Page 44 of The Bratva's Prisoner Bride

Looking somewhat guarded again, she looked at me curiously. "What's that?"

"I'm requesting a portrait, that's all."

Both of her brows went up at that. "For everything, you just want a portrait?"

"That's right. You have complete artistic freedom."

Something about her gentle smile warmed me more than I wanted to admit.

"All right...I'll see what I can do."

The warmth that lingered in her eyes, while reminiscent of the way she had looked at me in Mexico, seemed new and significant in its own right. It felt good.

I could tell she appreciated how I was taking an interest in her passion, and despite my usual ways, I genuinely hoped it would bring her a sense of accomplishment.

I hoped the gesture would change how she saw me in some capacity.

Even if it ended up only being a means of keeping her busy, that would be enough.

Chapter 18 - Daria

It turned out that time went by much faster once I had something to focus on—especially since that something demanded my attention and easily sucked hours from me. I hardly even noticed it happening until I eventually realized most of the day was already gone.

With my efforts going into practicing drawing and painting again, I still didn't feel completely settled during those two weeks that passed, but I was in a much better place than I had been before.

To my surprise, Ivan tended to come home with less disdain for me in his gaze, and rather than find something to argue about, he was a lot more pleasant.

There were still moments where he'd withdraw and remove every trace of vulnerability from his words until he seemed to guard himself from me, but overall, there was less bite to his words. While he could still be teasing at times, he wasn't outright trying to torment me like he had been. He was more careful in general, and while that in itself took some getting used to, it certainly beat the constant state of fight or flight I had endured.

Of course, Ivan still wasn't very direct when it came to his thoughts and feelings, but I could tell something was changing in him. And in a way, I was grateful for it.

I may not have had any choice in our marriage or being yanked into his life, but so long as I didn't feel like a target was on my back, it was slowly becoming more bearable.

At the very least, I was putting my energy into art again, and it was nicer than I imagined. I had forgotten how much it meant to me, and how greatly it improved my mood regardless of what was going on around me.

Getting up that morning, already thinking about what I wanted to paint, something on the nightstand caught my eye.

Ivan was already up and gone to work, leaving me alone to investigate the small box beside me.

Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I sat up and swung my legs over before reaching for the box. I slid the lid off to see a shiny new phone inside, already prepared with a case and everything.

Surprise and excitement moved through me simultaneously at the realization, aware of what that meant.

I couldn't believe it as I pulled the cell phone out and felt that familiar weight in my grasp again for the first time in weeks. I went from always having one on me to nothing, and it was definitely an adjustment.

With a faint smile, relieved to have a new one, I turned the screen on and swiped to open it.

Even if the default background gave away the fact that it lacked any kind of personal touch, I wasn't going to complain about how much nicer it was than my previous one.

I poked around, eventually going into the contact list and finding Ivan's number already there, pinned to the top. To my surprise, his siblings' numbers were also there, even though I didn't know them all, along with Dom's contact. I had to imagine it was a precaution.

Still, it felt strange. We were married, but I didn't feel like one of the family yet. I had only met Dima and Olivia, and of course, that didn't exactly end well.

If Ivan giving me a phone seemed like a small thing, I knew it meant he was beginning to trust me and allow me to have more freedom. In my situation, that meant a hell of a lot more to me than it should have.

When I inspected the phone inside and out, I eventually got up and had a shower, then dressed into something a bit more casual to keep myself from potentially ruining anything nice with paint.

But before I could leave the master bedroom, the phone surprised me with a notification, and I grabbed it from where I left it on the bed.

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