The Player (The Game Maker #3)(46)

Neatly dodging him, Dmitri stepped back. With his lips curving into a sneer, he raised one hand and motioned for Brett to try again.

Brett yelled and swung, but Dmitri drew his head back with plenty of time—and with utter confidence.

The Russian knew how to fight. “I’ll thrash you simply for not appreciating what you had.” The menace in his eyes . . .

When a man like Brett fought, he might give somebody a shiner, maybe knock some teeth loose. When a man like Dmitri fought, someone was going to die.

The bodyguards made no move to intervene, not that they needed to protect their boss.

“I’m leaving with you now, Dmitri!” I said. “Please, don’t hurt him. Let’s just go.”

Never taking his gaze from his opponent, Dmitri slowly shook his head.

Brett threw another punch. Dmitri dodged and launched a hit of his own. His fist connected with Brett’s nose.

A distinct crack sounded. Brett fell to his knees, holding his face. Blood poured through his fingers.

“Jesus!” I dropped beside him, laying a hand on his back. “Are you okay?” I gazed up at Dmitri. “Damn it, don’t hit him again!”

Though Dmitri’s eyes were wild, he pulled me to my feet so gently. “Then come with me.”

To separate them, I let Dmitri usher me into the limo. As we drove away, I looked back through the rear window.

Brett lurched to his feet, blood pouring. “Please don’t do this, Tori!” he yelled. “Ah, God, please don’t!”

I squeezed my eyes shut and put my hands over my ears, wanting to block everything out. When I felt the limo turn a corner, I dropped my hands and turned to Dmitri. “What the hell was that?”

“The thought of you getting back with him drives me insane.” He looked it, as if he was barely holding himself together. “I’m eaten alive with jealousy that he had years of your life.” Dmitri didn’t touch me, kept his clenched fists lowered. “Last night at dinner, you told me you didn’t know if you would go back to him. Today, I find him at your door. You’re still in love with him!”

“No, I’m not!” I said, frowning as I realized I wasn’t—at all.

“You’ll prove it, then,” Dmitri said. “You’ll wed me.”

I gaped. I thought he’d mentioned marriage to screw with Brett.

Married to Dmitri Sevastyan? I frowned down at my chest—because my heart pounded as if it’d just heard the best idea ever. “You can’t be serious.” Dmitri was playing right into my family’s hands. The manufactured crisis had worked; step seven of the long con. “Where are you taking me?”

“I told you. To the courthouse.”

“You’re missing one important detail—I haven’t said yes!”

His gaze held mine, enthralling me. “You will.”

What if I did? Two tears in a bucket, right?

No, no, no! Stop thralling me! “This is moving way too fast!”

“From the moment I first saw you, I knew you were going to be mine. You got under my skin, into my f*cking blood! After last night, I know you want me too.” He stabbed his fingers through his hair. “I’ve never felt this way about anyone else.”

The congressman had said the same to Karin. “I’ve heard that line before.”

“It isn’t a goddamned line!”

“We met Friday, and now you’re talking marriage!”

“Maksim knew Lucía would be his after one night. Aleksandr decided to marry Natalie after one look. My timing is cautious by comparison.”

I thought of the con. What a coup this would be.

But my mark might be mentally unwell, and that made him vulnerable. Yet these were desperate times. I knew I needed to break the code, but I still said, “Give me one reason why you’re so intent on this today. Can’t we wait a day or two? What would one day hurt?”

“What would one day help? I told you I don’t handle confusion well. I despise uncertainty, have had more of that in my life than any man should have to bear. I will not tolerate uncertainty with you.”

“What does that mean?” I asked, fearing his answer would be over the top and crazy.

“I must know you are either completely mine—or you’re not.”

“You are giving me an ultimatum?” I was supposed to give him one! How had things gone so sideways?

“Say yes, Victoria. Or say good-bye.”

Hadn’t I just worried what would happen when he took his sexual intensity away from me? “Why are you looking at it in such black-and-white terms?”

He grasped my nape. “I feel as if I’m scalded with acid whenever I think about you. And I think of nothing else! My mind seethes. My body seethes.”

“You f*cked-up man! That sounds painful—not good.”

“It is painful! It’s goddamned misery. The only thing that soothes it is being with you.”

His words brought to mind what Gram had said—about finding a guy who would never jeopardize his relationship. Because it equaled his very life.

Why was I thinking about that now? This “relationship” wasn’t real! He couldn’t feel this way already.

And if he did, his feelings would fade just as quickly.

His hand tightened on my nape. “And now another man—one so unworthy of you—threatens what we could have?” Dmitri gave me a brief, hard kiss. “You will marry me, ángel. Accept this as inevitable.”