Page 33 of His to Own

He pauses before shrugging. “True. I am. Nothing we can do about that now. You’re mine now, Elena. Because of our marriage, I’m going to get everything I wanted.”

“What about me? What about what I want?”

“What do you want?”

His question startles me. No one has ever asked that to me before. Not my parents. Definitely not Adriana. Not even Lana. She was always so focused on her ballet career to ask me things like this.

What is it I want? To be a writer. To be a mother. To be in love.

But to tell all of that to Maxim is embarrassing. It’s too personal and I don’t trust him. Not after everything I’ve learned about him and seen with my own eyes.

“It doesn’t matter,” I mutter.

“I think it does matter. You’re my wife now. You’re on the floor, looking like you’re going to pass out at any moment. I do care.”

“If you cared, then why did you sleep with that woman when you were pursuing me?”

That draws him up short. “Well… I like to fuck. It’s just my nature. And you weren’t mine yet. Everything was free game.”

“Are you still going to see other women now that we’re married?’

He tilts his head to the side, looking me over. I have never felt more on display. “Do you not want me to see other women?”

“It doesn’t matter what I want.”

“As I already said, Elena. I do think it matters. Answer me.”

But how can I tell Maxim what’s on my mind? I don’t love him. I shouldn’t care if he wants to be with other women. And yet I do care.

I still can’t say it though.

“Answer my question,” I say instead. “I asked first.”

He chuckles and rocks back on his heels. “All right then. Right now, I’m intrigued by you. I don’t have any desire to sleep with another woman at the moment.”

“But that could change?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never been married before. All I can say is how I feel right now and right now, I want to focus on you. I want to focus on my new partnership with Nikolai. And I know I’ll have to deal with your father again. So I don’t have to sleep with any other woman for the time being. You just have to tell me if you don’t want me to.”

I want to tell Maxim to not see other women but instead, what comes out is, “Do what you want. It’s your life.”

His expression changes. Do I detect disappointment? I’m not fully sure. “All right then. I’ll do what I want. Right now, I want to help you out of your wedding dress. It’s all blood stained.”

“I don’t have any other clothes.”

“You’re right. That’s a predicament. I take it I won’t be able to convince you to walk around naked, can I?”

“No,” I gasp.

He chuckles and gets to his feet, holding his hand out. “I’ll bring you back to your house so you can collect your clothes. I’m sure your father will have a few choice words for me.”

“He just might kill you.”

“Do you want him to kill me?”

I can’t give Maxim an answer so I take his hand instead and let him pull me to my feet. “Thank you.”

“So polite.” He runs his thumb along the back of my hand, making me shiver. “You’re just a good girl waiting to get out of your shell, aren’t you?”