I shake my head, taking a step back. “We will think more. This is not a thing to rush.”
“You can change things later if you want to. For now the money would be protected for you.”
I gather up the other pages of the prenuptial agreement, but Alexei’s big hand comes to rest on them, preventing me from dragging them off the desk. “What are you trying to do,kiska?”
I shake my head at him, pulling harder on the pages until he has to let them go so they don’t tear. I roll them all together and keep them in my tight grip. I smile at the lawyer and the paperwork witness. “Thank you for your help. We are happy to have this. Alexei, we have paid them already for coming?”
He nods.
“Good,” I say, attempting to usher them to the door.
The lawyer pushes up his wire-rimmed glasses and nods with a smile, glancing between Alexei, Sasha, and me. “Anything I can do.”
Alexei stands and shakes the lawyer’s hand. Only then does the lawyer move to the door and leave, followed by the witness.
“Now what?” Sasha asks us. “No wedding tonight?”
Alexei takes the papers from me and drops them on the desk, before taking me over to the couch.
“Your brother, he is impatient. He will miss his family, I think, if he must stay very much longer.”
“Don’t worry about Sasha. He can go home if he wants. All the chapels have witnesses in them.” Alexei’s thumb strokes my hand. “Tell me what you want to do.”
I draw a deep breath in and exhale, listening to the deepest part of myself.
I know what I want. I put a hand on the side of Alexei’s face and lean forward to kiss him.
“I am ready. We will get married.”
“For the prenuptial paperwork to be valid, Natalia, I need to sign it before the ceremony.”
“I understand,” I say, getting up and throwing the agreement in the garbage. “Married people, they should share everything. Happy things like money. And sad things, like when someone dies.” I bite the corner of my lip, surprised that tears are forming in my eyes. “I could not meet my grandfather or go to his funeral. But you know him well, Alexei, so you can tell to me stories about him, and this way I will know him too. Like my pictures and letters of my father he put in the box for me. This was good gift.” I swallow hard as a tear slides down my cheek.
Alexei rises and comes over to hug me. His arms are so big and strong around me that they make me feel better.
“Yeah, of course, I’ll tell you all about him.”
“I think you were wrong before, what you said about witches. If a spirit helps us meet, it must be him.”
CHAPTER22
Natalia
A honeymoon vacation is the best vacation. Alexei and I take a helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon, we eat dinner at a Moroccan restaurant where belly dancers move between the tables, and we take a gondola ride at the Venetian hotel. Our hotel’s breakfast buffet is like having a wedding reception every day, and I learn how to play several games in the casino.
I forgive Sasha for kidnapping me and grow to like him over the two days he is with us. I do small face chats on my phone with his wife Rachel who says she’ll have a wedding party for us in Massachusetts too.
Secretly, I have two favorite things. As a wedding gift, Alexei bought me a geometric gold and diamond ‘lost princess’ necklace. It reminds me of the one Zoe wears that I like so much. The gift Alexei wants me to give him are the rest of the days on my kitten contract. He says I can give them all to him in one month or over the course of the year, but he wants every single day.
“So generous of you to let me choose between these two equal things you want very much,” I say dryly. But I’m not angry. It makes me happy that the gift Alexei wants most is for me to be his toy.
Before Sasha leaves, he confides he overheard part of this discussion and tells me in secret I can get a sexy kitten costume in Las Vegas. After he shows me the website, I buy a cat-ears headband, a tail, and lingerie. When the package arrives though, I become shy about actually wearing these things, so I hide the box in the closet.
Later, Alexei is trying to fit things inside our closet after a shopping trip, and the kitty box falls out. As he starts to replace the lid that’s askew, he pauses.
“Natalia, what is this?” he asks, holding it up.
“Nothing,” I say, walking over and taking it. “Something for you… another time.”
