Page 108 of Wicked Vows (Suvorov Bratva 2)

Just like now. He’s stepping into my space to assert his dominance. To remind me of who and what we truly are to each other.

He’s making me submit.

And it’s working.

“What’s wrong, Liya?” he asks in a condescending tone. His facial features are perfectly at ease now, like he’s practiced this a thousand times. “Fox got your tongue? Or are youafraidto speak?”

A shiver races up my spine. My lower back meets the desk, causing the feet of the desk to screech against the pavement under our feet. But he doesn’t stop advancing. Not until he’s breathing on my lips.

“N-no,” I shoot back, trying to keep my voice level. It’s taking everything I have not to cave in. I’ve already lost so much power. And I keep losing more. “I just want us to work together as a team.”

“No,” he snaps. “Not anymore.”

I shudder. “Then you’re just trying to control me. Right? You’re trying to put me in place. You want a quiet wife, not a partner.”

I meet his gaze, a chill slamming into me as though a window had been opened in the snug office. The thunderstorm outside wages war against the city, wind splashing rain against the glass of the window.

“If I wanted to do all those things, Liya,” he whispers gruffly, authority dripping from every word. “I wouldn’t try.”

I shudder.

I don’t like how he’s looking at me.

I don’t like how he’s pressing against me.

I want to turn my head, but I can’t.

“Because if I wanted to,” he whispers as he leans in closer until he’s all I can see. “I would just chain you to our bed until our child is born.”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Pavel

The moment the words leave my lips, I know what I’ve done.

I watch Liya closely, noticing the way her pupils dilate from fear rather than lust this time around. Her whole face droops and she freezes in place, panic settling right into the stiff muscles that keep me from stepping any closer. We could converge like this if we tried.

But we won’t.

Because it was never meant to happen.

I know I’m breaking her heart. I know she’s drawing away from me in every respect, trying to reel in her emotions to save face. It’s the deepest cut I can make right now.

But there’s no point in dressing it up anymore.

She’s a vessel. She’salwaysbeen a vessel. A means to an end.

And it’s the same with me. She ultimately married me to combine our families and take control of her destiny. Jonas be damned; she was going to grab the Citta Nostra at some point. It doesn’t matter if she tries to deny it.

No one can resist power like that. Not even sweet little girls like Liya Bernadetti.

“You don’t mean that,” she says shakily. “You…You just…You’re just angry.”

I step away. She slumps against the desk as if my body was the only thing keeping her from hitting the ground. Is it wrong to leave her like that?

Who cares? I don’t think that matters either.

My only goal is to secure safe passage out of this dump.

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