“Don’t make me regret this alliance,” Lev warns.
Fuck. None of this is going right.
Chapter Five
Natasha
When Maksim returns to our room, I’m already in bed, trying to fall asleep but I can’t stop the pain in my chest. He said he left to give me some space but that’s not what I want. I want to get to know him. I want him to want this when it’s obvious he doesn’t.
I squeeze my eyes shut as he gets in the bed. I can feel him looking at me but I don’t dare look back. After a long moment, he finally turns off the light and I can relax.
I desperately want to ask him what he was doing when he left our hotel on our wedding night. Was it to drink some more? Was it to meet up with another woman? I know nothing aboutMaksim but the one thing I do know is that he doesn’t want this marriage.
There’s a tenseness in the air between us. We both know that I’m awake and just pretending to be asleep. Neither one of us knows how to cross the huge cavern between us.
After a long while, sleep overtakes me and I wake up to Maksim not in our bed but I relax when I hear the shower going. He didn’t leave.
Why do I want him to stay with me anyway? It’s not like I have feelings for him. I was forced into this marriage too. I would have much preferred to stay in my room all alone and not have to deal with these confusing emotions. But it would have been nice if Maksim at least seemed interested in me.
He did say I was beautiful last night but then he promptly left. I don’t understand him.
I run to my suitcase and grab out a summer dress to wear. I’m in the act of undressing when I hear the shower turn off. Hurrying faster, I manage to get my bra and underwear on but not my dress before Maksim is leaving the bathroom in nothing but a towel.
I freeze, my face on fire. I clutch the dress to my body. Maksim freezes as well.
“You’re awake,” he states.
“Yes.”
My eyes flick over his body. His toned chest. His strong arms. He looks more like a Greek god than an actual human.
That’s when I notice Maksim looking me over too. I take a step back. It’s all too much too fast.
He clears his throat and looks away from me. “Sorry. I’ll let you get dressed.” He heads back into the bathroom, leaving me alone once more.
Did he like what he saw? Or did he hate how I look? I can’t read him.
After putting on my dress, I stand in the room awkwardly before I force myself to knock on the bathroom door. “I’m done.”
He comes back out, still only in his towel. “So, we’re heading for our honeymoon today. Greece. We need to be at the airport in a few hours.”
I frown. “My dad never mentioned a honeymoon. I thought we were staying here for the night and then…”
“I didn’t know we were going to have a honeymoon either. But I was told last night. So let’s just get it over with and then we can go back to our own lives.”
“Our own lives? Won’t I be living with you?”
“Yes. But I just meant we can do our own thing. We don’t have to pretend to like each other if we don’t want to. This is a marriage to protect our alliance. It’s not out of love.”
“I know that.”
He blinks like he’s unsure of what to say before he turns to his suitcase and right before my very eyes, drops his towel so I can see his entire bare backside. I squeak and whip around, covering my eyes.
Maksim chuckles. “You can look if you want.”
“I don’t want,” I say in a harsher tone than I mean to. Maksim goes quiet and I wish I could read his face.
“I’m dressed,” he says after a minute.
