Chapter 19 - Olivia
Back in my original room, I shut the door with more force than necessary and stared at it, willing Dima to come up and fight. I was flustered and upset downstairs, feeling like he’d pulled a rug out from under me when I was finally feeling on solid ground. The door remained shut, and there was nothing but silence on the other side.
He knew me too well, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. I should have appreciated the space, but I didn’t want to appreciate anything about or from Dima.
My father was the last thing I wanted to think about after such a wonderful day. It only served to remind me that I wasn’t here by my own choice and this really wasn’t a fantasy vacation. The man I once had a crush on didn’t ask me to marry him, we didn’t plan this honeymoon. He bought me, and now I was hidden away in a foreign country with him, completely at his whim.
The only difference between being trapped with Dima instead of being stuck in Russia with my father was that the weather was a lot nicer here.
Well, a lot of things were nicer, and that was a problem too. A big one. I needed to stop getting caught up in the intense attraction Dima made me feel. No more dancing close to him, no more losing myself in his mischievous smile.
No more.
There was no real future for us. None of this was real, not the way I wanted it to be. I was only a possession, and he wasn’t the man I thought he was. Realizing the futility of letting myself get swept up, even for brief moments of bliss, made me feel farmore sadness than I ever should have. There was no way my heart was getting dragged into this mess.
Focus on the positives, not the negatives. I’d gotten back into town, and this time I really paid attention to every door in all the shops, and all the little side streets that meandered off the main road.
With my mood lightening, I started repeating the Spanish phrases I knew by heart, going over my meager assortment of vocabulary and verbs to try to make up new sentences. All of the locals we met had been friendly, and I had to believe not all of them were in Dima’s pocket.
Now that I had a better idea of the town and my language skills were slowly improving, I firmly believed I could slip away from Dima and get lost in a crowd, especially if we kept going in on nights when there was live music and dancing in the square. Then, all I had to do was get someone to help me hide or drive me to the closest big city where I could disappear.
I pushed aside my knowledge of how powerful the Fokins were, how far-reaching their influence went. No one stayed hidden for long if one of them wanted to find you. Thinking about my Bratva husband going to the end of the earth to seek me out would have driven me to despair, and positivity and the belief I had a chance were the only things keeping me from giving up.
Giving up wasn’t an option. I wasn’t a prize or a possession, and I hated feeling like one. Except… when I didn’t.
No, not even when he made me scream out in the throes of the only true passion I’d ever experienced. The feel of his hands and lips and tongue were not enough to make me give up and give in. I was in control of my own destiny, not Dima Fokin.
Why did he have to be so irresistible sometimes?
Curling my hands into fists, I tried to ward off the blazing hot memories of those brief moments behind the stage in town. It had been so fast, so frenzied, and yet, so perfect. How did he make me feel so damn alive?
The ring he’d put on my finger, the symbol of his ownership, had twisted around and cut into my palm as I gripped my hands in tight fists to keep those memories away. I opened my fingers and turned it right side up, looking down at the glittering diamonds.
Something else I’d need if I had any chance of getting away was money. The main diamond had to be worth a small fortune, but it was only one ring, and I’d need to keep it until I could get to a city and get anywhere near what it was worth. I couldn’t offer it to someone just to drive me out of here. I might have to pay for multiple bribes, fuel, hotels, and food before I was able to unload the ring. That meant I needed cash, and lots of it.
And just like that, I was sinking into despair again. There was no way Dima would just hand me a wad of bills. I couldn’t even get close to a cell phone unless, of course he wanted me to call my father.
Anger rushed back, along with the resolve I needed to stay on track. I’d have to be patient, but if I kept Dima happy, maybe he’d get to the point he’d let me go into town on a shopping excursion without him. The security detail would tag along, of course, but I was confident I could ditch any of those lunks by feigning sickness to get out of their sight.
All I needed was a minute away, and I’d be free. In my mind, it was already a done deal, but in reality, I was holed up in my old room again, still pissed off at Dima for dredging up more feelings that I couldn’t deal with in my current situation.
Acting had never been my strong suit, but desperate times called for desperate measures. Forcing the scowl off my face, I calmly went to Dima’s room—our room, since I was a perfect, dutiful wife, found my notebook and got in bed to start studying as if my life depended on it. Which it did.
When he came up about an hour later, I pretended to be fast asleep, tucking my face into my pillow to hide my smile. I didn’t flinch when he gently kissed me on the forehead before snapping off my bedside lamp. Let him think nothing was wrong so that I could more easily get the hell out of this prison.
Chapter 20 - Dimitry
By some miracle, things turned around pretty much immediately. No grudge, no glares, just a couple smooth, practically perfect weeks of wedded bliss. On top of Olivia’s good moods, I was still able to dodge my brothers successfully, and no one knew we were in Mexico.
Max thought I was in Geneva checking out a new business opportunity, and I had another fake location lined up for when I could no longer pull that off. So far no one was demanding I return, which meant everything was going well at home, or at least no wars had broken out between my family and the Kuzmins.
I would have been riding high if only I could have gotten a definitive answer from Benedikt about his state of things with our rivals. He finally started answering his phone again after almost a week of utter silence, but every time I spoke with him, he was babbling and incoherent. He flew into a rage and hung up whenever I questioned him about the debt, hollering that we were family now, and I should trust him.
I sure as hell didn’t, but I couldn’t get answers out of him over the phone. Bringing him to me wasn’t an option because I didn’t want the sack of shit anywhere near Olivia. Sending someone to “talk” to him on my behalf seemed overkill, especially since there was no sign of trouble from Aleks or my other brothers.
I wasn’t in any hurry to go back to San Diego, even if things were safe, so I let it go for the moment and had been enjoying time with my bride. Olivia was a whirlwind around the place, chatting almost nonstop with the contracted workers as she did her best to help out. Seeing her happy was nice, but Irefused to have her think of herself as an employee, and offered up other forms of distraction instead.
We’d been going on almost daily hikes, beating back new paths that didn’t stray too far from the house or get too close to those cliffs we’d already encountered. Hanging out in the garden in the evenings and admiring how everything was shaping up around the pool was another of our favorite pastimes, accompanied by wine and music wafting out from the new stereo system I had just installed. We went into town two or three times a week for shopping or dinner dates, and it really started to feel like we were married.