No, there was room only for this man.
A throat cleared, and she jumped and spun, nearly clocking Dmitri on the chin.He kept her held between his legs, his hands on her hips as she turned to face… “Aiden.”
Her oldest brother and leader of their family.He looked so much like their father with his dark hair and the line of his jaw, but she couldn’t fault him for the similarities because she shared more than a few herself.However, shecouldfault him for the murderous expression he was aiming over her shoulder at Dmitri.
If he attacks Romanov, all this will be for nothing.
The only option was to play to her strength—being a pain in her brother’s ass.“Get that look off your face, Aiden.You were going to marry me off to him, so you don’t get to throw a bitchfit because it didn’t happen onyourtimeline.”
His attention fell to the massive ring on her left hand.“Come inside, Keira.We have things to talk about.”
Dmitri’s grip tightened ever so slightly on her hips, and his murmur reached her ears alone.“Remember what I said, Keira.”
She elbowed him and slipped out of his grasp without responding.She’d made her choice, and she didn’t need him threatening her to remind her of that fact.Her brother and her husband stared at each other like junkyard dogs about to attack, so she stalked past Aiden.“Let’s get this over with so I can check in on Charlie.”The last she’d heard, her brother’s fiancée had been taken by the enemy and might not survive.Obviously, Charlie was okay, but Keira wouldn’t quite believe it until she saw it for herself.
Aiden fell into step behind her as she marched through the front door and headed down the hallway to his office.In the ten seconds she was in the house, it already stood in stark contrast to the Romanov home.Voices came from the kitchen, accompanied by the clink of dishes, and somewhere upstairs it sounded like elephants were stampeding.Elephants, or Dmitri’s niece.
Aiden touched Keira’s shoulder and turned back to where Dmitri stood in the front doorway.“I’ll have Olivia bring Hadley down.”He jerked his chin to the library.“They’ll meet you in there.”
For once, Dmitri didn’t have anything to say to that.He held Keira’s gaze for a long moment and then turned and walked obediently into the library.That’s a first.She knew what he was doing—keeping his promise to her.He wouldn’t antagonize Aiden beyond smart-ass remarks because peace was the condition to Keira agreeing to be his wife.He might be sneaky as fuck, but he’d keep his word.
Good.
The office had been their father’s before it became Aiden’s, and although he hadn’t done anything overt to it, itfeltdifferent.Not welcoming, exactly, but more comfortable.Keira took her customary chair, but to her surprise, Aiden didn’t sit behind the desk.He leaned against it in front of her and crossed his arms over his chest.He seemed to be debating how to handle her, and she was so goddamn tired of being handled.In reality, her role hadn’t changed all that much—from possession to possession, even if one label was a sister and the other was a wife.
Keira cut to the chase.“I chose this.”
“Really?Because it sounds like Dmitri forced your hand the same way he forced Cillian to let you walk out of here.He waited until he knew I wasn’t going to be here, and then he coerced you to leave with him.”
It was more or less the truth, but Aiden was missing one very important fact—they couldn’t afford a war.Three years ago, the conflict with the Hallorans hadn’t reached more than a few skirmishes and Devlin haddied.If they went to a full-out war with Romanov and his people, there was no way her remaining siblings were all going to walk away unscathed.And their alliances would pull in the other two families in Boston, and maybe even Sloan and her husband from wherever they had settled down, and endanger her new nieces and nephews, too.
What was a marriage to Dmitri Romanov when weighed against all that?
She couldn’t say that to Aiden.He wouldn’t understand, for all that he put their family first over and over again.It was okay forhimto make sacrifices, but for his baby sister?No, he wouldn’t see things her way at all.
Keira leaned forward, trying to make him understand.“I want him.”
“Bullshit.You’re just spitting out the rhetoric he rehearsed with you.I know what you’re doing, Keira, but you don’t have to.We’re stronger than we’ve ever been, and he’s weaker than he lets on.I’m not going to sacrifice you at the altar of Romanov’s pride and power.”
He wasn’t exactly wrong—the dinner last night had more than proven that truth—but even without being at 100 percent, Dmitri was more than a formidable opponent.It was only sheer stubbornness preventing her brother from admitting that.Frustration took hold.“You let Sloan leave with Jude.”
“Sloan is head over heels in love with that asshole, and he’d die for her and their baby.It’s a different situation, and you damn well know it.”Aiden clenched his fists and then made a visible effort to relax.“Nothing’s been done that can’t be undone.Just let me fix this, Keira.”
Fix this.Bring her back into the fold so she could keep living her half life holed up in her room, because every time she left it, she had to face down the missing piece evident in every board of this goddamn house.Shehatedthis house.
She knew her brother, and she knew the stubborn expression on his face.She’d worn the same expression more times than she could count when she looked in the mirror.If she didn’t force him to accept her decision, hewouldbring her back, whether she wanted to come or not.“It’s too late.We’re married.Signed, sealed, and delivered.”
He froze, his green eyes going icy just like their father’s did before heads rolled.“Have you slept with him yet?”
It was such a Catholic thing to ask.“Yes,” she lied.“We’ve fucked on every surface of his house.If I’m not already pregnant, it’ll be a goddamn miracle.”Liar, liar.Her brother flinched with every word as if she’d reached out and struck him.She hated hurting him, but it was for his own good.“In fact, we fucked on the ride up here.It’s no use, Aiden.There’s no annulment option, and neither of us wants a divorce.Youcan’tdo anything about it, so you might as well let me live my life like I’ve been asking you to since I turned eighteen.I know what I’m doing.”
If anything, his expression went subzero.“If I kill him, it wouldn’t come to divorce.”
She shot to her feet.“What the hell is wrong with you?I didn’t like Charlie when she first came around, but I wasn’t threatening tokillher.Jesus, Aiden, you sound like our father.”
He flinched again, but his eyes thawed.Just a little.“That’s different.”
“No, it’s not.”It was totally different.“I don’t know how many ways you’re going to make me say this—I choose him.”I choose peace.I choose to keep the family safe.I choose the only option I ever really had.
