Page 11 of The Bratva's Arranged Virgin Bride
Chapter 7 - Kolya
The vows couldn’t have lasted more than a couple of minutes. There were no special songs or speeches, nothing ceremonial. Still, it felt like forever before the priest pronounced us husband and wife.
“You may now kiss your bride,” he said, with an uncertain look.
I swooped in, watching Nat’s eyes. Nataliye, the one I thought was gone for good. I couldn’t wait to have the taste of her lips on mine. At the last moment, she jerked her head to the side, and all I got was her velvety cheek. And only that for a split second before she shoved away. Then she seemed to change her mind and grabbed my hand, looking at me determinedly.
“We need to get out of here,” she said, already walking back up the aisle. “And fast.”
I shrugged at Andrei and followed her. It looked like I was about to start my honeymoon. She didn’t pause or turn to get anything out of the waiting room, only stormed out the doors and onto the sidewalk. It was mid-morning, and the side street was nearly empty. I led her to the car, and she tried the handle on the passenger side before I could even reach for the fob to unlock it.
“In a hurry?” I teased. She didn’t like that.
“Yes,” she muttered, not waiting for me to come around and open her door for her.
It seemed like we weren’t waiting for Andrei to come out and drive us, either. He could find his own way. I slid into the driver’s seat, and the engine on my sleek sports car roared to life. She didn’t seem impressed. Since it wasn’t too hot yet, I startedto put the top down, thinking about her blonde curls flying free in the wind.
Her hand slammed down over mine on the button. “No, keep it up, and let’s go. Somewhere no one will find us.”
“Am I being kidnapped?”
She ignored the joking question, turning to me with the same blood in her eyes that she had had marching down the aisle. “I’m Aleks Fokin’s daughter.”
“Funny, I thought she was just a toddler.”
“His firstborn daughter,” she snapped.
She turned, brows scrunched up, seeming deflated that I wasn’t slamming on the brakes in shock at her announcement. I turned onto the highway toward the beach house that I was fairly certain I’d managed to keep a secret from the Fokins. A lot of my own people didn’t even know I’d bought it. I’d made sure it was completely cleaned, from the roof tiles to the underfloor heating ducts. She’d have a hell of a time searching through all the fake documents I loaded into the filing cabinets and wondering how to get into the safe that was completely empty.
Nat was so deep in thought that it was as if she were alone in the car, staring out the side window. I could watch her freely as she seemed to be going over something important.
Why the switch at the chapel? What was the Fokins game here? As confused as I was, I couldn’t be unhappy about it. The complete opposite. She was even more gorgeous than I remembered, even with a scowl on her face. I almost laughed. Especially with a scowl on her face. Nothing could mar her perfect beauty.
I wanted her more than ever and struggled not to reach for her hand as memories of our time in Milan came rushingback. God, we’d had some fun. Everything in my life was running smoothly, and I was bored as hell with business as usual. Everything seemed to have a gray tinge cast over it, until I walked into Nat’s gallery in Milan.
It was new, just a hole in the wall that I almost walked right past. It was the glimpse of her golden hair as she tried to hang a giant canvas in the window display that caught my eye. And the fact that she was about to drop the thing and shatter the plate glass. After hurrying in to help, I was enamored by her grateful smile, the sparkle in her blue, blue eyes. Nothing was gray anymore.
And her gallery was fantastic. She seemed to have a knack for picking just the right pieces and displaying them to the best possible advantage. I’d been a proper businessman for too long. It was time.
It didn’t take much effort to find out who she was, but that didn’t stop me. The more I talked to her, the more I could see that she needed something more in her life, just as I did. When I proposed my favorite scheme, she jumped at the chance to take part. I loved the voracious gleam in her eyes when we closed our first sale. A slapdash painting we paid a hundred euros for, tarted up with a mysterious backstory and Nat’s earnest sales pitch. The rich tourists at our first show were champing at the bit to have it, and the final bid made her pretty mouth fall open in shock.
“This is only the beginning,” I had promised her.
“We’re going to make a fortune,” she whispered in awe. “We need to hire more artists. When can we have the next sale ready?”
I’d had to keep gallery owners in line many times before with some heavy doses of charm and attention. But it wasn’t achore with Nat. It was very close to being real. Too close. Pretty soon, I was loving much more than her ambitions. As she’d just thrown in my face, she was Aleks Fokin’s firstborn daughter. The light of his life. My brother had recently almost brought her entire family to their knees. She was dangerous, and not just to my physical well-being.
The day I woke up and thought she might be worth risking my life for, I knew I had to cut and run, along with her inventory and all the cash we’d made from our scam. Based on her face as she came down the aisle, she wasn’t over it.
I had been driving on autopilot, barely noticing when we arrived at the beach house. As soon as I shut off the engine, I could hear the crash of the ocean and then the long, low breath that Nat expelled. She must have been pretty pissed when she learned I was long gone a few months ago. Pretty damn pissed.
Hurrying around to her side, I scooped her up into my arms as soon as she scrambled out of the car. No whoop of joy, no happy giggle. She was as stiff as a board.
“What are you doing?”
“Carrying my bride over the threshold,” I said, bringing her inside. “Welcome home, Nataliye.”
Once her feet were on the bamboo tile floor, she shoved away, taking a deep breath like she was gearing up to do something. Something I might not like too much. I went on high alert, taking a step back. Was she actually going to try to kill me? Had she been sent here to do it? That would be no fun at all.
