Page 40 of Bedazzled
“Thank you, Mariya, you’re a genius!” I gushed, just to irritate them. “Maybe send the flower arrangements to a retirement home? Six retirement homes? There might be enough here to cover a children’s hospital, too.” I knew this collection of wildly out-of-season flowers had to have cost over a hundred grand.
“I will,” she saluted me cheekily. I winked back. Thank god not everyone hated me in this family.
Only the one I was married to.
The ‘champagne soiree’ at the Morozov mansion was about as much fun as a root canal.
Not that I didn’t appreciate the effort, though Mrs. Morozov didn’t even bother to take a sip from her glass during Maksim’s - pretty gracious, all things concerned - toast.
The miserable day finally dragged to an end. Ella hugged me hard, “Don’t worry,” she whispered. “I know this sucks, but my marriage turned out to be a gift that I probably don’t deserve. Yours will, too. Though I’mnevergoing to be sure if Yuri deserves you. He has a lot of groveling in his future.”
I laughed a little to make her feel better. But I didn’t believe my marriage is going to turn out the way Ella’s had.
“My wing of the house is this way.”
Yuri’s voice made me jump. We were alone in their entryway, which was the size of a hotel lobby and so over the top. It swept up three stories with massive stained-glass windows, staircases flanking to the right and left, and a chilly granite floor.
“You have awing?”
He didn’t answer, holding out his hand to direct me to the sweeping staircase on the left side. We walked up in silence and it was painful.
One of the things I had loved about him was that we never ran out of things to talk about; anything and everything from Russian history to the periodic table of elements. We spent an entire evening in his huge bathtub at his Manhattan penthouse discussing when the US shifted from an agrarian to an industrial economy, and then the totally implausible time travel plotline in “The Umbrella Academy” as he rinsed the shampoo out of my hair.
This silence solidified the fact that I just married a stranger who was inhabiting Yuri’s body.
He led me down a long hallway and paused outside a door, opening it. “Your bags were already brought up. Let the housekeeper know if you need anything.”
“Are we going to talk about this?” I stood between him and the door, noting that he kept a grip on the doorknob like he could hardly wait to shut it in my face.
Finally, he looked into my eyes. When Yuri was happy, his eyes were a brilliant blue, the color of the Caribbean. Tonight, they were a polar shade, like a glacier. “Not tonight.”
He shut the door and I listened to his footsteps heading down the hall.
Yuri…
While I knew Tania was hurt, and quite likely scared to death, I couldn’t stand next to her for one second longer without throwing her on the bed and ripping her dress off. And spanking her. Spanking her round, luscious ass red and listening to her screech at me.
I had no idea how we ended this day without bloodshed.
Entering the master bedroom, I pulled off my tie and jacket with a sigh of relief. Anya, our housekeeper, had lit a cheerful blaze in the fireplace. Even with modern heating, this house was stone, and massive, so it was always chilly. I knew she didn’t light a fire in the guest bedroom, and I felt a moment of guilt, picturing Tania sitting there alone.
I rolled my eyes, unbuttoning my dress shirt. Tania was not the type to be weeping softly in the corner. By now, she most likely had already tied the sheets on her bed together and was attempting an escape out her bedroom window, cursing me the entire time.
However, there was no reason she should be uncomfortable during her escape attempt.
I picked up the house phone. “Anya? Please light the fire in the second guest bedroom and bring up some food for Tania. Make sure she has what she needs.”
“Of course,Sovietnik.Right away.”
Stripping, I took a shower, bracing my hands against the marble tile and letting the hot water pound against my skin.
Married.
To Tania.
Chapter Fourteen
In which Tania finds that being married to Yuri is acutely uncomfortable.
