[ZARINA]After waking up the second time this morning, I found Vladimir moving back and forth in the kitchen. Preparing breakfast for both of us. Something warm and sweet curled up inside as I tried not to fall so hard for him. Watching him from a distance and offering no help made me feel like a creep. But it wasn’t my fault that I couldn’t muster up the courage to be in front of him as if nothing had happened the previous night.Or this morning.A ticklish dash of heat glided down my spine at the thought of his mouth on my core, his fingers pumping inside. Those sweet words he spoke in that sexy voice of his. All those hot and needy touches. Impassioned kisses. Our bare skin pressed against each other. The feeling of him and me together. Thinking about all of that was enough to drive me crazy and for my thighs to squeeze together to relieve myself of the ache he left behind. But it never eased.I couldn’t tell what was holding him back from giving me everything he had, or if he was
[ZARINA]The tension in the room was so thick that one could easily cut it with a knife. It was even darker and more dangerous than the time when Lorenzo decided to be an ass. No one in the room knew how this discussion between the Perazzos and Galantes was about to end. After what happened at the church, it was safe to say, some of the people were pissed off at the way Vladimir orchestrated the entire thing.They were mad because he didn’t include them in the plan.They were mad because he deliberately made them go through hell before showing up like a damn hero who saved the day.To be honest, I was a little upset by the entire dramatics he pulled, too. At least, he could have warned me instead of letting me suffer till the very end. It was cruel and quite ruthless on his part. And once we left this God-awful suffocating gathering, I would rain him with the questions for sure. It was about to be an endless day for him.Although that was the least of my concern for now.Right now, I
[ZARINA]An hour later, we were approximately 40,000 ft above the ground and I was yet to ask him where we were heading. With Vladimir being so dark with rage, I couldn’t muster up the courage to say anything at all, let alone the destination of our unexpected trip.Once the car pulled up at the hangar, Mir slid out while one of his men opened the door for me. The sight of the massive jet, the one I had seen only once before when he came to rescue Julie and me from that hell, brought back some unpleasant memories. However, I got little time to dawdle in the past because the next thing I knew, we were being ushered inside the jet, everyone preparing to leave.Vladimir ignored me the entire time until the jet was ready to take off. But even after he sat across from me, he kept himself occupied with the stack of papers he took out from a leather bag. He was taking his sweet-sweet time to go through each one of them. From the look on his face, they seemed of great importance to him. So in
[VLADIMIR]“What is this place?” Zarina asked, her gaze pinned on the enormous villa in front of us. The heavy curiosity in her voice did something silly to my chest, and just like that, the desire to kiss her rose once again and darted down my veins. But I suppressed it all by removing my gaze from her. It had become a pattern of sorts. Whenever I needed time off from my chronic horny aspirations, I would look away and try to think of something less provocative. Like a bald head or something.She probably had no inkling of how hard it was for me to keep my hands off her. She was right here, so gorgeous, so tempting, so ready to be my wife, to be mine—I still couldn’t fucking believe it—and I couldn’t even do things to her that haunted me day and night. I had been practising so much patience for the past few days; I fucking deserved a noble prize for it. Or maybe an academy award for the best performance of the century.But I didn’t have to try that hard this time to distract myself f
[ZARINA]After Mir left for God knows where, I spent most of the day following Aunt Alessia around. She’s a nice person. Talks really quickly and maybe a little oftener than I’m used to, but seems like she’s only excited to have Mir back. It’s been a while, she said, as long as Mir’s grandfather (her father-in-law) was alive, he used to visit nearly every month without fail. But after the old man passed away, he stopped visiting.He stopped caring.She also told me that Mir and his grandfather were really close. Together, they hung out more than Mir and his father ever did. The way she said those things, I felt as if Mir and his father did not have a smooth relationship. Though Aunt Alessia seemed as chatty as one could be, she seemed mindful not to bring up the subject of Mir’s parents.It was only then I realized I knew nothing of Mir’s past. Sure, I know about his failed marriage to Aurora and that he had a brother and Hazel as a niece, but...what about the rest? He mentioned nothi
[ZARINA]Frozen to my spot and shocked to the deepest of my bones, I struggled to get some air into my lungs.Did I really hit him? But why? Was that because he was doing something I did not approve of? Or because...he wasn’t himself?No matter what the reason was, my face seared with embarrassment. My heart palpitated poorly against my ribs and the knots in my stomach tautened to the extent I couldn’t breathe.After fixing me with a glare for a minute too long, Vladimir retreated and stormed into the bathroom. He shut the door so loudly that my entire body shivered. My nerves caused havoc; wild goosebumps crawled like insects all over my skin. Regret pierced my chest like a cruel knife, and the more I thought about it, the deeper it burrowed.It hurt. So much. But why? He was the one who crossed the lines. Why was I on the verge of breaking down? Why were my eyes damp and blurred with tears? What was this pain...Sucking my lips, I leaned my head against the wall behind me and closed
[ZARINA]“Mir, this is...” I gasp.“Do you like it?” pressing those words into my ear, he grazes his teeth below my lobe.“...gorgeous. It’s gorgeous.”After our deep and long conversation, the previous night, Mir and I woke up with someone causing a ruckus at the door. It was only then it dawned on me that I ended up sleeping in his room. Something Aunt Alessia had been warning me since the moment we got here. Even though she was quick to assume that we had already done the deed, she expected us to be patient until the marriage and keep our desires to ourselves.And now that we’ve broken one of her directions, she sure sounded angry beating the door outside. To be honest, I panicked a little originally. Not wanting to give anyone a reason to be upset with us. But Mir had different thoughts regarding the matter. He blatantly and outrightly ignored all her screams and peeled the covers off me instead. Despite my reluctance and attempts to reason with him, he moved between my legs with
“My world is a less scary place with you in it, baby. I will kiss you a thousand times every day if that’s what it takes to keep you in love with me for the rest of our days.” [VLADIMIR] "Do you take Vladimir Perazzo as your lawful husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and cherish until death do you part?” I would be lying if I said those words spoken by the priest don’t fill me with dread. Because they do. Something inside me is awfully worried for no specific reason. Perhaps it’s the fear of being tricked by fate again. Perhaps I’m afraid that the past would repeat itself in a much more monstrous and hurtful way. It’s just there. Ticking like a bomb. Making me break into some serious amount of sweat. But I hold it in. Not because there’s no other choice now that dozens of people are watching us, but because the woman standing in front of me is looking at me with so much love and w