Page 48 of The Bratva King's Auctioned Bride

“What is all this for?” She leaned over the flowers and breathed in their heady scent with a sigh, then looked at me suspiciously.

I laughed. “I just thought you deserved a nice evening after all your hard work.”

This was true, and I left it unsaid that it was impossible for us to go out on the town. It was dangerous enough to let her go to meetings with me in full disguise. That was yet another thing I missed because of our situation, finding places to take her that would impress and delight her, like our one date in Rome.

Pulling out her chair, I pressed a kiss on the top of her head as she slid into the seat. Like she had down to the flowers, I breathed her in, enjoying her as much as any rare bloom. There was more to this date than just the fact that she deserved something nice, and it was the main source of my consternation. I kept it to myself until the end of the meal, because what I had to say wasn’t a question. It was going to happen, and I only hoped it would make her happy. If not right away, then in the long run, because I was going the distance with her.

“That was so good,” she said, pushing away her dessert plate. She eyed the rich chocolate layer cake in the center of the table, and I picked up the serving knife to cut her another slice. “No, I’ll pop like a greedy mosquito if I eat another bite,” she said, smiling warmly at me.

I hoped it lasted. I took her hand and kissed it, looking into the azure depths of her eyes. “You are so damn beautiful, Mila,” I said.

She blushed, then narrowed her eyes, sensing I was working up to something. “What’s going on?”

“I finally have a plan,” I told her. She leaned forward, eager to hear it, at least for the moment. After a deep breath, I spit it out. I had given this a lot of thought and believed it was best for both of us. “We’re going back to LA. I’m reclaiming my territory.” Her hand went limp in mine. “Our territory,” I hastily corrected.

Would she agree with me that this was the right step? Her face was blank, utterly unreadable. What I announced was the last thing she expected to hear. Holding my breath, I waited for whatever she had to say, ready for anything. Her silence only continued.

Chapter 34 - Mila

Well, there it was, hurtling back to nearly knock me off my chair. Reality. That bitch.

I could only stare blankly at Arkadi’s announcement that we were going back to Los Angeles. It had to end sooner or later. Of course, I couldn’t keep living in this lovely little bubble of intrigue and disguises and Arkadi’s kisses. Every day, it got harder and harder to pretend we were just any other normal couple, living out our daily lives in peace.

Ha, not exactly in peace. Half the fun was the amount of asses we were kicking, together.

It was getting harder to ignore those painful stabs of guilt whenever I thought about how much my brothers must have been worrying about me. There was no way they didn’t know I was missing by now, and were probably frantically scouring the globe for any sign of me. All while I was traipsing around under our parents’ noses in wigs and prosthetics, and other makeup. Swanning around like I was the queen of Arkadi’s castle, lost in a cloud of…

What? What was I lost in? The revenge was sweet, for sure, but over right away. Was it happiness? Love? But how could I possibly have either of those with my family’s worst enemy?

Was there any other way?

Arkadi had been taking me to his appointments, and not just to get me out of the house and keep me from feeling like a prisoner. He’d been asking for my advice, urging me to speak up when I had an opinion. I had video meetings about the quarry almost every day, and while he sometimes sat in when he hada spare moment, he never took over or spoke up unless I asked him to.

The business Aleks had given me, but couldn’t keep his nose out of, was running without a hitch. Despite the whirlwind of the last couple of weeks, we’d managed to sign the contract with the sculpture company, and the first commissions were underway. Unlike my older brother, Arkadi treated me like an equal, someone competent enough to run a business. My confidence was back, and it was all because of him. Or me, partly because of me, because I hadn’t shriveled at my life’s complete upheaval. I was as strong as Arkadi believed me to be.

Stronger.

But was I strong enough to face the Pandora’s box that was sure to open once my overprotective brothers knew where I’d been all this time. Who I was with. Just the fact that Arkadi had kidnapped me and forced me into marriage was going to be a problem. Once they learned that I kind of, sort of, didn’t want things to change?

Oh God, and now Arkadi announced out of the blue that he wanted to take back everything my brothers wrested from him. That wasn’t going to go over well, to put it nicely. That meant another war. This time, with so much more at stake, at least for me. Because now I couldn’t easily choose a side.

He kept looking at me beseechingly, as if whatever I said meant the world to him. The way he treated me, I could easily believe it did. He wouldn’t leave me. He wouldn’t go back to being a tyrant. Right?

I opened my mouth, but no sound came out, my thudding heart cutting off the words that could shatter everything. What the hell did I do to make everyone happy in this situation? And still manage to keep a drop of happiness for myself.

“I—I can’t,” I finally managed, keeping my eyes down. “I can’t be part of something that will hurt my family.” Tears blurred my vision as I twisted my hands in my lap. The chocolate cake we ate after the lavish meal he had prepared sat like a lead ball in my stomach.

“It doesn’t have to be that way,” he said, his voice surprisingly gentle. “We can finally have the peace we should have had.”

My head whipped up, hackles raised at that little shot. “That last rupture certainly wasn’t my brothers’ fault,” I snapped, glaring at him. Arkadi had kidnapped my newest sister-in-law, for goodness’ sake.

He held up his hand in surrender. “I get it. That was all me. Mila, I’ve changed since then, grown the maturity I thought I had but obviously didn’t. Things are different now.”

He sounded sincere, instantly taking responsibility. But could I honestly trust him, or was it the effects of the bubble that had me yearning to be on his side?

“How are things different?” I asked, still glaring.

He reached for my hand, pulling it out of my lap and twining his fingers with mine. “Because now I have a reason to want to build instead of burning everything down.”

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