“Holy crapticle, you’re big.” The man takes up all the space around me. If someone were to come into the room, they probably wouldn’t see me under him.

"And you're little,” he says in that deep voice. I suppose compared to him, everyone is.

“Whatever.” I press against his chest, not wanting to believe him.

My curves never bothered me, nor did I give them much thought until the wedding drama and other people started making comments. I did my best to ignore them, and Nolia always said it was a bunch of bullshit. But no matter how hard I tried, the words could hurt. Probably because I could never be what my father wanted. A boy.

“Do you mind?”

“Not in the least.” He’s so damn cocky. Of course he does whatever the heck he wants. It must be nice.

“I have to pee.” This time it’s not a lie.

A sound of annoyance comes from him, but he moves off of me. When he’s gone, I definitely don’t miss the weight of his body on mine. Not at all. Nope, not one ounce of it. I don't look back at him when I make my escape to the bathroom, either.

When I walk through the first set of doors I see, I come back out and glare at him. “You could have told me that was the closet.” He points toward the other set of doors, and when I go in, I see it’s the bathroom.

Looking down at the handle, I notice there isn’t a lock, so I try to hurry. After I finish my business, I cringe when I see myself in the mirror. I’m a hot mess. Running my fingers through my hair doesn’t help, so I dig through the drawer looking for a brush. All of them are empty, so I go to the other side. That’s when I find all of his crap. At least there isn’t another woman's stuff in here. That would be awkward. Maybe that’s why he didn’t agree to marry me. Could there be someone else?

There’s no hairbrush, but I do find a new toothbrush still in the plastic. I glance over at Vitaly’s toothbrush and debate whether to do something terrible to it. As much as I want to, I can't bring myself to do it.

I do the best I can to clean up, and then I have no choice but to leave the bathroom. I’ve stalled for as long as I can, but I can’t exactly live in the bathroom. I’m not ready to go out and face the music. Scratch that. The mob boss.

“I don’t have all day,” Vitaly calls from the other side of the door.

“Day?” I poke my head out. “Day? As in the next one? How long did you knock me out for?” I walk into the bedroom and notice he’s changed into a different suit.

“You slept through the night,” he tells me.

Well, crap. I wonder if my father noticed my absence yet. “Okay.” I wring my fingers together in front of me, unsure of what to do next. Vitaly isn’t going to marry me, but he did make a few dark promises. Might as well get on with it. “So you said you’re going to ruin me. Before you send me back to my father.”

He goes to speak, but before he can, I hold out a finger and talk over him.

"Just so you know, I could have dipped your toothbrush in the toilet, but I didn't." I inform him of my kindness. "Keep that in mind before you go ruining me. Like cutting off my toes and fingers."

Then I glance at the finger in front of me telling him to stop, and I jerk my hand behind my back.

Why am I giving him ideas?

Chapter Six

VITALY

I tuck my hands in my pockets as I look Pru up and down. “So let me get this straight. You think that when I said I was going to ruin you that I meant cutting off your body parts?”

She shrugs a shoulder and begins to look uncertain. “Yeah?”

“And because you didn’t put my toothbrush in the toilet, you think you should get to keep all your digits.”

“Well, yes?” Again, she answers like a question.

“Hmm.” I press my lips together as I let my eyes roam slowly over her body.

It doesn’t take long for her to fidget under my gaze, and I wonder if anyone has ever looked at her like I am. I’m well aware of what she’s doing to me, but I know she’s innocent. Her father would have kept his men far away from her. He would have made sure that she was pure for her wedding night. It’s just too bad she won’t be when I’m done with her.

“Take off your hoodie,” I tell her and then walk over to the window and yank open the black-out drapes. Sunlight pours across the room and lights up the dark space.

Last night I slept beside her and kept my hands to myself. I woke up early this morning and got ready for the day, but instead of going down to my office, I pulled a chair next to the bed. I watched her for a few hours while I worked, so it wasn’t like I was only staring at her. At least that's what I told myself.