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As soon as she heard me in the doorway, she set her book aside and gave me a tentative smile. My heart did a little flip as I inwardly sighed.
“Do you really want to hear boring stories about my childhood?” I asked.
“I bet they’re not boring,” she said, her smile widening as she held out her arms to me.
So what if this part of the game was so enjoyable it felt like I was losing myself? So what if I was drawn to her like a stone tumbling down a mountain in a landslide with no ability to stop itself?
I curled up beside her, and she rested her head against my chest while I told her about the time Sergei and I had both run for student body president in sixth grade. It had been a vicious, ruthless battle where I’d framed him by continuously putting a whoopie cushion on our homeroom teacher’s desk, then making sure it was hanging out of the pocket of his backpack when she walked around the room while monitoring a test.
Karine laughed so hard that tears rolled down her cheeks, laughing harder when I showed her the scar on my arm where Sergei had broken it by shoving me off our neighbor’s camper when we were trying to spy on him because we were convinced he was a drug dealer. This was eighth grade when we were determined to go into law enforcement one day. That was the real laugh now.
“But why were you fighting on top of the van?” she asked.
I was stumped. “I can’t even remember. Probably over a girl—we’ve got the same type.”
“Oh, that’s why you don’t want him to meet me,” she said.
She was teasing, but I sighed. “No. He’s just busy. To be honest, it’s kind of pissing me off that he’s not prioritizing family right now.” She didn’t have to know I didn’t mean her family.
She leaned across my chest and kissed me. “I’ll stop bringing it up, then. Everything happened so fast, and most people are weirded out by arranged marriages. Don’t stress over it, Roman.”
God damn it, she was back to being sweet. I hugged her close and kissed her back. Going along with it.
She started to say something else but yawned, cutting herself off. I pressed her onto the pillow and pulled the sheets to her chin. “Get some sleep, baby,” I told her, stroking her hairline until her eyes fluttered shut.
Once I heard her soft, even breathing, I rolled to the side and watched her sleep for a few minutes, trying not to get too comfortable again so that I forgot what was really important.
Chapter 16 - Karine
Another week passed with everything not just going smoothly, but great. It really was like everything I never dared to dream when I was little. When school friends would talk about how they might meet their future husbands or make lists of all the qualities they wanted in a man, I just nodded along, pretending I could relate. Of course, I’d never have any choice in who I married, and I always knew the way I’d meet my husband. My father would introduce him to me.
Those girls would have never understood. Arranged marriages always seemed old-fashioned to outsiders; some even considered them cruel. But it was what I was always destined to have, and I was more grateful than ever that I’d ended up with Roman.
He wasn’t just so handsome. He took my breath away. Truly, I still wasn’t used to that chiseled face or piercing blue eyes. He was kind, funny, and sweet, too. He’d been going out of his way to make me happy, and I had surpassed that. I was downright blissful.
I was waiting for him to get extravagant and the next time he told me I could choose to do whatever I wanted, I was going to suggest a trip out to California to meet his brother. Nothing formal. He could even pass it off as wanting to check in on his offices there. Just so long as they could have some time together again. I hated that they were in danger of becoming estranged because of me and my family’s old-fashioned traditions. Once Sergei saw how happy Roman and I were together, he’d come around to accepting the strange way we got together.
Today was Roman’s first full day off since our honeymoon vacation ended, and I was mildly bummed he was going to spend the afternoon golfing with my father. He’d promised the morning would be all mine, so I was downstairs making him my famous pancakes as a surprise. I wanted our time together to be really special.
I snuck out of bed extra early and couldn’t wait to see his face when I woke him up with a tray of fluffy buttermilk pancakes and freshly ground coffee. I sliced up an orange and set it on a small plate beside his main dish, then balanced everything on a tray that I carried upstairs, miraculously without sloshing any of the coffee or syrup by the time I got to our room.
I eased open the door, calling out, “Surprise!”
But I was the one who was surprised to find he was no longer under the covers, fast asleep. It was barely eight o’clock, but he came out of the bathroom dressed for work. I frowned at his dark gray suit pants and baby blue shirt that he was still buttoning up.
“Sorry,” he said, kissing my forehead and taking the tray from me. “Damn, this all looks so good, too.”
“It’s your day off,” I reminded him as he chose a red and blue striped tie and whipped it around his neck. For some bizarre reason, I loved watching him tie his ties. I’d tried to help him once and it had ended up looking like a blob around his neck, with the bottom part hanging lower than the top. He pretended I did a perfect job, all while stifling laughter.
He groaned. “An emergency meeting came up. We’ve got a new business that’s on the verge of investing nearly two hundred and fifty million dollars into a new fund and their CFO is getting cold feet. I need to be there to warm them up again.”
That sucked, but it was also a ton of money. “Yikes,” I said. “I guess you have to go, then.”
“I hate it. I promised the morning to you. Hey, I could cancel my golf game this afternoon and come home after the meeting if you want.”
I put my arms around his neck and pressed my body close to his, still warm and smelling like spicy soap from his recent shower. “I love that you’re a big, important businessman, so don’t feel bad about having to put out a fire at work. But you definitely shouldn’t cancel on my father. You’ll have fun playing golf,” I said when he grimaced.
“I’ll have more fun with you,” he said, giving me a kiss that had me melting against him. Then he smiled. “How about you join us at the club?”
