Chapter 43 Tethered
❄︎ Viktor ❄︎
I struggled to part my face from the dip of her freckled shoulder, the skin puckered with goosebumps from my breaths.
“Don’t worry, you’re already so close, you could taste it.”
I didn’t correct her assumption that it was the hotel I was talking about. That was inevitable. The exciting part of that journey was her, but she didn’t need to know that. People can’t weaponize what they don’t know.
“I could, but I made you a promise. Only in my bed.” Her scent made me heady. My voice came out slurred, or maybe it was the vodka.
No, it was the way she pressed her behind against me, rocking to the beat of the smooth R&B track that played.
“Don’t test me, gattina.”
“Noted.”
She stopped so abruptly I almost begged her to continue. I pulled back, spinning her in place to face me.
Gods, she was beautiful. Soft makeup contrasting with that fiery defiance in her eyes. Silky smooth skin and cleavage fighting her armless dress.
“Where is Dante?” she asked.
“He’s… safe.”
“Why did you hesitate like that? And you brought Adrian,” she eyed my underboss from the corner of her eye. “He better not be hurt.”
“Hostages don’t get to attend parties, Rosa.”
“Even thou…”
“You do know your butt is out,” I commented, changing the topic.
“Only to short men.” She pinned me with a challenge in her gaze. “Are you short, Viktor?”
I pressed her flush against me, every curve of her body melting into my hard edges. “You’ve seen me up close, Rosa. Am I short?”
An adorable blush reddened her cheeks, and all I wanted was to cause it more directly, sunk to the hilt in her, my hand collaring her throat.
“I have something for you,” I muttered, my eyes grazing her bare neck. Thankfully, Juliana had played her part and did not pair her outfit with a neckpiece. Not that it would matter, she pulled it off regardless.
“What? A gift?” She sounded surprised. Why?
Without responding, I pulled out a matte black box sealed with wax.
Her head tilted adorably like a curious puppy, and I slid the velvet-lined box open.
Her little gasp of surprise pleased me to no end. “It’s… beautiful. Are you sure?”
“Never been sure of anything else in my whole life.”
I committed the expression on her face to memory. I wanted to see it over and over again, even if it meant gifting her every day.
❦ Rosalind ❦
It was stunning, like a sunset on fire.
My fingers hovered over the collar-style necklace with a halo of smaller padparadscha sapphires interlinked with rose-shaped settings of white gold.
I couldn’t accept this. Or could I? It’s my birthday, there shouldn’t possibly be a clause to a simple gift, could there?
“Turn around,” he said, his deep voice sending my heart into a little dance.
I did. And soon, I felt his hands circle my neck, placing the cold necklace around it.
I ignored the stares from the guests, every eye was on us, even the waiters and soldatos.
After he clasped it shut at the back, his fingers lingered on my skin, dragging before they lifted.
Coos and whispers floated over from the women in attendance, no doubt already speculating on the display in front of them.
I pressed a palm to my erratic heart, fingers gently tracing the jewelry.
I turned to thank him, and the sight made my breath catch.
Viktor, on his knee, presenting a padparadscha sapphire ring with a black diamond pavé down the band.
Suddenly, the walls closed in, suffocating me in their entirety.
He looked up at me with an expressionless face, one knee on the ground, the other supporting the elbow of the hand holding the ring.
I searched his eyes for softness but found only calculating thoughts flitting past, each so fast I could barely identify them.
Through the roaring of blood in my ears, I heard the chanting of “Say yes!” from the crowd, the spotlight bearing down on us, cell phones and cameras pointed in our direction.
“You already said yes on paper. But I want more than signatures. I want your fire, your trust, your mornings, and you in your entirety.
You drive me mad, Rosa. You question everything. You fight me at every turn. You make me want to be better.”
He took my hand in his, so sure of himself. I couldn’t fault him, I had already said yes on paper afterall.
He slid the ring onto my finger, so slowly it felt like the world itself paused to witness the performance.
That was all it was. A performance. An act. A calculated business move.
I searched my mind for why I’d agreed to this in the first place, and Marcus’s voice came to me: “You will pretend to surrender, and after he lowers his guard, you will kill him.”
Okay… we might have to find a workaround for that last part. Unless it was self-defense, I couldn’t see myself ending a life in cold blood.
I searched the crowd for Marcus and found him sneering at Viktor. When he noticed my stare, he raised his glass to me, a wicked glint in his eye.
I hadn’t even said anything in response, but the ring hugged my finger snugly. The deed done.
Viktor rose from his knees and made his palm comfortable on my nape. I realized he liked to do that a lot, hold my neck and guide me into kisses.
This one was soft, slow, and pooled heat in my core.
By the time we separated, the crowd was wild with cheers, clapping, and congratulations.
Juliana came over to me, grabbed my hands, and smiled at me with tears in her eyes.
“Were you shocked? Hmm? When I invited him to the party, he shared his plans of proposing, and Marcus confirmed that you two have been seeing each other for some time now, so I helped out. Oh, that’s such a beautiful ring.”
“Haha… thank you… yes.” I responded through blurred vision, colors and faces mixing in a sea of congrats and admiration, camera flashes overwhelming me.
“Excuse me,” I murmured, wading through bodies to get some air.
I ran for the stairs, my cheeks streaked with tears.
Control seemed to unravel from my fingers in long threads, and I couldn’t help feeling like I had made a mistake. Marcus’s plan sounded foolproof, but what if I couldn’t go through with it?
I felt trapped. Cornered. My breathing haggard, I walked through the hallway of the castle’s rooms, and the first one I saw, I unlocked and pushed into.
Slamming the door behind me, I pressed my back against it, if only to keep my world from crashing all around me, from sinking myself deeper into the very situation I swore to avoid.
But shuffling within the room startled me, and I looked up to see Viktor.
His hands around a woman’s neck, and her dress ripped from her shoulder.
She turned to face me, her lipstick smeared all over her face as if from an intense make-out.
“Oh, if it isn’t the fiancée,” she crooned.
Sabella stepped toward me, leaving Viktor blank-faced behind her, staring at me.
“I haven’t had the chance to congratulate you, darling.”
Her nipple pointed at me, bare and puckered in the air-conditioned air.
She smiled sweetly. “He’s a great catch, I must say. Congratulations.”
My lips parted and closed stupidly, my gaze flitting from Viktor’s red-stained lips and disheveled suit to Sabella’s poisonous glare.
He didn’t say a word, just watched me with his jaw clenched like I had interrupted something important, a silent challenge in his eyes, waiting for me to react.
Something inside me fractured, a deafening clash echoing through the hollows of my heart, my core, and my soul.