Page 58 of Bought to Bear Bratva Heir

"My love?"

I started at the sound of Marguerite's voice. "Hi." I turned to her, tearing my eyes away from that closed bedroom door.

"Do you miss Alexander? Oh, my God, you live with him every day. He’ll be fine with his nanny."

She tipped her head back and smiled at me, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that her smile didn’t reach her eyes. It looked as if she thought my son was a nuisance.

My brows drew together, and my patience was wearing thin. Alec was the most important person in my life. If we were going to move forward, he had to hold the same place in her heart too.

"You seem far away." Reaching up, she placed her hand on my cheek. "Everything is ready. Doesn’t it look amazing?"

"Sure." I shrugged. I didn’t bother to turn to look around. Really, it didn’t matter to me what color the flowers were or if the champagne tower worked. I just wanted this day to end.

"I am going to go and get ready now." Lifting herself up on her tiptoes, she brushed her painted mouth to the corner of mymouth. "And I’ll be wearing something special for you under my dress tonight," she whispered huskily. I didn’t react. It didn’t matter if she was wearing lingerie of pure gold. I wouldn't touch her tonight. There would be a night where I needed to, but that wasn’t today.

"Maybe you should put Alec and his nanny into a hotel tonight so we can—"

I cut her off sharply. "Alec is part of the package, Marguerite. If you cannot accept him, then this engagement goes no further."

"I love him like he is my own," she pouted prettily.

She was lying, of course. Marguerite didn’t have one maternal bone in her body. So I narrowed my eyes.

"Of course he is welcome," she said quickly. "Of course I want him to be part of this, but I also want my night to be perfect."

I stared her down. "He will be there. He has a swimming lesson now, but after that, he will be at our side. And we will be a family." I added a note of finality to my voice.

The tip of her nose wrinkled, but she smiled anyway, and it just went to prove one thing to me. This was wrong. Marguerite was wrong for us. She wasn’t the kind of woman I wanted acting as a stepmother to my child. Maybe I should get engaged to another woman instead?

"Of course. I will see you at nine." Again she aimed her lips towards my mouth, and I gave her my cheek instead.

God, none of this felt right. Being engaged to Marguerite only made me feel irritated and worn down. I should end it. I should—I took a step towards the elevator and was about to tell her it was over when I heard a door behind me open.

Turning, I found Daisy hovering in the doorway, her cheeks flushed. "Sorry," she mumbled. "I thought everyone had left and wanted to," her eyes swept over my face, and she took a hasty step back. "Never mind." She went to shut the door.

"I haven’t seen you much today," I blurted before I could stop myself. Daisy froze. Her eyes were the only thing that moved as she swept them over me.

"I tried to stay out of the way because of," she gestured around the space. "I know you are busy with your engagement party." She swallowed hard around the last words.

I couldn’t blame her for that; I was having a hard time saying the word as well.

"Yeah. Are you hungry?"

She hadn’t eaten all day as far as I was aware. Not that I was keeping tabs on her. I just seemed to be hyper-aware of her every movement at all times.

"I’ll just grab something and—"

I had moved across the floor towards her before she had finished the sentence, and my hands closed around her waist to jerk her towards me.

"Ilya, don’t do this." Tilting her face up to me, she whispered.

"Do what?" I couldn’t help it; my hands stayed on her hips. "Don’t give you what you really want?"

The look she gave me was meant to be outraged, but she could never hide the heat in her eyes from me.

"What I need is some food." She pushed uselessly at my chest. "That’s what I want."

The words had barely left her mouth before my mouth was on her jawline. Flicking her hair over her shoulders, I let my tongue travel downwards, tracing the thin blue lines of her throat.