Page 118 of Ivory Ashes

“When I was twelve, I got kidnapped.”

Mikhail turns to me, his brow pinched together. “What are you?—”

“It was only for twelve hours. Maybe less.” I chuckle humorlessly. “Barely a kidnapping in a lot of ways. But for those twelve hours… they kept me in a trunk.”

Each time I blink, I’m back there. I can feel the dark pressing in, my lungs growing tight.

Mikhail’s hand slides down my arm to my wrist. He draws circles there with his thumb, reminding me he’s next to me. Grounding me.

After everything that just happened, that shouldn’t be a comfort. But it is.

“That’s why you were crying the other day,” he infers. “That’s what your nightmares are about.”

I nod. “It was a long time ago. I should be grateful that all they did was lock me in a trunk. It could have been so much worse.” I wrap my arms around myself and tug the blanket up to my chin. “Maybe if it was worse, my father would have killed them. Maybe that would have helped me find some closure—get over it, as my father liked to say.”

“They’re still alive?”

Mikhail is shocked. Of course he is. He would never let someone hurt his family and live to tell the tale. It’s one of the many ways that he is a better man than my father will ever be.

“I think. Or I mean, I assume. I have no idea who they were. I should have asked, but… I wasn’t in my right mind at the time. I was just grateful to be alive,” I admit. “Whoever they were, my father paid them off and they let me go. It’s clean as far as ransom situations go, but I still can’t be in a tight space. When it’s dark and the walls are closing in around me, I’m back in that trunk.”

“You were only a child,” Mikhail growls. “If those men had a problem with your father, they should have taken it up with your father, not you.” His hand shakes with rage.

“I think you’re more upset about this than my father was.” I’m trying to lighten the mood, but Mikhail still looks murderous. I curl my hand over the bleeding scratches I left on his cheek. “I don’t like to feel trapped—in a space or… a relationship.”

He goes rigid. “You’ve said a lot of things tonight, Viviana. But comparing me to the men who kidnapped you is the worst of it.”

“I’m not—That’s not what I mean.” I release a shuddery breath. “I just want you to understand how it feels for me. It’s why I fought so hard to get away from this whole world. I wanted to be able to choose what happened to me and I never wanted anyone to hurt me or Dante the way I was hurt as a little girl.”

Mikhail studies my face, tracing every inch of me for so long that I don’t think he’s going to say anything. “The only time you’ll be hurt, Viviana,” he says in a soft rumble, “is when you beg me for it.”

For the first time since he came crashing back into my life…

I believe every word he’s saying.

42

MIKHAIL

“I’m surprised you’re here, brother.” Anatoly is sitting behind my desk, his hands steepled in front of him in mock seriousness. “I didn’t expect you to come up for air for several more hours.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I wave him away from my desk. He hops up and I reclaim my chair.

I’d still be in Viviana’s room if she hadn’t fallen asleep. I can’t blame her. After this morning and then tonight, she deserves the rest.

“I’m talking about what the rest of the household staff can’t seem to stop talking about.” Anatoly wags his brows. “The hallways in this house really carry sound. Did you know that?”

I usually try to show a bit more restraint, but it was impossible tonight. Viviana was feral. I wasn’t much better.

What we did felt primal in more ways than one. After Helen’s surprise appearance, it was like neither of us could settle until we’d staked our claims.

“You spend your time gossiping with the staff now?”

“Just Stella.” He says her name a bit too casually. If I was Anatoly, I’d jump on that. But at least one of us has to have a little decorum. “She’s thrilled for the two of you, by the way. She thinks you guys are living out a real life love story.”

“It isn’t love,” I snap.

Stella only needs to look at the bruises already blooming on Viviana’s throat and ass to know this isn’t some fairytale. What kind of Prince Charming spanks the princess until she comes?

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