Page 84 of The Den of Sin
“I couldn’t agree with you more, sister.” Alexei’s voice was gentle, and I couldn’t stop staring at him. He was my brother. Well, half-brother, really. And he was Vasili’s half-brother too. Vasili and I had no blood relations, thank God, but the shared connection was uncomfortable.
“You don’t seem surprised, Isabella,” Vasili noted, his pale gaze on me sending shivers down my spine.
“After Mom passed away, I went through all her stuff and packed it up. I found her journal and a box with baby boy keepsakes and baby pictures. She mourned for her son’s loss and cried for the love she shared with Nikola… umm, your father. It was quite a surprise, all of it.” And she feared Lombardo Santos most of all, but I kept that to myself.
“I can only imagine,” Alexei muttered. “When Vasili found me, he gave me information overload.”
“How bad was your childhood?” I swallowed hard because I wasn’t sure if it was something I should ask.
Something about the way his eyes flashed told me that it had been bad -- really bad --, and my heart bled.I have a brother.
“I’m sorry,” I murmured. I wished there was something I could do to help. The scar on his lip didn’t compare to the invisible scars he carried.
“It’s in the past,” he grumbled.
“Do Sasha and Tatiana know?” It was odd that Tatiana never mentioned him, but I didn’t exactly come around a lot over the last five years.
“They know he is our half-brother.” Vasili seemed slightly agitated, and I wondered why. Did he not want to tell me about my connection with Alexei? “They don’t know about his connection to you.” He sighed. “There’s more, malyshka.”
“What?” I asked nervously.
“Did your mother ever tell you about who your father was?” he asked quietly, searching my face.
With a shaky breath, I prepared myself to tell him the truth. Then, realization struck me. He knew about my connection to Santos, and it dawned on me. Vasili said he loved me. He knew I was his enemy’s daughter, and still, he swore he wanted to spend the rest of our lives together. To love me. To have children with me. To learn surfing. I could hardly believe it. This man I’d loved for almost a decade wanted me. Loved me despite everything that told him he shouldn’t. My chest warmed at all those thoughts, and my insides actually shook with the revelation of them.
I wasn’t aware I was grinning till Alexei said something. “Why are you smiling like that?”
I turned my eyes back to Vasili and stared at him across the room, his hands in his pockets. When had he moved across the room? And why? He looked like I was about to deal him a death blow. His yellow hair shone like gold with sunshine rays through the window, but he looked like a dark angel with that tanned skin and dark suit.
I ran across the room and threw myself into his arms, my hands clasping around his neck. “You knew?” There was a confused look in his eyes. “You knew about my connection to Santos, and you still said all those words.”
My mouth pressed against his neck, my face burying into the crook of his neck. “I love you too,” I whispered, my whole body shaking with emotions. He felt so right, always had.
“Fuck,” he murmured, his mouth hungry on mine. “I was sure I had lost you. That I blew all my chances with you.”
His big hands took my waist, and he pulled me in to kiss me deeply. I sighed into his mouth, that familiar warmth spreading all over my body.
“Vasili, it has always been you. You were my first, and I want you to be my last.”
He made a noise of satisfaction in his throat, and my insides melted. “I love you, Isabella Taylor Santos. I want you forever. Marry me. I’m not getting any younger, and there isn’t a single minute I want to live without you.”
I stared at him, at a loss for words. Then I remembered Alexei. I turned my head in my brother’s direction but he wasn’t there.
“He left the second you threw yourself into my arms.” Vasili’s nose grazed along the skin on my neck, nipping gently. “Malyshka, I’ll be a good husband.”
My palm caressed his cheek softly. “I know you will. The best husband. And father.”
His grip around me tightened, and I knew this was as hard for him as it was for me.
“Yes.”
He searched out my eyes. “Yes, what?”
“Yes, I’ll marry you.”
He groaned in satisfaction and took my mouth in a deep kiss, stealing my breath away.
“Fuck, I want to marry you today, but unless I want war on my hands, we probably have to go and meet Raphael Santos.”
