Page 44 of Stolen By the Bratva

As I watched Alek sleep, I couldn’t help but feel apprehensive about my future. I would live. I would survive. Because of him. He was promising that my father wouldn’t kill me. At the same time, I felt uneasy about how I would manage being a wife. His wife. He’d already shown me a sample of how good it could be with his big, hard dick stretching me with that delicious burn of pain. I’d felt so full, but so good as he pushed me to come again and again.

That was the trickiest element about it all. Alek’s… power. This man messed with my head in a way no one else had tried to, and I felt unsteady with him. He made me want him. I undeniably did. But I knew I shouldn’t.

For fuck’s sake, he still kept me tied. I didn’t anticipate winning his trust, not in anything too important, but he couldn’t expect to keep me trapped and bound forever, could he?

Of course, he won’t. Until we left here to get married, I was a kidnapped woman. I was a bride stolen from the church. With that qualifier, these strips of fabric made sense on my hands. He wanted to get me out of marrying Andrey, and he had.

Even though it wasn’t due or warranted, I did have faith that he would release me before we went. I hadn’t argued against his idea to marry. I didn’t tell him no, despite how I should have. He’d hear no protests from my lips, and the quicker I convinced myself, my mind, that this was my best option forward, the easier it would be to adjust to connecting my life with his.

I could do my part. Right? I’d never given myself a sincere hope that I could marry for love. Getting hitched with Alek was just an obligation to see through, and I would damn well make the best of it that I could. Sticking with him was preferred to returning to my murderous father since he only saw me as an expendable object to toss away.

“Second thoughts?”

I jolted at Alek’s deep voice. It was so low and husky, full of sleep, and my traitorous body reacted to his smoldering gaze as I looked at his face. He’d been so still that I thought he was still sleeping. Now, I wondered how long he’d been watching me muse about my predicament.

If I admitted my nerves, it wouldn’t change anything. I wanted to stand by my decision to make the best of this. I could do this. I would see this through, dammit. “No. No second thoughts.”

“Hmm.” He sat up, stretching and looking at his phone.

I’d fallen asleep to him talking to one of his brothers, and I realized that hearing his voice was so comforting that it could always have that effect on me. A deep, sonorous tone, lulling me to relax. I hadn’t lowered my guard this much before, and I worried that he could hold such power over me.

“Maxim texted me last night that everything is arranged.”

I tracked him through the apartment as he changed into the suit he’d arrived here in. “Everything meaning…?”

“He’s found a priest and secured another secret location for us.” He held my gaze as he pulled his shirt on, hiding his chiseled, sexy body.

“What about a dress?” I sassed back, almost laughing. The jerk ripped my bodice. My panties had been shredded in half. And my skirts were… I craned my neck, looking around the bed the best I could with this angle. I had no clue where the remains of my gown were.

“These will sort of work.” Alek held up the many layers of my gown. A few rough tugs ripped the tulle and lacy filler. All that remained was a simplified shift. “And I’ll find a shirt.”

I huffed, amused that I’d marry without any lingerie.

“And what about these?” I wiggled my hands, bringing his attention back to my hands that were still bound to the headboard. “I can’t see how you plan to drag me across town cuffed like this. Not unless you want to attract attention.”

He strode to the bed, glaring at me with an undercurrent of a warning in his eyes. After he extracted a blade from his pocket, he cut through the strips of white fabric that he'd used to leash me to the bed.

My arms fell, and the material of my bindings slithered lower. Before I could move them and flex my sore muscles from the position, Alek took hold of me and ran his hot, callused hands over my flesh. With a kneading rub, he massaged my arms and lowered them. In the same motion, he guided me to sit up and swing my legs off the bed.

I moaned at his touch, relieved to have my arms back down. Blood circulated so fast that it almost dizzied me, and as he helped me stand, I shivered through the pinpricks of tingles along my skin.

He held one hand as he unwrapped the bindings from the other, then he switched to loosen the other ties. Both of his hands remained on my wrists, rubbing and caressing where the material had dug into my skin a fair bit.

“You keep moaning like that…” he threatened darkly.

“It feels so good.”

“I could make you feel better,” he teased, dipping low to pick me up. He collected me in his arms so suddenly, I screeched in shock. I’d been lying down so long, only up to go to the bathroom a few times, that I felt like I was topsy-turvy.

He carried me to the bathroom and set me on my feet. As he turned on the shower and then checked the gauze he’d tied on my arm, I held back a laugh. “Yeah, you can make me feel better by promising to never tie me up like that again.”

His lips smashed over mine, claiming my mouth in a hard, fast kiss. I rocked back, surprised at his kiss, but he caught me with his arm around my waist.

“No,” he replied, turning me to face the shower. He kept his arms around me, one hand cupping my breast as he thumbed my nipple into a stiff peak. His other hand slid lower, over my stomach, until he rubbed his palm against my mound.

I breathed in the steam from the shower. From zero to sixty, he revved me up to instant, total desire. Leaning my head back on his chest, I sighed and spread my legs wider apart, already getting used to how badly I’d want to give him the easiest access to where I ached for him.

“I can make you feel better. Like this.” He stabbed his finger past my folds and collected my cream. Already, I was dripping for him. When he rocked his hips against my ass, grinding his hard-on along my crack, I breathed faster yet.

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