Page 39 of The Bratva's Innocent Pregnant Bride
Our eyes locked and a tremor seemed to pass between us, even without a single touch. How did the whole world keep spinning when we were so close? Gravity itself had to want us together.
I helped her get into position, the feel of her familiar and exciting at the same time. When she let the arrow fly, she turned to me with a huge grin. “Okay, yeah. That was fun.”
“I know what you like,” I said, making her blush.
“Sometimes,” she answered.
I leaned close. “Is that a challenge?”
She was bright red, rescued from answering when Artie hurried over, demanding a turn. Between us, we helped them shoot off arrows until the sun began to set, and Paisley deemed it was no longer safe in the waning light.
“She’s right,” Aleks told the two kids when they burst into disagreement. “But how about we have a bonfire?”
That made them forget everything else, especially with the promise of roasting marshmallows was thrown into the mix. As soon as the fire was roaring in the firepit, the crafty women came out, hoisting their wreaths to hang around the courtyard. They laughed about the varying levels of success, and their husbands gathered to admire them whether they were any good or not.
It was a homey scene, made even more cozy when we were all gathered around the bonfire with a fresh pot of cocoa and a pitcher of spicy apple cider. Dima and Olivia’s daughter Kira perched on my knee, laughing as she tried to swipe marshmallows from the bag before I could get them on the stick to roast them.
Across from me sat Mila, drawing absently in her ever present sketch book. Her husband Arkadi sat beside her holding their infant daughter Katerina, and no one would have guessed that the doting father was ever one of our worst enemies. Same with Kolya, who was next to him, holding my cousin Nat’s baby boy, Aleksander, named after Nat’s father. I’d forgiven them and accepted them, but further down was Anatoli, his arm firmly around Masha, as if he belonged.
Most of my other cousins were fine with him. Even Rurik had given in with good grace and joked with him as sparks flew from the fire and they both leaned to protect Masha. It was really only me who still didn’t trust him, and I couldn’t shake the urge punch him in the face.
Paisley sat down beside me with a questioning look. “What’s wrong?” she asked. “You look pissed off all of a sudden.”
I felt a surge of warmth that she cared, and shook my head. “Did I? Have a marshmallow.”
I offered the one that I just pulled out of the fire, to Kira’s screech of dismay. Paisley rolled her eyes at my deflection, and made me give the gooey blob to Kira, popping one of her own on a stick.
“Maybe one of these days you’ll give me a straight answer to a question,” she said.
“Keep trying,” I told her earnestly. Of course I couldn’t tell her why I despised my favorite cousin’s new husband, just like I couldn’t tell her what the family business was. Most women as sweet as Paisley would run screaming from someone who was involved in organized crime. The leaders of the most powerful mafia family in the state of California would have had her on the next flight out of Aspen.
I couldn’t have that. Just sitting next to her, I could feel the undercurrent of electricity that passed between us, with all the heat of the fire. But there was something more, too. Something comfortable that I could get used to, like watching my cousins with their wives. Easy and right and true.
Once the bags of marshmallows were all consumed, either by sticky little mouths or lost to the fire, Aleks and Katie told Alina it was time to get ready for bed. Paisley jumped up to lead her charge inside, and Dima hoisted his sleepy daughter off my lap to carry her in. The moon was high in the sky and stars glittered. Now that Paisley was gone, I was no longer charmed by the dying fire or the beautiful night.
As I passed Mila on my way back inside, she grabbed my wrist to stop me, tearing off a page from her sketchbook. “I’ve been drawing everyone all evening,” she said with a soft smile.
She was a talented artist, and I was touched, about to thank her as I looked down at what she drew. The words dried up as I took in the scene she’d deftly created with her pencils.
In it, I sat leaning over the fire, balancing the stick with a marshmallow on it over the flames. Kira sat on my knee, her head resting against my chest as she gazed into the fire. Paisley sat next to me, turned to look at me, her beauty captured perfectly on the paper. What made me lose my voice at the simple scene was the fact that Paisley seemed to be gazing at me in a way I never could have imagined possible. A way I could only wish. The drawing evoked the exact feelings I’d had, of warmth and family and yearning.
I furrowed my brows. Could Paisley feel the same way and somehow Mila had caught it in this sketch? When I tore my eyes from the picture, I tried to play it cool, but Mila gave me a knowing smile.
“I just draw what I see,” she said, reading the question on my face.
I managed to thank her and hurried inside, determined to find Paisley and have a conversation with her. To try to break past her wall that had started to come down when we were trapped together in the cabin, but was all the way back up again. I wanted this thing between us to be more than just wild sex and arguments.
She was occupied with overseeing the little ones’ bath time so I prowled around the library, taking books off the shelves and putting them back without seeing them at all. I clicked through a few channels, and quickly gave up, not wanting to miss her.
CJ’s dog wanted to be let out, so I stepped out back with him while he did his business, about to ditch him out there in the snow when he took too long. “Hurry up,” I told him impatiently, making him jump at my harsh tone.
Then I felt guilty and had to get him a treat, and by the time I made it back upstairs, I’d missed my opportunity to grab Paisley and get her alone to say everything that was on my mind. The sketch was in my jacket pocket, burning a hole in my chest with the urge to make what I saw in it a reality. Too late, she was already locked in her room, and Katie was coming out of Alina’s room so I ducked into mine before she could accuse me of anything untoward.
Damn it. Paisley was way too professional to start something while she was still working for my family. Christmas was just around the corner, and she was worth it, but the wait seemed interminable.
Chapter 26 - Paisley
Keeping the kids busy during the few days we had to stick close to the lodge took my mind off the most recent message from Agent Pierce, and I barely had time to look at my phone. When I did have time at night, I ignored it, the same as I ignored the feelings for Dan that I couldn’t seem to fight.
