Page 73 of The Bratva's Innocent Sold Bride
When we came up for air, I smiled at him. “And I want everyone to see how proud I am that you’re mine.”
“That I am,” he said contentedly, leaning down for another kiss, but pausing halfway to my lips. “And?”
“And how happy I am to be yours.”
Epilogue - CJ
One month later
“Oh my God, the caterer’s late,” Masha said, still in her Taurus Ingenuity security uniform.
It was three hours before the start of my big do-over reception, and she’d left work early to help out. I told her it would be fine while I tried to get the caterer on the phone and not freak out myself.
“We should have hired Katie,” Masha said, for at least the thirtieth time.
“I wanted her to be a guest, not an employee,” I said for the thirty-first time.
“Well, she wouldn’t have been late,” Masha grumbled, then brightened when she saw the familiar vans turning down the long drive. “They’re here.”
“See? It’ll be fine.”
I let her meet with the caterers while I put Artem in his new dog run that connected to my own personal office in the business wing, as we started calling it. I still hadn’t thought of the perfect name for my company. I didn’t want it to have anything to do with my name, but so far, I’d discarded every suggestion my new, fledgling team had come up with. There was plenty of time. We still had to furnish their offices, since we’d been meeting in local coffee shops while I planned the party of the year.
When I returned, Masha had sufficiently bullied the caterers into getting everything set up on time and was lying bythe pool with her eyes closed, a cold bottle of unopened beer next to her on the armrest.
I sat down beside her and snapped open the beer, taking a small swig. There’d be plenty of fine wine and the best vodka flowing later, so I didn’t want to start too early, and didn’t want Masha falling all over herself before the first guests arrived.
“How’s work?” I asked.
“Fine,” she answered, like she always did.
I had a feeling there was more to her working at my father’s company than she or Mat let on, but I found I wasn’t all that curious. If it were important, Mat would tell me. He’d promised no more secrets.
Ever since Anatoli had escaped under her watch, she’d been in a terrible mood, blaming herself, even though no one could have foreseen the mass attack by his people that caused a big enough distraction to break him out. Delta and I had worked side by side around the clock for three days tracking him, and all signs pointed to a swift retreat to Mexico before falling entirely off the grid.
Nothing had happened in the three weeks since his escape, and Mat seemed to be over it. I was over it, no longer fearing the tech genius who was nothing more than a fugitive now. Masha wasn’t over it.
“You want me to help you put your hair up?” I asked.
She grimaced. We’d become good friends, and she still lived with us even though she was looking for her dream apartment, but she wasn’t exactly the type to spill secrets over hairstyles.
“I’ll manage,” she said, then looked down at her drab brown uniform. “So, you think I need to change?”
We both laughed. The party was formal, and everyone would be dressed to the nines. The only theme was to have a great time and enjoy each other's company. We headed to our respective rooms to start getting ready, but not before I squeezed her hand.
I wanted to say something gooey about how grateful I was that she’d accepted me, that she was the one who first pointed out how clear it was that Mat loved me, but she would have hated that. So I just asked her to check in on the caterers before she went upstairs. She liked being useful and bossing people around.
“If even a single carrot is out of place, heads will roll,” she promised. “And come to think of it, isn’t that damn band supposed to be here by now?”
She hurried off, checking her phone and muttering. The band wasn’t supposed to arrive for another two hours, so I pushed all my worries aside to concentrate on looking so spectacular that it would drop Mat in his tracks.
On the way, I peeked into the guest rooms. They were all furnished and decorated now, since I finally caved and hired a professional. With the party planning and brainstorming new business ideas, choosing furniture had to take a backseat. They were all ready and looked perfect, classic modern with bright splashes of color. Tonight, the house would be heaving with Mat’s family from LA, the world’s biggest slumber party.
And I couldn’t wait to be part of it, a huge family of my own.
My dad was busy pushing Taurus Ingenuity that final bit to get it back up and running smoothly, and as far as I knew, he was sticking to the right side of the law now. Mat promised to tell me if he stepped out of line, and I kept tabs on him with weekly lunches and regular calls to his assistant to make sure hewas okay. He’d gained weight and even swore he was taking his vitamins now that we were back on good footing.
How could I stay mad when he’d inadvertently given me the best gift of my entire life? It wasn’t like I was going to run into Mat at the local internet café, or bump into him on a break from slaving in my cubicle if I’d been able to keep my original job. The most perfect man in the world had to drag me kicking and screaming into his life, and now it would take more than that to get me out of it.
