Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 106541 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 533(@200wpm)___ 426(@250wpm)___ 355(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106541 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 533(@200wpm)___ 426(@250wpm)___ 355(@300wpm)
“I held you while you cried until you fell asleep.”
I startle, my mouth falling open. “But not just now. You did it while I grieved my family too, didn’t you?”
He doesn’t answer my question.
That’s okay. I know the truth.
He doesn’t hate me.
He hates that he has to hurt me not to hurt himself, and proof of that arrives when the doctor from three days ago returns to my room with another man in tow.
My husband.
35
KATIE
The pieces of the puzzle were already coming together, but they’re forced into place when Ghost rejects Kirill’s request to inseminate me. “She’s still recovering—”
“Statistics prove the chance of conception after a miscarriage is significantly higher.”
“She didn’t miscarry,” Ghost bites back, his hands balled into fists. “You fucking stomped on her.”
When Kirill’s eyes snap to mine, as icy as death, I lower mine to the floor. He issued his voiceless threat after I had spilled the beans to Ghost, so how can I be punished for it?
I inwardly mock myself. This man is a monster. He will never act rational.
And that’s proven without doubt when Ghost’s third denial angers Kirill enough to harm his own child. He grabs Lera so firmly she whimpers before he thrusts her in front of multiple red rays that light up her chest like a Christmas tree. “I let her live because you pledged me a Bobrov heir.”
My stomach gurgles when Ghost replies, “And I’ve gifted you many wives and multiple positive tests.”
“That all turned out to be girls!”
“How the fuck is that my fault?” Ghost asks, his eyes never once leaving Lera. His voice is raised, but the calmness on his face promises her that she isn’t in any danger. I also believe she is the reason he is speaking in English so she won’t understand the brutality of her father. “I can’t alter your sperm so only boys remain.”
Lera can’t understand them, but she can feel the tension. A big salty blob falls down her cheek a second before a painful sob whimpers from her mouth.
She’s scared, and it affects me more than I can ever explain. I was fourteen when I was taken. That is a decade longer than Lera has lived. She should be playing with dolls and getting a messy face while making mud pies. She should not have her life threatened daily.
Especially not for me.
“Do it.”
Ghost’s eyes sling to me. They’re full of shocked and bewilderment.
“My husband wants an heir, and I am here to give him one.” Kirill seems displeased by my submissiveness. Ghost is just as ropeable, but he knows he doesn’t have a choice—not if he wants to continue protecting Lera. “I know my place.”
When I slip onto the bed and place my legs into the stirrups the doctors pulled up the instant they arrived, a man with a full beard and a round stomach steps closer. He’s holding the vial I’m all too familiar with, but mercifully, it is without the duck beak that causes discomfort.
Just before he reaches the foot of the bed, Ghost shoots his hand out, gripping him by the lapels. “Let me.” He shifts his deadly gaze to Kirill. “She’s still bleeding, so isn’t this where I’m meant to step in?” His reply proves he’s overseen my care because he told me when I woke that I stopped bleeding a day earlier.
“Very well.” Kirill waves his hand through the air like a king gesturing for the jester to entertain him.
I wait for Ghost to gather the vial from the doctor before pulling the sheet across my legs for modesty. Once I’m certain Ghost is the only one viewing me from the waist down, I tug my panties to the side, then slant my head away.
He’s always super cranky when I look at him while he inseminates me.
The mattress dips under Ghost’s weight, and he spreads me with his fingers like he does every insemination, but the warm liquid isn’t squirted inside me. It dribbles a few inches in front of my backside before soaking into the bedding.
What the?
Kirill mistakes my shock as discomfort. After peering down at the empty vial Ghost dumps onto the stainless-steel trolley, he pushes Lera away from him with an unkind shove, then gestures for the doctors to follow him out.
I wait for Lera’s nanny to collect her from my room before scooting up the mattress and staring at the murky blob crusting the sheets. Some cum spills out during the insemination process, but it is never that much, and there is no residue on me. I am cum-free.
On the verge of hyperventilating, I slip off the bed and enter the bathroom to pace.
He’s going to get my sister killed.
She’s going to die.
And Lera—God.
“What do you think you were doing?” I ask Ghost when he props his shoulder on the doorjamb of the bathroom. He looks pleased with himself. I have no idea why. “I have a week. One measly week and you ruined it by pressing his semen into the mattress.” When he looks at me surprised, I pfft him. “I know what you did. The vial got nowhere near my vagina.” I march toward him. “You need to tell them you inserted it incorrectly. Ask for another batch.”