Page 48 of Chained Fate
“I love you, Alexei.I think a part of me has always loved you… even when I thought I hated you.It just took me time to realize it.”
And tightening my grip on the blanket, I wait for his response.
Chapter23
Alexei
Isit up, my heart slamming painfully against my ribs as I stare at my wife.
Did I just hear that right?
“You love me.”My voice comes out flat.Emotionless.As though there isn’t a volcanic storm raging inside me, battering my chest with all kinds of contradictory feelings… like violent joy and bitter disbelief.
If she’d told me this yesterday or any other day, I would’ve been over the fucking moon.This is what I’ve always wanted, what I’ve been convinced would eventually happen.But a kernel of doubt was planted on our walk, and even though no attack took place as we hurried home, I still can’t help but wonder if everything that’s occurred between us since we came back to the penthouse has been part of her plan to get me to lower my guard… including this confession.
Her throat ripples as her fingers tighten on the blanket she’s holding up.“Yes.I do.”
Fuck.This is tearing me apart.All I want is to embrace her and tell her how much I love her, how I absolutelyadoreher and always fucking have, but the suspicion that she’s playing me is like a poisonous seed stuck in my throat.I’ve already shared too much in the warm afterglow of sex, and what comes to my mind now is how she’d willingly embraced me at the clinic before her treatment, only to slip away right after we’d had sex.How she sought me out at her friend’s fundraiser a few weeks after Ksenia’s death, allegedly to offer me her sympathy… only to run and hide in Nikolai’s Idaho compound immediately afterward.
Is that what’s happening here?
Is she giving me something she knows I badly want in order to up her chances of a successful escape?
Did her fuckingbrothersput her up to this?
No.I refuse to believe it.I’ve always been able to read her; unlike Valery, deception isn’t her strong suit.And yet… I can’t bring myself to speak, to return the words I know she’s waiting to hear.
Instead, I do the only thing I can.
I reach for the blanket she’s holding and pull it away, baring her exquisite breasts.Then I give in to the ever-present hunger raging inside me, the desperate need no amount of sex will ever sate.
I show her with my body what I can’t tell her with my words, make her come over and over again, and when she’s finally worn out and asleep, I hold her tightly as I lie wide awake, my mind cycling through all the possible weak spots in my security arrangements, all the ways she could be taken from me… all the ways I could still lose her.
Like I lost Ksenia.
And my mother.
And now my father.
I shouldn’t care about the latter.Even before I learned about Ksenia’s terrible secret, we weren’t close.So it shouldn’t matter, shouldn’t hurt, but it does, and I don’t fucking know why.
The funeral is tomorrow afternoon.We’ll fly out early in the morning, and then we’ll be home, the difficult days of Alina’s treatment behind us as we start our new life together as a married couple.
It’s everything I’ve always wanted, so why can’t I close my eyes and just fuckingsleep?
My head is poundingas our jet touches down on our private airstrip in Moscow.I’d just finally closed my eyes when my alarm went off.The morning flew by in a blur of preparations and coordination with my security team, and then we were off.I was hoping to sleep on the plane, like Alina did, but I was too wound up.
The good news is we’ve made it to Moscow in one piece.Nobody attacked us on the way to the airport or while we were in the air—not that I was really expecting the latter.The Molotovs wouldn’t do anything to endanger their sister, I’m reasonably sure of that.Now we just need to get through the funeral, and I’ll finally be able to relax in my own bed.
With Alina.
My wife, who says she loves me.
Fuck.If I could just fully trust her, I?—
“Are you okay?”Alina’s voice is soft, her eyes filled with sympathy when I meet her gaze.
Since we’re heading straight to the funeral, she’s already wearing a long-sleeved black dress, her slender, shapely legs clad in opaque black tights that disappear into high-heeled black ankle boots.It’s a simple, monochromatic outfit, but my Alinyonok looks amazing in it, as always.Her full lips are once again painted red, her green eyes are lined with the black stuff that makes them especially cat-like, and the paleness of her porcelain skin forms a dramatic contrast with her dark outfit.
