“It gives you a chance.”
“At what?”she demanded.“Pretending none of this happened?Pretending you didn’t happen?”
Something dark moved behind Maksim’s eyes at that.He stepped closer slowly.
“You think I want to let you go?”Maksim demanded.
Lena stared at him silently.Maksim dragged a hand through his hair, irritation and tension colliding hard beneath his skin.
“There is no version of this where you stay as yourself and survive long-term.”
“Then what version is there?”Lena asked.
Maksim opened his mouth, then stopped as it occurred to him there was in fact, another option.However, it was one option he hated immediately upon thinking it.One his father would have understood perfectly.
Bratva wives were untouchable in ways mistresses and outsiders never were.They were protected by name, blood, and allegiance.His gaze settled fully on Lena again.She frowned slightly at whatever she saw in his expression.
“What?”
Maksim answered reluctantly.“You would have to enter our world fully.”
Suspicion flickered across her face.
“What does that mean?”Lena asked.
“It means,” he said flatly, “you would become my wife.”
Silence crashed through the apartment.Lena stared at him like he had just spoken another language entirely.
“What?”Lena whispered, clearly not expecting that answer.
Maksim held her gaze steadily despite the tension winding tighter through him.
“It’s the only way Dimitri and Alexei would stop seeing you as disposable,” Maxim explained.
Her mouth parted slightly in shock.“You’re serious.”
“Yes.”
“You’re asking me to marry you?”Lena asked, looking shocked.
“No,” Maksim corrected coldly.“I’m telling you the only way I can keep you.”