Page 41 of Keeping My Enemies Closer: Pt. 1

Chapter 20

Zoya~

As soon as Kasimir walked through the front door, I was on him, and I didn’t care if he was able to snap my neck without even trying.He could not hold me prisoner here, and there had to be a way to get through to him, right?

“I want to go home,” I told him before the door even shut behind him.“I can’t stay here, Kasimir.”

“So you’ve said,” he remarked absently.

“Kasimir, c’mon...we have to talk about this,” I said, trying to rein in my inner shrew.

“I’ve already laid out your options, Zoya,” he replied calmly.“You either agree to live with me, or you don’t.One will provide you a certain amount of freedom, the other prevents you from being able to leave this house.”

That drew me up short.

“Wait...what do you mean?”I asked.“What do you mean that one will provide me acertainamount of freedom?”

“You can’t honestly believe that I’d let you run around unattended now,” he answered, confusing me further.

“Why wouldn’t you?”I asked, seriously flummoxed.“I’ve been getting around just fine on my own all this time.”

“That was before you belonged to me,” he stated evenly.“I’ve lots of enemies, Zoya.”

What in the hell?”

“What?”

“Once word gets out that you are mine, it will draw a lot of attention, and so your safety is now a priority,” he explained, and someone really needed to put a stop to this madness.

“What in God’s name are you talking about?”

“Once you’ve gotten more comfortable with the idea of us as a couple, we are getting married,lepestok,”he announced like a certified lunatic.“Since that will make you a Korolev by marriage, my enemies will now be yours, and one can never be too careful.”

“What?”

“Also, my father insists on speaking with you, so you can expect an audience with him sometime in the next couple of days,” he went on, and I could feel my heart skip a beat with that news.

“Aleksei Korolev wants to speak to me?”I choked out.“Why on earth does your father want to speak with me?What could he possibly have to talk to me about?”

“He’s concerned about me holding you against your will, and so he’d like to speak to you about it,” he answered, answering as if this conversation was a perfectly normal one.“He’s worried that you may want to go to the police over this.”

“Yeah, like I’d report a Korolev to the police,” I snorted.

Kasimir just grinned.“Glad to hear that you’re not completely suicidal.”

Ignoring that, I said, “Kasimir, you can’t keep me here.”

“Are we back to that,lepestok?”he asked, sighing as if I were trying or something.“I’ve laid out your options, now all you’ve got to do is choose one.Stay trapped in here all day and night or commit to me and still have a semblance of a life.”

The problem was that he was serious, and I knew it.Kasimir wasn’t toying with me, and this definitely wasn’t a joke.While last night had affected me more than I’d like to admit, whatever it’d done to Kasimir, it was clear that he had no interest in going back to what we’d been before that damn auction.