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“Are you alright?” he asked lightly as he picked up his coat and gave it a quick shake to get rid of the dirt on it.
“I’m fine,” I forced out, pushing away from the wall. “They just surprised me.”
“I didn’t expect the daughter of Ludovico Tarallo to be so easily surprised.” He moved closer to me, so close that I could see the glittering of his hard eyes, as if he was high off the violence he had just caused.
“You don’t scare me,” I blurted out.
His mouth lifted in a quick grin, and I forgot to breathe. I thought he looked hot when he was dark and dangerous. But when he smiled? My knees wobbled.
“I don’t need to scare you, Elia Ludovicovna,” he replied. “I just need you to do what is asked of you when the time comes. That is all.”
“And you think I’m going to comply?” I stared back defiantly. “You think I’m just going to roll over and do what you want?”
A new flash of energy burned in his eyes. He stared at me and then yanked me to him. I bit my lip to keep myself from groaning when I felt him pull me close against his chest. From this close, I could feel howstronghe was. The fact that I had seen him break another man’s arm so effortlessly was a hard reminder of the incredible amount of violence he was capable of. He could hurt me, I thought. And in that moment, with the way he towered over and glared down at me, I knew more than ever that I was at his complete mercy.
Yet, his hold—fingers large and warm—on my arm was firm without the threat of bruising.
“You will,” he said, and there was a dark promise lingering there. His lips curled into a smirk, and I swallowed thickly. “I’m counting on it.”
Is he going to kiss me…?I trembled in anticipation as he leaned closer.He can’t. I won’t let him.
My eyes fell to his mouth, and my belly jumped hotly when I saw his tongue swiping at his lip. His grip on my wrist tightened just a fraction. A wave of magnetism unfurled and stretched between us, pushing and pulling with the promise of something bigger…something more…
Something that my bodyhungeredfor.
Without warning, he relaxed his grip on me and I stumbled away in surprise.
Aleksey moved back and straightened his coat, that feral smile on his lips. “I’m going to look forward to our wedding night, Elia.”
I didn’t say anything in response, frantically brushing my hair behind my ears as I pushed past him. I gritted my teeth and pointedly ignored the insistent pulsing between my thighs and the fact that I’d never felt sowetbefore in my life as in his presence.
I hated it. I hated him. I hated being rescued by him.
And now, more than ever, I wanted to defy him.
Chapter Three
Aleksey
I drained the glass of whiskey, the ice clinking in the glass as I placed it on the ledge. There was a slight breeze in the air as night slowly gave way to morning. This was my final night in New York, and I hadn’t expected to run into my own prospective bride.
I had grown accustomed to the sights, the sounds, and—above all else—the smells of this city, and my penthouse apartment gave me a great fucking view of the skyline that had long since imprinted itself in my memory.
Once I returned to Chicago, everything would be different. It was no longer a city that I knew or recognized. But duty demanded that I return. Duty, and a bride that I never asked for.
“There you are.”
I didn’t bother to turn as my right-hand man, Boris, came to join me. His hands clasped behind his back.
“I was starting to worry you wouldn’t come back,” Boris said.
Boris had been by my side in New York, fighting right alongside me in the war that my father had instructed. He had taken a bullet for me in the past, and I had taken a knife for him. Where most saw him as just another brigadier, I saw him as a friend.
Hell, at this point, he was probably my only friend.
“And miss the inevitable shitshow in a few hours?” I took a sip from my whiskey. “It’s not every day a man is disinvited to his own father’s funeral, Borya.”
“I’m sorry, Alyosha.” Boris dipped his head.
