I had left.

“Girl, why are you so stubborn?”

“My name is Anna.” I glared at him. “Not ‘girl.’ If you can’t say my name, then don’t speak to me at all.”

Gleb stared at me for a long moment.

Then, slowly, as if testing the weight of it, he murmured, “...Anna.”

A shiver ran down my spine.

He had never said my name before.

I nodded. “Good. Now say it again.”

“Anna.” He sighed. “Come here.”

I hesitated.

He arched a brow.

Finally, I crawled back into his arms. His body heat seeped into me, easing the cold in my bones.

“Can your illness pass to me? I need to know.”

I blinked. “What?”

He exhaled. “If I could take it from you, I would.”

Something warm and unfamiliar stirred in my chest.

I forced myself to keep my voice steady. “Why?”

“Because I’m stronger.”

I swallowed. “I’m strong too.”

“I know.”

A deep, rumbling hmm vibrated from his chest, and he didn’t move.

Neither did I.

I didn’t even realize I had fallen asleep until my eyes opened, I was still on his chest. His breathing was even, his grip on me loose, but when I shifted, his eyes cracked open instantly, sharp and alert. He hadn’t truly slept. He’d been waiting.

Nine hours had passed.

I sat up.

Gleb cracked his neck, stretching.

“Does it hurt?” I asked softly.

“Yeah. Not used to staying in one position for hours.”

A small, unexpected smile tugged at my lips.

As I got up to brush my teeth, he spoke. “There’s a new development.”

I turned. “...What?”

“My grandmother wants to see you.”

My stomach plummeted. His family.

“They hate me.”

“I do too.”

I sighed. “No need to remind me.”

He tilted his head. “No one will touch you. Not my grandmother, not anyone. As long as we’re married.”

I let out a breath. “...When?”

“Tomorrow. She wants to know if you’re pregnant.”

His lips twitched. “When she asks, you’ll tell her you’re pregnant.”

“I won’t lie.”

Gleb smirked, voice like silk. “Then don’t say I didn’t warn you when they tear you apart.”

I stiffened. “Maybe if you actually did your husbandly duties, you wouldn’t have to ask me to lie to your family.”

***

The next day came too fast.

We stood before Gleb’s family estate, a towering mansion as cold and imposing as the people inside. I rubbed my arms against the chill in the air, but it wasn’t just the weather making me uneasy.

Gleb adjusted his cufflinks, his expression unreadable. “One more thing. We hate each other.”

I frowned. “I thought we already act like it?”

“Not enough.” His voice was low, measured. “They need to believe you hate me. That I control you. That you obey because you have no other choice.”

“And if they ask for proof?”

“You know how to flinch, don’t you?”

I swallowed hard and nodded.

The grand double doors swung open, and we stepped inside. The anteroom was vast, but the air felt suffocating. A cold hush followed us as we entered the grand living room.

Eyes. So many eyes.

They watched me like wolves scenting weakness. Some familiar, some not, but all carried the same quiet menace. I could feel their stares biting into my skin.

Gleb took a seat, spreading his arms over the couch like a king on his throne. I moved to sit beside him.

“Who said you could sit?”

The voice was sharp, cutting through the air like a whip.

I froze. The oldest woman in the room, Gleb’s grandmother. Her eyes were dark, cold, and bottomless.

“I’m sorry,” I murmured, my stomach tightening.

I cast a glance at Gleb, but he didn’t look at me. Cold. Detached. Just like we planned.

His grandmother’s voice was sharp with disdain. “Just because you are married to Gleb does not mean you are one of us.”

Before I could respond, she turned to Gleb. “Antonio is sick. Severely. He can barely lift a finger now. He was taken west for treatment.”

Gleb remained silent, his fingers tapping lazily against the couch.

His grandmother continued, “Before he fell ill, he accused you. He said you visited him, gave him a candy laced with poison. He claimed you did it to get back at him for beating your wife.”

The room went still.

Gleb let out a short, humorless laugh. “That’s ridiculous.”

His tone was casual, but there was something dangerous beneath it.

“He’s been hounding me for weeks, begging for a meal together,” Gleb continued. “Said he missed the old days when I lived with him. I agreed, had lunch with him, and left. That’s all.”

He leaned forward slightly, his gaze sweeping across the room. “But let’s pretend for a moment that I did want him dead. Why the hell would I poison him with a sealed candy?”

A silence fell over the room.

Gleb shrugged. “I can understand poisoning someone’s drink, their food. But a mass-produced candy? How exactly would I lace it and reseal it without making it obvious?”

His grandmother studied him carefully.

“I don’t know what Antonio is trying to pull,” Gleb said smoothly. “But you should know I would never harm my own family.”

I tensed beside him. Never hurt his family?

Didn’t he say the opposite last night? That he would make Antonio suffer?

My stomach twisted. He had poisoned Antonio. I knew it. And now he was lying so smoothly, so flawlessly, that even I almost believed him.

He’s protecting me.

A voice snapped me from my thoughts.

“He’s lying.”

A young man, sharp-featured and furious, glared at Gleb. His resemblance to Antonio was unmistakable, his son, most likely.

“My father would never accuse him unless it was true,” the young man spat.

The tension in the room thickened.

“Yegor,” the grandmother warned. “I promised you I’d investigate this.”

Grandma, if we wait too long, the trail will go cold. If he’s guilty, we need to act before it’s too late.”

Another man, broader, crueler-looking. leaned forward. “Grandma, even if he killed our father, do you think he’d admit it?” His eyes darkened as they fixed on Gleb. “If not for you, I’d put a bullet in his head right now.”

Antonio’s second son. Arseny.

Gleb met his stare without blinking. “Then try.”

The air in the room crackled with unspoken violence.

His grandmother silenced them both with a single glance. “Enough. No one will act out of blind rage. If this family fractures, our enemies will tear us apart.”

She turned to the room, her voice carrying the weight of authority.

“Besides, this accusation makes no sense. If Gleb wanted Antonio dead, why give him a poison that allows him time to accuse him? And since when have they ever been enemies?”

She paused.

“But if I do find proof...” Her gaze darkened. “He will be blood-eagled.”

A chill raced down my spine.

Blood eagling.

I had read about it, an execution where a person’s ribs are broken from their spine, their lungs pulled out to form “wings.” Left to die slowly as his own body betrayed him.

I swallowed hard.

It was a death more horrific than anything anyone could ever imagine.

And they were willing to do it to their own blood?

I shifted uncomfortably, my legs aching. I had only started walking again yesterday, and now I had been standing for nearly an hour. My muscles trembled, weakness creeping in.

I stole a glance at Gleb.

He didn’t move. Didn’t acknowledge me. But then, his fingers twitched. A small, imperceptible movement. A signal.

I understood.

If I showed weakness, they would see me as prey.

I clenched my fists and forced myself to stay upright.

The grandmother exhaled. “We will wait for Antonio to wake and speak for himself. Until then, this conversation is over.”

She turned to me.

“I assume you are not pregnant yet.”

I hesitated.Nervous

Gleb watches her, then casually exhales.

“She was going to tell you herself. Weren’t you, Anna?”

The room shifts. His grandmother’s gaze moves between us, sharp as a blade.

My head snapped toward him.

What?

She just found out.” His tone was absolute. Unquestionable. “That’s why she looks sick.”

His grandmother raised a skeptical brow. “Is that so?”

A long silence stretched between them.

Then, finally, his grandmother exhaled. so thick I could barely breathe through it. Then, she smiled, slow and deliberate. But her eyes... her eyes stayed cold.

“How wonderful,” she murmured, her voice smooth as silk. She leaned forward, resting her elbow on the armrest as her nails tapped against the wood. “A doctor will visit in a few weeks,” she continued, tilting her head slightly. “We must be sure, of course.”

The tension in the room didn’t disappear, but it shifted. The hostility toward me dulled slightly, because if I was carrying Gleb’s heir, I was useful.

But I knew one thing for certain.

If they found out I wasn’t pregnant, I wouldn’t leave this house alive.

“Since your husband claimed you carry my grandson.” Her voice was soft, almost affectionate, almost. “Then you must be strong enough to bear a child of this family. Let’s see how strong you really are.”

She turned slightly and gestured to one of the guards. Without hesitation, he stepped forward, setting a delicate crystal glass on the table between us. The liquid inside was deep amber, almost too rich in color.

“Drink.”

My pulse stuttered. “What?”

Her smile didn’t waver. “You look weak. Frail. That doesn’t bode well for a mother-to-be. This tonic will strengthen you. If you’re truly pregnant, it won’t harm you. If you’re lying... well.” She waved a dismissive hand. “Then you have nothing to fear, do you?”

The room seemed to shrink, the walls pressing in as my gaze locked onto the glass. I had no idea what was inside, but I knew one thing... The old woman didn’t strike me as someone who made idle threats.”

I forced my hands to stay steady as I reached for the glass. The weight of every eye in the room settled on me like a crushing force.

“Drink, Annushka,” she purred, her voice syrupy sweet. “Unless, of course, you have something to hide?”

A fresh wave of dizziness hit me, sudden and sharp. My vision blurred at the edges, my breath hitching as the floor seemed to tilt beneath me. Any second now, my legs would give out completely.

And then...

Gleb’s gaze caught mine. Cold. Calculating. But beneath the ice, something flickered. A warning. A command.

His fingers barely twitched at his side, the smallest motion, but I understood it perfectly.

Hold. Do not fall.