Page 9 of Beautiful Sinner

“Grigori…” I shake my head. “I don’t know who that is.”

“He’s a respectable Bratva man. He doesn’t have ties to Erik Koslov, which is a good thing. He’s always been on his own island but he has money. Lots of it.”

“I thought you had a lot of money.”

“I do.” He straightens his tie. “But wars are expensive. I need to pay my men and I need to make sure I can keep paying them. Grigori would help with that.”

“Ok,” I say slowly. “Then I’d like to meet him.”

“Really?”

“I think it’s only fair.”

“I never made any promises to him about marrying you. It was his idea but I didn’t agree to it.”

“I could still meet him.” And who knows? Maybe he’ll help push Matteo from my mind.

Grigori comes over to the house, waltzing into our home like he owns the place. I stand next to Inessa, my sister-in-law. We’ve become close friends over the past year she’s been married to my brother. I’ve never really had any friends before. Viktor made sure I was home-schooled.

The moment I see Grigori, I squeeze Inessa’s hand with a gasp. She squeezes right back.

Grigori is… well, he’s old, to put it plainly. And I don’t mean middle aged. I meanold. Seventies at the youngest. His skin is wrinkled and sun spots decorate his face and neck and hands. Patches of white hair flutter up off his head. A can is gripped in his hand. Despite that, he still is able to move with relative ease.

“Grigori,” Viktor says tightly, shaking his hand.

“Thank you for inviting me over to your beautiful home.” Even his voice is old. I don’t mean to sound so rude. I’m sure he’s a lovely man. But marrying a man who’s old enough to be my grandfather is not something I want.

“Of course. My sister wanted to meet you. Grigori, this is Julia.”

He offers me his hand and I have to unclasp mine from Inessa’s. The moment my hand is in his, he kisses the back of it. I smile politely because that’s what I’ve been taught to do but everything inside of me wants to recoil.

“Pleasure to meet you, Julia.” His teeth are yellow-stained when he smiles. I detect the faint smell of cigarette smoke. I hate smokers. It’s a bad habit.

“Pleasure to meet you too.” I try to subtly pull my hand back but he doesn’t let me go. He just smiles at me.

Viktor clears his throat and Grigori finally releases my hand. “Shall we go into the living room?”

The four of us settle around the room – Viktor in the high back chair by the fireplace, me on the couch, and Inessa on the other chair because Grigori sits down beside me before she gets the chance. She offers me a pitying smile.

“So, you’ve come around to my offer,” Grigori says.

Viktor tenses. “Offer?”

“To marry your beautiful sister to me.”

“You have it wrong, Grigori. I never promised that. I was just entertaining the idea. Julia wanted to meet you and I obliged but there have been no promises made.”

“I was brought here under false pretenses then. I thought this was to discuss our marriage.”

Viktor’s face grows more stern. He’ll make himself look old in just a few years if he keeps this up. “It wasn’t under false pretenses. I invited you here to meet my sister. I never made promises of a marriage.”

“If you want my money, Viktor, then you’ll marry her to me. She is beautiful. Could use a bit more weight on her bones. I do want children after all.”

Inessa and I share a look.

“Julia is waiting to have children until she’s older,” Inessa says in her soft voice. She always looked and sounded more like an ethereal fairy than a human woman.

Grigori looks at her lazily. “And your point is?”

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