7. Maksim
MAKSIM
Carina sat on the opposite side from me on the short flight back to Las Vegas. Keeping her head turned toward the window, she put up an icy, distant front.
She was consistent. I’d give her that much. She gave a clear message and didn’t waver.
Look away.
Fuck off.
Don’t even think about it.
Combativeness oozed from her and I saw that as a reassurance. In some odd manner, her recalcitrance to me was comforting. I would’ve been more worried if she were clinging to me and throwing herself at me, desperate and overeager for my attention.
Instead, she seemed allergic to the concept of being in my proximity.
Before I’d let her dupe me into thinking that meant she was here under duress, doing the duty her brother expected of her, I had to build up a tolerance to being near her. To be in her presence and avoid that shock and gut-punch of lust.
Carina soon-to-be-Volkov was a breathtaking example of a haughty and beautiful woman. High cheekbones that emphasized the defiance and mystery lurking in her dark eyes. Long, glossy locks of wavy dark-brown, so soft and shiny that I wondered if they felt like silk too.
No matter how much I stayed engaged with Viktor and the couple of men on the plane, I couldn’t rip my eyes away from her for long.
She was fucking spectacular, an exotic dream I never could have imagined being connected to.
Curvy, slender, and with that sass that simmered under the surface?
Fuck me.
Fuck me now.
I was fucked if just seeing her in that light-blue dress stole my breath. The second she stepped into the room at the Garcia villa, I couldn’t believe my luck.
But it’s not real.
It won’t be real.
It’s just an arranged marriage.
The more I dialed down on that chorus, the more insane I felt.
Because what man wouldn’t want a second of this woman’s attention?
Holding her hand for the few seconds that I had resulted in the after-effects of a live brand.
She’d seared me with her firm but soft grip.
She’d intrigued me with how quiet she wanted to be on the whole flight.
We arrived, and I didn’t push my luck by trying to get her to act like anything but a captive we’d picked up along the way.
I exited, not bothering to be a “gentleman” and let her disembark first. Outside, I stood near the car and let her enter on her own.
She didn’t need me to offer her hand. I hadn’t forgotten the smirk she’d given me before.
Like I was offending her with the implication that she needed my help.
Huh.
Maybe she’s never been on the receiving end of how a man should treat a woman.
I left that nugget of curiosity aside and closed the door after she got in. Instead of getting in her car, I turned to one of the guards. “Show her to the house.”
He raised his brows, likely itching to ask why I wasn’t riding with her.
“I probably should let my brother know we’re having a wedding tomorrow, right?” I smiled at how ridiculous I sounded.
Another wedding.
Another rushed wedding.
Carina and I were marrying tomorrow not because she was pregnant or because we were in love. Like the situation had been between Elena and Adrik.
I only wanted to get it over with. If having a wife was going to be an obstacle to my busy days of work, then it made sense to cross the ceremony itself off the list now.
He laughed lightly and nodded. “Probably.”
“Just have Jeremiah show her to the guest room,” I told him, referencing my butler. “And keep an eye on her.” That was a loose term, but he’d know what to do. My security team would catch on to the fact that I had a stranger in my home with limited trust.
I never had women over. And I never entertained many guests. Skepticism and staying guarded were the norms at my residence.
I rode with Viktor toward the main house where Adrik and Elena lived with my father.
With how quickly everything was coming together, I felt late in updating Adrik. Fortunately—or perhaps unfortunately—Viktor had taken it upon himself to text our older brother in a group thread that I was bringing home a fiancée.
So it came as no surprise that Adrik was scowling with an expression that asked if I was serious.
“Is it true?” Elena asked as she beamed at me from the dinner we were interrupting. They both sat out back on the patio, but the food was instantly forgotten as she encouraged us to sit with them. “We’ll have another woman around here?” She leaned to the side, as if expecting Carina to be with me.
“Not around here, per se,” I replied.
She grinned, looking back at Adrik. Then at his unamused frown, she sobered up and lost the smile to wince. “Uh-oh.”
“Are you serious?” he asked as I sat. Viktor helped himself to the food.
“Looks like it. We’ll have the wedding tomorrow.”
Elena gasped. “Tomorrow!”
I held up my hand, already clued in to how she was clearly thinking this would be some romantic ordeal. “It’s not like it’s a real marriage,” I clarified.
“It isn’t?” Adrik asked.
I sighed. “It will be a real, legitimate marriage, but Elena, don’t get your hopes up on having a sister around or anything like that. Carina was arranged to marry me. It’s not like you and Adrik…”
She huffed. “Not like how my father gave me to him as some thing to own? As a payment for his sin of double-crossing him?”
I furrowed my brow, unable to escape how similar our paths were.
John Morovov had given him his daughter.
As a transaction. Whereas Arturo Garcia was permitting an arranged marriage with me and his sister.
It was different. I wasn’t in the situation to “own” Carina.
She’d be my wife to symbolize that the Volkov and Garcia trade agreements were still on.
Adrik hadn’t intended to marry at all when he was given Elena. They’d come to that understanding much later after she’d been here and ended up working as our in-house accountant genius.
“Is that the situation with the Cartel?” Adrik asked bluntly. “Did Arturo Garcia offer his sister in marriage as an act of an apology for that shipment ending up in enemy territory?”
Viktor spoke up. “No. We think he’s sending her as a spy.”
Adrik tossed his napkin to the table and cursed. “That makes it so much better.”
“We’re not sure what Garcia’s motives are,” I said, “but if there is any way to use this offer to our benefit, why not?” I shrugged.
Elena gawked at me. “She’s going to be family.”
All three of us replied in unison. “It’s only an arrangement.”
She frowned again.
“You should have at least brought this to my attention first,” Adrik said. “Before you fucking agreed to anything.”
I shook my head. “Calm down. It’ll be fine. We had a problem with the Cartel and I’m in the process of solving it.”
He didn’t lighten up, frowning at me. “It sounds like you’re just asking for more problems.”
“Maybe not.” I laid out my idea of wondering if Garcia was trying to turn away from our trade agreement to look for another avenue of doing business.
That alluded to Gregori, and he didn’t—and couldn’t—argue with me about the necessity of learning what our potential enemies were doing where our uncle was involved.
“So she might be marrying you to spy on the family,” Elena summed up after we finished talking, “and you’re marrying her to spy on what she might be spying on?”
I shrugged. “I guess. It’s just business.”
“It’s planning a wedding in a matter of hours,” she exclaimed.
“And we have plenty of staff to handle it,” Adrik said.
His skepticism lingered. I could tell. We were often on the same page and the same wavelength like this to intuit what the other was thinking.
That was what happened from our growing up so close.
At the same time, though, he was able to allow me the space and freedom to solve the problems that popped up, like this shipment of arms that had ended up in the wrong hands.
“I guess you'd better hurry home and help your fiancée prepare for the wedding tomorrow,” Adrik said once we’d all left the table.
“She’ll be fine.” I shoved my hands into my pockets.
“Things have been icy so far,” Viktor commented with a smirk.
Adrik arched a brow at me, likely assuming my surprisingly rash decision to get married would backfire. Arturo had sprung the idea on me seemingly out of nowhere, but I had thought it through. Viktor and I assessed the pros and cons while we quickly analyzed the what-ifs that seemed most pertinent.
“She seems…” I chewed on my lip for a second, searching for the right word.
Sexy.
Stunning.
Confident.
Observant.
Strong.
Fucking gorgeous.
“Sassy?” I guessed, thinking back to her aversion to my giving her orders or instructions.
Adrik cursed under his breath again. “Is this going to be a mistake?” he asked.
“I don’t anticipate letting it be one,” I replied. “Relax. It’s not like this is the first time we’ve used nonconventional ways to get intel and keep an eye on those working against us.”
“And you’re that certain that the Garcia Cartel is working against us now?”
“I disagree with Arturo Garcia’s claim that what happened with those lost guns was a mishap or misunderstanding.
” I didn’t break my gaze from him, letting him see the sincerity in my words.
“I’m not sure yet what he’s up to, but keeping his sister close should be a means of getting a better clue to what it might be. ”
He nodded once then patted my back. “You’re sure you want to tie yourself to her like this, though?”
I laughed a single bark of laughter. “Why not?”
It wasn’t like I was going to fall in love with her.
Lusting after her was one matter. I was only a red-blooded man, after all.
But no one around here had any reason to be worried that I was risking my heart or anything frivolous like that.
Watching Adrik and Elena leave and go upstairs, I stayed in the foyer and decided to give my fiancée a night of relative freedom.
It was too late to launch an interrogation with her.
I wasn’t in the mood to ask her questions when I was still developing the tolerance to this sudden and instant attraction that sparked inside me each time I looked at her heart-shaped face and admired more of her slender yet curvy body.
“Better head home. Got a wedding to get up early for,” Viktor teased.
“I might stay here.”
He smirked. “Why?”
“Just to set up the details for tomorrow.” Noticing his amused smile, I added, “Also to give her space and a false sense of security so she might be more amenable in the morning.”
“Sure,” he mocked. “That sounds like an excellent start to a marriage. Spending the night apart.”
“Fuck you,” I replied, shoving him as I walked toward one of the guest rooms.
“You don’t trust yourself not to take her tonight. That’s the problem.”
I shot him a dirty look.
I didn’t admit defeat to problems. I solved them.
“You want to stay over there and make sure she doesn’t try to escape or anything like that?
” Jeremiah and the guards would see to it that Carina was locked in my house for the night, but it wouldn’t hurt to have my brother standing by.
She’d seen him at the Cartel compound and villa, so maybe she wouldn’t be as alarmed if he were around again.
He huffed. “Sure. I can babysit your uninterested fiancée.”
It didn’t matter what she was interested in or not. So far, she wasn’t crazy about the idea of spending time near me, but that was too bad. If she had any secrets I could learn for the security of my family, I’d get them however I could.
Even if it meant taking her hand in marriage.