Alexandr's Reluctant Submissive by Ann Mayburn Page B

situation was not her husband’s fault. He had done his best to protect her, gone to insane lengths to keep her well-guarded and happy. Looking back, she now appreciated how hard he’d worked in order to win her heart when he already had a life filled with so much stress and responsibility.
    But knowing what was in the balance if her husband failed felt like a physical burden, and she sagged beneath the weight of once again having to put her desires on the back burner for the sake of other people. If only God had made her just a little more selfish, she could have insisted that Petrov could go fuck himself, that she and Alex had just reunited, and that they deserved time together—uninterrupted as a family. But there was no way she could live with herself if people died because of her selfish wants. Perhaps it was better they have a little time apart to process each other, to come to grips with the monumental shifts in their lives.
    She tried to tell herself that her heart wasn’t breaking at the thought of leaving his side for any amount of time.
    Tracing the lines in his forehead that she’d never seen before with her fingertips, she let out a soft sigh. “Do what you need to do in order to keep us safe. I know you wouldn’t leave me if it wasn’t important.”
    “Leave you?” He surprised her when his nostril’s flared in anger before growling out, “No, is unacceptable. You will come with me. While you may not be able to sit on council with me, you could learn much from my aunt Vera. She is greatly admired in the world of the Bratva for being a woman of worth—smart and loyal. I know she will like you because you are very similar.”
    Flushing beneath his praise, she couldn’t help the little happy thrill that he wanted her with him. Hell, he could have said his aunt had PMS and hated Americans and Jessica still would have gone with him. The thought of being more than a few rooms away from Alex was unacceptable.
    “I would love to go with you.”
    Closing his eyes, he let out a frustrated growl. “That means I do not have time to fuck you properly.”
    “Why not? Though right now, I’d even take an improper fuck from you.”
    His fingers wrapped around her waist and tightened. “Where we are going, there will be many influential and famous people. It is important you look good, not just because I wish to show off your beauty, but because you will be a walking legend among them. The woman who came back from the dead.”
    Groaning, she buried her face against his throat. “Do you think they’ll be mad at me that I let Jorg chase me off?”
    “ Nyet . Every person there knows how my father operates. His cruelty has been felt by them all in one way or another. My uncle Petrov lost his beloved sister to the Novikov Curse.  He revealed to me in our late-night talks after I’d thought I lost you, that there was not a day that went by where he did not feel guilt for not protecting her well enough. If it turned out his sister had actually been hiding, not dead, all these years, he would have been nothing but happy. You will be welcomed by them with open arms.”
    “Yeah, ’cause everyone wants to hang out with Lazarus at a party,” she muttered into his chest.
    “We do not have to face them until tomorrow, but I have a favor to ask of you before I fuck you to sleep.”
    A shot of heat went straight between her legs and she squeezed her thighs together as blood rushed to her sex. “What is it?”
    Taking a strand of her dark-brown hair between his fingers, he held it up and curled it with a distant look softening his harsh features. “There is salon downstairs. I would like them to dye your hair back to its original color.”
    Heat rose to her face as she ducked her head. “Does brown look bad on me?”
    “Nothing could look bad on you, but do not wish to return to red?”
    “No, no, I can’t wait to stop dying my hair. Seriously, having red roots with dark hair is weird. And if I don’t color in