AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She smiles conspiratorially and reaches into her nightstand. “I have something for you.” she says, pulling open the drawer and taking out a little black box. She jumps back into bed, her legs tucked underneath her, and hands it to me. “Go on. Open it.”
“Are you proposing to me? Because we’ve been there and done that. Twice, actually.”
“Just open it, smart ass,” she says impatiently.
I open the lid and see a sleek, silver dog tag sitting on a velvet cushion. It matches Maksim’s, except this engraving reads, “Kiska.” There’s a small infinity symbol etched underneath it.
“You had this done for me?”
She smiles and nods. “You don’t have to wear it all the time. Or at all, really. There’s no pressure. I just thought you could wear it sometimes. Mix it up a little, you know?”
I lift it out of the box and loop it around my head. It sits a little higher than Maksim’s. Closer to my heart.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” She looks so pleased to see me wearing it. When I pull her onto my lap, she yelps. “Don’t! I’ll squash you.”
“Please,” I growl. “You’re light as a feather. It’s those babies that weigh a ton.”
She pushes me back onto the bed playfully and kisses my neck. I can almost hear my brother’s voice in my ear.
The quiet moments are the ones you live for.
That motherfucker was always right.
32
PAIGE
“Talk to him,” Nikita says adamantly. “This imprisonment has gone on too long. It’s been a month!”
“This is the first entire day you’ve spent with me in the house. Imagine how I feel!” I say. “I’ve explored every nook and cranny of this place. There’s nothing more to see. I’m going insane. Cabin fever times, like, a billion.”
Niki chews on a carrot stick from the snack tray we’re sharing and flops back on the sofa. Cyrille pats her leg. “Misha can be reasonable. I’m sure he’ll be okay with breaking your little lockdown.”
Niki and I both look at Cyrille like she’s grown a second head. She sighs. “Oh, okay, fine, so he’s not always reasonable. Never really is, actually. But I bet you can persuade him. I mean, he gave you back your phone, didn’t he?”
“Yeah, with conditions. I can’t call anyone outside of the immediate family.”
“He let you call Rowan,” Cyrille counters.
“Yeah, that’s pretty significant,” Niki concedes. “I never thought he would allow that. Stickler for the rules, that one.”
I take a deep breath. “I definitely want some more freedom. I’ve been stuck in this house for far too long. I just… I don’t want to rock the boat.”
The happy, sexy boat where I wake up to my husband every day. Where he goes to work wearing my nickname on a chain under his shirt, tucked close to his heart.
It’s a good boat to be on.
Nikita and Cyrille exchange a glance, and I get defensive. “We’ve just gotten to a great place. I don’t want to ruin it all by fighting.”
“That kinda depends on him, doesn’t it?” Niki asks.
“Listen to me, Paige,” Cyrille says. “You are a Bratva wife now. That is not the submissive role you think it is. You have to go toe to toe with him if you want him to treat you like an equal. Maksim was the best husband there was, but even he needed to be reminded that he didn’t call all the shots in our relationship.”
Nikita nods in agreement. “You gotta fight for what you want, Paige. Don’t make the mistake of trying to please him all the time. Trust me—that gets old fast.”
I sigh. “I know. I know you guys are right.”
