The Player (The Game Maker 3)

"The thought of you getting back with him drives me insane." He looked it, as if he was barely holding himself together. "I'm eaten alive with jealousy that he had years of your life." Dmitri didn't touch me, kept his clenched fists lowered. "Last night at dinner, you told me you didn't know if you would go back to him. Today, I find him at your door. You're still in love with him!"

"No, I'm not!" I said, frowning as I realized I wasn't--at all.

"You'll prove it, then," Dmitri said. "You'll wed me."

I gaped. I thought he'd mentioned marriage to screw with Brett.

Married to Dmitri Sevastyan? I frowned down at my chest--because my heart pounded as if it'd just heard the best idea ever. "You can't be serious." Dmitri was playing right into my family's hands. The manufactured crisis had worked; step seven of the long con. "Where are you taking me?"

"I told you. To the courthouse."

"You're missing one important detail--I haven't said yes!"

His gaze held mine, enthralling me. "You will."

What if I did? Two tears in a bucket, right?

No, no, no! Stop thralling me! "This is moving way too fast!"

"From the moment I first saw you, I knew you were going to be mine. You got under my skin, into my fucking blood! After last night, I know you want me too." He stabbed his fingers through his hair. "I've never felt this way about anyone else."

The congressman had said the same to Karin. "I've heard that line before."

"It isn't a goddamned line!"

"We met Friday, and now you're talking marriage!"

"Maksim knew Lucia would be his after one night. Aleksandr decided to marry Natalie after one look. My timing is cautious by comparison."

I thought of the con. What a coup this would be.

But my mark might be mentally unwell, and that made him vulnerable. Yet these were desperate times. I knew I needed to break the code, but I still said, "Give me one reason why you're so intent on this today. Can't we wait a day or two? What would one day hurt?"

"What would one day help? I told you I don't handle confusion well. I despise uncertainty, have had more of that in my life than any man should have to bear. I will not tolerate uncertainty with you."

"What does that mean?" I asked, fearing his answer would be over the top and crazy.

"I must know you are either completely mine--or you're not."

"You are giving me an ultimatum?" I was supposed to give him one! How had things gone so sideways?

"Say yes, Victoria. Or say good-bye."

Hadn't I just worried what would happen when he took his sexual intensity away from me? "Why are you looking at it in such black-and-white terms?"

He grasped my nape. "I feel as if I'm scalded with acid whenever I think about you. And I think of nothing else! My mind seethes. My body seethes."

"You fucked-up man! That sounds painful--not good."

"It is painful! It's goddamned misery. The only thing that soothes it is being with you."

His words brought to mind what Gram had said--about finding a guy who would never jeopardize his relationship. Because it equaled his very life.

Why was I thinking about that now? This "relationship" wasn't real! He couldn't feel this way already.

And if he did, his feelings would fade just as quickly.

His hand tightened on my nape. "And now another man--one so unworthy of you--threatens what we could have?" Dmitri gave me a brief, hard kiss. "You will marry me, angel. Accept this as inevitable."

CHAPTER 20

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"He, uh, wants to get hitched. Today," I told everyone on the conference line. "In fact, he gave me an ultimatum. Marry him, or never see him again. Ironic, huh?" I'd already relayed the fight with Brett and grilled them about that e-mail. Nobody had copped to it.

Pete said, "Where are you now?"

"At the courthouse, in some little room. He asked me to wait here for him to return." I felt like I was getting sweated by Johnny Law. What was taking Dmitri so long? His family had left Vegas, so he couldn't be waiting on them. He hadn't mentioned anything about mine.

"Find him! You're letting him get away!" Mom cried. "Right now his lawyers are telling him all the reasons why he can't marry you. At best, they're cobbling together a prenup. You need to be hauling Sevastyan over the finish line!"

"Mom's right," Benji said. "You're losing the heat of the moment. If he gets out of crisis mode and starts thinking clearly--"

"Vice isn't ready for this." Dad's tone was stern. "A marriage con can play with your mind. I know this."

Gram made a sound of agreement. "It's so true." After losing my grandfather, she'd married a string of wealthy men.

Pete said, "Then what if Vice kept him?"

"How would that work?" I asked, longing for a deck of cards to soothe my frayed nerves. "Hi, Dmitri, I know we've only been married a few days, but I need a blank check for a fortune, and I can never tell you what it's for." I pinched my temples. "Besides, I thought I was going to settle down with a grifter, someone I could take home to meet my family. My real family. If I keep Dmitri, what kind of future will I have with you guys?" I'd belong in neither world. "I'm not talking about cutting him loose this minute, but we must be getting close--without a wedding."

Dmitri opened the door. "My apologies."

I said into the phone, "He's back. Gotta run," which was code for stay on the line, because I'm only acting like I'm hanging up. I set it facedown on the bench. "What's happening?"

"I've been making arrangements." Pulling together a prenup? He sat beside me. "You've probably dreamed of a certain kind of wedding, not a courthouse ceremony, but we will host a celebration for our families once we've settled in."

"Settled in?" Oh, fuck me. He was planning to take me to the motherland! "In Russia?"

"No, in California. We have an estate on the northern coast."

We have. Wait, California? Oh, come on! My dream location. Lady Luck seemed to be smiling down on me.

He tucked a curl behind my ear. "I would never expect you to live far from your family. The flight there is only a little over an hour by jet."

"Just hold on a second. I need to talk to you about all this--"

"Here." He pulled a ring box from his jacket pocket and handed it to me. "Perhaps this will make up for the abruptness of everything."

The weight sent a tremor through me. "This ring box is heavy," I said, secretly narrating. I opened the lid and sucked in a breath.

Monster rock . . . jackpot . . . don't scream, don't scream!

"Dmitri, it's unreal. This marquise diamond must be . . . fifteen carats." The band was platinum, my favorite! "How did you get a ring like this so quickly?" That was where he'd been!

"I have ways. Do you like it? We can get you another--"

"NO." Monster rock MINE.

"I'm pleased you approve. I also sent one of my men to collect your bag and lock up your apartment. The car remains. Perhaps your family would like to use it? I will get you another one." Another? He took my hand and stood. "Come, they're ready."

So soon? "Where's the paperwork? Surely a prenup will take some time."

He frowned. "We have no need of that."

"Pardon?"

"I intend to make you happy in our marriage. What's mine will become yours, and you will never make me regret trusting you with all that I have."

My brain exploded. I could make five hundred million dollars in the next ten minutes. If I were an awful person.

But the threat to my family . . .

I wished I could just nibble enough to save my parents; why did Dmitri have to force me into this major commitment?

Think, think! What would my sister do? Karin would be on her honeymoon by now. "Your brothers and everyone will think I'm a gold digger." They would make him get this annulled. He'd plead insanity or something.

"My family wants us to be happily

married." Dmitri looked so trusting, and I was so . . . rotten.

"Don't you want them to be here?"

"At present, I have some matters to resolve with them. It's not important. What's important is you. What does your instinct tell you?"

No prenup? "That you're too good to be true, big guy." All my life I'd wondered how people could be so stupid as to get grifted. If something seems too good to be true, it motherfucking is, idiots.

"I'm not," he said. "There are things . . . issues I need you to face with me. We will prevail; we will be happy."

Issues? How vague. But could they possibly be worse than the cartel's threat of a burning tire?

"And when I make you my wife, you will be looked after no matter what might happen to me."

Happen to him? Freaked out, I cried, "Are you dying?"

His tone was almost amused when he said, "No, moy angel. But I want you to be a Sevastyan. It will make everything easier."

Victoria Sevastyan. Get the hell out! "This move would put us both firmly in the crazy camp. I don't know anything about you."

"I was born to make you happy. To protect you. Marry me, and I will free you. I will give you the entire goddamned world."

Free me? "You don't know anything about me either!"