Page 13 of His to Own

“Speak,” he snaps.

“I don’t know what you want me to say.”

“I like that you’re quiet. Submissive. You’ll be a good obedient wife to me. But I need to hear you say it.”

“Say…what?”

From the way he frowns, that was the wrong thing for me to say. “That you are mine. Say it.”

I open my lips and his eyes dart right to them. I shudder. No words come out of my throat. No words form on my tongue. I can’t get anything out. It’s just… silence.

“Say that you are mine,” he repeats.

Nothing. No words. I am a frozen statue.

In one fast motion, Sergei storms over to me and grabs my wrist, hard. I gasp. “Say that you are mine. Say it.”

Fear overtakes my body and throat. I can’t move. I can’t speak.

“Say it,” he snaps before slapping me across the face. The force of it sends me backwards on the bed.

That’s when the door opens and Maxim strolls inside. He stops when he sees what’s happening. Only a beat.

And then he rushes over to Sergei and rips him away from me. Sergei stumbles back, looking shocked.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Maxim asks in the eerily calm tone of his. Still acting like he doesn’t have a care in this world.

“I am talking to my wife.”

Maxim’s eyebrows rise. “Your wife? Last I checked, this birthday girl wasn’t married yet. And also last time I checked, she was promised to me.”

“She is not yours.” Sergei rights his jacket and runs his hand over his balding head. “Her father promised her to me.”

“And her brother-in-law promised her to me. So I think we’re at a conundrum, aren’t we?”

“Get out,” Sergei snarls. “I was talking with my wife.”

“Mmm.” Maxim makes a show of looking around the room. Me curled into a ball on the bed, my face on fire from Sergei’s slap. Sergei huffing and puffing in anger. “You know what? I don’t think I’ll leave.”

“Go.”

“No.” Maxim shrugs. “I’m good right here. I’m having too much fun to leave. This is the most excitement I’ve had in days. Normally my days are spent making money and fucking women. Something I’m sure you know all about, don’t you, Sergei? I mean, assuming you’re spending all your days making money and fucking women.”

Sergei flushes. “That’s none of your concern.”

“Ah.” The eagerness in Maxim’s eyes is frightening. How can someone be having so much fun while in this situation? “I take you don’t spend your days fucking women. Correct me if I’m wrong though.”

“You’re a playboy,” Sergei hisses. “Not fit to be a husband.”

“You think this poor girl, cowering on the bed right now, thinks you’re fit to be her husband? What did you do to her? I mean, it doesn’t take a genius to figure it out. Her red face. The way you were standing over her. But I’d still like to hear it in your own words.”

“She is mine. I was just getting her to say it.”

“By hitting her.” Maxim’s easy going nature falls and is replaced by a darkness that makes the pit in my stomach grow. “You were hitting her.”

“Only once. A good wife needs to learn to be obedient to her husband. I was just making sure Elena understands.”

“By hitting her.”