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I wanted to yank my arm out of his, but I enjoyed the way that he was making circles against my skin. I could feel tingles down my spine as I recalled the way he had taken me the night before. I’d never had sex like that before, and I would admit that I was eager for more.
“Just because I let you have sex with me, which is what happened last night, doesn’t mean that I am happy about this situation.”
Leo’s face turned to stone immediately, and the small circles that he was making on my skin stopped as his gaze hardened. I pissed him off, and for a moment, I felt bad about it, especially considering what I now knew.
But I squashed the feeling. After all, just because he woke up one morning and decided that he wanted to be Pakhan, and now, we were attached, I was not going to tell him that.
“I see,” Leo said.
I rolled my eyes. “Can we not?” I asked.
“Meaning?”
“Meaning that I do not want to argue while we are supposed to be a happy couple. If we go in there and my father and grandmother suspect that I’m not playing nice, I am going to be the one who must deal with it. Not you. So, place a smile on your face and let’s do this.”
I expected Leo to tell me to fuck off. It was clear that he was not happy about how the two of them were moving forward. I did not know why. We weren’t exactly a normal couple, so I did not understand why he was so offended by the fact that I was not ready to jump into his arms and fawn over him.
“Let’s go inside,” he said, instead. “I am sure that they are all wondering where we are.”
He placed his hand on the small of my back and started to lead me forward and into the ballroom. It was crowded, but the two of us immediately drew attention. Normally, I was a fan, but not tonight.
I had too much on my mind. I had found Madeline, the girl I suspected to be the Blanchi daughter, but that simply opened more questions than it answered. It was frustrating, especially because it felt like everyone knew more about my future fiancé than I did.
“Here comes your grandmother,” Leo muttered. He did not sound happy to see her, but I watched as he plastered a fake smile on his face as she walked towards us.
“Good evening, Leo,” she greeted, reaching out to give him two small air kisses. “You look very handsome this evening.”
I rolled my eyes. Leo looked great. He always did, but she could come up with a better compliment than that.
She turned to me, and I could see her eyes narrowing as she looked me up and down. “You’re late.”
“Nice to see you too.”
My hand was in Leo’s, and I felt him stiffen slightly at her words.
“You look as though you just rolled out of bed.”
My brow rose, and I decided that I was in the mood for some entertainment. I looped my arm around Leo’s and slithered close. I pressed my hand against his chest and looked at my grandmother with slightly hooded eyes. “Isn’t that the point?”
Her mouth turned down in disgust. “I am going to go and find your father.” She rushed away as quickly as she could, leaving me pressed up against Leo’s warm body. He smelled like sage and lemongrass, and I decided I liked it more than the expensive cologne I sometimes picked up on. It was clean and fresh like soap, and it reminded me of a warm summer evening.
I nearly told him that, but as I turned, he was looking at me with narrowed eyes. “That was uncalled-for.”
“What?” I was surprised that Leo would have an opinion on this. As Isaac said, my grandmother was not well-liked amongst the Bratva. Her ways were seen as dated, even to the old hats who had been around since my father took over. And no one liked the amount of power that she exerted over her son.
“I didn’t expect you to be my grandmother’s champion.”
Leo’s frown deepened, and he untangled himself from my body. “I’m not,” he told me. “I just don’t see why you feel the need to antagonize her and your father at every available opportunity.”
I chuckled, not sure if that was a serious question. “Have you met the two of them?” I asked. “They leave themselves open to it. Besides, I learned long ago that there’s literally nothing that I can do that would make my grandmother happy.”
“You can stop making her think that you’ll fuck anything that moves,” he snapped.
I blinked, taken aback by his words. I felt my cheeks turn pink as I looked around at the stares we were starting to get. Had someone heard what he said to me? The embarrassment made me feel as though the hotdog I’d scarfed down in the park was going to come back up all over Leo’s shiny shoes.
Instead of taking my silence for the shock that it was, Leo continued on, not caring that his voice was getting progressive louder.
“Maybe, the reason that your father wouldn’t make you Pakhan was that you are too much of a child to lead the Bratva.”
My hand connected with his face before I could stop myself. The sounds echoed through the ballroom as everyone had chosen that exact moment not to speak. Not that I cared, and from the way Leo’s eyes flashed, I suspected that he did not care either.
“Fuck you,” I sneered before turning and storming out the way that we had come.
Logically, I knew what I had just done probably made this entire thing worse, but at the moment, all I could think about were the words that Leo lobbed at me. Being Pakhan was the only thing I had ever wanted.
Being named my father’s heir would be proof that he thought that I was worthy. If he felt I could lead, then that meant that he didn’t regret me.
My entire life I had done everything I could to show him that I was just as good as a son, and he told me over and over again that he did not care about such things. I had believed him. After all, he made no mention of remarrying, and as far as I knew, he did not have any other children out there who could lay claim to the throne.
But now, I had to face the truth, and it stung more than Leo’s words ever could. Because he was right. Whether it was the fact that I was a girl, or my impulsive nature, something had kept my father from naming me his heir, and it was not something that I could ever forgive him for.
