You Belong to Me by Johanna Lindsey Read Free Book Online

the slightest interest in who I marry, and I know damn well I would never have chosen a Russian.”
    “She’s Russian?” Stefan said in surprise.
    “A Russian baroness, and you know how damn promiscuous those ladies are. This onehas probably already had a dozen lovers, and I wouldn’t be the least surprised if I’m suddenly being summoned to marry her because she’s found herself with child.”
    “Then hope that is the case, and wait to marry her until you bring her here,” Stefan suggested. “By then you will know if she is pregnant, which will give you legitimate grounds to break the betrothal.”
    Vasili’s relief didn’t last long enough for him to complete the smile he had started. “I can’t depend on that and end up committed if it isn’t so. I would prefer not to go to Russia at all, which is why I’m here. You have been faced with this dilemma yourself, Stefan. What ideas did you come up with to get out of your betrothal?”
    “You expect me to answer that now? ”
    Vasili looked at Tanya for the first time. “Would you mind—?”
    “Not on your life.”
    He gave her a sour look, which she ignored. She wondered what he would do if she laughed, which was what she felt like doing: she was not the least bit sympathetic to his problem. But Stefan wouldn’t appreciate her amusement at his cousin’s expense, so she just listened to them discuss a few options that they both concluded weren’t really options. And she watched Vasili become more and more upset.
    She thought her husband was exceptionally handsome, but not like Vasili. No one was as mesmerizingly handsome as Vasili. But she’dnever seen him looking so harried, or so angry. And she’d never seen his eyes glow just as brightly as Stefan’s could, as they were now. He was pacing— prowling would be a better way to describe how he was moving—like a trapped tawny lion, golden and furious.
    It was fascinating to watch six feet of masculine grace suddenly reveal this volatile, nearly savage side of his otherwise stoical nature. Of the four men who had grown up together and were such close friends, Vasili was the one who attacked verbally and with deadly accuracy, rather than with brute strength. But obviously he was as capable of violence as the rest of them.
    Tanya had once been told that he was the man she would have to marry, because Stefan had wanted her to come along with them to Cardinia without any fuss, and he’d thought she, like every other woman, would prefer Vasili. But Vasili had insulted her from the first, thinking her a tavern whore, and she had despised him for that, and for his utter contempt. Besides, even with his scars and his “devil’s eyes,” Stefan had been the one she had been attracted to from the first night they had met, not the too handsome, golden Adonis.
    “What are you going to do?” Stefan finally asked his cousin.
    “I don’t know.”
    “Yes, you do,” Stefan said quietly.
    “Yes, I do.” Vasili sighed. “But there won’t be a wedding, not if I can help it. One of them, either the girl or her father, will call this ridiculous thing off, even if I have to show them what I’m really like.”
    “What you’re really like?” Tanya nearly choked on that one. “You mean, what you can be like when you don’t want people to like you.”
    Since she spoke from experience, he had to concede her the point. “If you say so. Your Majesty.”
    It was Tanya’s turn to give him a sour look. Stefan bit back a chuckle and said, “Go home, Vasili. A good night’s sleep is bound to make your situation look less disastrous. After all, even if you have to marry the girl, you don’t have to—”
    “The hell he doesn’t,” Tanya cut in indignantly.
    “I told you she’d make fidelity a royal command,” Vasili growled and stomped out of the room.
    Tanya barely waited for the door to close before she said, “Oh, God, I love it. The peacock is finally going to get his feathers pulled.”
    “I thought