Chapter 7

Seven

K irill

It almost hurts me to see her like this. So broken.

I'll put your pieces back together, little princess.

"Do you still wish to go with him? Your loving brother?" I force the hard in my voice, my body, to remain. Before I can begin to show care, she needs to know that I am not a soft man.

She shakes her head. It's a small, defeated motion.

"I need to hear it, Princess."

Her eyes flash to mine. Fuck, but they are a lovely shade of liquid gold honey. Wet like they are, they're even more pretty. Amber diamonds. Even distraught as she is, she's exquisite.

If Artyom ever got his hands on her…

The thought has rage unfurling inside me. A murderous thing. Something dark and dangerous begins to grow inside that rage. Something capable of a destruction the likes of Ilya. A destruction I've always thought myself incapable. Because I want to destroy Artyom and his cruel operation. And I want to do it with a gruesome dramatic the likes I've known only from my brother.

Artyom deserves it, the way he made the blood drain from her face.

I'd known exactly what he'd say when I called him, baited him into it, even. Because I need her willing to be mine. I'm too public a figure to have an unwilling wife, after all.

If fear was the only way to accomplish that—well, my hands were tied.

Her puffy, pink lips, part. I swallow hard around my anticipation.

I've wanted to taste those lips for the last two months. I've dreamed about what they might feel like around my cock.

"I want—" She sniffles. "I would rather be yours."

"Is that so?" I can't help myself. I'm an asshole, I know.

She frowns. "It's one of those ‘devil you know', things."

"I'm a devil, now, am I?" I'll have to give my youngest brother, Kane, a call. The kick he'd get out of that.

"I've thought of you as a devil and a monster. Nothing else."

I certainly have my work cut out for me.

Her body. Her mind and secrets. Her love. I'm going to possess it all. Everything.

"Yes, well, I suppose we should get down to business, then."

Her frown deepens. She's still in shock. Even in shock, even broken and in tears, she's the most beautiful thing I've ever beheld.

"Business?"

"Yes. There's this matter of you agreeing to be mine, and me needing a wife."

Her lips part, and then her mouth well and truly falls open. My cock twitches.

I move around my desk to sit before I surprise her with more than she's ready for.

"You want—you mean—" She shakes her head dumbly, like the motion just might rattle sense into this senseless situation she's found herself. Then she murmurs softly, "I don't understand."

I lean into the desk, holding her honey eyes with my much darker ones. Her breath snags in her chest. I want to force that trapped breath from her chest and swallow it into my own lungs. I'd bet it tastes a lot like deliverance. Sweet, stolen deliverance.

I hold her gaze. "When I said I wanted you to agree to be mine, I meant completely. Entirely. Mine."

"But marriage…" she sputters.

"Marriage would ensure that you remain safe. There are very few men who would dare take what is mine."

"A marriage in—in name— only ?"

Oh, my hopeful little captive. I ask, "Do you not understand the meaning of mine , Ruby?"

"I—"

"You will be my wife in every sense of the word."

"But…" She's on the edge of panic now.

I stand and round the desk again. She watches, frozen, as I stalk toward her. For the second time tonight, I bracket her small body in the chair, leaning down to position myself above her. Slowly, firmly, I say, "You will be my wife. You will take my last name. You will sleep next to me in my bed." I don't know where the demand comes from. I'd always intended for my wife to sleep in her own room, accessible to me, of course. But not in my space. That's why I have the adjoined rooms.

I'd also intended to propose to Anya. But that was before Ruby.

I continue. "I will taste your lips." I let my gaze trail down the length of her body. "And every inch of your delectable body." She shivers, but stays silent. I'm not certain she's even breathing. "You will take my cock and bear my children. You will remain loyal to me until your dying breath, and you will honor me with obedience and submission. You will keep my secrets, and bare your own to me. In return, you will have my protection."

Surprising me, she tips her little chin up in defiance. "And what of your loyalty?"

I've never intended to be loyal to the woman I took as my wife. But again, I'd thought that woman would be Anya. And she'd never minded my straying, so long as I always came back to her. Her goal had been my name and money. Never me.

"You want my loyalty?" I don't know why this surprises me. I don't know why she would care.

"I don't want a husband who shames me with infidelity. I don't want a husband who betrays my trust and faith—who?—"

I cut her off. "Give me something worth my loyalty, and you will have it."

Her mouth snaps shut. "Are you saying you would agree to be loyal? To me? Completely?"

I dip lower, so low I can taste the short puffs of her sweet breath.

I want to kiss her. It would be nothing to close the distance now, to claim her as I'd ached to claim her these last two months. I bet I could have her panting and bent over my desk in— no . Not yet. I might get her to pant for it, but she'd hate me after.

"Like I said, if you give yourself to me completely, and willingly, I will honor my vows."

"And if I don't?"

"I'm a man. I like to fuck, and I fuck often." She flinches at my words. So sweet . "Taking a woman against her will has never been a kink of mine."

Her face flares with heat and her pretty eyes bulge.

I'd bet money her definition of a kink is to fuck from behind with the lights on. She's probably only been fucked in the dark, soft and slow, by the two-pump twenty-something who jacks off to thoughts of her sitting in the church pew beside him.

The idea has something foreign and unpleasant rearing in my gut, burning a path into my chest. Jealousy.

I'm jealous of the two-pump twenty-something from her church. Miles, I'd discovered from my investigations into her life.

But Miles won't be an issue now. Because now, her life belongs to me.

"So, I have to—have sex with you?" she whispers. "Or you'll cheat on me."

"I won't rape you, but I won't deprive myself of a woman. If my wife refuses to be that woman, there are plenty of other willing women."

Right now, I think she really hates me. Can't say it's what I'm going for, but…

"But I can't have another man?"

I've never been one for slaughter. But those words from her lips—the idea of another man taking what is already mine—yes, I could slaughter.

Coolly, I growl, "I won't be the one depriving my wife. If you want to fuck, you come to me. Only me."

"What if I want more than that ?"

I raise a brow. For a woman who couldn't seem to find her tongue for months, she's quite the little negotiator.

"What more is there?"

She looks crestfallen by my question. Suddenly, I want to pry this hidden truth from the secret depths of her. Instead, I wait patiently for her answer.

I'm disappointed when she murmurs softly, "Nothing. Clearly, there is, and never will be, anything more." Softer, far quieter, on a breath that is only faintly audible, she says, "I'm a fool."

I study her for a long moment. I'll have all the time in the world once she is officially mine, to strip her of all her secrets. To pull her innermost desires from the depths of their hidden prisons. To expose her most private fantasies. To craft wonder from the raw diamond of her innocence, watching as she transforms and sparkles.

"Do we have a deal?"

"How romantic." She sighs. "I marry you, and you keep me safe from—" She can't say it. I don't blame her. She mutters to herself, "The devil you know is better than the devil you don't know." Her downcast eyes lift again to mine. "I'll marry you. Because I don't have a choice, otherwise."

She just had to hammer home that dig. "There's always a choice."

"Either way, I am to be made a whore. I would rather be one man's whore."

You won't be a whore at all, Little Princess. But you will be mine.

"Right. As I said, onto business." I push back from the chair and move to the door of my office, where Dimitri has brought the priest. I can feel her eyes on me as I move, and grin as I pull open the door to find the man waiting.

A fine sheen of sweat lines his forehead where his graying hair sits. He's more than aware of the family I come from, and the sins we commit. Having Dimitri stand sentry, towering over him for as long as I've been inside my office with Ruby probably didn't help to settle his nerves. It's no matter, this should be quick.

I already have the papers drawn. "Father, come in."

Ruby stands quickly, her wide eyes set with panic. Her mouth opens and closes, but no sound escapes. Her knotted hands twist at her belly as anxiety soars.

I cross the space between us to slide my arm around the small of her waist, tugging her into my side. I introduce her, "This is Ruby Belle, my soon to be wife."