Page 48 of The Watcher's Bride

Max.

Chapter 30

Leo

The seconds tick by agonizingly slowly until finally, it is time for me to turn around to face her. I’d wanted to turn to look earlier when she first walked out, but my uncle’s stern instructions had been to wait for him to signal when. Judging by the look on his face as he sees her, he’s pissed at me. He knows I lied about her beauty. But then she starts to walk, and he notices her limp, his face contorting with disgust. I want to rip his throat out for looking at her like that. I pray she hasn’t noticed.

She looks even more beautiful than I remembered, though her hair has been dyed and is now longer. Though there’s a hollowness to her, a look of defeat that makes me want to rip Eamonn Quinn’s still beating heart from his chest for doing it to her. I can tell from her tense posture and the way she is holding her breath that being so close to him, for him to have his hand possessively on her arm like that is unbearable to her.

I try to remain calm. To remind myself of why she has to go through this. I have to keep up the pretense just a little longer. Once she’s mine, I can come clean to her about everything. I can make her happy. I will give her vengeance against Quinn for every ounce of pain she’s endured because of him. I will make her understand.

The six days without her were agony. Six days of not seeing her, of not knowing what Quinn was subjecting her to, of not being able to do anything about it. I’ve never felt more helpless in my life. I pushed for the wedding to be as soon aspossible without arousing suspicion, but still, I fear those days have harmed Nora in ways I can’t even begin to imagine.

As recognition flickers across her face, she barely hides the confusion and hurt before replacing it with the cool mask she’s adopting to get through this. I know that the cause of this new pain is me, my lies. I pretended to be someone I am not. She knows me only as Max her neighbor, not Leonid Belyh, heir to the Bratva fortune and rival of her father.

The way she looks at me now wounds me to my core. The fire in her eyes is gone. She looks every bit as fragile as her small frame suggests. I hope that seeing my face, she feels some sense of security, that she knows me, that finally she will seemeand not Max. I don’t have my contact lenses in today, I’m ready to confess, but when I see the hurt in her eyes, I’m not sure that I can.

When the ceremony begins, Nora’s gaze remains focused on the floor. I will her to look at me, to look into my eyes and see the truth. That it’s me, her watcher. The one she came undone for night after night. No one says anything when the priest asks if anyone has any objections to the union. They wouldn’t dare, not if they value their life. Even Nora doesn’t waver, her face still a blank canvas, hiding her emotions.

There’s a flicker of emotion across her face when the priest says, “Do you, Leonid Maksimovich Belyh, take Norelle Quinn to be your lawfully wedded wife?”

“I do,” I reply, my voice strong, clear, and without hesitation.

Nora hesitates when asked the same question. The moment’s pause feels like an eternity.

Finally, her voice barely above a whisper, she says, “I do.”

I have to remind myself for the rest of the ceremony to keep the grin off my face, adopting a stoic, small smile that doesn’t show my teeth. Nora is truly mine. Just a few more words, a couple of documents to sign, and it’s official. I try to inject as much comfort and love into my vows as I can without arousing Dimitri’s suspicions. The urge to reach out and touch her, to run away with her and never look back is overwhelming, but this is the best way to protect her. The only way.

I have to remind myself of that, especially when the priest says, “You may kiss the bride.”

Nora recoils as though scalded. We’ve kissed before, but with Nora’s aversion to being touched and the betrayal she’s feeling right now, I know kissing me in front of a roomful of strangers is the last thing she wants to do. I’d tried to convince Dimitri that it was an unnecessary part of the ceremony, but both he and Quinn were adamant it remained in. I do not doubt that it was purely a control and humiliation tactic on both their parts. They don’t know they’re marrying two soulmates. They think this is a forced union of strangers.

Nora stands stock still, but we have to do this, both of us know it. I step closer, taking the lead. I gently take her hand in mine and lightly squeeze her fingers.

It’s okay. I love you, I try to convey with my touch. Still, she won’t meet my eyes. As I lean down to kiss her, she scrunches her eyes tight and clenches her jaw, holding her breath. I lightly press my lips against her lips before pulling away.

The room erupts into applause, and I can hear my uncle boasting about how much more willing his brides were. “You call that a kiss?” he jeers.

I ignore it, taking the brief moment of distraction to whisper into Nora’s ear. “I’ll explain everything later, I promise.”

“No need. I see everything clearly now,” she hisses back, and I see a flicker of the fire back in her eyes.

There’s my girl.

The reception feels more like an Irish wake. I suppose to Nora it is. While the rest of the guests get drunk and are having a good time, Nora and I sit in awkward silence. The attempts I make to talk to her are met with monosyllabic replies or outright ignored. It seems my wife can hold a grudge.

My wife.

“If only your new bride seemed as happy by your union as you do, nephew,” my uncle says from my side at the table.

The smile drops from my face. He doesn’t have to say anything, I know what he’s thinking. I won’t deign myself to respond.

His blow having landed, he turns his attention to Quinn, who sits at Nora’s side. “I must say your daughter’s beauty lives up to your promises Quinn, but it is a shame about her deformity.”

Nora winces and the table takes a collective sharp intake of breath, wondering how Quinn will respond to the insult.

Quinn smiles, a shark’s grin that reveals all of his teeth. “Thank you, Belyh, she is quite lovely, isn’t she? So like her mother. However, I respectfully disagree.”

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