Page 36 of Ruined Vows
I return to finish my workout and make business calls. Later, while sipping rakija at my palatial estate, I receive a message from Dragan—my younger brother from the streets, not blood, but closer than most family.
Radovan’s talking. Saying you hung Miloš out to die. And you did it for a woman, the Italian girl.
This is interesting. I need eyes and ears everywhere. Nothing has changed. Every influential leader knows others are waiting for the opportunity to knock them off the throne.
I know Radovan is trying to plant doubt. I expected as much from the lowlife. He’s low-key and working on the rough fringes, but I know it will grow. How far that circle of rebellion will become is anyone’s guess.
Now Dragan can get away with more than the other men I command, because he’s a trusted advisor and I need him to give me the facts and his opinions. Most men tell me what they think I want to hear. And that’s a recipe for disaster.
I stare at my phone screen. I run my hand over my clenched jaw. My heart is pounding slowly like the calm before a bullet cuts the air.
I’ve got ten dates to make Bianca fall. Nine nights to make her submit to me. Nine nights to become engaged.
Radovan is an inconvenience—a dangerous one. I have to clean my house because he’s not just dangerous to me, he’s dangerous toher.
And I will protect her no matter what the cost. I don’t care if it starts a war?—
If he so much as breathes her name again…he dies.
Because I have bigger things to deal with, like the ten dates I’m about to turn into a lifetime. The only woman on mymind is Bianca. And one day soon, it will be my name, she screams when she comes undone.
Because she’s mine.
I fall asleep with salacious thoughts of making love to her. And when I pleasure myself, it’s her I see.
Bianca isthe source of my waking up with morning wood, and I wish she were beside me. I groan and reminisce about her in the gym and reassure myself it’s only a matter of time before she’s spreading her legs for me.
I’m fantasizing about her even as I drink my coffee. I shower and dress casually in fitted jeans and a designer button-down shirt, and slide into Italian leather loafers.
Dragan picks me up in the armored Hummer. It’s a safety precaution. One can’t be diligent enough.
We head to the warehouse, my base of operation. I was talking to David in my office to get the daily update when Uncle Milan entered. He, too, is like a bad habit, popping up when I want to play Wack-a-Mole with his head. Like a bad penny, he tends to show up. He’s becoming predictable.
“Y’know, Vukan, no man wants the Serbian leader to marry an outsider.”
I smile. I’m a man who takes and claims. She’ll be no different. And fuck him for talking to me like I’m a kid, and that I need his advice.
“She’s not a weakness. It’s a strategy for peace. And you can’t deny that you’d love to be in the same room as her,” I snark.
Fuck him.Even his brother passed him over, knowing he was not worthy of being a leader.
I can weather the storm. I can withstand him and Radovan. Let them all come. Hell, I can withstand whoever thinks they can unseat me.
Because if she’s the death of me, then I’ll die smiling.
“Who I marry is no one’s business.”
“Believe what you want,” he shrugs. He gives me a side-eye to see if I’m rattled. I’m not, and even if I were, he’s never going to know.
Bianca is a woman unlike any other. She’s the type of woman wars are fought over. And perhaps it’s already begun.
She’s the first woman who isn’t afraid to challenge me, and I respect the hell out of that.
Besides, who wouldn’t want her? She has a tongue like a sniper and a killer body. I can’t wait, I fuck her with my hard cock and make her scream my name when she comes. I want her to beg for me to fuck her again, and again. And I’d die a happy man.
But Milan? He’s the eternal pessimist.
“This peace won’t hold,” he argues. His cigarette has burned down to his knuckles. He smokes the nasty, unfiltered ones. He tosses it to the floor and gives my brother a side-eye, like he’s making a point.
