Page 3 of Unwritten Vows

Liza

Derrick shifts himself to face me, sitting sideways in his seat now. He leans his elbow on the table and puts his cheek in his hand. His entire body relaxes. He looks like a different fucking person. I guess we’re dispensing with formalities now. Thank god.

I think it’s a good thing, until he speaks. “So, I heard you like tennis.”

I turn my body slightly toward him, peeking at him out of the corner of my eyes. “Sure. Don’t all us rich people like tennis? It’s easy to learn, and we all have tennis courts on our property.”

“Hmm. True.” He gives me a half-smile. “So, that’s one thing we can do. What else?” His half-smile widens and turns somewhat mischievous. “ I mean, I have some other ideas on what else, but aside from that.”

I’m taken aback. Even I know what he means by that, and I’m surprised he would allude to sexual acts in this mansion at dinner, whether our fathers are here or not.

I clear my throat and desperately feel the need to pull on my collar, but I refrain.

“Oh, well we can discuss certain activities we can do together if we have another meeting.” I make sure to be clear in my tone that I sincerely hope that meeting won’t happen.

He looks at me in curiosity now. “If? I mean… we’re obviously having another meeting. There will probably be a lot of them. And if we need to live together it’s going to be one big long meeting.”

I choke on my own saliva and have a coughing fit, and as soon as I’m done, I dispense entirely with formalities. “What the hell?”

His carefully practiced expression of indifference breaks and he laughs. “You cursed! Damn. I have to surprise you more often. Do you know nothing about how this will go?”

I open my mouth and a slight scoffing noise comes from the back of my throat. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Right now, I’m not even sure that there will be another meeting, much less a big long one!”

I’m certain I see a legitimate twinkle in his eye before he says, “Little Liza, the sweet, pretty Bratva princess. You’re as adorably naive as you look.”

Another louder scoffing noise comes bursting out of me this time. “I am not… how disrespectful!”

“It’s not a bad thing, Liza. It’s adorable, like I said.

It’s cute that someone who grew up in this life doesn’t know how these arranged relationships go.

One day you’ll have an arranged marriage to go with it.

But my own father knows how I feel about marrying right now, so even if we did have to worry about that, it wouldn’t be for a while. ”

“What—marrying? What are you even talking about?” I don’t remember the last time anyone got me this fucking heated.

“You’re a jumpy little thing,” he says with a smirk that makes me so frustrated he could fry an egg on my head.

“I still can’t believe Daddy didn’t talk to you about this.

Calm down. It’s just you and me here, moya Zaychik .

” He calls me his “Little Bunny” in Russian—a sweet nickname for children—decidedly not adults.

He takes my hand, like he understands me and wants to help me out with this. In my shock and confused frustration, I don’t immediately pull away.

He looks down at our intertwined fingers and his face morphs into a strange, sad mimicry of concern. His thumb swipes over mine. “Listen, baby. We can definitely have some fun. I’ve been through this a thousand times.”

I know I have to get myself under control, but the idea of this fucking heathen coming into my house and telling me what my own father plans for my “wellbeing” is a bit too much to bear.

On top of that, it’s clear that the “fun” he’s talking about is sex.

Some kind of weird, rich kid sex, most likely, and I don’t want to even think about what he’s considering doing to ruin my body with his sinfully beautiful mouth and perfect white teeth.

Derrick will only ever use me for his own pleasure.

I won’t let him force anything on me, and he’s sorely mistaken if he thinks my father will.

But it’s not as if I’ve ever encountered a boy without tact.

I take a few deep breaths and carefully disentangle his hand from mine.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Stepinov. Unfortunately it seems that you’ve gotten a very strange impression of how our acquaintance will go.

” I decide to play into this little game and show my whole hand, the way he is.

“You know,” I whisper, leaning into his space, “it’s always hilarious to me when little boys think my father will listen to them over his own daughter. ”

His expression is immediately one of intrigue and delight. “Oh yeah, dear Liza? Well, that would be a surprise. But then again, you seem to be full of them.”

I cock an eyebrow, thinking I’ve gotten the better of him and won the last point of this conversation. “I use them when necessary.” I right myself in my chair, pulling into the table and facing forward, chin pointed upward.

“Well, I probably shouldn’t tell you what your Daddy said about you, then. Or the fact that he thinks I’m just the right mix of charming, manipulative, and cutthroat when necessary. That little display of him questioning me? It was just so I could explain myself to you.”

I roll my eyes. “Sure. I bet you two discussed all of this beforehand, right? You made a little script together on how this would go?” I raise my brows and make sure that not a trace of the worry that they did, in fact, discuss me beforehand, registers on my face.

When he says nothing, I continue. “You’re just like all the other boys he’s tried to match me with. I’ve seen your little Instagram posts and feuds with your ex-girlfriend plastered all over the tabloids. Trust me, he’ll see through you as quickly as I did.”

We are already quite close at this table, but Derrick pulls his chair even nearer so that he’s leaning far into my space.

Despite myself, I’m curious. What does he think he’s going to do right now?

We’re in my mansion with cameras everywhere, and I’m sure Daddy will be back any time now.

Our next course is on its way within minutes at this point.

“He’s known me for longer. Why hasn’t he seen through me yet if you already have?

” He’s so close that the baritone of his voice vibrates through me.

To my great frustration, I feel flushed.

It’s just because he’s pointed out that Daddy is taken with him while I’m not.

But Daddy will see in time . My eyes roll to where his face leans close to my cheek, and I still don’t know what to say.

Especially when he puts his hands on my chair, far too close to my shoulder and knee.

“Dear little Liza, Moya Zaychik . I am happy to show you that I’m not a boy.

But the only thing holding me back is that you may be too much of an innocent little girl to take me on. ”

I want to tell him to back the fuck off, but some strange part of me is curious.

No one has ever said the things he’s saying to me, in such a carefree way, throwing caution to the wind.

I want to know how far he’ll take this. I want to know exactly what he’ll have the audacity to say to me in my own grand hall.

I’m not sure what it is that possesses me to say it, but I lick my bottom lip slowly and turn my head to look into his burning gaze.

“You said earlier that I surprised you. You’d be even more surprised by how wrong you are about what you just said.

I’m in no way just an innocent little girl. Not by a long shot.”

He sweeps a piece of long, dirty blond hair from my neck and I shiver, unable to control myself. He smiles down at his hand on my bare shoulder. Why did I wear this sleeveless dress today?

“You want to convince me that you’re a bad little girl?

Please do,” he breathes onto my neck, just barely dusting his fingernail down my arms, making all the tiny hairs stand on end and goosebumps erupt in his wake.

I grit my teeth, hating the unexplainable effect he’s having on me.

Maybe the goosebumps are from disgust. There’s no way I like it.

Daddy finally comes in to save the day, just as Derrick’s hand disappears under the table. I’m dismayed to see his face light up at our proximity. He seems to have really wanted this. I’m not some silly little pawn on a board, and he knows that. But that doesn’t mean I like letting my father down.

I will have to, though. I can’t possibly end up with Derrick Stepinov.