Page 37 of Possessive Vows

Her eyebrows disappear into her hair and she opens her mouth to argue but snaps it closed before she contradicts herself.

“Can you explain why?” she asks instead.

I can’t tell her it’s mainly because I’m afraid I’ll lose my nerve, so instead I lift my hand and reveal the massive rock weighing down my finger.

“We spread the rumor we’re already married. If we have paperwork to back it up, isn’t that even more insulting?”

Giorgio crosses his arms over his chest and scowls at Dimitri. “Youdiduse my sister as bait,” he growls.

“No, Gigi,”—the shock and nostalgia frozen on my brother’s face as I call him by the childhood nickname only Serenity and I dared use fills me with bittersweet mirth—“he isn’t. I am. I’m using myself as bait because I’m done cowering,” I declare.

Dimitri leans forward and props his far elbow on his knee, the movement profound after all his stillness, and gives both of my siblings a poignant look.

“I will protect Camilla. She will take lessons from Mrs. Mancini, but she will not need to use them. No one will ever hurt her again,” he vows.

Giorgio drops his arms to his sides and nods.

Serenity stifles a sob and kisses Perla’s head before asking, “Does this mean you’ll move to Russia once Feliks is dead?”

I freeze as the question smacks me upside the head. I hadn’t thought beyond killing the men who hurt me, protecting my niece, and dreading the moment Dimitri found out I fooled him.

“Da,she will, but we will visit multiple times a year. She will not be a stranger to you,” Dimitri answers for me.

My heart swells, for even though his words sound awkward in English, his meaning is clear.

I won’t lose my family.

Serenity nods even as she cries again. For a moment, my fingers refuse to release Dimitri’s hand, but I force myself to let him go and rise. After a gentle squeeze, he loosens his grip and leans back.

I cross the room and wrap Serenity and my niece in my arms.

The bones in my forearm ache and my nape throbs, but comforting my sister is more important.

“What did she do to you?”

Serenity’s anger blindsides me. I release her and lean back to see her eyes locked on my neck. When I lift my hand to cover the sore patches left by our mother, my sleeve slips down.

Serenity gasps.

“I’ll kill her!”

The violence shining from my sister’s eyes is so unlike her a shocked chuckle escapes my lips.

“Leave the murder to me, Nitty,” Giorgio says.

I shift my gaze to my brother’s. He means it.

“With all the other surgeries and injuries you had, she knew your arm took almost a full year to heal! You barely got your cast taken off last month, so she grabbed you thereon purposeto make it hurt as much as possible, didn’t she?” Serenity snarls.

Perla squeaks and wriggles in her sleep as my sister tightens her arms around her.

I pull away from Serenity, worried about waking the baby, and stand.

“It doesn’t hurt much. I’m okay,” I say.

I step back to put more distance between us and stiffen when I hit a living wall. Dimitri’s delicious scent fills my nostrils as my back presses against his front.

Fear ices my veins, but he doesn’t wrap his arms around me. Doesn’t restrain me. Doesn’t hurt me.

---