She loves me.
Everything else is just details.
6
Jemma
Christmas Eve morning, I wake up to Konstantin already awake and watching me.
Yesterday in the snow, when he said he loved me, I should have panicked. Should have told him he was insane. Should have reminded him that you can't fall in love with someone you kidnapped.
Instead, I said it back.
Because it's true.
I've fallen in love with a Russian mobster who drugged me in an alley and brought me to his family's Christmas gathering. I'm in love with a man who's been stalking me for eleven months and knows what page I was on in my book during my break.
I'm in love with Konstantin Volkov.
And honestly? I'm starting to be okay with that.
It's Christmas Eve, which means tonight is the big family dinner. Yelena has been cooking for what looks like three daysstraight. The counters are covered in food—plates of blini, bowls of salad, platters of meat. The smell is incredible.
"Devochka!" Yelena spots me and waves me over. "Come! You help!"
"I'm really bad at cooking," I warn her. “Worse than baking.”
"Is okay! I teach!" She hands me a knife and a cutting board. "You chop vegetables. Simple! Even Kostya can chop vegetables!"
"I heard that, Mama," Konstantin calls from somewhere.
"Is true!"
Anya is already at the counter, rolling dough for something. She gives me a sympathetic smile. "Don't worry. She'll only yell at you a little bit."
"I don't yell! I give helpful suggestions!"
For the next hour, I chop vegetables under Yelena's "helpful suggestions" (which are definitely yelling). But it's... nice. Warm. The kind of family chaos I haven't experienced since my parents died.
Anya and I end up working side by side, and she starts asking questions.
"So. You and Konstantin."
"Yes?"
"How did you really meet?"
I freeze. "What do you mean?"
"I mean Dimitri told me Konstantin showed up three days ago and announced he had a girlfriend. No warning. No mention of dating anyone." She's still rolling dough, not looking at me. "And you look terrified half the time."
My heart is racing. "I'm not terrified."
"I'm not judging." She finally looks at me. "I know what these men are like. Dimitri kidnapped me and blackmailed my father before forcing me to marry him." She says it so calm, like it was a typical first date.
"And you... stayed?"
"I stayed." She smiles. "Because underneath all the possessive alpha male nonsense, he's a good man. He takes care of me. Protects me. Loves me in a way that's terrifying and wonderful all at once."
