Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 72284 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72284 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
Lev Zarkov is a real-life monster.
No, correction, he’s actually the devil.
Except, when I first meet him, he’s simply the mysterious, handsome man traveling next to me on a first class flight to New York.
And after being dumped at the altar by my loser fiancé, who vanished into thin air the morning of our wedding, when things get flirty between me and the mysterious stranger, I think why not?
Surely, I deserve one night to forget. I mean, where’s the harm in a little indulgence, right?
I’ll tell you exactly where the harm is. It turns out my one night stand is not only the pakhan of the Zarkov Bratva, but he’s also a billionaire who is used to getting what he wants… and what he wants is me with his ring on my finger.
I’m to appear in public as his fake fiancée, and in return, my loser ex will get to keep his brains inside his head.
Every instinct tells me I don’t want to do this.
But Lev Zarkov can be very persuasive…
Bratva Lullaby is book one in the Zarkov Bratva duet. Brooke and Lev’s story concludes in book two, Midnight Poison.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
1
BROOKE
I stare at my reflection in the mirror and smooth down the front of my dress. The dress is everything I dreamed about as a little girl when I used to watch all the brides come and go from my mom’s bridal boutique. The softest Italian silk. White and encrusted with the tiniest crystals. A strange sensation tingles in my stomach. Back then, I also dreamed of a handsome prince who would whisk me away and make me his wife. But I’m definitely not marrying a prince today. More like a reformed bad boy. The man in a suit who used to make all the girls at the club swoon. The rapacious flirt who changed his ways for me. You tamed me, Brooke; I’m a changed man.
I met him when I started working at the club he managed. I was the marketing manager, and he was the gorgeous boss I knew I should stay away from. But his boyish charm and dimples eventually wore me down, and before I realized it, we were a couple, and moving in together.
I take a deep breath and let it go slowly to steady my nerves. This is what I want, right? I love Wilson. We’ve been together for two years, and it’s been… great.
I push a stray curl behind my ear.
It’s just nerves.
“Are you ready?” my best friend Elsa asks. Dressed in a champagne-colored silk dress, she gives me an affectionate look. “The limousine is out front.”
I blow out another nervous breath and nod. I want this.
As I walk past Elsa, she stops me. Seven months pregnant, she takes my hand. “It doesn’t need to take you to the church, you know. Just say the word, and the driver will take us anywhere you want to go.”
I know she has her reservations about Wilson. After all, she’s my best friend, so she’s the one I turn to whenever I need to vent because Wilson is being overly flirtatious with another employee again, or Wilson is being distant and is too preoccupied to remember my birthday, or the anniversary of my parents’ death, or insert any important date he missed here. She’s also the one who knows that I haven’t been laid in almost a month because Wilson has been too busy with the club to come home and fuck me.
I give her a confident smile, but it’s all smoke and mirrors. Because behind it, I’m suffering a bad case of cold feet.
I nervously play with the owl charm hanging from the bracelet on my wrist. A gift from my mother I never take off.
The door opens, and my other two bridesmaids, Chloe and Samantha, walk in and immediately begin to gush about my dress. Chloe hands me a glass of champagne, and Samantha passes a champagne glass of juice to Elsa.
I take a sip and hope it helps calm my nerves. I want this.
There’s another tap on the door, and Henry walks in. Henry is my brother from another mother.
While I’ve known Elsa, Chloe, and Samantha since high school, I met Henry when he moved into the apartment across the hall from mine three years ago. One day, he knocked on my door asking to borrow a phone charger, and when he saw my Gucci slippers, he promptly declared us to be best friends, and we’ve been inseparable ever since. Even when he moved across town to a fancy loft with his producer boyfriend, we still managed to keep up our cocktail dates.
Today, he’s giving me away. Since my parents are dead and I have no other living relatives, this little group has become my family, and when Wilson asked me to marry him, Henry was the only person I wanted walking me down the aisle.
“Am I too late for the toast?” he asks.
He isn’t carrying a glass of champagne. He’s carrying the open bottle.
“Wow!” Samantha says, her eyes sweeping over his purple herringbone suit and cravat.
“I know, I’m gorgeous,” he says with a little curtsy and a bright twinkle in his eye.
Trust Henry to go completely untraditional at a traditional wedding. His suit is a showstopper, and he looks utterly fabulous.
“Henry, would you like to do the toast?” Chloe asks.
Henry gives me a wink. “To the most beautiful bride in the world. I hope you are blessed with a beautiful wedding and a wonderful marriage.” He raises the bottle. “And may all your ups and downs only be in the bedroom.”
Chloe raises her glass. “Yes, cheers to a great marriage.”
“And great sex,” Samantha adds.
The sound of crystal chinking echoes in the hotel room.
Despite feeling sick with nerves, I take a sip of my champagne and pray for it to stay down. Maybe the alcohol will calm the butterflies and keep my nerves steady. It’s nice champagne, so I take another mouthful and enjoy the warmth spreading through me. But it does nothing to fix that tight feeling in my gut.