Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 92957 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92957 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
I check in to prepare to lock everyone down. Matvei and Gleb are in the largest room with Grandfather. Eduard and Irma in another. My sisters share a room, my brothers share another, and Anissa and I share the main room.
She hasn’t spoken to me since we exited the car. I know she wants answers, but what she doesn’t know is how dangerous it is for me to give them to her.
I need more information before I risk… fucking everything.
How could she be Polina Romanova? I saw the pictures of Anissa. I read her file. She saw me and fled when I went to chase her, obviously guilty. It makes no sense to me that the woman who fled our vows isn’t the woman who I—fuck it all to hell. The woman I’ve fallen in love with.
She has to be Polina. She has memories that don’t resonate with her identity as Anissa. She can’t possibly remember having brothers, as Anissa had none.
And if she is Polina… the worst part of all is that I have no claim on her and never did. And doing what I’ve done… kidnapping her, taking her as mine, fucking her, will bring down the wrath of the entire family of Romanovs.
If the fucking cartel doesn’t get here first.
I need answers.
“Rafail?”
“What?” I turn to her, barely paying attention, as my phone is buzzing with messages from Popov, and I don’t want to miss anything important.
“Put your phone down, please.” There’s steel in her voice, and her hands are anchored on her hips. I frown at her.
“I know, I know,” she says with a shake of her head. “You’re not used to being told what to do.”
I quirk a brow at her. Now? She chooses now to challenge my authority? With my family in the same vicinity?
“Don’t test me, Anissa.”
“Stop calling me that,” she whispers. “You know as well as I do that isn’t my name.”
I turn away from her so she doesn’t see the fury in my gaze. It isn’t directed at her. It isn’t her fault we’re in this situation. I grit my teeth.
I turn to face her again. “We don’t know what the hell is going on.”
She shakes her head. “Oh, no, we won’t play that game either.”
I shut the door behind me with a bang as a call comes into my phone from Popov. “I have to take this.”
She brushes past me to get to the door, but I grab her arm before she escapes. “You stay right here until I—”
“Or what?” she snaps, spinning around to glare at me, defiance blazing in her eyes. “You’ll tie me up then demand answers for things and refuse to give any yourself? You think you can keep me chained up and make me bend to your will?”
I take her by both arms and barely avoid giving her the teeth-rattling shaking I want to. I fucking hate this situation. If she tries to fucking leave, the last thread of humanity I’m holding onto will fucking snap.
“Yes,” I growl. “Go ahead. I dare you to defy me now.” I shake my head.
With a sharp cry, she swings her hand back and slaps me across the face. The second her palm connects with my cheek, my vision blurs with rage. Fury surges through my veins, begging to be unleashed, but I can’t hurt her. I fucking won’t. It would be so easy, so damn easy, to hurt her.
My chest heaves with pent-up frustration as we glare at each other. I pace back and forth, needing the anger to leech out of me before I do something I regret. I’m not new to this. I don’t give in to my anger. Instead, I clamp it down like I’ve learned to. Years of raising these damn hellions have given me plenty of experience.
I pull her into my arms, my grip firm and unyielding, wrapping around her like iron. “Don’t you ever fucking raise your hand to me again.” My voice is thick with anger.
“Let me go,” she hisses, pushing against my arms, but she might as well try to move a mountain. It brings me no small amount of pleasure to keep her restrained as I put my mouth to her ear. “No.”
I feel her shiver against me as my words hang in the air between us.
Every struggle, every push, only stokes the need growing in me.
My anger morphs into something darker. Dangerous. Primal. My dick throbs against her, my hand itches to spank her ass and tame the fire in her wild, defiant eyes.
“You like this, don’t you?” I whisper in her ear, my voice low and dangerous.
Her breath catches, but she doesn’t answer at first. Her lack of protest is all the confirmation I need. I press her harder against me, grinding against her ass as I lower my hand and squeeze it roughly. She barely stifles a moan.