Page 69 of Unbreakable Vow

“Articles?” Maybe if I play dumb, he won’t want to tell me all the horrible things that a certain journalist likes to say about me.

“You know what I’m talking about.” He splays his hands out on the table, flexing his fingers. I notice his knuckles are bruised on his right hand.

“What did you do?” I pick up his hand, running my thumb over the swelling joints.

“There won’t be any more articles like that,” he promises me.

“Sergei.” I sigh. “Tell me you didn’t go over to that guy’s house in the middle of the night and beat him up.”

“I didn’t.”

I search his eyes. He’s telling me the truth.

“Did you send someone else to do it?” I hedge.

He lifts a shoulder. “I own the company now. He’s been let go.” He flexes his hand again. “After he was let go, we had a discussion about his opinion.”

“You bought the newspaper?” I drop his hand. “Because they said something bad about the way I look?”

He drops his chin. “You know what he was saying is bullshit, right?”

“I know it was his opinion.” I nod. “I won’t lie and say it didn’t sting, but you didn’t need to do that.”

He stares at me longer, like he’s trying to see inside of me. “His words hurt you.”

Sergei’s words hurt last night, too; should I tell him that? What would he even do about it?

“I know you meant well, thank you for that. But promise me if some other tabloid starts saying stupid things, you won’t buy that company too.”

He raises a brow. “I can’t make that promise.”

I guess I should be happy that he’s not going to lie to me about it.

“He was right about one thing though,” he continues. “I’ve been hiding you away. But that has to end. You’re my wife now, and you need to be seen with me. Kustov Metals works with the government. We have several military contracts. I’m going to be in the public eye more and more.”

“Won’t that draw more attention to… well, other things you don’t want attention on?”

“Maybe for a little while, but that’s easy to fix. Once I’ve dismantled the company, it won’t be an issue at all.”

I only nod. Destroying the company may feel good to him at the moment, but I’m not sure how long it will last.

“Well, if you need me to go to a dinner or something with you, I can do that.”

“Good. There’s an event tomorrow night. You’ll be going with me.” His chair scrapes against the floor as he stands up.

“Wait.” Panic crashes on me. “I don’t have anything to wear. I need more time than that to find something.”

“I know. That’s why we’re spending the afternoon shopping.”

“Shopping?” I blink a few times. Is he ill? “Don’t you have work?”

“I have a few things to do before we go; you have two hours to get ready.” He walks to the swinging door. “And Cora?”

I turn in my chair to look up at him. His jaw moves from side to side as his eyes bore into me, sending tingles up my spine.

“I already like you.”

“You really shouldn’t be spendingthis kind of money, Sergei.” The numbers on the register continue to climb as he holds out the little black card for the cashier.

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