You Bastard!

Xander's POV

I woke to sunlight and the softest sound I had ever heard.

Her breathing.

I lay still beneath the silk sheets, watching the rise and fall of her chest. She was curled on the edge of the bed…my bed, our bed now…her sweet lace still clinging to her curves, her hair a wild tangle of chestnut across the ivory pillow. She hadn't changed. Hadn't touched the lingerie, hadn't touched anything.

Above all, she fell asleep clutching her wedding dress.

Something shifted in my chest. Something I hadn't felt in seven years.

Seven years.

I remembered every detail of that night. The rain…the blood…the screaming. The car had flipped three times, trapping me in a cage of twisted metal and shattered glass. My legs were crushed. I could feel the bones grinding beneath my skin as my vision faded. And then…

"Hey! Hey! Can you hear me? Stay awake, you idiot!"

A girl. No older than fourteen. Chubby cheeks streaked with rain and tears. Deep emerald eyes burning with fury and fear. She'd crawled through the wreckage, her small hands gripping my face, forcing me to look at her.

"You're not dying today. You hear me? You're NOT DYING!"

She'd dragged me out. A child. A slip of a girl with the mouth of a sailor and the courage of a soldier. She'd stayed with me until the ambulance came, cursing me in rapid Italian the entire time.

"You're so stupid. So reckless. What kind of idiot drives like that? You could have killed yourself!"

And then she was gone. Just…gone. I never got her name. I never got to thank her.

But I remembered the birthmark.

A crescent moon, curved and imperfect. On the inside of her left arm.

I reached out. My fingers hovered over her sleeve. I pulled it back, just an inch, just enough…

There.

My breath caught as my heart slammed against my ribs.

I saw it currently last night before I blew my cover. It's her.

The girl who saved me. The girl who gave me a second chance at life. The girl I'd been searching for, fruitlessly, for seven years.

Somehow…She's my wife.

The irony was so sharp it almost made me laugh.

I had spent years hiding. Years pretending to be a crippled, impotent, unstable lunatic. Years making myself appear too weak to inherit the empire, too broken to be a threat. It was the only way to survive.

The succession war had already taken my brother.

Dmitri.

I squeezed my eyes shut. Dmitri had been sixteen. Kind, naive and the favorite son. Our father's golden child. And our enemies had torn him apart…literally, piece by piece, to send a message to my father. A message that said: No one is untouchable.

I'd found his body in the river three days later without his head, arms and legs as those had been sent to father.

After that, I had made a choice. I would disappear. I would become invisible. I would let them all believe I was too useless to fight, too broken to avenge him. And while they laughed at poor little X, I would build my empire from the shadows.

I had done it. I controlled eighty percent of the family's power. The guards answered to me. The money moved through me. And my brother…my elder brother, Aleksander; was a puppet who didn't even know he was dancing on my strings. My sisters, Sofia and Anya, were pawns in our father's games, married off to alliances I was slowly dismantling.

But now I had found her.

And everything changed.

I reached for the phone on the nightstand. My fingers moved fast, dialing a number I knew by heart.

"Sir?" Nikolai's voice was cautious. My head of security. One of the few who knew the truth.

"It's time," I said quietly. "I found her."

A pause. "Sir?"

"The girl. From seven years ago. She's here…she's my wife."

Another pause, this time it was longer. Then: "Understood. I'll prepare the necessary arrangements immediately."

"Good." I glanced at her sleeping form. "Send breakfast to my suite. But tell the staff…no disturbances. She'll prefer to eat in peace."

Nikolai understood. "Yes, sir."

I hung up. And then I just…watched her.

Her lips were parted. Her lashes were dark against her cheeks. Her body was soft, curved, beautiful…and she had no idea. She had no idea what she'd done for me. What she meant to me.

She would hate me if she knew how I let her suffer at the altar. But I'll make it right. I'll spend my entire life making it right.

A knock rent the air.

My jaw tightened. "Who is it?"

"Breakfast, sir. As requested."

I glanced at her sleeping form. The last thing I wanted was to wake her with servants parading in and out. "Leave it outside. She'll prefer breakfast in bed with no disturbance at all."

"Yes, sir."

Footsteps retreated and the silence returned.

I turned back to her. My fingers reached for her face. I wanted to touch her, to feel her skin, to kiss her awake and tell her…

She stirred.

Her lashes fluttered and her eyes opened…deep, emerald and so alive, and for one breathless moment, she just looked at me.

Confusion. Recognition. And then…

Heat.

I felt it hit me like a freight train. Hard, sudden and uncontrollable. God, just her looking at me could turn me on. My body reacted before my brain could catch up, and I shifted, trying to hide it, trying to breathe…

"Good morning," I whispered, leaning in to brush my lips against her cheek.

Immediately, her knee slammed into my gut so hard I saw stars.

I flew backward, rolling off the bed and hitting the floor with a crash that knocked the air from my lungs. Pain exploded through my abdomen making me gasp as I coughed and tried to breathe…

And then she was above me.

Furious and terrifying yet so magnificent.

Her eyes blazed, her chest heaved and her voice cracked like a whip.

"You bastard. So you're fit and you left me at the altar. How dare you!"