*
Katya disappeared into her new bedroom and came back out wearing a champagne hued dress that clung to her curves in ways that shouldn’t be possible. It was low cut, a waterfall neckline spilling down to curve around her navel. The back was a network of spiderwebbed ribbon, showing off tantalizing peeks of skin without tan lines. She’d fixed her hair and makeup; the braid was loose and romantic. The makeup was understated and accented her features without overpowering them.
She was fucking breathtaking.
And she was dressed this way to go to dinner with Viktor.
“You aren’t wearing that to have dinner withhim,” I growled out, anger rumbling in my chest. Jealousy mixed with despair that turned into a noxious cocktail of grief.
I was sat on the small sofa in the main room of the condo, my head in my hands as she came out of the bedroom, and now I stood up, chest heaving as I dragged my hands through my hair.
“This is exactly what I’m wearing,” she countered, jutting out a hip and crossing her arms to lean against the door frame. “Just because I love you, Nik, it doesn’t mean you get to control me like everyone else.”
My frown deepened. I didn’t want to control her. Ever. I wanted the full Katya, unfiltered, unchanged, and wild
“He doesn’t deserve to see your body like that.” My voice was still the rumble of thunder in a stormy sky, but I muzzled my anger.
“This dress isn’t for him,” she purred, leaving the doorway to close the gap between us. She reached up, her small hand wrapping around my much larger face. Her touch was delicate, slight. The feel of her was a butterfly’s wing against my skin. “No matter what happens, everything I do now--everything I wear and say--it’s for you, Nik. Remember that.”
I stood there frozen as Katya’s fingers fell away from my face. I didn’t want her to leave. But I knew she had to; she didn’t have a choice.
Her family was waiting.
Viktor was waiting.
The goddamn future was waiting.
She brushed past me, leaving electric tingles along my arm. I wanted to turn around and grab her. Throw her over my shoulder caveman style and steal her away from here.
But she had to go.She had to.
I didn’t turn around and look when the door opened and then reclosed softly behind her. I couldn’t watch her leave. Leave this room...leave me.
My hands balled into fists at my sides and my jaw clenched tightly. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath, letting it out slowly, but the feeling I had inside of me wouldn’t go. The agony of her going tohim…
It couldn’t end like this. It fucking couldn’t. I’d had her for eighteen years. Eighteen wasted goddamn years of taunting one another. Of teasing one another. Of not realizing how perfect we were for each other.
I dragged my hands through my hair again, frustration humming through my body.
“Fuck it,” I finally muttered.
I jogged towards the patio, chest tight and heart pounding, and I leapt over the balcony in one swift move. I raced around the building and started to follow her. No one would see me. Even though I was a huge guy, I was good at hiding. It’s why Eduard and Alex sent me on certain sensitive missions. Ones for which stealth was key.
I thought back to watching her in the restaurant as I moved between buildings, letting shadows wash over me. Back then, I hadn’t understood why I felt the need to follow her and ruin her dates. The truth hadn’t fully seeded itself in my brain. I hadn’t realized why it had been so important that I run off every man that thought he had a chance with her.
Now I followed her in a similar fashion, but with an intensely deep purpose.
A realization burning though my gut straight into my veins.
Katya was mine.
I’d staked my claim in her years ago, it had just taken someone trying to take her from me that made me realize it.
I knew she had to go to dinner with her parents and future husband, but I didn’t have to go back home to New York.Eduard and Alex be damned.I wasn’t being shipped back to the states and leaving her behind. Not a fucking chance. Definitely not with that controlling, narcissistic bastard they were selling her off to like cattle in a livestock auction.
Eventually, the two guards in my suite would realize that I’d snuck out of the back of the building, and that I wasn’t watching the television that was blaring loudly in my bedroom, but I didn’t care anymore. It wasn’t my fault they were goddamn idiots.
Katya was nearing the restaurant now, but she bypassed the main entrance and took the path around the building instead. I presumed to delay the inevitable.
