I looked at her, Adam's apple rolling hard. I wanted to tell her there's no such thing as eternal protection. To survive in this swamp, you learned betrayal and coldness. If she'd truly lived through that brutal darkness, she'd never say something this childish.
But the refusal stuck in my throat. Wouldn't come out.
This feeling wasdamn awful.
I looked at her face—trusting to the breaking point—and finally only managed a sigh that sounded dangerously close to surrender.
I sat back down, pulled out the fresh supplementary agreement, and slapped it hard on the mahogany desk.
"Look at this carefully, Vivienne." My voice was low, unyielding cold steel. "Once this addendum takes effect, you're not just a fiancée in name—you're a piece on the Volkov chessboard in business wars and intelligence ops. Marchetti's rabid dogs won't go easy on you because you're a woman. Once you're in, there's no turning back."
I thought that would sober her up. After all, no civilian chasing a stable life would see what this contract meant and still shove their head toward the blade.
She stayed silent, flipping through page after page of brutal clauses—confidentiality obligations, duties in dangerous situations, even clauses about assisting the family in intelligence manipulation when necessary. The study was so quiet all you could hear was paper rustling. I stared at her, trying to catch any sign of wavering.
But she didn't hesitate for half a second.
She finished the last page and looked up. Those blue eyes held no retreat—only a light I'd never seen before. Ambition. And an intense hunger for this dark territory.
"Isn't this exactly what I want?" she said quietly.
She grabbed the fountain pen from beside me, movement startlingly clean. She didn't look at me again, just dropped her gaze and signed her name on the signature line. The scratch of pen on paper rang clear in the dead-silent study.
"If we're playing with fire, let's play big." She pushed the signed contract back. Her tone was light, like she was discussing tomorrow's weather. "As for the danger... didn't I say? You'll protect me, right, Mr. Pakhan?"
I looked at that bold signature. Went silent.
The AC blew cold against my skin, but looking into those fearless eyes, I found myself reaching for the other pen on the desk like I'd been possessed.
I pressed the nib to my signature line. In this moment, no matterwhat happened next, this reckless woman had locked herself onto the same ship sinking into the abyss as me.
"Good." I handed her one copy of the signed agreement, voice holding a rasp even I found dangerous. "Since you want to play, we'll see this show through to the end."
I stood, grabbed her wrist, and pulled her to me forcefully. This time, I didn't use that examiner's tone—I used the look you give prey, scanning this woman who'd ignited every desire in me from head to toe.
"Now get back to your room." My fingers pressed hard against the back of her cold hand. "Tomorrow at eight, if that butler complains about your etiquette lessons one more time, Vivienne, I'll personally teach you what 'true obedience' means."
She wasn't scared off by my threat. Instead, she looked at me, like she could see through the lust I hadn't reined in yet. She boldly gripped my hand back, deliberately dragged her nail across my palm, then turned and strode out of the study with that scent that set my blood racing.
The moment the door closed, I looked at the fresh stack of contracts and laughed, low.
She was nothing like my mother.
Maybe everything would be different.
I'd always hated the unknown—it meant loss of control. But now, strangely, I felt anticipation for the future life with her.
Chapter Fifteen
Vivienne
It'd been one hell of a week.
I sat curled up in the custom reading chair tucked in the corner of the study, fingers flying across the keyboard.
Ever since that "grand debut" at the charity gala, Nikolai had been dragging me into increasingly dangerous underground operations like he was determined to live up to that absurd partnership agreement. From shipment ledgers at the docks to that abandoned warehouse that didn't even exist on any map—I'd witnessed enough to give any normal person a heart attack.
And me? I was fucking thrilled.
