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“Do you Anastasia Aslanov, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, until death do you part?”
“I do.”
“Do you Vice, take this beautiful angel to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, until death do you part?”
“I do.”
“Then I have no choice in the matter but to pronounce you man and wife,” he said to a somewhat stunned audience. “You may kiss the bride,” he added, sounding quite grumpy about it.
Not that I gave a good goddamn about him or anyone else. Not anyone on the entire planet. There was only Anastasia, my beautiful angel, looking at me with soft surrender in those incredible eyes.
She was mine. It was real. And it was time to seal our union with a kiss, and a whole lot more.
I had her lifted up in my arms, head tilted back, feet dangling off the floor as I kissed the hell out of my bride. My wife. My woman.
When I set her down again there was a deadly silence. I looked at my bride. She looked dazed. I looked at my guys. They looked worried.
And the Russians? They looked like they wanted to murder me.
Then Anton slapped me on the back. Hard.
Really fucking hard.
“Come, zhopa, let’s have a drink.”
“Yes, there are rules we must discus,” Alexei added. “Now that you are part of the family.”
Andrei just cracked his knuckles, staring at me in a way that should have made my hackles rise.
If I hadn’t been so goddamned happy, I might have been concerned. As it was, I let them lead me away from my woman to start lecturing me on life as an extension of the Aslanov crime syndicate, as well as a complex and sometimes confusing set of rules for the care and keeping of their cousin.
They said they would handle her father. That an order of protection would go out on both of us. That we would, in fact, be Untouchable.
I would have found that amusing if I was not craning my neck to catch a glimpse of my bride.
The list of duties continued. I would have to take her to Russia at least once a year. Fine. She was needed at their various estates for various holidays. Fine. And any offspring would have to be baptized in a specific church in Moscow.
“Fine. Fine,” I muttered, my head bobbing.
I barely heard a damned word. I was too busy contemplating my wedding night to worry about it. Finally they sighed and gave up.
“He is hopeless. Eventually we will have to kill him.”
“Maybe.” I grinned and stood up. “But not tonight,” I added, then trotted off to find my bride without a backwards glance.
My crew also made their best effort to delay me. I was forced to eat cake and stand around for a toast. But I had missed most of the early dinner during the Aslanov brothers little chat, and now all I wanted was my wife.
All I ever wanted was my wife. Wife. Wifffe…. Damn, I loved saying that.
“For Christ’s sake,” I blurted out after we were shoved onto the dance floor for the mandatory first dance. Immediately after, people tried to dance with us. Someone even brought out chairs to lift us in, even though as far as I knew neither the bride nor the groom was Jewish. I shook off the hands that tried to pull me away from Anastasia with a roar. I was not staying another goddamn second! I grabbed my bride and lifted her up, carrying her unceremoniously through the hotel, up the stairs, down the hall, and into the suite.
Anastasia said not one word on protest the entire way.
“Now that I have you all to myself,” I said, finally setting her on her feet. I was breathing heavily. I felt like I had run a marathon. But the truth was, I was only getting started. “Did you eat? Do you need some water?”
“I’m fine, Vice. Really.”
“Good. We have a long, long night ahead of us,” I said, slipping the ‘do not disturb’ sign onto the knob. I shut and bolted the door. Then I turned to look at her.
Really look at her.
The way I had wanted to look at her all day. Ever since the moment I met her. Before that, actually. From the moment I opened her file.
I drank her in like a cool glass of the purest, freshest water.
Some men might have cursed the day they lost all hope of a life without a specific woman in it. But I cherished that day. I was so unbelievably fucking lucky to have met her, known her, and now, to have her by my side. For life.
And what a beautiful life it would be. We had worked a miracle on this day. It was enough to make an old degenerate like me believe in God.
