Forbidden Desires

Chapter Two

The Grand Ballroom went into utter silence as Amelia glided her way through. All eyes turned to take in the image of the bride in her luxurious gown and glittering jewels.

Amelia kept her composure, her gaze focused straight ahead down the long runner.

But from her side eyes, she could make out the critical appraisals and weighing looks from the elite crowd.

She was aware that they saw her as nothing more than a little decorative object purchased by Vladimir, like one more object joining his collection.

At last, she reached the end of the aisle where Vladimir stood before an arch of deep red roses, his large frame clothed in black tuxedo.

A heavyset man in his fifties with steel grey hair and bushy eyebrows, his expression was one of stern evaluation, not of warmth, as she took her place across from him.

It left her wondering if all those fables she heard about him were just what they were.

Mere fables.

Amelia felt her breath catch slightly as she looked at a young man standing beside Vladimir, acting as a best man.

'Who could that man be?' She wondered.

He was so breathtaking and perhaps ten years her senior at most.

He was movie-star handsome with artfully tousled sandy brown hair and chiselled features. He was everything she ever wanted.

What was she doing?

Admiring another man on the day of her wedding?

Amelia cut it out!

But she just couldn't help herself.

Who could he be? Who would that man be? Who is he?

Their gazes met and held for just a tantalizing beat. She felt this electric shock erupt all over her body. Her heart was thudding real fast.

Amelia quickly looked away, unsettled by the fluttering feeling in her stomach. As pretty much as a portrait, yes, but getting flustered over another man was certainly no way to begin her new life.

The ceremony officiant, a barrel-chested man with a booming voice, launched his preamble about the sacred covenant of marriage.

Amelia only half-listened as her mind wandered, already dreading the realities to come.

"You may now look upon your bride," the officient's voice snapped her back to reality.

With those words, Amelia raised her eyes to Vladimir for the first time. His cold, slate-coloured irises bored into her with an intensity that sent shivers down her spine.

He held her gaze for an uncomfortably long time before giving the tiniest nod, as if appraising his pampered purchase.

The officient continued through his well-practiced sermon about love and fidelity. Amelia kept holding herself back from throwing her gloves away and just taking off in front of the judging crowd.

This entire scenario felt worlds away from any romantic notions of marriage.

"If there be any here present who has reasons why these two should not be united..." the officient's voice echoed through the hushed ballroom.

Amelia couldn't stop herself from automatically flitting her gaze over to the handsome young man, wondering if she detected even the tiniest bit of emotion on his face but he seemed normal, not that she had any right to expect otherwise.

"Let them speak now..." the officient let the pause linger dramatically, "or forever hold their peace."

For the barest fraction of a second, as the cavernous room held its collected breath, Amelia wondered what might happen if someone dared to object.

What if she were to turn and runaway from this captivity before it became official?

So many thoughts ran through her head, but the moments passed in silence.

No saviours emerged to whisk her back to her former life of freedom.

This was to be the day ownership over her future transferred to Vladimir Romanov.

"Then I bind you two together lawfully, in holy wedlock..." the officient declared, his words sealing Amelia's airless fate like feet trampling down on freshly upturned earth.

She startled at the vise-like grip of Vladimir's thick hand suddenly clamping around hers as he leaned in uncomfortably close.

For a fleeting instant, pungent hints of his musky cologne and expensive scotch hit Amelia's nose.

Her lungs felt starved of air.

"You are now husband and wife," the officient's voice rang as finalizing gravity. "What God has bound together, let no man pull asunder."

As the newlyweds turned to face the showering applause from the crowd, Amelia couldn't ignore the young man she saw. She looked at him one more time.

Her gaze was drawn to his soulful hazel eyes that locked with hers.

He smiled at her and it melted her soul. So sweet!

She smiled back faintly.

For the briefest of instances, an undeniable spark of something charged between them, raising gooseflesh along Amelia's arms.

But then the moment shattered as he averted his stare, his expression falling behind a stoic mask and he watched his older brother wrap his hands possessively around the newest Mrs. Romanov.

As camera bulbs flashed around them, Amelia willed herself not to crumple the deep red rose bouquet clenched in her trembling hands. She was now Vladimir's completely- his wife, his possession, the soon-to-be bearer of his children.

And bound by that iron-clad union, Amelia knew deep down she had she had just taken her first steps into a treachorous path. A life filled with misery. One from which they would be no turning back.