Page 69 of Untamed Beast
Natalia avoids my eyes whenever I try to talk about this. “I’m not ready.”
“You taste pretty fucking ready.”
“I never wanted to be married, Leks.”
“And that’s relevant because?”
She pouts. “Because if we consummate this, it’s real.”
I wipe a hand over my face.
“And you’re still trying to leave?”
I’m scared of the answer.
The sobbing phone calls to her family have stopped. Natalia still talks to them, of course. Just not in the same hysterical tone of voice as she used to.
The hits on me have stopped, too, making me wonder if she does have some influence on Maksim.
“I wouldn’t expect you to understand what marriage is like for a woman in the Bratva.”
“You think you’d be giving something up.”
“Yes.” Natalia swallows, meeting my eyes for the first time. “I have a life that I want to live and it doesn’t involve being married to a Bratva Council member.”
“What if I promised you all of that? What if nothing had to change?”
Natalia stands up, pulling on a silk bathrobe.
“It still wouldn’t mean anything,” she snaps, sweeping her hair up into a ponytail. “Because you clearly don’t trust me.”
“I do trust you.”
Natalia shakes her head, a blonde curl falling across her forehead. I watch her as she organizes her outfit for the day. The way her neck tenses when she’s irritated. The soft, methodical flick of her hands as she applies eyeliner at the dresser.
Whether or not I can have her, every detail of her is indelibly burned into my brain.
“Natalia, I’m serious. I trust you.”
“You made me a promise, Leks. You still haven’t told me what happened with my brothers.”
That.
My heart stills in my chest.
Just my luck that she wants the one thing I don’t want to give her. Literally, I would give her anything else. If she asked, I’d rip out my heart and serve it to her on a platter.
But she’s right. I promised. At first, it didn’t seem like a big deal to tell her. I held out on her to use it as leverage, to make her trust me.
Now, when I think of the consequences of her not believing me… Telling her the truth about her brothers could ruin everything we have together.
“I will.”
When Natalia disappears into the kitchen I let out a shaky breath.
I know she deserves the truth.
I just wish the truth wasn’t a fucking explosive that’s going to turn her life into twisted shrapnel.
