Page 12 of The Bratva's Forced Innocent Bride

It’s Luca.

I yelped, my finger hovering over the phone, wondering how to respond. I didn’t have to, because next thing I knew, it was ringing. He was calling. Luca Ross was calling me.

Utterly amazed and feeling like Alice in Wonderland, I answered. “How did you get my number?” I asked.

“Don’t you know who I am?” he said in his famous teasing tone. “There’s nothing I can’t get if I want it badly enough. And I want to take you to dinner, Brooke.”

I stood up and turned in circles until I had to plop back down on the bed. Luca was asking me out? My first thought was of Max, his disapproving look, and his warning of the night before. We’d had such a perfect day together, and he’d also had me in stitches this whole afternoon. What about movie night?

Was I getting so attached to Max that I was thinking about giving up another opportunity to tell my future grandkids about going to dinner with a world-famous movie star? As for Max’s warning, I just couldn’t make myself believe Luca could be all that bad, and it was probably just jealousy on Max’s part. He’d acted like a real caveman, hurling Luca off the dancefloor, and then admitting he wasn’t exactly one of the good guys, either.

Now, I was smiling over that memory, as if it was good and not mortifying. I liked thinking Max might be jealous, waytoo much for comfort. He was a player, a professional flirt, and if I let myself get attached, I was done for.

“Are you still there?” Luca asked.

“Yes,” I said in a breathless rush. “Still here, and I’d love to go out to dinner.”

“Great, I’ll pick you up wherever you are.”

Feeling giddy at all the excitement this vacation kept bringing, but also wanting to avoid an uncomfortable scene, I told Luca to pick me up at the crossroads at the bottom of the hill below Katie’s house. It was a quick little hike and worth it to avoid any confrontations.

“I’ll see you then. Can’t wait,” he said, ending the call.

I stared at the phone for a moment, expecting the text messages to disappear, and realized I had dozed off, but I was still awake. This was real, and I had to get ready for my date with a movie star. Then, I had to sneak out so I wouldn’t upset the mob boss who’d been toying with my affections all day.

Chapter 6 - Max

Everything was going great, and I didn’t know how to feel about it. The time I was spending with Brooke was more enjoyable than I thought it would be. Her charm wasn’t fading with repeated exposure, and that searing kiss we shared wouldn’t leave my mind. Never before had a simple—well, not so simple—kiss torn me up like the memory of her lips on mine. I wanted to recreate that moment, add to it, and keep it going.

If only I could find time alone with her, since we’d been surrounded by my family the entire day, especially the prying eyes of Katie and Jenna, who thought I was the world’s biggest Casanova. If they got an inkling of my genuine interest in their friend, they’d close ranks and possibly fill her head with a bunch of nonsense about my past.

Sure, I’d had my share of relationships, if they could even be called relationships, but what I felt so far about Brooke was different. It stunned me, took all my focus. The thought of her being nothing more than a one-night stand or even a week-long fling was unsavory. Brooke ticked every box and then some. Maybe Lev and Aleks had it right. Maybe settling down wasn’t for suckers, after all.

If I could get Brooke to agree to slip out with me before the rest of my family gathered in the home theater, then we could have some real fun. I just needed to find a way to get her alone for a second before dinner, without the hawk-like eyes of my sisters-in-law on us.

But Brooke never came down with the others and never showed up late to dinner, either. No one seemed overly concerned, so I was clearly out of the loop. I finally asked if shewas okay, as casually as possible, as if I were just noticing one of us was missing.

Jenna nodded, setting down her fork and looking at me warmly. Good, she didn’t suspect anything other than friendly concern.

“She found out an old friend is in town, and they’re meeting up for pizza or something.”

She offered up no more information, and I couldn’t ask without setting off the spotlight on my burgeoning feelings for Brooke.

Why did the delicious barbecue chicken on my plate suddenly look unappetizing? The ice-cold beer went down like sour milk, and I fought to hide my scowl. This feeling wasn’t new, because I’d felt the same when I saw Luca’s hands all over Brooke the night before. But I didn’t like it, it wasn’t how I operated, and it was pissing me off.

I was fucking jealous of some unknown person, who might have been an old girlfriend from high school for all I knew. But it might have been her first love, and I wanted to smash that invisible man’s face in. I barely held it together during dinner, sure she’d be back for the movie.

When Aleks called us into his home theater, she wasn’t back yet, and no one seemed to think it was odd or offer a thought of waiting a little longer for her. Why didn’t her supposed best friend call and ask if she would miss this premiere Aleks had gotten his hands on, before it was even released to the public? Was she having so much fun with this mystery friend of hers that she would give that up?

Anger started to settle in, and I fought to keep it at bay. Thinking about all the fun I’d had with her in the pool that afternoon didn’t help in the way I thought it would; it just hadme yearning for her more. It was actually fun, not just putting on a show for the people who gathered around me at the diner, but something I had forgotten how to have. Oh, I thought I was having a great time at family gatherings or surrounded by those sycophants in Hollywood.

It wasn’t until yesterday, when I raced around the boardwalk in Santa Monica, laughing my fool head off and trying to win a teddy bear, that I realized I’d been missing out. And that kiss… it was going to be a long ass time and an icy cold day in hell before any other woman could erase the feelings Brooke brought out in me with that kiss.

The idea of any other woman was as appetizing as moldy bread, and it hit me that leaving Aleks’s house to find a replacement wasn’t going to work. There was no replacement for Brooke, no excising her from my life.

Fuck. And she was with someone else. I was getting worked up again, dragging my feet as we all traipsed upstairs to watch the movie. As if I could sit still when I really wanted to scorch the earth until I found Brooke and gave her hell for running out on me.

No, I had to chill out. After all, she didn’t know she was mine yet, and I had no right to feel this way. As much as I wanted to spend the night there and pace the front hall until she came back and yank her into my arms to make her forget whoever she’d been with, I had to chill the hell out.

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