Page 64 of Married to the Don (Kornilov Bratva Duet 1)

Molly

Despite my best efforts, I nearly get lost in the heady sensation of Viktor’s hands on my body. His chest against mine. His arms blocking me in.

I hate him.

That’s what I’ve told myself over and over the last few days. Every time I’ve caught myself sinking into the plush cushions of his couch and thinking what a good life it could be, I’ve reminded myself that all of it—the security and the comfort—comes at the cost of being near him.

He wants to lock me away and keep me as his pet. It seems like Viktor genuinely cares about Theo, but even that could simply be because of their blood relation. Regardless, he doesn’t care about me, and I can’t let myself forget that.

Except, I nearly have.

Even with alcohol on his breath, the woodsy scent of him is hard to ignore. Everything about him is intoxicating. As though Viktor was created in a lab with the express purpose of wooing the opposite sex and making them silly.

Silly is exactly how I feel until Viktor knocks on the wall above my head, signaling a man I don’t know to walk through the door. Now, all I feel is dread.

The man is wearing a cross around his neck, and the first thing I think of is a funeral. My funeral. I’m dead.

Viktor said he wouldn’t kill me, but he lied. He was keeping me around like a pig for slaughter, waiting for a convenient moment.

By the time I realize that theory is absurd, I’ve already shoved Viktor away again and slid further down the wall.

“So you could marry me willingly rather than by force.”

Viktor’s words are distant and unfocused, like I’m hearing them from underwater, but they hit me all at once.

“You want to get married?” Compared to death, I should be relieved that Viktor wants to marry me. Yet, somehow, the possibility is worse. It would make our current arrangement permanent. Viktor will be allowed to lock me up in his home, throw away the key, and raise Theo the way he would like.

The last four years of my life have been spent trying to find a foothold, trying to drag myself up out of the pit I allowed Fedor to bury me in. And now I’m supposed to tie myself to this man I barely know? To a man who is looking at me with glazed-over eyes like I’m for sale in a shop window?

Fuck. No.

I don’t realize I’ve said the words out loud until the minister gasps out a startled breath and turns away.

I try to turn and run up the stairs, but Viktor’s hand is back around my arm in an instant. He pulls me in front of him, crushing me against him until I have no choice but to look up at his face.

“I won’t do it,” I whisper, somehow ashamed of having the stranger overhear me. Whether he’s an actual man of God or just a Bratva lackey with a minister’s license, I don’t know, but I still don’t want him to judge me. “You can’t make me.”

“I can,” Viktor says, nodding his head slowly. “But I don’t want to. I want you to choose this. To choose me.”

Choose me.

The words are shockingly tender, and I pull back slightly and study his face. All at once, Viktor blinks and shakes his head.

“Choose Theo, Molly. This is for him.”

“Stop saying that,” I plead, grabbing his shirtsleeve. “Stop saying this is about Theo when it’s really about—”

“Theo,” he repeats angrily. “This is about Theo, regardless of what you think.”

The minister has wandered into the living room and is pretending to look out the windows. It’s a remarkable view, but still, something about his posture lets me know he still has an ear trained towards us. I wonder what Viktor told the man to get him here.

“I think this is about you being a coward. You’re a coward,” I say.

Viktor snorts. “How am I a coward?”

I let go of his sleeve and let my hand slide over his chest and down his abs. Viktor arches into the touch, but I ignore the hard muscle beneath his clothes and grab the hem of his shirt, untucking it from his pants.

All at once, Viktor seems to realize what I’m doing, and he spins around and pins me against the wall, his hands around each of my wrists. Then he looks down to check his gun is still tucked in there.

---