Page 88 of Twisted Proposal

So I sat in a chair across the room and watched her sleep. Her reddish-brown hair still spilled across the silk pillowcase, and I could just make out her features in the soft glow of the early morning sunlight.

There were dried tear tracks across her cheeks and I knew she would never want me to see it, but she had been crying.

I was confident that it had nothing to do with her punishment and everything to do with the events of the day.

After talking to the men that I had assigned to Viktoria at the college campus, I found out that she was actually underplaying the shit that her professor had put her through.

I had been busy, but it only took a few minutes of research to find out that he had a history of doing this to female students who were on scholarships or who needed some type of financial assistance and didn't live near family.

Add to that the tense dinner we had, coupled with her almost-escape. It had been a lot.

My girl was not as unaffected as she thought. Through it all, she acted like a warrior. The question now wasn't how I was going to keep those tears from staining her cheeks ever again. It was how did I keep her safe?

My girl. I tested the phrasing in my head again.My girl.It felt good. It felt right.

She had become an unexpected vulnerability.

Any of her father's debtors could come for her claiming that they were owed her by right because of her father's debts. Some of them I could pay off easily; others would refuse to take money. For them, it wasn't about cash. It was about the principle of the thing. About respect and taking what they were owed in blood. After all, if debts could just be forgiven in death, others might try to take the easy way out.

Then there was Solovyov, who had already proven he had absolutely no problem taking out a woman who was in the way or even mildly inconvenient. I couldn't imagine what he would do to a woman whose life could be held against me.

If it meant her life, there was nothing I wouldn't trade for her.

Nothing.

My family's money, power, property, businesses, even my life.

If it meant that she lived, I would give up my life without hesitation.

I wouldn't even do that for my brothers, who I loved.

Viktoria was, for me, a vulnerability. She wasn't a weakness. There was nothing about that woman that was weak, but she could put me in a vulnerable position, so she had to be protected at all costs.

I could keep her in the compound, but even that would only go so far.

No, I needed to do the one thing that would make her absolutely untouchable.

Kostya was right.

The second I thought about it, I knew it was the only way, and I knew that my little princess was going to fight me tooth and nail.

It didn't matter.

Before this was all over, she would be Viktoria Ivanova.

CHAPTER29

ARTEM

"And what is she going to think of this little plan?" Pavel asked as I opened the door to the grand mansion Gregor had lent me.

"She's going to call me several words that should not come out of the mouth of a lady and accuse me of being a controlling, heavy-handed brute. Then she is going to refer to this home as a gilded cage, and probably start a fight. She has a temper."

"Fiery, is she? What's she going to do when she finds out about that call you made earlier?"

"Honestly, it doesn't matter."

"What do you mean, it doesn't matter?" Pavel asked, shooting me a look as we walked into the home.