“Get him!” Petre barked at his hired hounds.
But none of them, not a single one, raised a finger.
“You dipshits!” he said, his voice now weaker because of the force of my hand. “Get him!”
With annoyed sighs, five of them rose to their feet and made a semi-circle around us but none of them laid a hand on me. The memory of the night before fresh in their vodka soaked minds.
My laugh came from low down in my throat, a smug motherfucker kind of laugh that I couldn’t have faked even if I’d wanted to. Just a simple tightening of my hand would’ve cut off the blood flow to his brain; he could be dead in seconds. The fear in his eyes told me he knew that as well as I did.
“They don’t give a fuck what happens to you, little brother. I’ll bet they’d be the first to string you up by the balls.”
With my other hand, I pulled the brass knuckles off of his fingers and slid them into my pocket. And then, with that same hand I landed a solid gut-punch that doubled him over into a gurgling mess, and then turned to go, letting him fall to the floor.
Petre, for once in his insufferable life, was lost for words. I’d shaken him up bad, just as I’d planned. Over my shoulder, I watched him go immediately to refill his scotch without giving me a glance. And as I headed down the hallway toward my father’s wing of the estate, I heard the fucking beautiful sound of the ice cubes in his glass tinkling because of his trembling hand.Chapter 14ValeriaThe wonderful noise of a crackling fire woke me from a dreamy, cozy sleep. Vasile wasn’t beside me when I opened my eyes, and I didn’t see him anywhere in the room, but even still I sat up in bed with my heart singing.
It was a contentment so complete that I felt it in my bones. Nestling back into the downy pillows, I thought about just how much my life had changed in a mere twenty-four hours. The day before, I’d woken up in my room at boarding school, nauseous with dread.
Now, I was waking up with every muscle in my body gloriously sore, snuggled up in magnificent sheets, with my face slightly tender from Vasile’s stubble. And, I realized, as I rubbed my feet along my calves, my inner thighs were tender for the very same reason.
Goodness gracious. What a night that was.
The thought took me by surprise. Getting Vasile to sleep with me, to ruin his brother’s plans and ruin any chances of me ever getting married? That was the plan. Falling head over heels for the man while doing it?
Absolutely not.
But then, hadn’t he told me that he was nothing like his father or his brother? That he wasn’t a part of their world? I could not abide being with someone that used violence and intimidation of those more vulnerable for their own gain. Never would I and knowing Vasile wasn’t that man, that he’d assured me he would never again be part of his family’s business, only warmed me deep into my bones. Maybe things were going to work out for me after all.
Maybe there was a higher plan in play and I needed to do what Vasile had told me to do.
Trust him.
It had bothered me to use him from the beginning, because I felt things for him that I hadn’t ever felt for another person in my life.
What happened the night before between us went far beyond the physical. I felt that, and I believed he did too. It surprised me to care about him so much so fast, but as my mother always told me, you can’t help what you feel.
I didn’t want him hurt or damaged by my actions, and I didn’t want him to be in the position for taking the blame for something about which I had no shame whatsoever.
It was a mess I felt too inexperienced to sort out on my own. I needed to talk to him. But first, I needed to figure out where he’d gone.
Though I had fleeting visions of breakfast in bed, I cast those away with a tsk at myself. He had far more important things to do than make me fresh orange juice from those luscious oranges in the orangery. I was sure of that. But regardless, I needed to find him. I wanted to be near him. So badly that it made my heart ache.
Pulling the sheets off my body, I slid my legs off the thick, plush mattress and placed them on the chilly stone floor. My nightdress was in ruins, so I gathered up the coverlet like a cloak and headed for the door.
Half of me expected Vasile to burst through the door and tell me to get back into bed, his cock ready for another round, and more than half of me hoped that would happen. But I was disappointed. Instead, I cracked the door open and peered out just in time to hear voices.