Page 78 of Captive Vows
“Is that supposed to make me feel better? To know that you don’t plan to discard me yet?”
“I don’t particularly care about how you feel after hiding this news from me,” he growled.
I shrugged, wishing I could feel an ounce of the bravado and indifference I projected. “Regardless, my stance won’t change. I will not allow my child to be sold or trained to be a robotic killer.”
“Oh. You mean like my other child? My son?” He sneered. “Like Emil? He’s a robot now?”
I wasn’t in the mood to discuss Emil. I still hadn’t forgiven him for his part in my kidnapping. I’d be giving birth to his half-sibling, and I wasn’t sure how I wanted to think about that connection. How could I raise a child to be a decent and loving person who’d want to give back to the world when he had an assassin for a brother?
“I’m not discussing Emil with you. I’m not talking about anything but the fact that you need to drill it into your head that I won’t let you have this baby to do with as you want. This ismychild. This ismybaby that I am carrying in my body. I have wished my whole life for a family, and the second I can look forward to really having one, I will not let you think that you can step in and determine exactly how it will go.”
He opened his mouth to argue, but I kept going.
“I lost my mother when I was still so young. I despise the idiot I’m supposed to consider my father.” Protectively placing my hand on my stomach, I sighed and caught my breath. “This baby is the only family I have. And I will protect him or her with all my heart.”
Getting in my face, Luka loomed over me closer yet. “Oh?” He scowled, looking me up and down. “I advise you to think again.”
“Nothing you say will change my mind,” I replied with heat. My survivalist instinct burned too hot to cool it now.
“Wrong.I’myour family now.”
I rolled my eyes, too mad to speak.
He gripped my chin, forcing me to make eye contact, though. It was a small mercy that gazing into his blazing eyes, so full of loathing, didn’t make me wilt or cower.
“Because you and I are getting married.”
29
LUKA
Her plump lower lip hung open as she gawked at me. “Married?”
Fuck, it wasn’t supposed to be so hot to see her mad like this. She wasn’t supposed to turn me on when she was furious and brave enough to fight back with that fire and sass that had never died out while she learned to submit to me.
“No. Not a chance in hell isthathappening.” She shook her head, tossing her long, brown waves over her shoulder. “Oh, hellno. You’re not going to kidnap me, mess with my head, and then order us to get married.”
Want to bet?
Staring her down, I grew curious about when her willingness to argue with me would fade. And what would happen next.
Now that I could realize how scared she had to have been to realize she was expecting my child, I wondered what she thought could follow.
Her naïve views of this world were so obvious. She would assume that all men turned into killers and machines to do what I ordered. And after how those Rivera men talked about her when they ambushed us at the resort’s parking garage, I couldn’tfault her for guessing that all women were traded and sold. Arranged marriages were very much a thing, but in the Dubinin Family, I never meddled in those matters.
After my marriage ended with Maria’s death, I didn’t even take the time to think about anyone’s marriages. Then when Alexsei’s wife died, it reinforced my belief that lifelong commitments would always fail in the end. I had yet to witness a union that could stand the test of time for good.
It didn’t seem like Gabriella had much inspiration to believe in it either, because of how her mother died and how poorly Miguel had treated her as her father.
As I endured the heat of her glares, waiting her out about this topic of a marriage, I picked apart her argument in my mind.
She truly didn’t understand the blessing and rare privilege it would be to fall under my protection. She was so sheltered and not from my world that she lacked the comprehension of how many others would kill to be in her position. That to be the mother of my child, she had acquired the protection detail of a ruthless army.
She’d never have to fear someone raping her in her pathetic apartment. She wouldn’t have to be nervous about anyone successfully reaching her and shooting her.
My men would prevent that from happening.
Iwould stop that from occurring.
