AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You’d be foolish not to,” Maxim said and Feliks flinches like someone punched him.
His father sucks in a sharp breath. “Foolish?”
“Enough with this pageantry,” Maxim says angrily. “I understand you’re unhappy with me. I don’t care about that. I made my choice with Siena and I don’t regret it. You want to punish me? Then go ahead. But do the smart thing for the bratva and take the damn deal.”
Nobody moves. It’s like Maxim dropped a bomb on the floor and left it there, ticking away. The hand grenade is about to explode, and I don’t think anyone’s going to throw their body on top of it to save everyone else.
His father’s lips twitch and pull into a tight smile, like he’s amused but trying not to show it. I feel like I might throw up from the anticipation.
“Very well, Maxim. Since you’re in a deal-making mood, I’ll offer you a deal of my own. I will accept the Bastone arrangement and make them a client. I’ll give the Enzo boy the resources he needs to control his family and to grow his business. And if I do that, you will marry Siena and run the Novalov interests in Moscow for one year. You will never be my heir, and if you return to the States after your year is over, you will have a lot of work to do before you’re allowed back into the inner echelons of the bratva. What do you say, boy? Are you willing to suffer for your choices?”
Total silence. I’m not sure what I feel, but something tingles in my fingertips and my toes. Maxim’s mother looks at me and she’s smiling, and even Feliks seems relieved. I can feel Maxim’s anger—his father is basically sending us away as a punishment—but it’s not the same cold fury, more of a resigned acceptance that Damir Novalov will always have some control over him, so long as the man is still the Pakhan of the bratva.
Maxim turns from his father. I bite my lip as Maxim walks to me with dark, smoldering eyes. Somehow his permafrost blue stare turns liquid and fiery, like he wants to burn a scorched trench down my body. He walks to me and takes my left hand between his as he drops to one knee and digs something out of his pocket.
“What are you doing?” I ask. Everyone’s staring at me. Maxim’s mother covers her mouth with her hands, her eyes twinkling with joy. Jasha’s grinning madly, and Feliks seems like he might pass out. Even Maxim’s father has a satisfied frown on his lips, like he wants to smile but forgot how.
“I love you, Siena,” Maxim says and his voice fills my ears like thunder. He’s got something clutched in his left hand as he holds my fingers with his right. “I’ve loved you since the first night we met. You’re in my head and my heart, and I won’t let you go, not for anything. My father can order me to marry you all he likes, but that doesn’t bother me one bit, because I’ve been carrying this ring for a while now.”
“Ring?”
And there it is—big diamonds and gold and, my god, it’s so beautiful my breath catches in my throat. I’ve never seen anything like it before. He holds it in the air and looks into my eyes.
“Siena, will you marry me?”
I nearly fall over. The words hit me like a train and I struggle to breathe. Marry him? Really marry him? This is real and really happening. I knew from the moment he took me away from my father that this was supposed to be the end result, but it never hit home. It never seemed like it would truly happen. I didn’t want it back then. I thought marrying Maxim would be a death sentence.
Now I know it’s more like being born again.
He’s kneeling and the ring’s right there, and I don’t know how to make my mouth work.
“Uh,” I say.
“Siena. Marry me.”
“Yes. Yes! Yes, I’ll marry you!”
Maxim’s mother gasps. Jasha laughs loudly as Maxim slides the ring down my finger. I feel like I might faint, but Maxim stands, wraps me in his arms, hugs me tight, and kisses me.
The kiss lasts forever. It’s an eternity. It’s a second lifetime. It wipes away so much pain and misery and gives me hope for the future—real hope for the first time in my life.
We’re going to be together, and nothing will stop it.
“I hope you don’t mind the cold, princess,” he whispers in my ear.
“Cold? What cold? I don’t think I can ever get cold with you around.”
Chapter32
Siena
Six Months Later
“Oh my god,I hate the fucking cold,” I say as I stomp down the street with Emiliya and Galina. They float along like Russian aristocracy, seemingly unconcerned about the sub-freezing temperatures or the crowds of annoyed people parting around them, cursing in Russian. In the last six months, I’ve learned more curses in more languages than I ever imagined I’d know.
“You’ll get used to it,” Emiliya says, slowing to slip her hand through my arm and hugging me tight. “Come on, sister. It’s not so bad.”
“I’ve been here for months and I still hate it.”
