Page 17 of Mafia Christmas Vows

“You trusted a man you barely knew?”

Well, I guess when he says it like that… “Yeah. I guess I did.”

“Magdalena.”

I look up.

Alexei moves. I’m sitting on an overly stiff couch, and before I realize it,he’s within about six inches of me. I lean back, keeping my eyes trained on his, as he looms over me.

“I am the bigger monster. Your father did not lead you astray.”

“Okay,” I whisper.

Something seems to flit across his face. He steps back, looking out the window to the snow falling outside.

“You are my wife now. You will live in Orlov House. If you’d like… we can send for your mother.”

I blink.

“I am a monster. You must remember this.”

“Alexei…”

He flinches.

I take a deep breath. “I know why I agreed to this. But why did you?”

He turns.

“If you’re the one people are afraid of, then why did you agree to marry me? What do you get out of it?”

I’m genuinely curious. He’s so hellbent on being seen as someone harsh, and cruel, but I’ve seen the way Elena frets over him.

I’ve seen how much she cares.

Elena is a nice person, and she wouldn’t invest so much into a man who was truly a monster.

Alexei looks at me.

“There’s no point in lying. I was honest with you. Might as well be honest with me too,” I point out.

Alexei’s perfect lips twitch again. “Fair point.”

He shifts, so that he’s sitting next to me. The couch is stiff as a board, and it doesn’t give at all as Alexei sinks into it.

“My family is old,” he begins.

I raise an eyebrow. “Elena called you a prince.”

He nods. “In the oldest sense. The land, this house, they have been part of it for generations. I cannot inherit the house without a family. Without a wife,” he says meaningfully.

Ah. “That’s old school.”

His lips tip again. “Old school,” he murmurs, like he’s never heard the phrase before. “Yes. Well. That is the case. I needed a wife, and I do not… this was a very easy way to get one.”

“Don’t date much?”

Alexei shakes his head. “No.”

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