Page 111 of Thorns of Lust
“I’ll be brief,” I started, my eyes darting over Tatiana’s brothers. “For Adrian’s fuck up and yours, for letting him get as far as he did, I want Tatiana’s hand in marriage.”
There was no sense in beating around the bush. The bomb was dropped. Now let the games begin.
“Are you for-fucking-real?” No surprise, Tatiana’s protective brother who saved her from her bitch mother spoke first. He could be a pain in my fucking ass. “Fuck you. Fuck no. Get the fuck out. Is that fucking clear?”
A deadly stillness fell over me. My grip tightened. Their sister would be mine, whether they liked it or not. She was worth starting a war for.
“Not fucking clear.” I gave my head a shake or risked losing my tightly reined control. And if I lost it, I’d beat the shit out of Tatiana’s favorite brother. “I can make you pay or you’ll stay out of my fucking way.”
“Fuck you, Illias,” Sasha hissed. “You can’t have her. You owe me.”
Sasha’s words were laced with venom and ready to fight glares. It wasn’t surprising that Tatiana’s brothers hadn’t taken my demand lightly.
An amused breath escaped me. “You collected your debt. Remember? The kidnapped bride you’re hiding here.”
Sasha leaned forward but Vasili’s wordless glare stopped him short.
Tense silence drifted through the air. Alexei stood unnaturally still, leaning against the wall with his arms folded and his eyes on the door and me. Vasili sat on the chair next to me and opposite of Sasha who kept flipping his knife. Open. Close. Open. Close.
It grated on my fucking nerves. My fingers itched for my gun. I could shoot him in the palm, just a tiny bullet.
“If you think this is a joke, I’m not laughing,” Vasili commented. His furrowed brows and those pale blue eyes studied me as if he thought he’d decipher whatever was going on in my brain. Yeah, no chance of that. I had never expressed interest in Tatiana, and nobody knew about the encounter the two of us had in the gazebo.
Apparently not even the woman I had it with. I had to swallow the frustration in my chest. The irrational part that demanded I take her back to the gazebo and fuck her brains out so she’d remember.
Jesus Christ.
“Why her?” Sasha hissed, pulling my attention to the craziest Nikolaev. “You’ve seen her once.”
I shrugged my shoulders instead of answering.
“She won’t take well to being forced into marriage,” Vasili remarked dryly. At least he was smart enough to consider it. He knew the repercussions of Adrian’s fuck up, and how badly it reflected on their family. And that was putting it mildly.
“She’ll come around.”Eventually.
“Clearly you don’t know Tatiana then,” Alexei commented in a cold voice.
Alexei Nikolaev.
The tattoos on his face and every inch of his skin sent people running. It took a bit more to make me even consider it, but it seemed to work on most people. I knew it unnerved my twin brother, even before he decided to get lost in the drugs.
“Adrian’s shady dealings and attempt to blackmail put Tatiana and your family in a peculiar position. His fuck up is viewed as hers and by default yours. You know as well as I do, revenge is the name of the game in our world. Tatiana’s marriage to me would protect her.”
Vasili shook his head. “Tatiana needs time.”
“She’s had almost a year.” My voice was cold and my intent clear.
“She’ll never agree,” Sasha chimed in. “She’d sooner cut your balls off than marry you. I’m not much into balls but fuck it, for her I’d cut yours off.”
“And I’d cut out your tongue just to stop hearing your goddamn voice,” I said in an unnaturally calm voice. “I’ll keep this short and clear so your little psychotic brain can process it. Tatianawillmarry me. By the end of this year, she’ll carry my last name.”
My words were a razor-sharp demand.
“We can protect her,” Alexei stated calmly. His and Sasha’s temperament were like night and day. It was beyond me how the two got along.
“No, you can’t.” Our gazes burned into the other’s while animosity danced through the air. “Your father pulled Adrian into your family in order to make contact with an organization. And as such, the Nikolaevs took the responsibility for Adrian’s actions from that day forward.”
Surprise flashed on Sasha’s and Alexei’s faces, telling me their big brother didn’t shareeverythingwith them. Not surprising. When you play caretaker for so long, it is hard to switch off that mode.
