Page 112 of Thorns of Lust
Fury blazed in his blue eyes, but I had the upper hand. I’d take it easy for Tatiana’s sake, but not her brothers.
Vasili’s jaw ticked, and it didn’t take a genius to know he was pissed. “My sister is not for sale. Nor will she ever be.” I didn’t comment, waiting for him to come to his own conclusion that he really didn’t have a choice in this matter.
“Adrian’s actions are his own,” Alexei said dryly. “He was a grown man and made his own choices.”
“Which now falls back on Tatiana,” I answered sharply.
“Why her?” Vasili demanded to know, watching me as if he’d find the answer on my face. Yeah, good luck, fucker. “She’s nothing to you. And she’s everything to us.” Fucking wrong. She was everything to me. Sun, moon, stars. The whole fucking world. “She’s been going through a hard time since Adrian’s death.”
“Stop fucking explaining yourself to him,” Sasha snapped at his brother. “I know my sister and she’d never choose you.”
Wrong.
“This is non-negotiable.” My voice came out as a dull roar, his words fueling the fire already burning inside me. Tatiana was mine and nobody would keep her from me. Not even her fucking brothers. Her protective brothers were her only downfall.
I stared at the three of them with cold fury; the men who stood in my way of getting what I wanted.
“She’s not into you, Konstantin,” Sasha grumbled. “You’re not even her type.”
The anger twisted in my chest with aversion before icing over. I recognized the feeling. It was the very same one that my papa often described when he learned of Mama’s betrayal. She was his vice, and it ruined him just like that white powder was ruining Maxim.
I was well enroute of letting Tatiana become my vice. Or maybe I was already there. The need for her spread through my veins like lava. Hot and consuming. For as long as there was life in my body, there would be no giving her up.
I got up, buttoned my jacked and turned to leave.
“I’ll let you process the merging of our families,” I said as I opened the door and came face-to-face with my obsession. My eyes traveled over her slim frame, her signature black and white Chanel outfit hugging her body like a second skin.
Her eyes flashed in surprise and her cheeks colored crimson. She flicked a look behind me, then back to me, her gaze questioning what I was doing here.
“Tatiana,” I greeted her, smiling smugly. Let her sweat a bit. Or maybe she’d get so brave to question her brothers about what I was doing here. Although I doubted they’d tell her anything. They always protected her and sheltered her from everything.
“Time to wear some color,” I remarked, then passed by her, inhaling her sweet perfume.
Roses would be the death of me.
* * *
Five hours later, I sat in my own library behind my own desk with a cigar in hand, studying my twin brother.
This city home belonged to both of us, but I found it peculiar that he found himself here. He hated this place and hadn’t stepped foot in this home since our father died.
Silence held steady in the room, my eyes on him. He was thinner and paler, dark shadows under his eyes. My muscles tightened and aggravation lit my chest. The thought swept through me that maybe, just maybe, I had fucked up by protecting my brother for all those years. Maybe I had made him weaker.
“So, you’re going to join our bloodline with the Nikolaev bitch?” he spat out, the name like a disease on his tongue.
“Watch it, Maxim,” I warned in a cold voice. He might be my brother but Tatiana was so much more. Something visceral and violent swept through me every time I thought about that woman. I wanted… no,neededher naked underneath me, her nails on my skin, and her round ass under my palms.
But even more, I wanted her protected. Marriage to me would render her untouchable.
“I thought you hated blondes?” Maxim asked casually, referring to our mother. When I didn't answer, he continued, “Illias... the name of my papa and brother. Both of you, the same person. Killers.”
My gaze could kill a lesser man. Maxim was lucky to be my brother, or I would have killed him right here on the spot.
After what our mother had pulled off, Papa couldn’t stomach blondes. Maxim was too high to realize he was mixing up the facts. Unless he thought he was talking to our father. We shared a name but we weren’t the same person.
“You’re just as fucked up as Papa,” he said. “You’ll chase a woman to death, just like he did. Will you pull the trigger and execute her likehedid?”
My expression darkened, telling him one more word and he’d find himself dead. He opened his mouth, then seeing my hardened gaze, he closed his mouth, proving he still had some self-preservation left in him.
