Total pages in book: 36
Estimated words: 33695 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 168(@200wpm)___ 135(@250wpm)___ 112(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33695 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 168(@200wpm)___ 135(@250wpm)___ 112(@300wpm)
She lay perfectly still. “What do you want?”
“So you’ve never dreamt of me before?” he asked.
“No.”
He tutted. “I find that hard to believe.”
“I don’t control my dreams, Mikhail. You can be disappointed all you want, but I’ve never dreamed of you. Now, can you get off?”
“I can get off, if you want.” He made sure to put a lilt to his tone.
She wrinkled her nose. “Seriously, stop with the games, or whatever the hell this is. I don’t like it, and it’s not teasing.”
It was very much teasing, but he had a feeling Galina wasn’t ready for him to do this.
“You know, I’ll get off, and not sexually.” He winked at her. “For a price. Actually, shall we make an agreement?”
“I’m not making a deal with you,” she said.
“I don’t know, you might like this one…”
“I doubt it.” She tried to move her hands. “Are you done?”
“Whenever you want me to stop, or you’d like me to take you seriously, you have to kiss me. The moment you kiss me, I’ve got no choice but to listen to you,” he said.
“You’re kidding, right?”
“I think it is a pretty solid bet.”
He saw her eyes trying to work it out, and he smiled when he saw her attempting to be a sneaky devil. “It won’t work on our wedding night. You and I both know what we’re going to have to do in that instance.” He tutted. “I can’t get you out of the complete responsibility of becoming my wife, Galina. I’m good, but not that good.”
She rolled her eyes. “Why can’t I just use words? You know? Like normal people.”
Mikhail wrinkled his nose. “Nah, that sounds boring. Come on, you know you want to.” He just wanted to get it to the point where she had to constantly kiss him, for everything.
“If I agree, will you get off me?” she asked.
“For a kiss. Just think of what I would do for a kiss.”
Galina frowned. “So, you’re saying all I’ve got to do is kiss you, and you’ll do whatever I say?”
“Within reason.”
“What reason?”
“I’m not going to let you humiliate or embarrass us both, if that’s what you’re thinking. You need to understand, Galina, there is no way out of this marriage.”
“I didn’t mean like that.” She sighed.
He didn’t have a single doubt in his mind that Galina would try to find a way out of their impending marriage. He couldn’t allow that to happen. Vik was still available. He’d take her, and Mikhail knew he’d destroy her.
There was no way he would ever allow that to happen. He’d deal with Vik in time.
“Do you want to give it a try?” Mikhail asked.
He knew she’d ask for something stupid and elaborate, that would be impossible for him to give her, but he knew deep down he could make this fun for both of them if she was willing to open her mind.
“Yeah, let’s give this a try.”
“Then, my sweet, all you have to do is give me a kiss, and tell me your heart’s desire.”
Chapter Four
One kiss.
That was what Galina had given to Mikhail. It hadn’t been a hard kiss, or a long kiss, or even a prolonged kiss. Just … a kiss. She requested that he get off her, and she expected him to be difficult, but he hadn’t been.
He’d gone to the bathroom, leaving her alone in the bedroom. He wasn’t gone long, about five minutes, when he told her the bathroom was for her, and then he’d opened up his closet.
She snuck into the bathroom, did her usual morning routine, and waited until she was brushing her teeth to take a glance at her reflection in the mirror. Mikhail had told her a clean toothbrush was waiting for her, the purple one.
Galina didn’t know what she expected her reflection to tell her, but she hadn’t anticipated looking so … sprightly.
That was what she looked like.
Her cheeks were a deep red and she hated to admit it, her eyes sparkled. This couldn’t be the case. The mirrors had to be lying.
But, last night was the best sleep she’d had in a really long time.
There was no getting away from that.
She’d not been sleeping well for a long time. Deep down, she’d known her parents would be finding her a husband, and there would be no way she’d be able to back down. Even though she knew what was expected of her, she’d not been able to fight off the fear and panic of what was to come.
Even knowing that Vik Kuzlov had been one of their choices. The man scared her. He was much older than her, and she knew he’d already had several wives already, along with a couple of kids.
Then finding out Mikhail was to be her husband—she didn’t know which one was worse.
Vik Kuzlov was the worst.
And she hated admitting that.