Page 89 of Paved in Hate
Matvey gives my back a soft pat before pulling away. Vitaly explained the fire to me and I know he’s not crazy about physical contact and it means the world to me that he put that aside to give me a hug. I meet his dark eyes and smile.
“I can’t wait to get to know her.”
He gives a soft nod, the pain and sadness that he always carries around coming back into his eyes, and without another word, he steps back so Vitaly can stand in front of me.
“All right,ptichka, dry it up and get ready to look absolutely thrilled to be my wife.”
I laugh as he gently brushes away my tears.
“You’re lucky you wore waterproof mascara, because I’m serious about blowing it up and framing it.”
The thought of having a huge photo of me with black streaks running down my face as I stand in my wedding dress next to Vitaly as the main focal point to anyone who steps off the elevator makes me laugh so hard I almost start crying again.
Vitaly shakes his head and mutters, “I’m not going to be able to take you anywhere, baby. You’re such a handful.” He looks over at Lev. “I thought you said wives were easy to control.”
Lev barks out a laugh and lifts a pierced brow at Vitaly. “You’re such a fucker.” He looks back at his wife and holds up his hands. “I swear I never said that,malinkaya.”
It’s obvious by my husband’s amused smirk that he’s making shit up, and thankfully for Lev, Jolene can see it. She just laughs and shakes her head at her brother-in-law, clearly used to his tricks.
Vitaly laughs and motions for the photographer, who’s been waiting patiently by the kitchen island. The man grabs his equipment and steps forward.
“We’re ready when you are,” Vitaly tells him. “Make sure to catch how unbelievably in love my wife is with me.”
The man smiles, but the poor guy looks terrified of the tattooed Russian men in front of him. I don’t know what Vitaly told him when he hired him, but whatever it was it’s caused a slight tremor in the guy’s hands when he grabs his camera and a tremble to his voice as he gives us instructions.
“You’ve scared the hell out of him,” I whisper to Vitaly. “All our photos are going to be blurry now because he can’t keep his hands steady.”
Vitaly thinks about what I’ve said and then turns to the photographer. “Don’t fuck these up.”
The warning in his voice has me shaking my head. “That’s not going to help.”
Vitaly winks at me. “You don’t think so? Fear is a wonderful motivator.”
When I just raise a brow at him, he sighs and says in a much softer tone, “If you do well, there’s a huge bonus in it for you.”
The guy perks up at that, and when he gets back to work with much steadier hands, I give Vitaly a smirk of my own and whisper, “Told you so.”
“Smartass,” he whispers back.
Right as I look up at him and laugh, the photographer starts snapping photos. The next hour goes by far quicker than I would’ve thought. We have several posed shots, but it’s the candid photos he keeps snapping that I really want to see. When Vitaly is satisfied that enough photos have been taken, I watch him pass an envelope to the photographer, who’s now smiling like this is the best gig he’s ever taken.
While he leaves, I look back at my new family. They’re sitting around in formal wear, doing all of this for us when I know that they’re all worried about tomorrow night. Despite that, they took the time to pose for photos so that Vitaly and I could have pictures that mean something to us.
“Thank you so much for doing this,” I tell them.
“We were happy to,” Emily quickly says. Her pregnant belly is pushing against her dress, and Roman’s hand is resting on it. “Any excuse to dress up and feel pretty right now is fine by me. I feel like a clumsy elephant at the moment.”
She laughs while Roman kisses her cheek. “You’re the sexiest goddamn elephant I’ve ever seen.”
She laughs even harder and pats his hand. “I think that might’ve sounded better in your head.”
“Nice one,” Vitaly teases him.
Roman laughs. “You know what I mean! You’re not an elephant,solnishka. You’re pregnant and beautiful and perfect.”
“Nice save,” Danil says with a laugh. He kisses his wife and pulls her closer while she leans her head against him. He whispers something in her ear, and when she grins and nods her head, he looks back at all of us. “Since we’re celebrating today, we wanted to let you all know that we snuck off to an ultrasound appointment this morning.”
“You did?” Jolene leans forward from where she’s sitting on Lev’s lap. When Danil and Simona keep quiet, she says, “You’re killing me. What’d they say?”
