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“Demand?” He smiles again. He comes closer as I shrink behind the chair.
Andrei strides toward me and easily lifts the chair, tossing it onto the floor. He steps toward the door and gestures for me to follow. I debate dragging the chair with me. I want something between us.
“You can stay here if you want,” he says before exiting the bathroom. “But I imagine the guestroom is more amenable to you.”
I hurry to keep up with him.
We stop on the second landing, and he guides me down another hallway. I struggle to keep up, and his hand grips me under the arm. A man with a scar on his face appears out of nowhere. He grabs me under the other shoulder and carries me with Andrei to another room. The door opens and I’m tossed unceremoniously onto the bed.
Andrei scowls at the guard standing motionlessly by the door. “She is to stay inthisroom.” He glances at me and then the door shuts.
I watch the doorknob and hear it click.
I scream, “This isn’t what I meant, and you know it! You’re still holding me against my will.”
I run my hands through my hair and take in my surroundings. Leather has been replaced with lace. And there’s no velvet except on an oversized upholstered chair. The bed is a normal king-size covered with a white duvet and a hundred throw pillows in turquoise, jade, and creamsicle orange. The closets are empty except for hangers. So obviously my abduction wasn’t planned, but the bathroom is kitted out with expensive toiletries, including shampoos that can only be purchased in a salon.
My heartbeat slows to normal, but it still is what it is—a prison. But why? Why me?
Chapter 10
Paige
The door swings open, and involuntarily, I jump as Andrei enters the room.
Anger hasn’t gotten me anything, so I tamp down my emotions. I’m very good at that. My body is tense, but I speak as if I’m talking to a reasonable, caring human. “Why are you keeping me here?”
He keeps a distance between us as if to prove I’m safe. He obviously won’t touch me unless he has to.
The sick feeling in my chest dissipates as I wait for an answer.
“You are to stay here and marry me.” His gaze stays on my face, watching for my reaction.
My head lurches forward on my neck. I thought the sex room in the attic was strange, but this man is insane. I start to laugh. I can’t help it. This day has been worse than the one before it, and I don’t even think it’s five o’clock yet. This must be a twisted joke. None of it makes any sense.
“Marry you? There’s no way in hell I’d marry someone like you. You’re a gangster. A criminal. A killer. I can’t marry you. You’re good-looking but not that good-looking. No. Now take me home.”
Andrei arches a brow as if he’s considering my assessment of him. “This isn’t for you to decide. We are to marry and you will live here. With me.”
My body lights on fire as memories of my parent’s failed marriage fill my mind. Fights that could be heard through walls that weren’t thin. Breaking glass while Dad waited, drunk, for her to come home. Sometimes she did.
Often she didn’t.
It wasn’t always like that. They were happy once. I think.
I step back. “I won’t love you. I refuse to.”
“I don’t need love. But I will have your obedience.” Andrei watches me as he moves forward with measured steps. His gaze freezes my muscles, and I can’t move even if I have to.
His hand takes my chin and a finger slips across my skin. It’s the tenderness that bothers me, as if I’m his prey to play with before pouncing. His cool eyes are deciding if he should snap my neck.
“Why me?” I whisper as his thumb brushes over my bottom lip.
He leans over me. The corners of his mouth lift slightly as his deep brown eyes watch my lips part. “Do you really want to know? You would be happier if you knew nothing. It might even save your life.”
He releases me, and terror squeezes my heart. I wish I had stayed quiet.
“You only need to play the role of a bride,” he says. “My bride, and whatever happens next is entirely up to you, Ms. Reyes.”
