Chapter Sixteen
SAINT PETERSBURG, RUSSIA
T he wedding had gone off without a hitch, unless you counted my grandfather sulking.
The looks he would shoot in my direction as I took Ekaterina’s hand and exchanged vows would’ve slayed a lesser man.
I’d been raised in his shadow, so I’d never cower to anyone, including him.
He still tried, and sensing his discomfort and anger only made it that much better.
It’d been the fuel I’d needed to get through the ceremony.
What I did afterward when Ekaterina and I were alone was barely a hassle.
It was true what they said about hate sex, and I remembered saying something to her about that the first night we’d been together.
It still held true because, despite marrying the wench, I still wanted to fuck her six ways to Sunday, and that only angered me further.
Sometimes when I’d be deep inside of her, I would wonder if this was what Princeton had been trying to get.
The two had attended school together in the New York mountains, and I still had no idea how close they truly had been.
If I had gone off just her report to the authorities, he’d forced himself upon her, and she tried to flee, which led to the accidental striking of him with her car.
It didn’t explain the backing up and striking him again.
“You’d wanted him dead, and I still want you to face the same fate,” I said aloud to myself.
Ekaterina was inside gathering up some things she’d forgotten when she’d been forced to flee to the United States. I had no idea what was taking her so long, and knowing there was a private plane already fueled and on the airstrip, I finally decided to go upstairs to get her.
“What do you think she’s doing up there?” Nolan asked me from the front seat.
I looked at my right-hand man. “There’s no telling, and with her being a damn woman. I should go and hurry her along.”
“I’ll be waiting right here,” he said as he turned off the ignition.
“We won’t be long,” I said before exiting the car.
From the various reports I’d gotten on her over the years, I knew which apartment was hers. I took the elevator to the top floor, not at all surprised she would live in the penthouse of this building. A princess, through and through, very little I’d learned about her ever shocked me.
When I reached her apartment, I thought about knocking, but upon realizing I was now her husband, I didn’t feel like it would be a complete invasion of privacy. I turned the knob and the door opened, so I stepped inside.
This was the first time I had ever seen any of her places.
I knew she had a studio apartment in the city, but even it was a place I’d never been.
This particular space was a different architectural style than the industrial lofts or traditional Irish county designs I was used to, but the pops of bright colors in an otherwise neutral place fit her perfectly.
“Ekaterina,” I called out to her.
“In here,” she said to me. Her voice held no contempt or disdain, so she obviously wasn’t upset at my having intruded in her space.
Following the direction of her voice, I reached her closet where she was trying to grab something from the top shelf.
It appeared to be a box, and the way it had been put up there, wedged in the corner, would explain the difficulty in getting it herself.
“Are you just going to stand there? Or are you going to help me get this down?”
I arched a brow at her. “I’ll get it down for you, but we need to come to an agreement on how much attitude I’m willing to take. I’ll make it easy for you by letting you know that it won’t be much.”
“You’ve forced me to marry you, and you’re also going to fuck me pregnant, so what else do you suppose I do? I’m not going to play the dutiful housewife just because you command it.”
“I didn’t ask for you to be that,” I said as I moved closer. When I realized she was in my way, I gently nudged her aside. “If you expect me to get this, you’ll need to give me some room.”
“Fine,” she muttered as she threw up her hands. “I need to get a few more things from the other room anyway.”
She left me in a cloud of perfumed air, and the sweet scent she liked to wear became more intoxicating to me each time I smelled it. I shook my head. Marriage might not have been what either of us wanted, especially when it was to each other, but it would never be boring. That was for sure.
Remembering the flight and Nolan waiting outside, I reached up and managed to get my hands on the box.
I thought it would be lightweight, but I quickly realized it was not as I yanked it off the shelf and nearly dropped it.
Thankfully, I was able to catch it, and I carried it into the other room, setting it on the bed.
Ekaterina was in the kitchen pulling things out of a drawer, so I turned my attention back to the ornate box.
It did not have a lock on the front, but the clasp was in place, holding the box shut.
I undid it and was just about to raise the top when she rejoined me.
She immediately placed her hand on the top of the box, then quickly put the clasp back in place.
“Nosy much?” she muttered.
She was bent somewhat, which made it easier to fist a handful of her hair and jerk her head upright. “Remember what I said about attitude.”
“We haven’t talked about it yet, so?—”
“It’s all semantics, wife.”
“Don’t call me that,” she hissed out.
I grabbed the hand with her wedding ring, then brought it to her face. “I own you now. This ring?—”
“Is a farce. You don’t own me, and you never will. No one will ever possess me like some sort of damn toy. You might do best to remember that.”
“What’s in the box?” I asked her upon realizing this conversation would just send us around in circles..
“None of your?—”
“Everything regarding you is my business.”
“It’s things that belonged to my mother. I’d brought the most important stuff with me, but upon settling in New York, I’d realized how much stuff was still left here.”
“That’s all you had to say,” I told her before releasing her hair from my grip.
She made a spectacle of straightening her hair, all while glaring intensely at me.
All her sass and defiance did have an effect on me, but I was pretty sure I wasn’t the one she desired.
For all of her petulance, it made my palms itch with the need to strike her, not in anger, but in lust. I wanted to bend her over the very couch she was leaning against and pepper those perfect cheeks of hers with blows before fucking her.
Yeah, Ekaterina thought she was accomplishing something, but all it actually did was make me want to fuck her more.
Her body fit so perfectly against mine, and it was only when I was balls deep inside of her that I could even forget momentarily how much I hated her. My cock was already hard now, and knowing the flight would be around ten hours long, I’d been picturing my wife on her knees as she pleasured me.
“I’d ask what has you smiling, but you’re a guy, so I already know. You’re a pervert,” she said, and I chuckled at her thought of me being offended.
“I’ve never claimed to be anything else,” I replied.
She rolled her eyes, then looked at the suitcase, the box of her mother’s belongings, and a leather bag she had just stuffed a stack of paperwork into. “Would you mind helping me, please?”
I moved over to her, then leaned in to whisper into her ear as I grabbed the handle of her suitcase. “Since you asked so nicely.”
“There are times when I’m not always a bitch,” she said to me.
I leaned in even closer, then nipped her earlobe. “I know, and if you keep that attitude up instead of the other one, I’ll make this flight worth your time.”
She shivered, then pressed against my chest. “Do you ever think about anything outside of sex?”
I could’ve played coy, or even just admitted it because I had no shame, but I knew I wasn’t the only one. “I think about it as much as you do, Ekaterina.”
“Kat,” she said as she stepped back.
“Huh?”
She quickly cleared my confusion. “Everyone except my father calls me Kat. You should as well.”
“You’re right, Kat. There’s no use for formalities now that we’re married. In fact,” I said before stopping to smirk at her. “You can call me King from this point on.”
“How convenient,” she said before turning away from me.
I grinned, then grabbed the box from her hands, leaving her with just the leather bag. “We need to leave. Nolan is waiting on us, as is the plane.”
“I just can’t believe I’ll likely never return to this place again,” she said sullenly. “I suppose my father has ruined anything that was here, anyway. Let’s go.”