Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 75209 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75209 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
“I know, Vera. I know, I really do.”
“Then why make me go?” I feel like an angsty teen. “It’s too much. Why does he insist I go to these things?”
“Because he’s trying to mend bridges. He thinks if you see him with his peers, you’ll think more highly of him. Because you’re his daughter, Vera.”
I hate that my father puts my mother in this position. She must hate him more than I do, but she knows she’s stuck being married to a powerful man of the Bratva. She knows he keeps mistresses and has long since broken their vows to one another. He’s done all of this and still makes her do his bidding because he can, the power-hungry asshole. Without him, she’d be penniless and homeless and blacklisted from everyone she knows. It’s shitty, and it isn’t fair.
“It isn’t just all that, Mom. It’s also because he wants to parade me around and make himself look better. He has no interest in who I am as his daughter. None! My perspective won’t change just because he’s playing the part of philanthropist for a night.”
Markov shifts on the bed. When I look over, he taps his wrist as if to remind me to wrap this up. My pulse races.
“Having Markov with you might make things a bit more bearable, no?”
That’s. . . debatable.
Finally, I agree with a sigh. I can’t make life harder for my mother because I protest on principle. I have hoops to jump through, and this is one of them. “Yes. I can go. I’ll do it, Mom.”
“Thank you, sweetheart. I know this isn’t easy for you.”
We talk for a little while longer, and I have to admit, I keep the conversation going a little because I’m a little. . . nervous. . . about what happens next.
I finally hang up the phone and turn to face him.
“What did she ask you to do? You weren’t happy about something. What’s going on?”
I sigh and shake my head. “There’s some benefit thing my father wants me to go to, and he wants me to go with you. I don’t want to go. I mean. . . your aunt is the one who’s with him in Moscow, right? Ugh.” I can’t even think about the fact that Markov has a connection to one of the many women my father cheats on my mother with.
“Ahh. And when’s that?” He’s once more wearing his poker face, but he doesn’t exactly look thrilled at the idea of what we have to do.
“I know, you hate socializing. You’d rather stay here, where things are, at least for now, predictable and safe.”
“Mmm. Yes. And why didn’t your father tell you he wishes you to attend this. . . what did you call it? Benefit?”
“Ugh, because this is what he does.” I stifle the need to whine. “If he suspects I’m not going to want to do something that he wants me to do, he gets my mom to ask me instead because I can’t say no to her.”
“I see. When is it?”
“This weekend. And Markov, if he thinks he can parade his mistress around in front of me. . . I don’t care if she’s your aunt or not. That’s just not right.”
“Indeed,” he says with a sober nod. “In any event, we will deal with the details of the upcoming benefit. But in the meantime, we’ll deal with the issue at hand.”
I turn away and bite my lip. “About that.”
“Mmm,” he says soberly, reaching for me so his hands grip my hips. “I told you we’d talk about things, didn’t I?”
“Yes, but. . .”
“No buts. Come here, Vera. We’ll have this conversation now. With you over my lap.”
“Markov!” I protest as he tugs me over his knee. He doesn’t do anything, only rests his large hand on my ass.
“Now,” he continues. “Let’s talk.”
The blood rushes to my face even as my body heats. I’m instantly aroused. It feels as if all the blood in my entire body has rushed between my thighs.
“You disobeyed Daddy, didn’t you, Vera?”
Why does it feel so wrong yet so. . . why do I love hearing him say that?
“Um. I maybe did.”
I gasp when he brings his palm across my ass. A flare of arousal stokes my pulse. I stifle a whimper.
“There’s no maybe about it, is there?”
“Welll. . . I had good reason,” I begin, and he brings his palm across my ass a second time.
“Let’s hear that reason,” he says. “Though I can guarantee that you will always answer for disobeying me.”
“I—I—” It feels as if my brain’s short-circuiting.
Do I want this?
Yes, I do.
But. . . Daddy?
Gah, hawwwwt.
I can hardly even think straight.
I’m a grown woman!
A grown woman who loves being called little girl. . . by him.
But he’s going to spank me, and he’s talking about all sorts of things like. . . obedience.