Total pages in book: 33
Estimated words: 30437 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 152(@200wpm)___ 122(@250wpm)___ 101(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 30437 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 152(@200wpm)___ 122(@250wpm)___ 101(@300wpm)
Anastasia had been able to live. He would later learn she had been cast out of the family, and for the next four years, he would watch her. He needed to make sure she was safe, protected. She had not dated anyone, had not gone to any nightclubs, or done anything stupid. She lived what many might call a boring existence, yet she seemed happy. That was all he cared about.
“Wow, I had no idea,” Anastasia said. “I totally made the right decision there, didn’t I?” She let out a little laugh.
He took a sip of the hot chocolate, and it was just too sweet.
“You know, I would make you whatever drink you wanted,” Anastasia said.
“What are you talking about?”
“You think you’re acting all tough, but the look on your face every time you take a sip...” She winced. “It’s bad. You don’t like hot chocolate, yet you keep insisting on having it.”
“I like it.”
She raised her brows. “You don’t have to lie to me.”
“Fine, I don’t like it, but there is no reason you have to make me something else.”
“There’s no point in you drinking something you don’t like. Trust me, life is way too short to be doing things you don’t want to do.”
“Is this another Lottie philosophy?” he asked.
“No, this one comes from me.”
“And how do you know this?”
“Because I’m twenty-five years old, I’m a virgin, and you were sent to kill me. The moment Gnesin learns you didn’t kill me, do you think he is going to be happy with that?”
He looked at her, eyes wide. “You’re still a virgin?”
“Is that what you got from all that? What about the fact that Gnesin will kill you?”
“Do you think it is the first time someone has come to kill me? I’m used to living on borrowed time,” he said.
Her mouth fell open a little. “You’re not afraid to die?”
“No.”
“What are you afraid of?”
It was on the tip of his tongue to say nothing, and up until he met Anastasia that would be entirely the case, only now it wasn’t. What he feared the most was losing Anastasia.
“I think it’s time we got to bed,” he said.
He expected her to argue, but instead she finished the last part of her hot chocolate, and he followed behind her as she walked down the hall. The robe she wore hid the curves of her ass.
Anastasia was not a slender woman. She had hips, curves, and nice, large tits. Her body was a fucking dream. One he wanted to get his hands on, and he felt a tightness in his dick. He ignored it, because now was not the time to be thinking with his dick. Now was the time to be focused on the shit with Gnesin.
Something wasn’t right.
Something didn’t add up.
Anastasia stepped into her room, and turned toward him, that pretty, innocent smile on her lips as she looked at him. “Good night, Dmitriy.”
He nodded and waited for her to close the door.
She was still a virgin. He should have known she was still innocent. Anastasia had lived a boring life. And now, she was living with him.
****
The following day, Anastasia was not surprised to find the cabin empty. Dmitriy was gone. He had to do whatever his job demanded. She made herself a morning coffee and sat at the window, staring out across the frozen forest. The ground had that thin layer of frost, like a threat of winter. She needed to go out and tend to the garden. Some of the winter vegetables needed to be checked on, and she wanted to harvest some carrots.
There was a lot she wanted to do. Instead, she was sat at her sewing table, looking out across the front yard, thinking about Dmitriy and the truth bomb she had let fall last night. What woman told a man she was still a virgin? A more interesting question, what woman told the man who kidnapped her and killed her family, that she was a virgin?
She was attracted to Dmitriy. It had to be some kind of Stockholm syndrome or something.
The truth was, he was following orders. She got that. She just couldn’t figure out what her family had done to get on Gnesin’s bad side.
Her father had cast her out, as per the rule. She had disrespected him and refused to follow the rules. She only ever saw her father again when he would break those rules to visit the artisan supermarket where she worked, a job she had loved.
She hadn’t been there for six months, and she doubted Dmitriy had called in for her, so that job was long gone. Instead, he kept her alive.
She blew across the mug of coffee and tried not to think about Dmitriy. It wouldn’t do her any good to think of him. He was a killer, and she didn’t know why he had kept her alive. He had no secret desire to want her, or be with her.