Page 69 of Brutal Bratva King

“I’m glad you like it, princess. Tonight I’m cooking us a steak—a nice relaxing night in a beautiful place. Tomorrow, we can sleep in, all day if you want, and if you are feeling adventurous, we can take the row boat out onto the lake.”

She turns around in my arms and her eyes gaze up into mine. “Thank you, Rodion. For all of this.” I press my lips against hers, and for a momen,t I think everything will be alright.

But as the afternoon drifts into the evening, Anya becomes more withdrawn. She doesn’t talk much at all, and she spends most of the time sitting on the wooden deck overlooking the lake while I am cooking in the kitchen. I had hoped she’d want to cook with me—spend some time bonding and laughing together.

I feel like she is pulling away from me and it’s starting to scare me. I have to stop it. We sit outside, watching the moonlight glisten over the lake, eating our dinner in silence.

It feels heavy and awkward. The tension grows the longer I say nothing.

Eventually, I can’t take it anymore.

“Anya—is there something bothering you?”

She shakes her head, biting at her bottom lip.

“Did I do something to upset you?”

“No,” she snaps. “You keep asking me, over and over again. Can you just leave it? There isn’t anything wrong.” She sighs, her eyes closing for a moment as she tries to pull her thoughts together.

After a while, she opens them again, and when she looks at me, it appears that she was holding back tears. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to snap. I’m just tired.”

“It’s ok,” I say tightly. But inside I feel wound up like a bomb, ready to explode any moment. What did I do? What did I say to push her away from me so much?

“I’m going to head up to bed. Tomorrow, we can go out on the lake,” she says, smiling, trying to pretend she’s fine when it’s so obvious she isn’t.

“Aright, princess. I’ll be up in a minute.”

This is not going at all how I wanted it to go. Instead of feeling more connected to her out here, I feel further away from her than ever before.

This woman, who I am not supposed to be in love with—she is driving me crazy. I can’t lose her.

The dinner dishes clang together as I carry them through to the kitchen and drop them in the sink. I’ll deal with that tomorrow. Right now, I want to get up to bed before Anya falls asleep. I want to try and talk to her again. She can’t keep pushing me away like this. I’m her husband. I’m supposed to be the one who takes care of her and makes her problems easier to handle—she just needs to trust me.

The bedroom door opens with a creek when I push it and Anya shifts in bed, the blankets rustling softly, but she doesn’t turn to look at me.

I walk to the side of the bed, crouching down to look at her. “My angel, please talk to me. I can see something is bothering you,” I say, touching her face and feeling the dampness of tears on her skin.

It breaks my heart. She can’t keep lying to me about this.

“Rodion, please, just leave it,” she says, practically begging me to stop asking.

“Whatever you want—I can get it for you. Whatever you need in this entire world. I’ll make sure you have it, Anya. All I want is to see you smile. Your smile means everything to me.”

I don’t know why, but my words seem to bother her even more.

She cringes into herself, almost as though she is trying to escape my kindness.

I can’t allow this to carry on.

I pull the blankets off her and drag her into my arms.

“Anya. Speak to me.”

She pushes me away and glares at me with heated anger in her gaze.

I stand up, ready to step back because clearly I’ve crossed a line and she needs space from me more than I imagined.

“I’m sorry,” I mumble, shaking my head.

---