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“I’d halfway convinced myself to blow you off if you asked me out again. Then you’d be safe. I haven’t talked to him in almost a year. Before that, I couldn’t tell you when it was. My father has been unhappy with me for years, though. He hated that I went to school to be a vet. He wanted me to marry to his advantage, and that didn’t include me working. A frivolous degree would’ve been okay, but what I did was ‘unnecessary,’ so he refused to pay for it. I thought when I refused to marry Ivan, he had written me off. Evidently not.”
“Is that why you’re going by Baranov instead of Kalashnik?” I asked her.
She nodded. “I legally changed my name to my mother’s maiden name after I turned eighteen. When I went away to college, I didn’t want the association of his last name. He’s… not a nice person.”
Snorting, I gave her an incredulous look. “That’s being generous.” Again, I wondered how much she knew.
Her jaw clenched and her nostrils flared as a single tear escaped. “Trust me. I’m fully aware. When I was fifteen years old, my virginity earned him a cool million.”
If I thought I was furious before, hearing her own father had sold her virginity made me want to decimate anything around me. It took everything I had to contain my rage. Still, the pots hanging in the kitchen rattled and the salt and pepper shakers flew to the floor and rolled before I reined myself in.
Kira shoved back and spun around to stare at the kitchen. “What the hell was that?”
Fuck.
“What was what?” I asked as if I had no clue.
“Don’t tell me you didn’t hear that? The pots are still swaying, for fuck’s sake!” Her arm swung out to motion toward the pots in question. “And the salt and pepper are on the floor!”
I’d learned the hard way not to have ones that were breakable. A scratching at the back door told me that Zaka had sensed my briefly out-of-control emotions.
“Earthquake?” I asked with a furrowed brow, praying she’d believe that crock of shit. She stepped back from me, and I immediately missed her warmth.
“Bullshit. Ogun, is your house haunted?” Her wide eyes were almost comical as she quickly jumped back into my arms as she scanned the house. I couldn’t help the chuckle that slipped out. “It’s not funny!”
“The house isn’t haunted,” I assured her with a grin. “Not exactly.” I wasn’t sure if she was ready to learn the depths of my abilities. Most people couldn’t handle it and chalked the shit my brothers and I could do up to stuff you saw in the movies. Fictional. Which was why we kept our shit carefully guarded. She was the first person I’d let it slip around that wasn’t family or club.
Well, the only one to live to tell about it anyway.
“Then what the hell was that?”
“If you go along with my plan, not only will I be able to keep you safe, I’ll tell you what that was about. Deal?”
She appeared to consider my request. Then she asked, “What exactly would I have to do to be your ol’ lady, and how long would we have to pretend to do it?”
I gripped her jaw firmly between my thumb and fingertips, ensuring she listened closely.
“This wouldn’t be temporary. You would wear my mark. You would be mine.”
She swallowed hard as I paused.
“Forever.”
