Page 16 of Plus-Size Bratva Possession
I stepped closer to her, looming over her shorter frame. “You think you're so clever, don't you? Walking in here, airing my business to my family?”
To my surprise, she didn't back away. Instead, she tilted her head up to maintain eye contact, completely unfazed by my proximity. “I am clever. And I'm not afraid of you, so you can stop with the intimidation tactics.”
“I kidnapped you,” I reminded her. “Forced you into marriage. Locked you in my home. Most people would be terrified.”
“I'm not most people,” she said simply. “I grew up with six brothers in a family not unlike yours. You think you're the first angry man who's tried to scare me into submission?”
I studied her face, noting the complete lack of fear in her expression. It was... unusual. And oddly refreshing. Most people, men and women alike, knew better than to challenge me directly.
“Your brothers have clearly failed in teaching you proper respect,” I said.
She let out a short laugh. “Oh, they taught me plenty. Like how to recognize when a man is compensating for his insecurities with aggression and the size of their cocks.”
I felt heat rise to my face, to hear that word on her lips. “You think I'm insecure?”
“I think you're terrified,” she said, those hazel eyes seeing right through me in a way that made my skin prickle. “Terrified that Larissa choosing Giovanni means there's something wrong with you, not him.”
“You don't know what you're talking about,” I growled.
“Don't I?” She took a step closer, so close that I could smell her shampoo mixed with the coffee on her breath. “You kidnapped me because you can't stand the thought that your sister might be happier without you in her life.”
I grabbed her arm before I could stop myself. “You're crossing a line.”
She looked pointedly at my hand on her arm, then back up at me. “Am I? Or am I just saying what no one else has the guts to tell you?”
Something about her fearlessness made me release her. “You think you have me all figured out.”
“Not all,” she conceded. “But enough to know this little revenge fantasy of yours isn't going to work out the way you think.”
“And how do you think it's going to work out?” I asked, genuinely curious despite myself.
“One of two ways,” she said, counting off on her fingers. “Either my family finds me and there's bloodshed on both sides, or you eventually realize this was a terrible idea and let me go. Either way, you lose.”
“There's a third option,” I countered. “I'll keep you here until your family accepts the situation. Just like I had to accept Larissa's choice.”
Elena shook her head. “That's never going to happen.”
For a brief moment, I felt a stab of something uneasy in my chest. It felt like she was… turning me down. I didn’t like it, not one bit, and the fact that her words meant something made me even more furious at myself.
“This doesn't have to be so complicated,” she said, her voice suddenly softer. “If you don't like how this is playing out, you could just let me go. No harm, no foul.”
I snorted. “Over my dead body.”
“You know that? That can be easily arranged,” she snapped back, angry again on realizing she hadn’t succeeded in getting through to me.
With a final, measuring look, she turned and walked away, her back straight, her steps hurried as though she couldn’t get away from me fast enough.
I watched her walk away, noticing details I had no business noticing, how tight that T-shirt was on her, the fullness of her ass in those track pants.
I found myself unable to look away, turning my idea of her over and over again in my head. She was unlike any woman I’d met before. She was made of fire, it seemed, and the way she threw my words back at me without hesitation, the way she rose to meet a fight head-on, told me she’d never go down easy.
Never.
She reminded me of a lioness.
It was... irritating. And strangely intoxicating.
I'd expected tears, fear, maybe even desperate bargaining. Instead, I got a woman who looked me straight in the eye and threatened to arrange my death. Part of me wanted to laugh. Another part wanted to grab her and—
