Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 100416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 502(@200wpm)___ 402(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 502(@200wpm)___ 402(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
It didn’t combat the uneasiness that rose in him with each minute that passed. He’d gotten what he wanted, but the battle was far from over. The very thing that attracted him to Keira in the first place—her unpredictability—might very well be his downfall.
Another glance at his watch. A grand total of a minute had passed. Dmitri leaned forward and tapped the glass separating them from Mikhail. His man lowered it. “Yes, boss?”
“Drive faster.”
CHAPTER TWO
Keira thought she’d hit rock bottom ages ago. She was pretty damn sure of it, in fact. She’d spent the last two years bouncing from one high to another, doing whatever it took to keep her numbness firmly in place. From that, there was nowhere to go but up, right?
So fucking wrong.
Rock bottom was signing her name on that marriage certificate.
When Keira was a little girl, she’d spent hours upon hours planning her wedding. The flowers would be purple and white hyacinths. They’d have cupcakes instead of one massive cake—more purple and white. She’d design her own dress and it’d be the most beautiful thing anyone had ever seen.
Instead, she was married in a dirty courthouse room with one flickering light, the faint smell of piss, and an official who couldn’t be bothered to have the vows memorized. This wasn’t a marriage. It was a goddamn business transaction, and not one that she’d come out on top of.
Dmitri jerked his chin at the two men he’d had act as witnesses, and then led the way out of the room. The courthouse passed in a blur, and she shivered as they stepped out into the September night. Keira clutched Dmitri’s suit jacket closer around her. She should have thrown it in his face the second she woke up wearing it, but it was too cold for pride to have a foothold. And it smells like him. Considering it was his fault she was here in this situation, she shouldn’t find his scent comforting, but her body didn’t give a fuck about circumstances. It hadn’t gotten the memo that wanting Dmitri Romanov was bad for both her health and what little sanity she had left.
“It’s done.” She hadn’t meant to say it out loud, but the words were there and the sky didn’t fall. She’d married Dmitri Romanov and the world hadn’t ended. Go figure. “I suppose you have a victory parade planned to shout your superiority from the rooftops.”
His lips twitched in something that was almost a smile. “The parade will have to wait. We have work to do.”
“Oh man, is there a tiny slice of New York that you don’t already own? Tragic.” She shivered, her teeth clicking together, ruining a perfectly good snarky comment.
“Expanding my territory will have to wait, too.” He touched the small of her back, guiding her down the steps toward where the car waited. “Having my wife freeze to death on our wedding day might put a damper on things.”
Wife.
I am Dmitri Romanov’s wife.
It didn’t feel real. No, that was a lie. It felt entirely too real. As if her darkest fantasies had come to life and were playing out in front of her eyes. That was the problem with fantasies, though, they weren’t real. Dmitri hadn’t married her so he could orgasm her into submission and they could spend their days figuring out new ways to fuck.
He’d married her because he needed an O’Malley wife to prove to his enemies that he was the baddest motherfucker in town. He didn’t want a partner. He wanted a trophy.
He might have a healthy dose of lust for her, but he didn’t want her.
She stopped short. “Romanov?”
His sigh spoke of the very end of his patience. “Yes, Keira?”
“You were with Aiden, right? Is Charlie okay?” Is Aiden? The question she hadn’t dared ask. The reason she was essentially locked in her room. She pressed her lips together, trying to keep hidden how much the answer mattered to her.
Dmitri looked at her a long moment, his gray eyes giving nothing away. “Last I saw Charlie, she was being carried safely in your brother’s arms.”
Knowing that her brother and his fiancée were safe should have stopped the panic welling in her chest. It didn’t. Too much had happened in the last couple weeks. Keira had spent years in a fog brought on by alcohol and drugs, and she’d finally weaned off enough of it to… care. Charlie was her friend. Keira should have known better than to let herself get attached to anyone in her life—even family. They all left, whether it was to walk away or leave in a body bag. Caring was an invitation to get her heart ripped out of her chest.
She stepped away from Dmitri’s touch. She couldn’t think when he put his hands on her, and what few survival instincts she had left went haywire in her need to get as much of him pressed against as much as her as possible. Until he did something to ruin it. Every. Single. Time.