“I found this folder with pictures of me in the bedroom, and I went straight to his home office when one of his men told me he was there. I was so shocked and angry. Threw the door open, asked the men he was having a meeting with to excuse us.”
Her eyes dilated a fraction in surprise.
“He said I was already acting like a Bratva queen.”
“Of course. The audacity,” she remarked. “I bet you turned the heat up right there and then.”
“Don’t know about that,” I answered, taking another roll, which I had no idea what it consisted of.
“Men find guts sexy in a woman, I tell you,” she disclosed, her expression becoming more serious. “And if you want to survive in this world, you have to stop looking like prey.”
“You’re the Pakhan’s wife, you’re up there with Viktor in the hierarchy. What that means is that everyone below and beside the ladder is looking at you. They want to see if you should be respected or tossed aside.”
“Well, considering that I don’t have shooting skills and…”
“You don’t need to learn to fight. Those are skills that the capos under your husband need in order to protect you. Even if you know your way around guns, you wouldn’t need to use them. It’s not expected of you as the number one woman,” she clarified. “You just need to wear your authority. Walk and talk like you own the place, because you do. I know you’re not the type to be rude or mean to people, and that’s good. But you mustn’t cower away from standing beside your husband, literally and figuratively.”
I nodded in understanding as she let her words sink in.
“And that’s another giveaway,” she informed, wagging her forefinger at me.
“What?”
“You seem to be giving my words serious thought. Tells me you’re beginning to see your place with Viktor.”
“I…I don’t know…it’s…” I babbled.
“Ooh, I leave you for how many weeks and you’re already falling for your Pakhan husband,” she squealed.
Am I falling for him?
If one thing was true, it was that I’d been thinking about Viktor a lot in recent times. Okay, for several days. Since I started seeing the softer side of him. The side I was beginning to care for.
Is that love?
I couldn’t hold my smile in as I told her, “I don’t know yet, okay? We’re just…getting to know each other.”
“And that exploration includes something around physical knowing, hm?”
If I was embarrassed before, I was now mortified. My eyelids dropped to the floor as images of my body quivering beneath Viktor’s flooded my mind.
Isabella’s laughter made me wish I were invisible, just for a minute.
“Oh my God, you’ve turned scarlet. Was it good?” she rushed. “I have to know!”
“I’m sure he’s popular with the girls,” I answered. “So you must know all about it, you’ve known him for a long time.”
Her expression went a full 180 degrees; she was all serious again.
She shook her head side to side as she said, “No. Viktor isn’t a playboy. He doesn’t fraternize with women. We hardly ever see him with women except at corporate events, where it’s necessary to attend with a partner. Even then, it was always clear he was in the category who arranged for women just to accompany them- there was always no chemistry.”
“Oh?”
“Do you know why we were all stunned when we heard he got married in haste?”
I shook my head no.
“There was a rumor that he might be gay!” she revealed, laughing.
