Page 168 of Bratva Menace

The fucking balls on that woman to not only kidnap me from my own wedding, but play the part of my bride.

It was insane. Outrageous. Completely fucking mad.

And also, pure genius.

She was nothing short of amazing.

But I had to be careful. I had to play the part. Pretend I had no idea who she was, or that I’d been stalking her for a hell of a lot longer than she’d been stalking me.

I didn’t want to scare her off.

I needed to make her completely and hopelessly in love with me first.

Then, and only then, could all be revealed.

Lyla stared open-mouthed at me.

I cleared my throat and sat up straighter. “More champagne?” I asked, holding up the bottle.

I was nervous. Beyond fucking nervous. I wasn’t entirely sure how she would react to the knowledge that I had been aware of everything.

Aware of everything she had been doing from the moment she began following my father. Apart from the whole kidnapping thing.

But I thought I had winged that part pretty well, if I did say so myself.

Lyla still hadn’t said anything, gawking at me in complete and utter shock.

“Penny for your thoughts?” I asked, smiling cautiously.

She finally snapped her mouth shut. She picked up her wine glass and downed the whole thing in one go. She placed it down and then picked up mine, doing the exact same thing.

I poured her another glass.

She downed that too.

Then another.

Then another.

By the sixth, she stopped, still giving me that absolutely bewildered expression.

I mashed my lips together and waited anxiously for her to say something.

“Okay,” she finally blew out, eyes turning calculating. “Are you saying you’ve been manipulating me this entire time?”

I winced. “Manipulating is such an awful word. I like to think of it more as me steering you in the right direction.”

“That direction being you?”

I squared my shoulders and puffed out my chest. “Yes.”

She took the whole bottle of champagne that time, taking a big gulp. “That woman, the one from the club. Did you⁠—”

“I didn’t sleep with her. Didn’t touch her. I haven’t touched another woman since the first moment I laid eyes on you. I told my siblings I had because that’s what’s expected of me. Told them I had been screwing some chick when I was kidnapped by Talon⁠—”

“No, you weren’t.” She frowned. “I was there that night. If you had a woman in your apartment, I would have killed her.”

I smirked. “I know. I only told my siblings that so they wouldn’t ask what I was doing in some random apartment in the city.”