Chapter 12
Viktor~
Aurora was standing near the east-end window of the bedroom, and she was dressed in a white nightgown that looked to be satin, and the damn thing barely covered anything at all.
It was being held up by two thin straps of nothingness, and it barely hit her mid-thigh, leaving too little to the imagination.
My wife.
However, regardless of how tempting she looked with her face free of makeup, her hair a wet dark curtain down her back, and her white lingerie, I had questions that took precedence to whatever my dick was thinking in this moment.
After locking the door behind me, I asked, “How many other languages do you speak and understand?”
“In addition to English, Italian, and Russian, I also speak and understand Romanian, German, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, and Mandarin,” she answered truthfully.
Holy shit.
“And where did you learn how to fight like that?”
“Well, let me put it this way...my mother may have given birth to two boys and a girl, but my father raised three sons,” she said, giving me more than I’d been expecting from her.
With that one little statement, Aurora had basically admitted that she was just as deadly and as capable as her brothers, and that was a hell of a thing to know.
Aurora Marchetti was not a pampered princess of any kind.
While her reputation was that of an equal member of the Marchetti family, I still hadn’t expected her to be just as formidable as her brothers.
I walked closer to her, wanting to be near her, wanting something more from her.
“I want to be clear about something, okay?” She nodded, and it wasn’t lost on me how she must be used to giving orders and granting permission.
“Never again will you ever place yourself in harm’s way like you did earlier. ”
Aurora cocked her head to the side as she looked up at me. “Well, considering who we are and the lives that we lead, that’s not a promise that I can make, and you very well know it.”
“It is my job to protect, defend, and avenge you, Aurora,” I said, her name falling flawlessly from my lips. “If someone offends you, then you come to me to take care of the problem.”
“You can’t be serious,” she huffed.
“Oh, I am,” I assured her. “I’m very fucking serious, zhena.”
“You know, calling me wife doesn’t change anything,” she replied haughtily.
“Calling you that might not, but you being my wife changes every-fucking-thing,” I shot back. “Whether you like it or not, you are my wife, and I will not have you taking any chances with your life like you did back at the club.”
“So, what? If someone insults me, I’m expected to flutter my eyelashes at you, so that you can run to my rescue?” she asked incredulously. “Yeah, that’s not going to happen, Korolev.”
“My name is Viktor,” I reminded her, my teeth clenched a bit too hard.
“I don’t care if your name is Jesus, the Son of God,” she retorted. “I didn’t sign up to walk behind you with my head down.”
I stared down at her, hardly believing what she was saying.
Italians were notorious for their chauvinistic viewpoints when it came to women, so it was hard to credit that Aurora had been raised removed from all that.
Despite the marriage between us now, she hadn’t ever been meant to be a pawn for the Marchettis, and it was clear that I had a lot to learn about my new bride.
I stepped closer to her, and the smell of her shampoo hit my nose like a weakness that I couldn’t afford. “I’m not asking you to act as nothing more than some arm candy,” I clarified. “I’m simply telling you that my role as your husband is to handle situations like the one back at the club.”
She arched a brow, clearly unimpressed. “And what is my role, Korolev? What is it that you expect me to do?”
“My name is Viktor,” I repeated.
Ignoring that, she said, “Answer the question.”
“I expect you not to step in front of a loaded gun just to prove a fucking point,” I snapped, still revved up from what had happened earlier. “I expect you to value your life a little better.”
Aurora let out a humorless laugh, but the lilt of her voice still made it sound lyrical. “You say that like me getting shot dead wouldn’t be the best thing to ever happen to you.”
Christ, she really was something else.
“You’re my wife,” I said. “You’re my wife, and I have every intention of honoring my vows.”
She arched a brow again. “C’mon, Korolev...we both know that you’ll never love me.”
I reached out, then slipped one of my fingers underneath the strap of her nightgown. “Because you can see yourself falling in love with me?”
Her dark gaze flared with something that I didn’t recognize, but I was just happy as fuck that she wasn’t flinching from my touch. “We’re not in this for love, Korolev.”
“Quit calling me that,” I ordered. “In this room, you are to call me by my first name. Understood?”
Her chin went up as she asked, “And if I don’t?”
“Don’t test me, zhena,” I warned. “I’m still angry about earlier.”
Using my finger, I pulled the strap of her nightgown down over her shoulder, and she really was a fucking sight to behold. “Are you on birth control?”
Her head jerked back at the sudden change of topic, but she didn’t shy away from the question. “Only a fool in my position wouldn’t be protected,” she answered candidly. “After all, it’s a given what would happen if the enemy ever got ahold of me.”
While she wasn’t wrong about that scenario, it still didn’t sit well with me that she was on birth control.
Now that I was married, I wouldn’t mind setting up my nursery as soon as possible.
Even though I knew that Aurora was meant for so much more than simple motherhood, maybe having kids would keep her ass at home, instead of stepping in front of loaded guns.
“Tell me,” I said as I stepped closer to her, invading her space. “Are you going to let me touch you tonight?”
“Do I have a choice?” she replied, though she didn’t sound upset or combative about it.
“Not really,” I admitted. “But I’d rather you not try to kill me for it.”
My fingertips danced across her collar bone, and while she didn’t necessarily flinch, she did lean back a little bit, and it had me wondering if I really was going to have to start sleeping with one eye open.
There was also the fact that I wasn’t interested in bedding a woman that was unresponsive, and I’d really just been hoping that Aurora would honor her word and do her duty by her family.
“Tell me what you like, baby,” I said, hoping that this could be the one thing in our marriage that we could get right.
“I don’t know,” she answered, her voice quiet but sure.
That had me dropping my hand from her person. “What’s that mean?”
“It means that I don’t know,” she repeated. “I’ve never been with a man before.”
What?
“You’re thirty-one,” I stated as if she didn’t know that very important fact. “How is that possible?”
Refusing to be embarrassed for her choices in life, she said, “I’m aware. However, ever since I could remember, I’ve been too busy enriching and strengthening my family’s legacy to worry about being a convenience for a man that I had no interest in. Family first.”
Sweet fucking Christ, Aurora Marchetti was a goddamn virgin, and she was mine. She had a perfect face, an incredible mind, a killer body, and more loyalty in her little finger than most people could even fathom, and she was untouched.
She was fucking untouched.
Now, while virginity wasn’t the valued commodity that it used to be, I still couldn’t lie and say that the news didn’t have me feeling a bit more territorial than I’d already been.
Knowing that I was the only man that she was ever going to know was fucking with me a bit, and I was man enough to admit that.
Still, I wasn’t so far gone that I couldn’t be sensitive to the situation. “Do you need more time?”
With her eyes staring straight into mine, she said, “I see no reason for it. Tonight is just as good as any night to get this over with.”
Wow.
Okay.
Stepping towards her again, I reached up to play with the swell of her left breast. “I promise to make it good for you,” I vowed, though this was also a first for me. Never in my life had I ever bedded a virgin, but that wasn’t anything that I was going to admit to her right now.
Continuing to look unimpressed, she asked, “How many women have you made that same promise to, Korolev? Whatever you’re trying to do, I know that I’m not special.”
Well, motherfucker.