Page 46 of The Bratva King's Auctioned Bride

“Oh my God,” I gasped. “Oh, Arkadi, how?”

I weakly wrapped my arms around his back, feeling the rise and fall of his chest as he struggled to find his breath. He shook his head against my shoulder. He didn’t understand this magic between us either, but there was no denying it was there, and very real.

He was crushing me under his weight, completely limp in my arms, but I didn’t care. Who needed oxygen when I was still half in the stratosphere? After a moment, he rolled off and onto his back, dragging me with him because I wasn’t letting go.

Smiling down at him, I traced his eyebrows and down his nose. He made a half-hearted effort to nip at my fingertip, then returned my smile.

“I think I know how,” he said, secrets dancing in his eyes.

“Hmm?”

“How we manage fireworks every single time,” he said.

“More like a volcano erupting,” I said, making him laugh. “Well then, tell me.”

He shook his head, rolling to the side so that I tumbled off of his chest. Tucking my head under his outstretched arm, he whipped half of the covers over us. “You’ll figure it out on your own.”

He was only teasing me, and I didn’t mind it. Resting my cheek so that I could hear the steady thump of his heart, I relaxed and let it really sink in that I was completely safe. Morethan that, I was perilously close to happiness, something I hadn’t felt since before my shop closed.

Now, how the hell was that possible? I leaned up on my elbow to find his eyes were closed, inky lashes resting on the top of his chiseled cheekbones. The man was freaking handsome, even with a slight sheen of ashes still clinging to him. As grubby as I felt, there was nothing that could have gotten me out of that bed and away from his side.

Again, how was that possible?

“What happens next?” I asked. Arkadi’s eyes flew open, perhaps with a hint of disappointment that I went there. I shrugged. “Everything’s still up in the air, after all.”

He got serious, almost stony, leaning up on his elbow and facing me. “First of all, I’m going to take care of my uncle,” he said. “And anyone else who isn’t loyal to me. I may have been gone for all those years I was in LA, but Moscow is still my territory.”

“Part of it,” I said, wrinkling my nose. “So, how can your people manage to get along with mine on this side of the ocean?”

He stiffened, but when he saw I was teasing, he gave it right back. “It’s because they’re always so busy looking for me that they don’t have time to worry about what I’m doing over here.” His laughter ended, and his face darkened again, going back to an unreadable mask. “That’s not my top priority now. And I don’t really have any more answers about what comes next. Now that you’re safe, I’ll deal with Eldar, and then we’ll go from there.”

I sat up and grabbed his hand, pulling it close to my heart as if he could feel the fire burning there. “I want to be there when you do it,” I said, surprising the hell out of him and myself. “More than that,” I told him. “I want to help.”

His slow grin told me I’d get my wish.

Chapter 33 - Arkadi

After the best night’s sleep I’d had in a long time, I woke up with my wife in my arms, revitalized. Ready to do what needed to be done. It was time to exterminate the cockroaches that had infested and rotted my organization here in Moscow, my father’s home. Once it had been mine, and during the time I left to further advance and enrich my family’s holdings, Uncle Eldar saw his chance to seize the power he’d been too weak to earn on his own.

As much as there was to do, I didn’t jump out of bed. Mila’s head rested on my arm for one thing, and I would have taken a bullet before disturbing her. She looked so damn pretty and peaceful, despite her bedraggled and bruised appearance. I was just as much of a mess after lighting up the bar last night, but neither one of us had wanted to get out of bed to do anything about it.

Soon, her eyes opened, and she smiled at me, letting them drift shut again.

“Sorry,” I said, softly running my fingers down her arm. “It’s time to wake up.”

“What for?” she grumbled adorably.

When I reminded her of the task ahead, she perked up. When she said she wanted to go with me to take care of Eldar, I figured she’d change her mind after sleeping on it, but she was as determined as ever to take part.

“It won’t be pretty,” I warned. “And I won’t hold back just because you’re there. This needs to happen. It’s been a long time coming.”

“I don’t want you to hold back,” she said, heading for the shower. “I’m not going to.”

I let my eyes roam over her lush curves, happy for the moment just to take in the view. It wouldn’t take much to distract me, and it was better to get this unsavory task over with so we could move on with our lives. I still had no idea what that looked like, but there was time to figure it out.

Time to breathe and possibly become more like a married couple instead of a prisoner and a guard. As soon as we were both clean and dressed, we headed out to the place I had instructed my men to take Eldar. There were still the ones who’d lied to me, but I didn’t want to involve Mila with that. It was enough that I let her relieve her anger on my uncle with a few slaps to the face before I took over.

Except that wasn’t what happened at all. Mila didn’t shrink from the first sign of blood on Eldar’s face. Instead, it seemed to fuel her. The old man was tied to a chair, weakened from the multiple blows to the head I gave him with the butt of my gun. He sneered when he saw Mila walk in with me, and if he was worried when the man guarding him hurried to leave us alone with him, he didn’t show it.

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