Page 63 of Plus-Size Bratva Bride

I tilt my head to the side.

“Did you really used to race cars?” I ask, grinning and changing the subject to make it less of a serious tone in here.

She cracks up laughing.

“You’ve been dying to ask me that since I mentioned it, haven’t you? Don’t you believe me?” she asks with all the sass in her voice.

“It’s not that I don’t believe you, but girls don’t generally do street racing.”

“Well, I’m driving next time we go somewhere,” she says more of a challenge than anything else.

“Uh, no. I drive,” I say, shaking my head.

“Well, no matter what I say you aren’t going to believe me, so I need to show you, smartass.”

She giggles and rolls onto her back, staring up at the ceiling.

“I love driving. And working on cars too. Grigor taught me everything. He was doing it from a lot younger than me, but then he got me interested in it and it was like our thing. You know.” She glances at me. This is the first time she has spoken about her lost brother without that ache of pain I usually see in her eyes. This is a fond memory, and she is allowing herself to feel it.

“What kind of car did you race?” I ask, leading her deeper into the memory and enjoying hearing about things that are close to her heart.

“Well, my favorite was this beaten up old Reno five. I mean it wasold.It was the first car I ever raced, and I think they let me drive it because no one cared if I crashed it. But then it turned out I was actually really good at driving and they tried to give me a souped up golf, but I still wanted the Reno.” She laughs.

“Grigor helped me spray the entire thing pink and put under glow on it.”

“It sounds like something I would have enjoyed seeing. But I probably would have died with stress watching you race.”

“No, you wouldn’t have. Not after you saw how good I was at it.” She rolls towards me and props herself up on her elbow.

“What crazy things have you done?” she asks, probing into my past.

“Mm. My brother and I once stole a helicopter.” I chuckle.

“No way—“ she says, her eyes wide and her mouth open in shock. “How? Where?”

And all night we talk.

We share stories and laugh and learn about each other.

The intimacy between us grows deeper as the dark hours of night roll forward and eventually, after it feels like she knows everything about my entire life and I know all about hers, she falls asleep in my arms and I lie there, stroking her soft, dark hair, and realizing that I am falling madly in love with her.

In fact,I already have.

I’ve fallen.

I love her.

Chapter 19 - Jade

“Do you know anything about his opponent tonight?” I ask, excited to see Renat in the cage again. Even though he doesn’t seem to like me, I’ve kind of figured out that it’s normal for him to be suspicious of new people and I shouldn’t take offense to it.

His warning doesn’t necessarily mean he knows anything about me that would put me in danger.

“I don’t. I didn’t have a chance to check in with Roman or Ruvim yet. They are all meeting us there though,” Radmir says, turning into the parking lot of the same derelict building that hosted the fight last time.

“You stay close to me in there,” Radmir warns me as we climb out of the car and walk towards the doors.

“I know.” I giggle, enjoying his overprotective nature.

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