The Bratva’s Auctioned Bride (Levov Bratva #10)

Chapter 9 - Lara

I felt like a little girl playing dress-up for a mock wedding—something dramatic and orchestrated for the entertainment factor alone—but the damning truth of it was impossible to swallow, and much more depressing than that.

As the driver moved us through the city while the sunset glowed against the high-rise buildings, I couldn’t see any beauty in it. Not when my life had been changed so completely, and Alex didn’t even have anything to say about it.

The whole ceremony was nothing but humiliating. I felt like a poor daughter given away to some stranger as an advantageous move by her father, all to form an alliance or maintain a social standing of some kind.

But the situation was even worse. I wasn’t sold off for the benefit of my family. Instead, I had been taken and forced into the arrangement.

I heard horror stories before about forced marriages and how miserable those women ended up if they managed to survive at all. Even if it sounded completely made up, I knew those situations really did happen. I just never thought I’d find myself in a similar one.

My brothers never once forced the idea of marriage on me. They made it very clear that it was my choice, and they wanted nothing to do with it.

Our family was well off enough that arranged marriages between other crime families weren’t all that necessary. If anything, my brothers put themselves in those positions for their own gain, rather than selling me off like a prized lamb.

Still, despite the grace and consideration they extended to me, I ended up the bride of a stranger anyway.

Even thinking about it made my heart drop.

I hated how he had complete control of the situation, and I hated that brief flicker of weakness that crossed my mind—the rogue thought that despite the circumstances I found myself in, I couldn’t deny how good Alex had looked while we stood in the chapel together. How his formal wear hugged his body perfectly, and if things were different, I wouldn’t have minded the idea of having that connection with him.

But I knew better than that, and I had to force myself to forget all about it.

I was angry and embarrassed, even if I kept it hidden.

During the drive, I tried my hardest to keep it down and to seem indifferent. It wasn’t all an act though—I really did feel empty inside, knowing my freedom had been restricted even more. Aware that with every passing moment, I didn’t see my brothers, the more likely I’d be stuck with Alex.

I didn’t know how long it might last, but every second felt like agony. There was no questioning how he would expect me to just accept it and adapt, but that seemed impossible.

With my family, I had only ever known relative freedom. Thanks to Ari and his sacrifices, I never saw the hardships he did. I was only ever taken care of and allowed to be as selfish as I wanted to be.

But given everything that had happened, it felt like my entire existence had been flipped upside down. Everything I had ever known was reversed like it was nothing at all, and trying to grasp that was undeniably difficult.

As much as I wanted to try and blame myself for not accepting everything, one glaringly obvious fact didn’t go missed—Alex had done it to me. He was the one who purchased me at the auction and forced me into his life regardless of what I thought. He forced me into marrying him without any second option.

That thought was enough to spark more of that rage in me, and I tried to temper it as we eventually got out of the vehicle. I bristled as he placed his hand against the small of my back and guided me back inside the house. The place that felt reminiscent of a jail cell.

Once inside the house, Alex didn’t say anything at first and only closed the door behind him, surely locking it to make sure I didn’t slip away.

Considering that idea made everything in me burn.

I was a newlywed. The unwilling wife of a man I didn’t know, and due to a lack of trust between us, I couldn’t even exist in the house without the doors being locked. Without being forced to stay inside.

Already, I could feel anger stewing inside me, and as I blindly moved towards the kitchen, it only got worse. The loss of my freedom and the lack of choices in front of me frayed my nerves even more, and I felt like I couldn’t get a grip again.

After a moment of silence, Alex cleared his throat. “The chef isn’t in right now, but I was thinking of getting something catered.”

Hearing his voice was enough to make the last of my restraint snap.

“You cannot be serious,” I uttered, facing him with a look of complete disbelief. “How can you be thinking about dinner right now?”

As his dark eyes met mine, a brief flicker of confusion filled them while his brows knit together. Surprisingly, he seemed too caught off guard to say anything witty.

Staring at him then, rage swelled within me, and I stepped closer, body tense with those overwhelming emotions. “How can you be so cool about all of this? Just like after the auction, you’re way too calm for any sane person. Is this normal to you? Is that it?” When Alex still said nothing, I continued, “Are you so desensitized to everything in your world that you can’t see how incredibly ridiculous all of this is?”

While he listened without interjecting, Alex’s expression hardened little by little. He hid it well at first, until confusion and surprise dropped and revealed genuine irritation.

“Careful, Lara,” he murmured in a warning tone despite keeping his voice down.

The attempt to bridle me again only filled me with more anger.

With another step toward him, I pointed a finger at his chest. “You did this to me. You. I had no say in any of this, and you want me to watch what I say? You want me to sit back and comply with everything you say despite doing nothing to deserve that respect?”

Alex’s features tightened with his waning patience. “I’ve done nothing to earn your respect, hm? Is that how you feel?”

Scowling at him, I jabbed his chest, forcing him back by the slightest fraction. “Obviously! Why would I respect someone who bought me from an auction?”

His jaw tensed as he reached for my wrist, eyes a shade darker than usual. “You really have no idea how good you have it right now.”

His fingers wrapped around my wrist, along with his words, only made me angrier as I tried to pull my arm back. “You call this good ? You think this is a suitable situation to be in? I hate it. I hate everything about this!”

“Is that so?”

“Yes! You bought me, dragged me here, locked me away, then forced me to marry you. I’ve lost everything, all because of these sick games of yours. I’ve lost my freedom, the ability to choose, and I will likely never get to see my brothers again. After all of that, you want me to thank you?”

Alex bristled at the exasperation in my voice, releasing my wrist despite how he seemed to lean into the argument further, not afraid to dive in along with me. “I’m well aware of how it looks and how this doesn’t paint me in the best light, but you need to realize something, wife. Whether you want to accept it or not, I helped you. If it wasn’t for me, you would’ve ended up with someone far worse than me. Someone with the most impure intentions you could think of. You could be locked up somewhere worse, tortured, used, and left to rot. In that case, you wouldn’t even have the chance to stand here and get all of this off your chest. If I were one of them, I wouldn’t let you utter a single word like that to me.”

I scoffed at that. Despite having the feeling he wasn’t entirely wrong, I didn’t want to admit it to him. I couldn’t—not while I was still so heated about it all. “Do you want a reward for being half-decent?”

Taking up another step between us, Alex towered over me, features twisted in anger. “You have some attitude. You’re brave to think you can get away with that.”

“And what else are you going to do to me, then? It’s not like you haven’t already forced me into marrying you. It’s not like I have anything left for you to take from me!”

Alex shook his head in disbelief at that, visibly growing more done with me. His voice was low and dangerous, reminding me once again that he wasn’t just some pushover. “There is so much more I could take from you, Lara. So much more I could force you to give up without a second thought. I could be just like those freaks at the nightclub, but I’m not. At the very least, be grateful for that fact. Don’t mistake my decency for weakness.”

“So, decency is what I should thank you for?” I returned with a scoff. “The bar is disappointingly low these days.”

“Don’t act obtuse. You know what I’m trying to say.”

It didn’t matter what we said or how we said it, it was evident we weren’t going to see eye to eye. I was adamant about how cruel the situation was, and yet he wanted me to know it would be worse if it weren’t for him, as if he had done some great favor for me.

There was no denying the likelihood of that truth, but it still didn’t absolve him. He still forced me into far more than what I deemed acceptable.

“Do you think there will be a time when I’ll just accept what you’ve done? Do you truly expect me to grovel and thank you for dragging me into all of this against my will?” I questioned, unable to hold it all back. “You have taken all of this from me, for what—to gain some sick satisfaction from forcing me into marrying you? To get praise and notoriety from my name? Whatever your reasons, it’s not good enough. None of them are. You’re a weak, cowardly man for forcing all of this on me.”

To my surprise, Alex cocked a brow at that, taking me in with a measuring gaze as he took up another step, inadvertently forcing me back in response. “Is that so?”

The shift in his demeanor caught me off guard, and for a moment, I couldn’t think of anything to say in return as I noticed that new gleam in his eyes. I moved back further until my back bumped into the countertop behind me. “Of course it is…”

That look only deepened, a faint smirk spreading across his lips as he closed in, leaning closer. That mischievous spark in his eyes made my stomach clench. Before I could get away, he trapped me against the counter with both hands on either side of me, all never taking his gaze off me.

“You keep talking about your freedom and choices, or lack thereof, so then answer me this,” he began, eyes sweeping over me before returning to mine again. “Why don’t you fight back like you mean it? Why don’t you kick, punch, and scream at me and do everything in your power to escape me?”

His words, along with his proximity, sent a shiver down my spine, and I swallowed hard as I looked up at him, able to pull in the fragrance of his designer cologne.

When I couldn’t find the words in me, far too distracted by how near he was, Alex chuckled and reached up to sweep a stray hair from my face. I shivered indiscernibly as his skin brushed against mine.

Despite my anger and hatred of him, I could feel my conviction wavering.

“Where’d that fire go, hm?” he teased, his voice a low hum that made my heart race. With a knowing grin, he leaned in until his lips nearly brushed against my ear. “Right when it was turning me on, too.”

I pulled in a breath at that, suddenly aware of how quiet the room seemed compared to only a few moments prior. Still, his proximity made it feel like my throat was closing up, and any attempt at speaking was completely useless.

Alex hummed to himself as he brought that hand to my chin, gently propping it up, and making me look at him completely. Another thrill flickered through my heart. I felt completely defenseless against his beautiful face and the charming grin that made my heart clench. We were so close, I could feel the warmth from his skin radiating against mine.

“Since you’re so concerned about choices, I’ll leave you with one now,” he began, eyes raking over me. “Either you can resist me and swear up and down that you don’t want this, or you can give in. You can admit to us both that you aren’t as against this whole thing as you’re trying to seem.”

As much as the challenge in his tone irritated me to no end, and as much as I wanted to prove him wrong, that desire to resist seemed so pointless in that moment. I couldn’t even convince myself anymore.

I wanted more than anything to shut that desire off and ignore it completely for my sake. To not give him even a moment of satisfaction. But as he looked down at me, his face close enough for me to feel the faint mingling of our breath, that resistance lost all of its appeal.

Taking in those deep brown eyes, along with his other handsome features and the surprising boyish charm of his freckles, the tension was thick enough for me to feel how it surrounded us. I didn’t want to deny it. Something in me wouldn’t let that happen.

By then, my eyes flickered down to his lips, noting how tempting they looked. How perfectly inviting and irresistible they were—waiting for me to give in and take the bait.

Despite the alarms going off in my head, the last of my self-restraint crumbled away, and I couldn’t help myself. I didn’t want to anymore.

Crossing what was left of the space between us, I pressed my lips against his and immediately lost myself to the feeling.

Even if I went that extra distance willingly, my head started reeling anyway, and that resistance was as good as dead the moment his mouth melded with mine in a breathless kiss.

Giving in completely, I shivered as I felt his hands against my hips, and I knew there was no turning back.