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I wish I could be the kind of woman that would turn Ivan’s head. The kind that might make him think twice about settling down. But this is all fake. I’m no one. All of this is nothing.
“But they have a lot of…expectations of me. I’m not quite ready to meet them all yet. When I am, I won’t have time to pick up odd jobs and meet new people.”
I know what it’s like to be in the shadow of your family with no way out.
I want it too much. A safe place, someone to love me, a world away from the running
My salvation.
“I won’t stay here if you think you get to control my entire life. I’m not your little whore.”
“You agreed to the job and you'll do it. You'll do it if I have to drag you back here screaming every day. You'll do it if I have to cuff you to my side every second of every hour. You'll do it if it hurts, if it feels good, if you love it, if you hate it—I don't give a damn, Cora. No matter what happens, you are going to do as I say.”
“I am your boss, your judge, jury, and executioner,” he snarls. “I am the sun around which your world revolves. Do you understand?”
Cora St. Clair is a nuisance. Her arguing gets in the way of me doing what needs to be done to save her damned life. It also makes me want her far more than I ought to.
But Cora is fire and sass. She fights back. I want to stoke the heat inside of her, not douse the flames.
“Cora is independent, but she also wants to feel needed. She won’t do well if she feels like some porcelain doll on the shelf.
I get that. I really do. But there has to be more to life than just the absence of struggle. There has to be hope for something beyond not-terrible-all-the-time. And I just need to know I’m not alone here.
My own parents don’t love me. Why do I think anyone else should? Maybe a loveless marriage built on mutual convenience is the best I can hope for.
“I’m having déjà vu,”
“See something you like, moya zhena?”
“I could ask you the same question. You’re the one who keeps barging in on me while I’m naked.”
“I made it abundantly clear the night we met that I liked what I saw just fine. As did you.”
“What do you want, Ivan?”
“I think I’ve made that abundantly clear, too.”
But if you want to get a head start on the consummation… well, your adoring husband would never deny you something like that.”
“I say if we’re playing the part, we might as well get the perks.”
“I say we need ground rules,”
“What kind of husband would I be if I didn’t get my wife a ring?”
I can’t seem to decide what I hate more: being close to her or not being close enough.
This morning outside of the tub, she was illuminated from every possible angle. I saw the soft swell of her breasts and the curve of her hip. I’ll never scrub the image from my mind. Not that I’d want to. Especially after the way she looked back at me, her green eyes going dark with desire as they trailed over my tattoos.
We’re alike in that way: I also love the allure of something I’m not supposed to have.
You’re mine.
“I want everyone within a ten-mile radius to know you are mine. Isn’t that what you want, too?”
“Good girl.”
“We made rules, Ivan. We can’t—”
“I said I’d keep my hands to myself. But if you’re going to demand celibacy, you’ll need something to take the edge off.”
I want to prove to her now that there is no checkmate with me. I always win. Always.
“What’s my budget?”
“Do your worst.”
My wife-to-be gives me a wicked grin that has a powerful effect on everything below my belt. Cora will never be able to one-up me. But fuck, the woman fights dirty.
“There it is again,”
“There what is again?”
“Jealousy. It’s an interesting ...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
What I’m really asking my fiancée is, What are you made out of? I already know the answer. I just need her to see it for herself.
Why should I care
Because I want you to care.
I want her every bit as badly as I did the night we met.
“You’re fucking mine.”
I want her—no, I need her—to start embracing her position at my side and the power it brings. The best position is whichever one allows me to bury my dick inside her sweet body, but there’s far more to it she hasn’t even begun to tap into.
“You’re mine,”
“Stop worrying about other women trying to steal what they can’t have. Show them why it’s you. Show them why you’re mine…and why I’m yours.”
Fuck, how could I even begin to notice another woman when she’s already so fucking perfect?
“You have to sit down and shut up.”
“And show me some fucking respect instead of eyeing my man like some dick-hungry slut. He’s mine.”
Holy fuck. If she’s not careful, I might actually end up fucking her hard right here, right now. I’m halfway convinced Cora wouldn’t mind that at all.
