Page 46 of The Bratva’s Innocent Sold Bride (Fokin Bratva #9)
One month later
“Oh my God, the caterer’s late,” Masha said, still in her Taurus Ingenuity security uniform.
It was three hours before the start of my big do-over reception, and she’d left work early to help out. I told her it would be fine while I tried to get the caterer on the phone and not freak out myself.
“We should have hired Katie,” Masha said, for at least the thirtieth time.
“I wanted her to be a guest, not an employee,” I said for the thirty-first time.
“Well, she wouldn’t have been late,” Masha grumbled, then brightened when she saw the familiar vans turning down the long drive. “They’re here.”
“See? It’ll be fine.”
I let her meet with the caterers while I put Artem in his new dog run that connected to my own personal office in the business wing, as we started calling it.
I still hadn’t thought of the perfect name for my company.
I didn’t want it to have anything to do with my name, but so far, I’d discarded every suggestion my new, fledgling team had come up with.
There was plenty of time. We still had to furnish their offices, since we’d been meeting in local coffee shops while I planned the party of the year.
When I returned, Masha had sufficiently bullied the caterers into getting everything set up on time and was lying by the pool with her eyes closed, a cold bottle of unopened beer next to her on the armrest.
I sat down beside her and snapped open the beer, taking a small swig. There’d be plenty of fine wine and the best vodka flowing later, so I didn’t want to start too early, and didn’t want Masha falling all over herself before the first guests arrived.
“How’s work?” I asked.
“Fine,” she answered, like she always did.
I had a feeling there was more to her working at my father’s company than she or Mat let on, but I found I wasn’t all that curious. If it were important, Mat would tell me. He’d promised no more secrets.
Ever since Anatoli had escaped under her watch, she’d been in a terrible mood, blaming herself, even though no one could have foreseen the mass attack by his people that caused a big enough distraction to break him out.
Delta and I had worked side by side around the clock for three days tracking him, and all signs pointed to a swift retreat to Mexico before falling entirely off the grid.
Nothing had happened in the three weeks since his escape, and Mat seemed to be over it. I was over it, no longer fearing the tech genius who was nothing more than a fugitive now. Masha wasn’t over it.
“You want me to help you put your hair up?” I asked.
She grimaced. We’d become good friends, and she still lived with us even though she was looking for her dream apartment, but she wasn’t exactly the type to spill secrets over hairstyles.
“I’ll manage,” she said, then looked down at her drab brown uniform. “So, you think I need to change?”
We both laughed. The party was formal, and everyone would be dressed to the nines. The only theme was to have a great time and enjoy each other's company. We headed to our respective rooms to start getting ready, but not before I squeezed her hand.
I wanted to say something gooey about how grateful I was that she’d accepted me, that she was the one who first pointed out how clear it was that Mat loved me, but she would have hated that.
So I just asked her to check in on the caterers before she went upstairs.
She liked being useful and bossing people around.
“If even a single carrot is out of place, heads will roll,” she promised. “And come to think of it, isn’t that damn band supposed to be here by now?”
She hurried off, checking her phone and muttering. The band wasn’t supposed to arrive for another two hours, so I pushed all my worries aside to concentrate on looking so spectacular that it would drop Mat in his tracks.
On the way, I peeked into the guest rooms. They were all furnished and decorated now, since I finally caved and hired a professional.
With the party planning and brainstorming new business ideas, choosing furniture had to take a backseat.
They were all ready and looked perfect, classic modern with bright splashes of color.
Tonight, the house would be heaving with Mat’s family from LA, the world’s biggest slumber party.
And I couldn’t wait to be part of it, a huge family of my own.
My dad was busy pushing Taurus Ingenuity that final bit to get it back up and running smoothly, and as far as I knew, he was sticking to the right side of the law now.
Mat promised to tell me if he stepped out of line, and I kept tabs on him with weekly lunches and regular calls to his assistant to make sure he was okay.
He’d gained weight and even swore he was taking his vitamins now that we were back on good footing.
How could I stay mad when he’d inadvertently given me the best gift of my entire life?
It wasn’t like I was going to run into Mat at the local internet café, or bump into him on a break from slaving in my cubicle if I’d been able to keep my original job.
The most perfect man in the world had to drag me kicking and screaming into his life, and now it would take more than that to get me out of it.
My dress was hidden in the back of my closet after the final alterations were made.
I had scoured every designer boutique in the area until I found it and pulled it out now.
For some reason, I decided I wanted it to be a surprise, since our wedding hadn’t exactly been a great day for me, and Mat had barged in and seen my gown before the ceremony anyway.
The sea green fabric fell in simple, swirling folds all the way to my feet, and the halter top showed off my shoulders.
There were no beads or sparkles, but a subtle, darker green thread was embroidered around the waist and the hemline.
It had made me think of an ancient Egyptian queen, and I had to have it.
“You’re going to look gorgeous in that.” Mat’s low rumble made me twist around.
I shrieked. It was too late; he’d already seen it. “It was supposed to be a surprise,” I said, then laughed. “It was silly.”
He blinked, all wide-eyed innocence. “What? I didn’t see a thing.” He advanced on me, reaching to smooth some loose hair away from my face. “You could wear your ratty old bathrobe and still be more beautiful than anyone else at this party tonight.”
He was talking about my lucky bathrobe that I retrieved from my dad’s house. It had gotten me through a lot of grueling study time in college, and I wasn’t giving it up until it disintegrated. Mat liked to tease me about how gross it was as much as he liked taking it off me.
Taking a step closer, he put his hands on my sides, tugging me an inch closer to him.
He had the look in his eyes that made me hunger for him.
I had become insatiable, having to tear myself away from thoughts of him when we were apart.
When he leaned down to kiss me, the hanger slipped out of my hand, and my new dress fell in a heap on the ground.
It was going to get wrinkled, but that was the last thought on my mind when his lips touched mine. Every day I woke up to those kisses and fell asleep each night in his arms after plenty of them, and I still couldn’t get enough.
“How much time until the party starts?” he asked, moving to nuzzle my neck.
The party? What party? Would the guests actually notice if we weren’t there at all? “About three hours now,” I murmured, letting my head tip back so he could find the spot behind my ear that made my insides turn liquid.
There was still so much to oversee, and my hair and makeup to do, but instead of pushing him away, I ran my palms up his chest, digging my fingernails into those hard muscles under his shirt.
Wrapping my arms around his neck, I found his mouth, licking his lower lip.
He nudged his tongue between my lips, pulling me flush with his body.
Heat washed over me as my blood began to race. My legs felt like they wouldn’t hold me up, but Mat would. He’d never let me go. I held on tight as he lifted me off my feet and carried me a few steps, depositing me on the center island that held my jewelry, his ties, and watches.
Sweeping the velvet bracelet stands and wooden earring rack out of the way, he spread my legs around his hips and stepped close, leaning down to kiss my neck again.
“You’re delicious,” he said. “I’m going to taste you all the way down.”
I shivered with anticipation, breathing him in. “And you smell good. Where have you been?”
“Flower shop,” he said.
I laughed, my fingers winding into his hair. “Come on, you can think of a better cover story than that.” He no longer kept secrets from me, and I didn’t shy away when things got a little gruesome, but I knew he still held back from time to time to keep me from worrying.
“It’s true. Masha sent me when they didn’t send some of the arrangements. I was supposed to teach them a lesson they’d never forget, but I really just picked them up and accepted their apology.”
We paused in our fevered kisses to laugh. That was something that had surprised me about my stone-faced husband; we shared the same sense of humor. This big Bratva king storming a flower shop so my party would be perfect was incongruous, but he always got the job done, no matter what it was.
Like he was getting the job done now, if the task was driving me crazy with desire. He popped the buttons on my blouse and snapped open my bra, moaning with appreciation when my breasts were free. His big hands cupped them gently, his thumbs sliding across my nipples to raise them to tight peaks.
“I love these pretty tits of yours,” he growled, lowering his head to nip at them.
I shimmied out of my blouse and bra, then tried to start working on his shirt, but he was too intent on licking his way further down my body. There was no fighting it, even if I wanted to, which I didn’t.