Page 88 of Married to the Don (Kornilov Bratva Duet 1)

Part of that anger still lingers.

How can I want a man who has forced me to become his wife?

“Molly,” he whispers.

I study his blue eyes and the creases in his forehead. “What? What’s wrong?”

Viktor sighs and rolls off me, sitting on the edge of the bed. “I have to tell you something, and I’m not sure how you’ll react.”

My heart surges into my throat, blocking all air. “Tell me,” I rasp.

He looks at me out of the corner of his eye. “Will you promise not to leave?”

“No.” My answer is immediate and honest. If I’ve learned anything over the last four years, it’s that even when you think you can trust someone, you have to be ready and willing to depend fully on yourself. And if Viktor told me something horrible, I would run. I’d leave and do what I had to do for myself and Theo. Because I’m never leaving my son again.

His mouth pulls up in a smirk. “I didn’t think so.”

“Tell me,” I say, laying a hand on his shoulder. I curl my fingers, trying to hide their trembling.

He takes a deep breath, his shoulders rising and falling. Then he spits it out in a rush. “You’re not really my wife.”

I pull my hand back and stare at him, eyes wide. “What?”

He turns towards me, one leg folded on the bed. “The justice of the peace was real, but the papers we signed were fake. It was all fake. Just a show. I needed you to believe we were married so you would understand the lengths I would go to protect you. And so anyone paying close enough attention would understand those lengths as well.”

My ring finger is still bare. We didn’t exchange rings at the ceremony, but I still stare down at my hand as though it looks different all of a sudden. “I’m not your wife.”

He shakes his head. “It was just a trick. A plan to try and—”

“Manipulate me,” I say quietly.

His face falls. “No. I didn’t want to force anything on you permanently. When everything calmed down, and we’d figured things out, I was going to tell you and let you make a decision. I just needed to keep you safe until Fedor moved on and forgot about you, but—”

“He knew the whole time,” I say, cutting him off.

Viktor nods. “He played us both.”

Somehow, I’m not as upset about this as I should be. I reach out and smooth a hand down his arm. I hate the way his brother’s betrayal has affected him. Fedor was the only family Viktor had in the world, and now he’s gone.

Except, no.

I rise up on my knees and crawl towards him, leaning against his arm. “Did you mean what you said today?”

“When?”

“About your family,” I say softly. “About having a family of your own now.”

It might be my imagination, but I think I notice his cheeks going pink. He nods. “I did. Every word.”

I curl my finger under his chin and tip his face to mine. When I lean down, he meets me halfway, our lips pressing together.

Then, before I can even register that I initiated the contact, Viktor’s arm is around my waist, and I am once again on the bed with his weight over me.

He smooths his hands down my waist and over my hips. He grabs the outsides of my thighs and works his way down my body, lifting my shirt to plant kisses to my stomach and lower still.

I lift my hips to help him remove my jeans and panties, and when he parts my legs and kisses his way towards my center, I grip his soft hair and open even wider for him.

His tongue is forceful and skilled, and my entire body shakes with pleasure as he has his way with me, licking sensuous circles across my most sensitive parts. But just before I tip over the edge, I tug on his hair. Viktor could do as he pleases. He could force me down and take what he wants. He could stay down there all day, knowing I’d be helpless to stop him. Yet, he yields to me.

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