All the air leaves me. Shit. “Sorry. I didn’t know who you were.”
“I guess not everyone does. I’ve never seen you around here before… except, you do look familiar. Like we’ve met before.”
I snort. “In a past life, you mean? You can’t use that line on me. You’re cheesy. And old.”
“I’m not old.”
“Older than me. You have to be… what? Thirty? That’s practically ancient.”
“And you’re a girl who looks to be too young to be in my club. I suggest you leave now.”
“I’m allowed to be here.”
He holds his hand out to me. “Then let me see your ID.”
“Fine.” I’m confident in my fake ID, so I hand it over with no problems. But this man takes one look at it and scoffs.
“It’s a fake.”
“No it’s not.”
“It’s a fake.” He pockets my ID and motions at me. “Come with me. You’re leaving. I don’t sell alcohol to underage girls.”
“I’m twenty. I’ll be twenty-one in no time. I’m not underage.”
“Still too young to drink in my club. I like to hold a respectable establishment.”
“Bullshit. You just want me to go because I called you old.”
“You have an attitude on you. It’s going to get you in trouble one day.”
I place my hands on my hips. “Is that a threat?”
He leans in closer to me, making me catch my breath, but still he doesn’t touch me. “Not yet. But it can be. So I suggest you leave, little girl. I don’t like people causing problems at my club.”
I scoff. “And I don’t like pompous assholes. I’ll go. But not because you told me to. It’s because you’re annoying me.” I storm past him but he grabs my arm. “How dare you!”
“I would suggest you be careful in the future. You never know who you’re going to meet… Kira.”
I gasp. How does this man know who I am? “Who are you?”
“Enzo Bianchi. We’ve never been formally introduced. But ever since your father and Nikolai Volkov came to me to offer your hand in marriage, I made a point of looking into you. And how interesting that you would show up at my club and act this way. It’s ridiculous. I don’t want to marry a woman who acts like a child.”
“Marry? What are you talking about?”
“I take it they didn’t tell you. I would talk to your daddy if I was you.” He finally lets me go and saunters into the crowd. My heart is pounding and my head is swimming. What is going on?
I make it back home to find my father and brother in the living room. They look relieved when they see me but before they can say a word, I speak. “You’re going to marry me to Enzo Bianchi? Your enemy?”
Maksim sighs and bows his head, like he can’t bear to look at me.
My father stands to his full height. “Yes. It’s the only way to keep the peace between our families. Enzo didn’t agree to the deal but he said he’d consider it. If he says yes, then you’ll be married to him.”
The man from the club. The dark, charming, kind of sexy, while also terrifying man from the club… will be my husband?
Before I know what’s happening, a rush of emotion surges through me and I feel faint. Then I fall to the ground and let darkness overtake me.
Chapter Two
