Page 36 of The Bratva's Forced Bride

I close the thumb drive and get up. I’m pretty much done for today. I have no meetings and nothing to stress about. I guess I should take a look at how Penny unpacked all Asher’s things and redecorated my house.

I log out of my computer and leave the office. I walk around slowly. I stop at the first set of shelves that has these ceramic knick-knacks on them. The one is of an angel. It's not really the kind of thing I’d use to decorate my rather dark and simple house. In fact, as I look around, it’s actually quite contrasting—her things versus mine. Her things stand out because they’re primarily white or colorful.

I walk to another shelf where a little set of rabbits stand in different positions. What useless shit.

I take out my phone and take a picture. I take more photos of the things I find: something that looks like an oil lamp from Alladin, a collection of spoons mounted to the wall from around the world, and other such items.

I must have about twenty photos when I return to my laptop and upload them. I send them via email to Leanne with my message.

Why would anyone keep garbage like this?

Please explain to me.

Danil

I sit back and swing on my chair. I open the thumb drive again and watch the Italians. They’re looking around or rather looking for something or someone.

My phone rings, and I see Kervyn’s name. “Yeah?”

“What do you think they wanted?” he asks.

“Don’t know, but they’ve been looking for it for quite a while,” I say as I watch the video footage.

“They were there for over an hour, Danil. I want to know what they were doing there. What is so important about that casino? And have they been to the others?”

“I’ll have Arseny go through the video footage and see. Jean-Luca recognized them, but the other managers might not have. There’s a lot of people in and out. It’s what makes the casinos such risky business.”

“We can talk about this tomorrow,” Kervyn says. “Penny just got home.”

He hangs up, and as he does, I hear my front door open. Our. It’s our front door.

I wait for her to come to the office, and when she doesn’t, I walk out. Renat is standing by the door. “Where’d she go?”

“Straight upstairs, boss.” He nods to the staircase.

I take the stairs two at a time and walk into the bedroom, where Asher is cleaning the makeup off her face.

“Hey, how was your first day,” I ask.

“It was fine,” she says quietly without looking at me. I step up behind her and put my hands on her hips, pulling her back against me. “You looked very fine today.” I chuckle and kiss her neck.

She doesn’t respond other than to stop cleaning her face. She sighs, and I turn her around and pull her against me. “Hey, what’s wrong? Did something happen?”

She doesn’t meet my eyes and shakes her head. “No, I’m just… I’m still tired.”

I tilt her face to look up at me. “You can tell me, Asher. I promise I can help.”

I hold her close and kiss the top of her head. Then I slowly start to stroke her back. “I can think of ways we can instantly improve this day if you want to.”

I feel her shiver in my arms. I can’t tell if it’s because she’s scared or if it’s because she’s excited. I go with excitement.

I tilt her face up and kiss her lips softly. I feel her relax in my arms and kiss her again—another soft, gentle kiss.

“I don’t want long and slow sex,” she murmurs.

“There are other ways to do it.” I smile and reach behind her. I run my hands down her back and grab her ass cheeks, crushing her against me.

“Okay,” she murmurs, her eyes heavy-lidded.

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