Page 20

Needless to say, I was more than a little shocked when Emerson initiated what was very close to a makeout session in front of her sous chefs and assistants. Even the busboys got an eyeful of her throwing herself at me. Not that I was unhappy about it, quite the opposite. Maybe she was finally coming around to being the boss’s wife and enjoying it.

She never did take me up on my invitation to finish what she started in my office. On the contrary, she ended up ignoring me for the next couple of days until she couldn’t anymore.

“We’ve got to go meet my family,” I said. “My oldest brother Aleks called a meeting, and I can’t put it off any longer.”

She visibly withered and put the antique recipe book down. I’d all but dragged her to an early morning swap meet where I was going to do a quick sweep of another rival faction that hung around that area. They weren’t anything to be too worried about, but I liked to make my presence known so they didn’t get too comfortable. I thought Emerson might enjoy poking through the stalls, but she had maintained her stony facade until she came across one that was stacked high with musty old books, most of them cookbooks.

That was the first and last real smile on her face I’d seen in days, and she’d been slowly working her way through the pile I bought her. There was a notepad filled with her neat script, ideas, and formulations to enhance the old recipes and make them her own.

“Why do I have to go?” she asked, forced to finally speak to me.

“It’s a family meeting,” I told her. “They want to get to know you.”

A gusty sigh flew out of her. “I don’t see why.”

“You know exactly why. Family,” I repeated with emphasis. “You’re family now.”

Her eyes narrowed, then she got up and hurried past me toward our room. “Well, what do I wear?” she asked. A few moments later, she was flipping through her new wardrobe, most of the clothes still unworn. “What do I say? I feel like you’re throwing me to the wolves.”

With a laugh, I pulled out a simple white blouse. “It doesn’t matter what you wear, but the other wives will just be casual, so how about this?”

“Other wives,” she moaned under her breath, but took the blouse and proceeded to find something to wear with it.

“Don’t worry about them, they’ll welcome you with open arms.”

“They will?” she asked, sharp as any of her finely honed knives. “Does that mean your brothers might not?”

I scowled at her, but didn’t want to gas her up or lie to her. “They’re not exactly thrilled with me at the moment,” I admitted. “But that has nothing to do with you.”

Not entirely, anyway, but she already looked on the verge of fainting. And it didn’t matter how pissed there were, or what arguments they made against our hasty marriage. Just the other day, I recognized three of Arkadi’s men coming into the restaurant under a false reservation. I immediately told them they were wasting their time and kicked them out before they were seated. When Emerson demanded to know why I was turning away her diners, she’d been visibly shaken by the answer. No matter what he did or what I said to warn her, there was just no way someone so pure as she was could ever understand how dangerous Arkadi was.

“Emerson, take a breath before you pass out. Nothing you can say or do will end this marriage.”

Her eyes flew wide, and she stormed past me into the bathroom, where I heard the shower turn on. Damn it, I’d meant that to sound reassuring, but she took it as a threat. Sure enough, after she was dressed in the white blouse and crisp, dark jeans, with her goddess hair twisted into a respectable knot at the nape of her neck, she was back to giving me the silent treatment.

Was she really so miserable? It was impossible to tell. There was the cold shoulder at home, but there was also that lusty kiss at the restaurant. She was in her element at Khoroshiy, beaming with pride at all the compliments, cracking the whip like she’d been a head chef for a decade instead of little more than a month.

I’d gone so far as to recruit Mila to subtly ask her what she might want from me. I’d have changed anything about the house to make her more comfortable— hell, I already told her I’d buy her a new house if she didn’t like my somewhat serious and minimal compound. She could paint every wall pink and line the ceilings with feathers for all I cared.

For some reason, she wasn’t warming up to any of Mila’s advances, which was odd since my sister could make sunshine seem cool and aloof. Nobody disliked Mila, and I’d never seen Emerson go out of her way to be unfriendly to anyone on the staff before. It was disheartening since we were such a close-knit family, and I wanted Emerson to love all of them as much as I did.

When they weren’t being giant assholes about my life choices, anyway.

No, the only thing Mila could wring out of Emerson was a terse, ‘If you only knew how things really were, you wouldn’t be so friendly.’

“I almost told her I knew everything,” Mila had admitted, but I was glad she didn’t, because I didn’t want Emerson to think we were ganging up on her. Marriage was freaking difficult, especially with a captured bride.

Moments like that kiss, though… Perhaps she wasn’t as miserable as she tried to make me believe.

I stood back and looked over my beautiful wife in her neatly put-together outfit. “You look like you’re on your way to meet someone way more important than my brothers,” I teased. “Just so you know, you don’t have to curtsy to them or anything.”

She tried to scowl, but a hint of a smile curled her lips. Just as quickly, it was gone, and she followed me in silence to the car. I stifled a grumble of frustration, wanting to keep teasing her until she either laughed or tried to claw my eyes out. Anything was better than this stony silence.

As soon as this damn meeting was over and I had my brothers’ blessings— and I would get it come hell or high water— then I was having it out with Emerson. Hopefully, it would culminate in another passionate night, since I was craving the taste of her tongue and the feel of her soft skin under my fingertips again. It had been much too long. I’d happily settle for her talking to me again, even if it was yelling obscenities in my face.

We were perfect together. She knew it as well as I did. I just had to get her to admit it.