Page 19 of The Bratva's Arranged Bride

More fury burned in her eyes then, and Tia returned her attention to the cityscape below. “There’s no reason for us to talk. Maybe it’s best if you keep your comments to yourself.”

“And how else would we learn about each other?” I pressed with that unshakable need to get under her skin just a little more.

After a beat of silence, she sighed. “Can’t we just get this over with?”

Finding a strange satisfaction in both her frustration and subtle defeat, I hummed and stood up. “Get it over with, huh? And what might you be hoping to skip over?”

Without being able to deny it, there was something addictive about the way she resisted me, how she didn’t crumble under the pressure and maintained that refusal of hers.

She was full of fire and defiance despite the position she found herself in, and I couldn’t get enough of it.

“You know exactly what I mean,” she muttered, not shy about the bite in her words.

Despite myself, that venom was sweet, and I couldn’t help it. I knew it was in my best interest to give her space and take it easier on her, but damn…she was everything I wanted—needed.

I grinned and took a couple of steps closer to her, eyes roving over her figure.

“You want to get this over with, do you? This conversation, the ceremony, and everything after the fact, right?” I questioned, tone dropping a touch softer. My smirk lingered. “I hate to break it to you, Tia, but this isn’t something you can close your eyes to, hoping to wake up when it’s over. Marriage isn’t fleeting.”

Her shoulders tensed up even further at my words, surely catching how much closer my voice was to her.

“I’m not an idiot. I know that,” she snapped, just barely looking over her shoulder again. Something else lingered in that frustration of hers, but I couldn’t put my finger on it yet.

I hummed and took up the spot beside her, harmlessly looking out the window. “Good…that’s reassuring, then.”

A small scoff passed her lips. “I’m glad you think this is funny.”

“It could be worse, right?”

It seemed my attempt at levity failed once more, the moment I felt her burning gaze on me.

“Do you think this is easy for me? Like it’s something I can just laugh off?” she asked, voice giving away the faintest shake within it.

Even if a small part of my mind was yelling at me to stop and give her some space, I grinned down at her anyway, finding amusement in the way she was still speaking to me, regardless of her anger.

“Being irritated with me seems to be easy for you, but really, I think you’re just trying to push me away. And despite your attempts, I won’t let you.”

Tia’s eyes widened at my words, as if questioning if I really said that. Then, her jaw clenched, and she took a small step back, as if ready to leave.

But of course, there was nowhere to go. No way out. She knew that, surely.

After a breath of silence, she murmured, “What do you want from me, Val? You have everything—why would you want this, and what does this have to do with my dad’s business?”

The arrangement…

Did she not know about what Andrey did? Did she actually think he was just a wealthy business owner by chance?

My brows furrowed slightly, wondering what she knew or how much I should say…But I figured that wasn’t the time to upend the mental image she had of her dad if she didn’t know anything about him brushing shoulders with the likes of us. How he dipped his fingers into the world of organized crime while maintaining a suitable distance from it himself.

Shoving that thought to the back of my mind, I focused on the challenge in her words instead.

Obviously, she couldn’t understand why I, of all people, would want her, and she certainly didn’t know why our arrangement held interest both for myself and for Andrey.

But Tia just didn’t get it yet.

It wasn’t about what she could give me, necessarily.

Outside of partnering with her father and gaining in that sense, I wanted her because she had a strange way of making everything else feel so insignificant.

---