Sinful Devotion by Brook Wilder

Author:Brook Wilder [Wilder, Brook]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholae Palatina, Inc.
Published: 2024-04-04T00:00:00+00:00

25

ARSEN

No matter how many times I spin the ring on my finger, I can’t find where it starts or ends. It’s almost the same tint of silver as my eye color. The platinum with a black diamond inlay through the middle strikes a powerful aesthetic. Pricey, but I bought it myself. If I’m going to wear jewelry, it needs to be exquisite.

Galina looked blatantly stunned when the priest asked her for the ring. I should have prepared her more. I was busy with other, more pressing plans.

Plans that turned out to be pointless.

The reminder that my trap wasn’t sprung is infuriating. I twist the ring faster, friction burning against my finger. I continue to spin in spite of the pain. Why didn’t Yevgeniy show up? Mila’s intel was rock solid. He knew about the wedding, knew the time, the location, everything. He knew more than Galina.

And yet …

A spike of shame runs through my heart, and I stop twisting the ring. My mind wanders back to yesterday afternoon, to the wedding itself.

To Galina.

I busied myself visualizing every possible way Yevgeniy and his men might attack the church, but I didn’t put any thought into what Galina might look like.

Nothing prepared me for seeing her standing there at the end of the aisle, looking like a Renaissance painting of an angel come to life.

Her makeup was understated, but the rest of her … magnificent.

The fabric of the dress clung tightly to her hips, demanding I notice her alluring curves. Tiny crystals shimmered like shattered diamonds all over the bodice.

Galina was a bride.

My bride.

I drew up beside her, and she gazed at me with a slew of emotions. She was pale … frightened, I think. But there was also an unmistakable longing. I’d seen it in her before. No, I’d felt it before. I could tell when she was aching for me. The rush of affection that swelled in me for this woman was enough to make me forget, even for a moment, that this was all pretend.

Standing there beside her, my body thrummed at the thought that everything would finally fall into place, and that I would finally get my chance to kill Yevgeniy.

And most unexpectedly, that Galina was mine—that she wanted this as much as I did. That we might have stumbled into something real. Something everlasting.

But no sooner did all thoughts of triumph flutter across my mind than my brigadier, Iosif, leaned in to whisper in my ear as he set the crown upon my head.

“Yevgeniy isn’t here.”

And in an instant, victory turned to ashes in my mouth.

The trap had failed.

I wanted to storm out of the church in that moment and roar loudly under the open sky for Yevgeniy to stop being a coward and face me. The bastard must have figured out this was a ruse. Did someone tell him? Was there a traitor in my ranks?

But I couldn’t. I had to keep my focus on the ceremony. And when I saw the crown on Galina’s head, it sobered me in a different way.

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