“You’re the one who wanted me here, Alex.” I was prepared for a fight, and he was being way too calm. It was pissing me off more.
“Yeah, I wantedyouhere. My brother in arms. My damn ride or die. But I forgot how immature you are. I forgot that when it was time to grow up, you skipped class.” Alex reached up and patted me on the shoulder, and it was so fucking condescending that my blood boiled.
“Goddammit, Alex,” I raged, not able to contain my anger at him for a second longer. “You didn’t give me the memo. You settled down in the blink of a fucking eye and you left me behind.” I glared at him, aware that the room had gone quiet. “But don’t worry, I know I’m only a fucking soldier so what does it matter?”
Turning abruptly, I walked away from him. He didn’t try to keep me there, didn’t call for me to come back.
I left the restaurant, and abandoned Miss Nameless from the bar to her own devices against the wolves, and I felt empty inside.
Chapter Sixteen
Katya
After Nikolai had stormed out of the restaurant it took everything in me to stay in my seat and not go after him. Viktor smiled as the door slammed closed and his rich blue eyes had washed over everyone at the table, perhaps seeing my family in a different light for the first time.
Nik’s date, if you could call her that because she looked more like a cheap hooker, excused herself and left abruptly, her cheeks flushed with embarrassment.
My father’s face was filled with fury and I heard him talking to our security, Nik’s name on his lips. Family or not, it was going to take a lot to get back in his good books. Both Nik and I had fucked up today and pissed Father off in more ways than one, and I needed to make amends for at least my part of it. A tiny ache in my chest wanted to repair things for Nik as well, but my efforts on his behalf would mean less than nothing to my father.
A man had to answer for his own crimes, great or small. It was the Bratva way.
The only thing I could do was focus on myself. On being the perfect princess for this evening and entertaining the idea of marriage to a complete stranger.
Besides, if I was going to be forced to marry anyone, Viktor actually wasn’t that bad a choice. Tall, muscular, attractive, rich, powerful. He hit all the right spots, and I stared at his hands, wondering what they would feel like on my body. Could I kiss his mouth forever? Was he as largeeverywhere?
“If you’ll excuse us, I’d like to take Katya for a walk alone,” Viktor spoke to my father, though he glanced at my mother for approval too.
Unsurprisingly, I wasn’t asked, and my body bristled with annoyance. It was already beginning…my lack of existence as I was absorbed into a man’s importance.
“Of course,” my father replied, standing to shake Viktor’s hand. He gave me a cursory glance, a warning to behave myself. I had been a good girl all night. Polite, enthusiastic, endearing myself to Viktor in every possible way. Anything to make my father happy with me again.
I guess I was still a daddy's girl deep down.
I stood up, giving a polite smile to everyone at the table. Alex and Marisha had been sickeningly in love all night with googly eyes for only each other. My mother however, had been watching me carefully, and I’d caught her frowning more than once as she’d watched me talking with Viktor.
It was nearly impossible to fool my mother.
Viktor put his hand on my lower back and guided me out of the room. “I thought we could go for an evening walk along the beach.”
A waiter was outside holding a silver tray with two glasses and a bottle of champagne on it for us and Viktor took the glass and bottle in his hands and nodded his thanks.
“A champagne fueled beach walk?” I asked. “Well, it’s not like there’s much else to do around here. Though there’s always skinny dipping if we get too hot.” I winked playfully.
He didn’t laugh and instead sniffed at my reply. If he had been Nik he would have taken the lead and directed the conversation to how there was always plenty to do with him around, or how sand always got in the most uncomfortable of places, or how he hated champagne but it was good for drinking out of belly buttons.
But Viktor was not Nik.
He was handsome like him. Strong like him. He was richer than him. And he treated me with respect unlike Nik. But beneath the handsome rich exterior, Viktor was boring. And I loathed boring.
Still, my time was almost up and it was either Viktor or … god, who knew who I’d end up with if I waited much longer. Father and Mother would scrape the bottom of the barrel and I’d be the one ending up with a portly Russian man twice my age who barely spoke English. At least then Nik and I could double date, bringing along his old country wife with birthing hips.
We kicked off our shoes at the edge of the beach. Viktor put down the glasses and bottle as he rolled up his suit pants. The evening was warm, the soft caress of the ocean calling as it lapped at the sand. I stared out, watching the waves rolling as the sand sunk between my toes. I’d drank too much tonight but the fresh air was helping to clear my head. I thought about Nikolai and where he was now. Had his date caught up with him? Was she keeping him company? What the hell had he been thinking by bringing her here?
I shook my head, remembering his angry scowl as he and Alex had argued. This whole thing was tearing them apart. I’d never seen them like this before and I found that I wanted to do something to help them before they ruined their friendship for good. Nik had been around for as far back as I could remember and I couldn’t imagine my life without him in it, even as annoying as he was.
“Your mother is a beautiful woman, Katya,” Viktor was saying and I nodded and smiled in agreement, “I hope that you will age as well as her, though, you’ll have to curb the carbs if you want to keep that figure of yours.”
I stumbled a step and Viktor caught me in his arms, the glasses clinking together in his hands. He stared down into my face intently, the warm evening air and the scent of salty water pulsing between us.
