Total pages in book: 31
Estimated words: 28975 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 145(@200wpm)___ 116(@250wpm)___ 97(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 28975 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 145(@200wpm)___ 116(@250wpm)___ 97(@300wpm)
It wasn’t exactly a good conversation starter but after three months, Anastasia felt it was time they talked about this.
****
Bogdan had never known another woman like Anastasia.
The women he knew would have been trying to figure out a way to escape him, not confront him. There would be tears, along with begging and pleading for him not to kill them. Anastasia just came out and asked like it was a simple question. Did she not realize her life could have been hanging in the balance?
Rather than be upset about it, she’d been happy. She made no sense to him. Now, she wanted to know why he hadn’t killed her.
“I don’t take orders from Rinaldi.”
She frowned. “But if you killed me, that would mean you were free, right? You’d be free to marry whomever you wanted. I’m sure you didn’t want to be married to me. Why keep yourself trapped when you could be with someone you like?”
“What makes you think I am trapped?” he asked.
“You’re married to me. Doesn’t that make most men feel trapped? You’re part of the Galkin Bratva. I’m Rinaldi’s daughter. Isn’t that enough?”
Bogdan smiled. “You listen.”
She shrugged. “Most people talk around me, of course I listen.”
“Then you know that currently Galkin wants peace between us. The streets had run red with blood, and I will not go back on my word. What Galkin wants, he will get, and if he wants me married, I will be married.”
“Is that why you haven’t killed me? Galkin’s told you not to?”
“I’ve not killed you because you haven’t given me a reason to.”
“I haven’t?” she asked.
“Now you’re making me wonder if I should doubt you?”
“It’s just that I figured you’d want someone you like rather than me. We don’t exactly talk, and I don’t fit in with your crowd. I know a lot of the people at those parties hate me.”
“They don’t know you. They don’t know if you’re a spy, or if they can trust you.”
“But I’m your wife.”
“Which does not grant you anything. You are my wife, but trust me, there are a lot of manipulating bitches who will do and say anything to get what they want.”
“Do you think I am like that?” she asked.
He stared at her and thought about it. “No.”
“Why don’t you?”
He chuckled. “Are you upset that I don’t consider you a manipulating bitch?”
She frowned.
“Why don’t you ask me another very important question?” he asked.
She was charming and that dress he’d chosen with her in mind looked stunning on her. It molded to every curve, and it made his dick ache to be inside her. He wanted to fuck her hard, right there and then, but had a feeling that would scare her right now.
“What question?” Anastasia asked.
“You’re not curious as to why your father wants you dead?”
She shrugged. “He doesn’t like me. He has told me this, that he wished I had died. Trust me, I know. He has always wanted a son, and he considers me an irritant. He doesn’t like that my mother loved me, and well, the rest is history.”
Bogdan leaned forward, getting close to her face. “You don’t even know the truth.”
This made her frown. “The truth? What truth?”
Now, he smiled, then he reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
“Would you like to know?”
He watched as she licked her lips, and there was that spark he knew all too well. Bogdan was very much aware of the fact his wife was attracted to him. They hadn’t been together since their wedding night. She must have been sore, and since then, he wanted her to get used to his presence. He was a monster to everyone else, but he intended to treat Anastasia differently. She didn’t look at him with fear.
“Yes,” she said.
And he knew she would like to know. Anastasia was not a coward. She didn’t go and burry her head in the sand when it came to hard decisions. She confronted them head on, and that he admired.
“Did you know your mother was a very wealthy woman?” he asked.
Anastasia frowned and then rubbed at her temple. “I know she had a lot of money. Actually, yeah, the country home we lived in belonged to her parents and was left to her.”
He smiled. “Well, I’m sure you’re aware that all of your uncles and aunts on your mother’s side, as well as your grandparents, were killed.” He was going to look into all of their deaths, as he had a sneaking suspicion Dante might have been behind them. The man was a first-class sleaze. He didn’t like him. Dante was an opportunist and a charmer. Although, Galkin saw right through him.
“Yes, some of them were accidental, carbon monoxide poisoning, others were killed in duty to the family, and then my mom died of cancer.”
“All of that wealth Evelyn Rinaldi passed down to you and you alone.”