His brothers were angry at him the other day and my brothers are angry at me now. What good is coming of this?

“If my brothers spoke to me like that, I would have punched them in the face,” Oleg mutters.

“Oh, yes? You would have? What would that have solved? My brothers are just trying to take care of me. They have always protected me. My whole life they have been there for me.”

“It didn’t look like it tonight. All they did was treat you badly.”

“What do you know? You know nothing about me and nothing about my family. You have your comfortable life here in this city. You have whatever you want. We had a hard life growing up. My parents died when I was too young to even get to know them. Rodion has been a father figure to all of us,and each of us takes care of the other. My brothers might be overprotective and overbearing—but I know they love me and all they want is for me to be safe.”

It looks like my words have cut a nerve in him. His eyes are narrowed towards me and I can see he is biting back his own words. I feel bad, I don’t like to hurt people, but I didn’t say anything that wasn’t true. I didn’t say anything unfair.

He kidnapped me and then he turned my own brothers against me.

I have a right to be angry with him.

I wish I could speak to Ruslana. She would understand my frustration.

Finally, Oleg shakes his head.

“You don’t get it, Raisa. You don’t understand,” he says softly. He’s frustrated.

“You’re right. I don’t understand and with all of your talking, you haven’t bothered to actually explain it to me.”

He rubs his hands up and down his pants, trying to get rid of the tension building inside his body. I know, because I feel the same tension building inside mine. I am struggling not to explode in a louder rage, to lash out, to say things I will regret.

“I did this to form an alliance between our families,” he presses.

“But, Oleg, don’t you see how many alliances you are going to trigger as well? Not everyone agrees with what you did. People are going to leave alliances because of your actions. “

“Bullshit,” he snaps. “Just because people were staring at the party tonight doesn’t mean they don’t agree with me. People love drama. They love the politics. It’s all a load of shit if you askme. They need to mind their own business—but I promise you something, my allies are strong.”

“Your allies might be strong, but what position have you put my brothers in? They haven’t had a chance to establish themselves like you have in this city. They have enemies here, enemies who might see this as a weakness and come pushing harder at their door.”

“Your brothers need to learn who to negotiate with and who to fight with. So far, they are fighting with the wrong people and causing shit with the wrong families. They came here with too much arrogance and it’s going to backfire,” he snaps at me. I clench my fists in my lap, trying not to react. I close my eyes and shake my head. He is making me so angry. How dare he speak about my family like that? He wants them to show respect, but he doesn’t seem to respect anyone.

“You are so busy standing up for me against my brothers—but what about you? Why do you get to treat me however you want to? Who is going to tell you that you need to have respect?”

“You think I don’t respect you?” He glares at me. “Are you blind? Have I not given you everything you need? Have I not done my best to make sure that you are comfortable in your new home?”

“Yourhome. Notmine. I didn’t choose any of this. After you kidnapped me and forced me into a life I was trying to get away from.”

Oleg grabs my jaw in his hand. I can see an intense darkness in his eyes. One that terrifies me and, to my horror, turns me on like a fire screaming through my blood and igniting my skin.

“You don’t think I’ve treated you well, Raisa?” He says my name as though it was a threat on his lips.

“I—I—“ I stammer. All I can do is stare into his eyes, full of menacing threat. My mind is so focused on how his hand feels on my skin, and the way my body is alight with sudden and intense need for him.

His eyes drop to my lips and the way his mouth opens slightly makes me shudder. I gasp softly as he leans towards me—and then all of my self-control leaves me.

I throw myself against him, my lips pressed into his as I climb onto his lap.

I seem to take him as much by surprise as I take myself.

But I can’t stop.

The first time we kissed—and every day since then—I have not been able to stop thinking about what he would really feel like. How it would be to have him properly.

He grabs my hips and pulls me harder against him, thrusting his hips upwards and pressing his cock between my legs.