Page 29 of Plus-Size Bride Forced By the Bratva
“You’re dismissed.”
Quietly, he walked out of the kitchen, his head bowed in shame and embarrassment.
The room plunged into an eerie silence after the man’s exit. Lev turned and looked at me, his eyes darting to the arm I was slowly rubbing. Neither of us said a word, and in my head, his voice echoed over and over like a ghost I couldn’t shake off.
“She belongs to me.”
It shouldn’t have such an effect on me, but it did, and I couldn’t help it. A strange shiver ran down my spine—a mix of something that felt like possession and protection—neither of which was an emotion that I was ready to acknowledge.
The phrase stirred something inside me—something deep and unsettling.
The space between us was thick with the residue of his protective claim, and his gaze was so intense that I avoided his eyes. I hesitated for a moment, unsure of what to door say. Should I thank him? Would he even respond to my appreciation?
Without much thought, I turned around and quietly left the kitchen, his gaze lingering behind me. I avoided him for the rest of the evening. Every time I passed through the house, I felt his eyes on me, as if he was tracking my every move.
I couldn’t quite explain it, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d marked me in some quiet, unspoken way. He had no idea that by defending me, he’d claimed a piece of me. I felt it—a shift in how I saw him.
And it bothered me far more than I cared to admit.
Chapter 14 —Lev
I was sure Sergei wouldn’t forget that slap anytime soon. He crossed a line, and he got what he deserved. I would’ve punished him for daring to lay a finger on my wife. But the fact that she left her palm print on his face was enough to let him go with just a warning.
Ravyn was like a blazing fire, and anyone who crossed her always ended up getting burned. That was one of the things I found most fascinating about her. The woman feared no one and was always ready to fight back when she was offended.
I was very proud of how she stood up to a man nearly three times her size without fear. She made him understand that she wouldn’t be bullied or disrespected.
That right there was a display of authority; she knew her right, the power she possessed, and she wasn’t afraid to use it. Nothing turned me on more than a fierce woman in action.
Ravyn was different from the other women I’d been with, and it wasn’t because she was born into wealth. No, she was just naturally stubborn and fearless. Her wits had nothing to do with her family’s wealth. It was innate.
Most people trembled before Sergei, mostly because of his size and killer gaze. Not her. She showed no sign of fear and even took a step further, doing what no woman had ever dared. She hit him.
I was totally on board with that move because he started it. He provoked her, disrespected her, and left her with no choice but to put him in his place. Ravyn was not helpless—not even in the face of danger.
Nothing, to me, was hotter than that.
It had been two days since the incident with Sergei, but I still couldn’t get her out of my mind. I wasn’t sure if it was a good thing or not because thoughts of her made me feel a certain way,and at the same time, I knew I shouldn’t spend so much time thinking about her.
The more I tried to get this woman out of my head, the more I failed. She was like a ghost lingering in the back of my mind that I couldn’t shake. It was both intriguing and disturbing. She was beginning to take up more of my thoughts than she should, and I hated that.
At first, I thought that I could live with her in the same house, sleep on the same bed, and still not be tempted to touch her. It was part of my plan to keep her questioning my motives.
The idea was to ignore her for as long as I could, making her life miserable just for fun. I’d mapped this whole thing out to perfection, and in my initial plan, my lover, Vivian, had a major role to play. Sex.
She was supposed to be my go-to woman whenever I needed to ease my tension. She was supposed to be my mistress since I had no intentions of touching Ravyn yet. Fucking Vivian was my plan to feed my sexual appetite.
However, things were starting to change in ways that I didn’t see coming. And the worst part was that it began on the night of our wedding. I had left Ravyn alone in the master bedroom and decided to review some files in my office.
But in the early hours of the next morning, when I returned to the bedroom, I found her asleep on the couch. She had taken a shower and changed out of her white silk lace. She was wearing an oversized polo shirt that barely reached her knees.
The unexpected sight had caught me off guard, prompting me to stop in my tracks. My eyes swept over her body as she lay there with her head on the armrest, the hem of her shirt grazing her alluring thighs.
I couldn’t leave her there, so I carried her to the bed and gently draped the sheets over her body to keep her warm. Ipretended that day not to be affected by the sight of her thighs and the way she glowed even in sleep.
That was the first time the sight of her stirred something inside me. But it wasn’t the last. Ravyn’s presence around me was gradually becoming a temptation, and almost every part of her body was seductive. Her eyes, her cleavage, her nipples poking from behind the fabric of her top.
The plan to ignore her for as long as possible was becoming more impossible each day. Because of her, I no longer thought about Vivian or reminisced about our time together as I used to. I no longer felt the urge to fuck her or even kiss her lips.
