Page 47 of The Bratva’s Stalked Pregnant Bride

If only I could tell her everything.

She appeared in the doorway joining our two rooms, wearing a pretty sundress and her hair brushed out around her shoulders. She cut a quick glance around the suite, noting the balcony and the front door, breaking my heart a little as I realized she was still shaken up from yesterday, no matter how hard she was trying to hide it. I had distracted her, but the fear was still there.

Well, of course she was still shaken up. She had to crawl away from a hail of bullets twenty-four hours ago. That might have been an ordinary Tuesday for someone like me, but for Laurel, who was just coming out of an abusive relationship, it had to be severely jarring.

Did I foolishly think for a minute there that she’d be able to handle learning she had a lifetime of that ahead of her?

But only if I didn’t get everything under control, which I would. All I had to do was find a way to slip away from the one woman I wanted at my side all the time. And then crack some heads to fix this so she could have the kind of safe, happy life she deserved.

Chapter 27 - Laurel

It was thoughtful of Mik to book adjoining rooms, but like he said, he wasn’t expecting me to jump all over him once he announced the trip. I wasn’t expecting it either, really, but the sense of overwhelming gratitude that he seemed to understand me so deeply made him even more attractive to me. It was somewhat easy to fight the surface stuff like his chiseled jaw and dark blue eyes, but when he was that kind, I went to pieces.

Once I was in my separate room to get a quick shower and change clothes, I wondered if I should just stay in there. The only thing fighting for a return to keeping things all business was my common sense, and now that I was rested and a lot calmer, it was shouting at me to snap out of it.

Last night was amazing and much too real. It wasn’t just the passion, the groping and rolling around together, but we shared jokes, little insights. I learned he hated peas of all things, and for the life of me, I couldn’t remember how it came up. I told him about my one and only pet, Scruffy the hamster, and we talked about getting a dog.

A dog. What kind of fake married couple adopted a dog, and what kind of hell would it end up being when we were battling over its custody when this contract or whatever we were under was done?

Ending my last relationship was hard enough when all I wanted was to get out. I didn’t think I’d be able to continue working for Mik while nursing a broken heart. Things had to remain amicable if I wanted to come out of this unscathed, both personally and professionally, and that meant staying in my own room.

But then again… he looked awfully enticing as I just sat beside him on the couch in his suite a little while later. We decided to order room service for lunch after he set up the visits to the first two wineries we wanted to go to. Normally I would have been looking over his shoulder and making suggestions, but at the moment, he was more fascinating than any vineyard tour.

While staring at his rugged profile, I began to think about the call with his father on the plane. He’d shouted so loud I couldn’t help but hear him, and when he said Mik was keeping something from him, I thought the whole house of cards was about to come down.

But then I very specifically heard him ask if I was okay. The man wasn’t a monster. He’d been very kind to me when I met him at the family dinner, so surely he wouldn’t be thrilled if I’d been shot, even if he didn’t want me married to his eldest son. But it seemed odd to be so concerned about my well-being that he called Mik to yell at him for not assuring him we were both all right.

Wouldn’t he be upset that he didn’t get to hand-pick his son’s wife if he was so adamant about having a demure Russian daughter-in-law?

I was certainly demure when I met him. That was how I naturally was, though Mik had drawn out a new wild side that still shocked me.

Mik looked up to catch me staring at him, and a blush stole up my chest to heat my face. He leaned over to give me a quick kiss, then feigned disappointment. “This one place is closed today, and the other has no slot for a private tour or tasting, so it looks like our afternoon is free.”

I smiled. The man had a priest and a witness arrive within twenty minutes of announcing our wedding. He pulled off a private room at one of the most popular diners in Hollywood on a few hours’ notice. If he wanted us to visit one of those vineyards, we’d be on our way.

He slid his hand into my hair, brushing loose strands off my cheek. Ninety-nine percent of the time, I had it up in a ponytail, annoyed with it most of the time but loath to cut it since it was a bit of a security blanket to me, and here I was keeping it down because Mik said he liked it like that.

I liked the way he looked at me as he leaned down for a much deeper kiss than the lightning-fast peck. He was dressed casually, which was unusual, but it felt good to run my hand up his chest and only have a t-shirt between my palm and his hot, hard pecs.

But what about my decision to get things back to normal? Working my hand under his shirt probably didn’t fall under the list of smart things to do to keep our relationship all business. That was exactly what I started to do regardless, my brain slowly giving over to what my body craved. More of Mik.

A knock on the door broke the spell, and I sat back, my fingers rising to my lips as if I could keep the sensation of his kiss there. “We didn’t order yet,” I said, suddenly on edge.

At any time, at any place, apparently masked men could rush in and start shooting. Mik noticed my tension and got up. “It’s probably housekeeping,” he said, but looked wary as he peered through the peephole.

His shoulders relaxed, but he turned to me with a look of exasperation as he swung open the door. Two women crowded in, hugging him before hurrying over to greet me. One was petite and curvy with the kind of pin-straight hair I would have had to wrestle with a hot iron to achieve, and smiling green eyes.

Mik introduced her as CJ, one of his cousins’ wives, who lived in Silicon Valley. The other, with soft brown curls and delicate features, was Jenna, who was married to yet another cousin in San Francisco.

“Wow, you came all this way?” I asked as Mik shrugged at me from behind them.

“Pft, it’s nothing. We’re here all the time,” Jenna said.

“But why are you here now?” Mik finally asked.

They both rounded on him. CJ pulled out her phone, reading a message that must have come from Mik. “We’ll be at that same resort you told me about. It would be great to see you if you have time.”

“That’s called being polite, CJ,” he said, then shook his head. “But it is great to see you both.”