Page 44 of Devil's Bride

“And I’m saying that because he had a strange calm about him, too,” she continues.

That catches my attention and my head snaps up. Alexei was never the calm in the storm. He was the storm. So, Nina has to be exaggerating when she says he had a strange calm.

Still, it gets my attention.

“He did?”

“He did.” She points to the empty plates and bowls in front of me. “He asked me to prepare that for you.”

Gob smacked, I stare at the maple-syrup-stained chinaware like I haven’t consumed seven pancakes and a bunch of blueberries. Warmth and heat spread fast to my core as Nina’s words resound.

“He asked you to prepare breakfast for me and he was specific? Blueberry pancakes?” It shouldn’t come as a shock; he is my husband, after all. Sweetness and romance are associated with husbands and wives.

But not mine.

It’s the complete opposite when it comes to Alexei. Where sweetness and romance are concerned, he is hard and cold as ice. Men like Alexei don’t ask housekeepers to make blueberry pancakes for their wives. They toss engagement rings at their fiancés and expect them to accept unspoken proposals.

Men like Alexei are cocky, arrogant bastards who have their heads way up in the clouds and expect everyone and everything to obey their command.

Men like Alexei couldn’t care less if I had prison food for breakfast. Their list of priorities starts with them and ends with money and power. Nothing else matters. Women are mostly symbols of pleasure, nothing more.

But that might have changed yesterday.

Yesterday…

Just thinking about her, with the blood-red lipstick and intense hatred swimming in her eyes, makes bile rise up my throat. It isn’t shocking to find out about Alexei’s lover—no, bloody whore is more like it. It is expected; men in his world are sure to have flocks of women like that falling at their feet.

But this one is possessive and seems to have had numerous unforgettable moments with him. I don’t like it. I don’t like it one bit.

“If my guess is right, then I’d say that you both have given in to your feelings for each other.”

I push the stool back and take my plates to the sink. It feels wrong to sit and watch Nina clear the dishes while I stay in the kitchen with her. But she said Alexei and I have given in to feelings for each other.

If I don’t get myself distracted, I'm going to burst out laughing soon.

Feelings, she said. Is that what it is?

“Feelings…” I repeat aloud, gripping the edge of the counter, with my back against it as I test the word on the tip of my tongue. It's strange how good it sounds. “If that’s what you choose to call it, then I’d say yes. It’s something like that.”

Did promising me not to have sex with another woman convey feelings? The last time I checked, it didn’t. Just because he made the decision to stay loyal to his wife doesn’t mean he professed his undying love for me.

And again, men like Alexei Vadim don’t profess their undying love. I even doubt if they have the ability to love.

But I’m not stupid; I recognize effort when I see it. If he has chosen never to cheat on me with another woman, that action speaks volumes.

Nina’s sigh reels me back to the present and I ask, “Did you say something?”

“Yes. I said, beneath the surface, if you look hard enough, you’ll see that the boss is not a bad man.”

Now I laugh without holding back. That truly is the most incredulous thing I’ve ever heard. Alexei Vadim, not a bad man? Oh, please. “Don’t get ahead of yourself, Nina. Your boss is not a bad man. He’s a terror. Sometimes, he makes the hair on my skin stand.”

She chuckles softly and starts on my dishes. I make a move to assist her, but she brushes me off with a harmless scowl. “Nyet.” No. “I will do these myself.”

I give her some room, and on cue, she continues tattling about her boss’s hidden soft heart.

“…sometimes, it shows; in the little things he does or says. If you look beyond that gruff and angry exterior, you’ll see a man on the inside worth loving.” She stacks up the dishes on the drying mat and dabs her hands with another paper towel. Sadness fills her eyes when she says, “I’ve been around long enough to know exactly what I am saying. I took care of him before his mother died.”

His mother? Before now, I’d heard nothing about his mother. I have lots of questions piling up, starting with knowing what she was like. But I can’t ask them. Nina doesn’t even leave breathing space to fit any question in.

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