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Zak
Without takingmy gaze off Sofia as she walked toward where the Volkov limo was waiting after one of her guards had spotted her, I bent and picked up the necklace she’d dropped.
I thought I’d met the most stubborn women in the world, but Sofia more than topped the charts for that particular category. Considering who her biological mother and grandmother were, I couldn’t say I was surprised, but damn. She was both of those women combined and then some.
Cursing Oleksandr Davydov, I carefully tucked the necklace into the jacket pocket of my tux and marched after my wayward little princess. There was no way in hell I was going to let her slip through my fingers when I’d already spent so many months making nice with her adoptive family just for the chance to meet her.
Oleks and Olena had only just found out about their granddaughter’s existence, thanks to Yulia having finally confessed to giving birth and then putting the child up for adoption when she was supposed to be studying at university nineteen years ago. I wasn’t privy to the full details of my honorary sister’s reasoning for not keeping her baby daughter, but knowing her father as I did, I could take a guess.
Yulia had been lined up to marry into not only a political family, but one with royal connections in our country, which would help Oleksandr gain even more power than he already had. Only this time, it would be within the highest branches of the government, making him unstoppable. Back then, he wouldn’t have hesitated to kill his only child had she ruined his ambitions. Once she’d returned from studying, she’d gone on to marry the dirty bastard her father had lined up for her. But when she’d been unable to conceive, her husband had divorced her.
Much to everyone but her father’s relief.
After that, Yulia had basically become a nun, refusing to help her father in any of his aspirations, especially when marriage was mentioned.
But then, she’d met a man from her past again. Not just any man—her child’s father. Volodymyr Yanukovych. That was when all the details of her past had come to light.
Such as that her then-lover had been committed to an arranged marriage just as Yulia had been herself. He currently had two other children, a daughter and a son. His wife had died several years before, and when he’d reconnected with Yulia, their chemistry still burned hot. As the relationship had progressed, and then Volodymyr had proposed to Yulia, her guilt over keeping their child from him, and her parents, had grown until she’d broken down on the eve of her wedding and confessed everything to her parents and groom.
The wedding had gone forward, but since then, Oleksandr had been obsessed with finding his grandchild.
Which was where I came in.
When Yulia had married her bastard first husband, Leonid Morozov, she and her family had gained me—her then brother-in-law. I’d only been a kid back then, barely ten years old when she’d become a part of my family. During her marriage to my brother, she’d taken over the responsibility of being my caregiver since my own mother had died when I was a toddler.
Their divorce had started out ugly, because everyone who knew my brother blamed Yulia, saying she was useless since she’d been unable to produce an heir. But she was armed with the knowledge that she wasn’t the one with the infertility issues, having already given birth once. And it was with that ace up her sleeve that she…persuaded Leonid to allow her to take me with her and continue her role as my caregiver.
If he hadn’t, she would have made sure the world knew that he was shooting blanks, which would have destroyed his pride.
Taking over custody of me, she’d not only given her father the son he’d always wanted, but she had also brought with her the next heir to the Morozov dynasty since only Leonid and I were left. He died five years after his divorce was finalized from Yulia, and Oleksandr took control of everything until I was old enough to do so myself. He’d guided me, taught me everything I needed to know about wielding so much power, both politically…and not so politically.
With Yulia’s confession of having a child somewhere out there in the world—and a female child, at that—Oleksandr had started making plans. The same ones he’d put into play by having his daughter marry my brother. Now, he wanted me, the last of the Morozovs, to marry his granddaughter.
At first, I’d been hesitant. From watching Yulia and Leonid, I’d seen firsthand that arranged marriages were disastrous. But then the private detectives had found Sofia Volkov, and my honorary father had shown me her picture.
Suddenly, marrying a girl I’d never met before hadn’t seemed so terrible after all.
But by the time I’d gotten to New York to set everything into motion, Sofia had been shipped off to the other side of the country for being a little brat one too many times and ruining her adopted brother’s wedding. Instead of following after her, however, I’d decided to let her be taught whatever lessons her family thought she needed to learn. Meanwhile, I’d integrated myself into Adrian Volkov’s business.
As fate would have it, Oleksandr and the Volkovs did know one another, but that was something Oleks didn’t want to broadcast. Adrian knew that, and he thought it amusing when he introduced me to others as a friend of a friend. Having gotten to know the man everyone on both the Asian and European continents called “the Wolf,” I was sure that if he knew Oleksandr was his daughter’s biological grandfather, he wouldn’t be nearly as entertained.
Adrian was lethally protective of his family, but of none more so than his wife and daughter. I had to play my cards right, win over Sofia and make her my wife, before he found out about his old “friend’s” connection to his adopted child. Otherwise, I risked becoming a part of the famous Hudson River in New York City, nothing but liquid human fish food. Everyone knew that Adrian and his brothers-in-law liked to use acid to get rid of their enemies after killing them, dumping the remaining waste into the river and erasing all proof that the person even existed.
The quicker I won over my bratty princess, the sooner I could get the fuck back to my own territory and away from the insanity of “the Wolf.”
I caught Sofia around the waist several yards away from her guards and the limo. The men all reached under the coats, but I held up my free hand, and they quickly recognized me. I’d been a regular at the Volkov home, making sure every member of their security team knew my face and that I was more friend than foe. It was for their safety rather than my own.
My own security were more discreet. I could always feel them nearby, but they never crowded me. Since I wasn’t very well-known outside of my country—something Oleksandr had worked hard to accomplish—I didn’t have to be constantly surrounded by the deadly guards. They always drew unwanted attention whenever I left the sanctuary of the brownstone I’d bought when I’d first arrived in New York.
Sofia’s huff was sexy as hell, the sound going straight to my cock like an electrical current and making it twitch as if she’d zapped me. “I want to go home,” she hissed, glancing around at all the other drivers and security details waiting for their bosses.
From the way her jaw was clenched, I could tell she was trying not to cause a scene, but it was definitely costing her. It made me wonder, if we hadn’t had an audience, if she would have screamed and fought me, maybe even lifted my arm and bit me like the beautiful, yet rabid tigress that she was.
“I will ensure that you safely make it to your home,dragotsennyy,” I promised, brushing my lips over her ear for no other reason than I couldn’t control myself. Her scent filled me, lightly floral and refreshing. Closing my eyes, I took a slower, deeper inhale, trying to figure out the combination. Rose water. Ivy. Maybe a hint of sandalwood.
The scent planted images in my head of a bathtub, pink rose petals floating on top, and a naked Sofia looking up at me as she was half submerged in the steaming water. The tops of her lush breasts would skim the water, and she would tease me by slowly spreading her legs under the water, showing me the wet wonderland of her tight pussy.
“I don’t need you to ensure jack shit,” she snapped, jerking away from me. Angrily, she turned to face me. “Look, you’re hot, and I get why my mother would think we would hit it off and possibly even make a compatible couple. My sister-in-law recently announced her pregnancy, so my mom is all grandbaby-crazy and has been excited about setting me up with someone in hopes of giving her more. But I’m not in the market for a boyfriend—or even a hookup, for that matter. I’m working on myself right now, and it’s taken a hell of a long time for me to even make it this far. I actually like this new me, so don’t come around here, fucking with my head, and set back my personal transformation.”
