Page 17 of Sin & Sapphire

“Bonjour, chèri,” Valentin purred, but I could hear the ire in his voice. He’d never resented my obsession with her, but he thought she was a spoiled brat, and that if we were going to bring a third into our relationship, I could do better.

“Meet me in Sicily with your plane,” I snarled.

The line was silent.

“You’re going to hunt her down yourself?”

“It’s what I’m best at.”

Valentin sighed, but I knew I’d already won the fight we’d have about this later. He always indulged me, then calmly picked up the pieces after the inevitable cataclysm of my poor decisions.

“The Costa empire in the States has been put into trust for her future husband. The first man to put a ring on her gets it.”

“Putain,” he swore softly. “And the American operation?”

“Fuck it.”

7

ANA

I wokeup groggy and nauseous, every muscle in my body aching as I rolled onto my stomach, desperate not to puke in the expensive-feeling sheets. The world around me rocked, and I groaned. How hard had I partied last night?

I dragged myself out of bed, then fell to the floor, my knees too weak to hold my weight. Wait. Had I been drugged?

Terror, dark and insidious, crept up my spine. Where the fuck was I? I huddled against the wall and looked around the room. I’d fallen out of a queen-sized bed that was bolted to the ground. My eyes flew around the room, but my vision was blurry, and my head hurt too much for me to take in the details.

The room rocked again, and water sprayed against the window.

Oh my fucking god, I’m on a boat.

Using the wall as my anchor, I dragged myself to my feet and took stock of the situation as memory from last night returned to me. My shoulders screamed with pain from where my captors had wrenched them behind me, and my wrists had red marks where they’d tied them together. And my feet—fuck. One at a time, I raised them to inspect them, only to find them covered in filth and blood from my nighttime flight.

Fuckers.I made my way to the front of the room and tried the door. It was locked but felt flimsy when I pushed against it. I didn’t have a credit card to pick what appeared to be a very simple lock, but maybe there was another way. I raised my foot and kicked, gratified when the door popped open.

The boat continued to rock, and I made my way up, noting the luxurious carpet beneath my feet and the expensive light fixtures as I rubbed at my eyes and shook my head, trying to clear out the cobwebs. This was a big yacht, which considerably narrowed the pool of potential kidnappers.

Painful step by painful step, I staggered down the hallway, then gripped the railings of the stairs and pulled myself up. Fuck, I hurt. When I finally reached the top, I was shocked to discover myself looking out from the top of the stairwell into an expensive lounge area, with a handful of men and women drinking in the corner.

“Oh, our guest has woken up!” a man said. I narrowed my eyes, struggling to identify the familiar French accent. “Ana, welcome.”

He walked closer, a crystal glass of caramel-colored liquid in his hand, and I rubbed my eyes. “Grégoire?”

My fiancé smiled down at me, then wrapped his arm around my waist and dragged me into him. Overbalanced, I fell forward, catching myself on his chest.

“What am I doing here?” I asked, too confused and too drugged to pretend to have my shit together.

“Can’t a man spend time with the woman he’s about to marry?”

The pieces clicked into place. The will. The kidnapping. The only way he could secure the Costa logistics chain. The Tchérnovs wouldn’t let me slip through their fingers just because my father was dead.

“Let me go,” I whispered.

Instead, he dragged his fingers down my side and cupped my ass, yanking me into his body until his cock pressed against my pelvis.Fucking gross.

“We’re going to sail to Russia, where we’ll be married,” he murmured. “And until then, you’re going to prove what an excellent wife you’re going to be.”

He squeezed my ass again, kneading the skin, before slipping his fingers lower and dragging my skirt up, revealing my legs to the entire room.

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