9
Dominik
The drive from the city to home takes longer than normal, but I’m happy for the silence. With my father still overseas with my sister, everything is left on my shoulders. It’s good practice for when my father turns over the family to me, but I’ll be grateful for the day he’s back home and his legal troubles are over.
I know Marcin is behind the bullshit keeping my family stuck in Poland, but until I can find the information I need I won’t get the okay to act. The marriage between Diana and me was supposed to put an old rivalry to bed, but her death changed things. Without the tie, the old men back home allowed Marcin to move into my father’s territory.
It’s taken me five years, but I’ve built up our own business to recover the loss. But it’s meant nothing but work over the years.
“Has Kasia been inside all day?” I ask Tommy. He’s driving me home, but he spent all day at the house. I wouldn’t put it past Marcin to make some move to take her home, to help her escape the future. The ceremony needs to happen soon. Once we have the certificate, once our marriage is finalized, her father can’t make any more moves on my family. And when I find the evidence I need that he’s behind my father’s indictment, the old men back home will grant us what’s ours.
“She went out to the garden for a bit to sit with a book. But that’s it,” he informs me.
I nod but don’t ask any further questions. I text Margaret to tell her to hold dinner until I’m home. I’ll make Kasia have dinner with me tonight. I let her sneak away to her room yesterday, but there won’t be any more of that.
The house is quiet when I walk inside. Margaret meets me at the door, her hands wringing in front of her.
“What’s wrong?” I ask her, looking toward the staircase. Kasia is behind her frown, I can feel it in my bones.
“Kasia is in your office,” she tells me.
“What is she doing in there?” I ask, Margaret wouldn’t stop Kasia from wandering the house. I never gave her instructions to keep Kasia away from my office.
“I don’t know.” The wringing of her hands gets harder. “She locked the door.”
The key to the room is in my pocket.
“Okay, I’ll talk with her.”
“Dinner is ready.”
“Just put it on the stove,” I say and take off toward my office. Someone needs a lesson in being nosey. She may or may not be going to bed without dinner. It depends on her answers to my questions.
When I come to the door, I stare at it for a moment, listening. Something drops, then a curse. I pull the key from my pocket and slowly slip it into the lock. I want the element of surprise here. I want to see what she’s up to without giving her enough time to hide her actions.
With a quick turn of the lock and flip of the handle, I step inside. She has her nose buried in my laptop. But her hands freeze over the keyboard.
“Kasia,” I say her name tentatively. I’m not sure if I should be angry with her yet.
“Dominik,” she mimics my tone. Strike one, little girl.
“What are you doing in here?” I ask, walking around the furniture and behind where she sits. I grab the computer before she can close it.
“Nothing.” She sits back in my chair and folds her arms over her chest. “Am I not allowed an internet connection?”
I pick up the laptop. She’s checking email. The inbox is empty, mostly newsletters and advertisements. This is a decoy email. I wonder what’s in her actual account. The one she uses for real correspondence.
Closing the laptop, I set it aside on my desk. I’ll have someone go through it to find out exactly what she was doing in here.
“You have internet up in your room,” I remind her, pushing the chair around until she has to look up at me.
“I thought I’d just sit in here. I mean if this is to be my home, I didn’t think any room would be off limits.” She tilts her head. “Or is it?”
There’s a challenge in her eyes. She’s been caught doing something she shouldn’t be, but she’s daring me to call her out on it.
“You locked the door. Margaret was worried.” I put one hand on the arm of the chair and another on the desk. She’s sweetly caged before me.
“Why? I’m in the house. Locked away just like you wanted.” She lifts a shoulder. A lot of sass for a girl who’s been caught snooping.
“What were you looking for?” I ask, knowing full well I can’t trust her answer.Content bel0ngs to Nôvel(D)r/a/ma.Org.
“I told you, I was checking email.”
“You want to stick to that?” I ask, giving her a chance to come clean.
Her bottom lip tucks back. She’s trying so hard to stand her ground, to keep her secrets. With my thumb, I pull it free and run my thumb along her lip.
“I wasn’t doing anything wrong,” she says finally. She believes the statement, that much is clear. So, either she was doing something she thinks is right, but I would disagree, or she was doing nothing. The pink hue on her cheeks suggests it’s the first. She’s guilty, but she’s trying to convince herself otherwise.
“Rule number three, Kasia. No lying to me. Ever.”
Her jaw tightens. She hates my rules, hates that I give them to her and expect her to be obedient to them. It’s fine, she can hate them, despise them, but she will follow them.
“I’m not lying,” she says with hesitation, like she’s testing out the words, unsure if they’ll stick.
“I heard something drop before I came in. What was it?” I ask, keeping my eyes trained on hers.
She gives herself away too easily, flicking her gaze for a fleeting second to the ledger on the bookcase next to us. It’s a worthless book, filled with made up numbers and contacts. Fiction for the feds if they should ever find reason to go through my things. There’s nothing in this house for them to find, or her for that matter. Whatever she was looking for, she won’t find it in here.
I push off the chair and pick up the ledger.
“This?”
“It fell. I picked it up and put it away,” she explains quickly. For having such a corrupt father, she never learned the art of deception.
Her innocence combined with the building fear in her eyes makes my cock stir in my slacks. She’s dressed in a summer dress today, a light purple cotton dress. Her long thick hair is braided down her back, but a few strands won’t be tamed and frame her face. She’s to be my wife in a matter of days, being attracted to her is only a bonus.
“It just fell over on its own?” I ask with a raised brow. “That’s an odd thing for a heavy book like this to do, don’t you think?”
She’s holding her ground. No matter how caught she is, she’s trying to find a way out. Since there’s no real harm done, I could just let her leave. Let her go hide back in her room. But I’m not a good guy. I never claimed to be, and I never will.
“Stand up, Kasia,” I say, snapping the book closed and shoving it back on the shelf.
“I’ll stay out of your damn office, Dominik,” she says and shoves out the chair, making a break for the door.
I stop her easily enough with one arm wrapped around her middle.
“Where you going, sweetheart?” I ask on a chuckle. “We’re just talking.” I pull her back to me.
“Dominik. Let me go,” she says, smacking my hands.
“No,” I say, holding her to me tighter and forcing her to walk across the room to the wall. With a shove, I pin her to the wall with one hand pressed between her shoulder blades.
“I hate you. I really fucking hate you,” she says, struggling to push back against me.
“That’s okay. But what’s not okay is snooping in my office and lying about it.” I move closer to her, pressing my chest against her back. My cock is steel hard and I can tell the moment she feels it pushed against her ass. She freezes. It’s only for a second, but it’s there.
“I was just…” She doesn’t even finish the lie.
“You want to know about me? About who I am?” I whisper in her ear. Fuck, she smells like vanilla and lilacs. It shouldn’t make a difference, but it makes my need for her become even greater. As much as I like the scent, I want my own on her. I want her to wear me like a brand.
“I know who you are.” She shoves back again. I’ll give her credit, she’s a fighter. “You’re a fucking monster.”
I grab hold of her braid and pull her head back until I’m able to look into those dark brown eyes.
“You think your father’s any different? You think any man he married you off to would be kinder? I haven’t touched you since you got here. A lesser man would have already taken what’s his.” I’m not sure why I say this. It’s not relevant, but somehow, I need her to know I’ve shown restraint. As much as I’ve wanted to sink myself between her thighs since seeing her bare ass that first night, I’ve held back. I vowed to myself I’d leave her untouched until we were married. But fuck if she isn’t making it hard to keep that promise.
Her struggles cease and she stares up at me, waiting for what comes next.
“I told you on the first night, I won’t tolerate disrespect. I don’t take it from my men, I won’t allow it in my house.” I press her head to the wall, not hard enough to hurt her. That’s not my goal. At least not for that part of her.
“Leave me alone. Just let me go upstairs.” She starts up again.
I grab hold of the buckle on my belt and with one hand undo it. The jangle of the buckle catches her attention, and she freezes.