Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 68931 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 345(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68931 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 345(@200wpm)___ 276(@250wpm)___ 230(@300wpm)
It almost makes me believe it’s possible to find happiness with a dangerous man—“almost” being the operative word.
Lost in these ruminations, I dress, arrange my hair into a sleek updo, and apply makeup on autopilot. By the time I’m done, the headache has let up slightly, and it’s time to drive over to the hotel. Mama is already there, overseeing the catering and everything else, and Papa is heading there straight from a business meeting, so I’m going with my brothers.
Konstantin and Valery are waiting in the living room when I come downstairs, and Nikolai is due to arrive any second. I don’t know why Mama decided I need all three of them to escort me—or anyone other than our bodyguards, really—but I don’t mind. I rarely get to see my brothers, especially all together like this. We each attended—or currently attend—different boarding schools and universities abroad, and all three of my brothers have served in the army at various points in recent years. Valery is still not done with his service, in fact; he’s just here for my birthday celebration.
I smile as he stands up from the couch to greet me. “How’s the army life treating you?”
He bends down to kiss my cheek as befits a good brother, but when he steps back, his answering smile doesn’t reach his cool amber-green eyes. “As well as can be expected.” He runs his gaze over me. “You look nice. Parents will be pleased.”
Yes, they will be. I wonder why he said that, though. If he were anyone else, I’d dismiss it as an innocent compliment, but you can’t do that with Valery. He doesn’t say or do anything without some hidden agenda. It’s been that way for as long as I can remember.
Though he’s the closest to me in age, being only twenty, Valery is the brother I know and understand the least. Even Nikolai, who shares way too many of our father’s traits, is more comprehensible to me. With Valery, it’s all about nuances and layers, hidden meanings and covert agendas.
It’s exhausting, frankly.
“We should get going,” Konstantin says as he looks up from his phone screen and rises from the couch. As usual, he’s oblivious to the need for any sort of greeting. “The traffic will delay us by fifteen and a half minutes.”
I grin up at him. Fifteen and a half, of course. That’s Kostya for you. If he could, he’d quantify and digitize every aspect of our lives, turn everything into zeros and ones. Papa hates that about him, always has, but I think it’s what makes my oldest brother so brilliant. Nikolai and Valery appreciate his abilities too. Unlike our father, who’s still caught up in the nineties’ mentality of might-makes-right, they understand the importance of technology to our future. It will be Konstantin’s dark web ventures and the like that will grow our family’s power and influence in the coming years, not our real estate assets or oil-and-gas fields.
Then again, what do I know? According to my parents, the only way I can contribute to our family’s fortune is by looking pretty and marrying Alexei.
My mood darkens at the thought, and it’s all I can do to keep my smile as Nikolai enters the room and also greets me with a kiss on the cheek. When he pulls back, his lips are curved in one of his signature ovary-slaying smiles. All three of my brothers are strikingly handsome and look enough alike to be triplets, but Nikolai—or Kolya, as I’ve called him since childhood—possesses that certain extra something. Animal magnetism, maybe? Personally, I don’t feel it, but women are drawn to him like sugar ants to bait. Unfortunately for them, he just toys with them for a night or two and then discards them, broken-hearted. On second thought, maybe I should say “fortunately.”
Underneath that beautiful exterior, he’s as dark and intensely obsessive as our father, and I’d pity any woman he truly fixated on.
“My limo is waiting outside,” he says, offering me his arm. “Let’s get our Cinderella to her ball.”
“If only I had the option to meet Prince Charming there,” I mutter under my breath as I slip my arm through the crook of his elbow.
Nikolai hears me anyway. He shoots me a sharp look as he leads me to the door that opens into the elevator foyer. “You know our parents are hoping to announce the engagement tonight, right?”
Some of my nausea returns. “I overheard something to that effect, yes.”
Valery falls into step beside us. “I can talk to them if that’s not what you want. Get them to pump the brakes for now.” His tone is cool, emotionless, but the stare he levels at me is unnervingly penetrating.
My heart leaps with hope. “You can?”
He nods, as if it’s no big deal, and Nikolai says, “I’ll back him up. You’re way too young for marriage. Especially with a Leonov.” He imbues the last word with derision.