Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 52062 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 260(@200wpm)___ 208(@250wpm)___ 174(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 52062 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 260(@200wpm)___ 208(@250wpm)___ 174(@300wpm)
Not because he wanted a wife.
Not because he wanted to protect me.
But because he wanted a hundred billion dollars of cold hard cash.
Money he could get his hands on by proving his wife was the rightful recipient.
Because he has the time, the money and the resources to do it.
I feel sick.
I grip the arm of the couch to steady myself, but it doesn't help. Everything is spinning. Everything I thought I knew about my life, my parents, myself, Nikolai—it's all dissolving like sand through my fingers.
I’m so fucking naïve.
The night at the gallery. The lodge. The seduction. The fireplace and the piano and the tender touches and the whispered words. The arranged marriage.
All for a hundred billion dollars.
I feel cold. And so fucking stupid.
My voice comes out strangled. "You used me. You married me because I'm the heir to a stolen inheritance you intend on getting your hands on somehow."
Nikolai’s jaw hardens, and blue fire burns in his eyes. As if I had reached out and slapped him.
“No, it was never about the money, malyshka. It’s only ever been about wanting you.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I am a very rich man, malyshka. I don’t need anyone else’s money. I have more than I could ever need in a million lifetimes. Don’t be mistaken. This has only ever been about you. I. Only. Want. You.”
“You expect me to believe you chose me over a potential hundred billion dollars?”
“You really have no idea what you do to me, do you?” he growls. “Or the effect you have on me?”
“No, I suppose I don’t.”
“The first time I saw you, solnyshko, it was like being shot in the fucking heart. It put me on my ass and took my breath away. We passed each other in the street as strangers, and you smiled at me, and that brief look destroyed me. It broke me apart and put me back together a different man. That one look shifted something deep inside me. Something I didn’t understand.”
I can only stare at him. Outwardly I’m frozen. But inside I’m in chaos as I listen to him.
“All I knew was, I couldn't stay away from you." His voice is tortured and thick. "Day after day, night after night, I went looking for you. Just to see you. To watch you. I became sick with urges to be near you. And you don’t know what that does to a man who prides himself on always being in control. You brought me to my knees. Yet, you didn’t even know I existed. No one has ever had power over me like you do, solnyshko.”
“I don’t know what to think,” I whisper.
But Nikolai keeps going. “I knew Yuri would send someone to eliminate you. I had to do something to protect you. Because I had fallen in love with you.”
“You’re lying,” I whisper, without any conviction.
"I would die for you, solnyshko."
The words hang in the air between us, and I want so badly to believe them. Want to believe that somewhere beneath all the secrets, there is something real.
“The night at the gallery—”
“I went there to meet you. I couldn’t stand not being in your world. I wanted you to see me. I wanted you to feel what I felt. If I could make you fall in love with me—”
“But then you got a phone call…" I frown as more of the puzzle reveals itself. “Who was the man you left me to go and kill?”
“Yuri had sent him to kill you. I knew then that I had to act. I had to take you with me. I couldn’t leave you vulnerable to another hitman.”
I let out a shaky breath. “You didn’t kidnap me because I witnessed a murder. You kidnapped me—”
“To keep you safe.”
Feeling overwhelmed, I shake my head. “How could you keep all of this from me?”
“I didn’t want to frighten you.”
“When were you going to tell me?”
“Once I had eliminated every threat, I was going to tell you everything.”
I think of the three men lying dead in this house and let out an angry breath. “Clearly we’re not there yet.”
“That’s why I told him to come here.”
“Who, my grandfather?”
“Yes.”
I stand up so fast, I make my head spin. “Why would you do that?”
Nikolai also stands. “To tell him face to face that any further attempts on your life will cost him everything. Beginning with his pulse.”
Conflicting emotions crash about inside of me. What Nikolai is saying is a lot to process. I don’t know if I’m being played. I just feel like a pawn being shoved around the board in a game I didn’t even know I was playing.
“This is insane.”
“No, this is reality.”
“Everything we have has been built on a lie,” I say, holding back tears.
“What I feel for you isn’t a lie.”
“Maybe if you had told me everything sooner, I might believe you when you say that. But you’ve kept this from me the whole time. That tells me you have something to hide. That none of this was real.”