Hello everyone!

I am very excited that you've enjoyed the first chapter, as much as I've enjoyed writing it. This chapter is a little longer than I'd planned, but somehow after I start writing, I can't stop. Enjoy :)

p.s. There's a little surprise at the end :)

Disclaimer: These characters don't belong to me, they belong to the lovely Richelle mead. Also English isn't my first language, so please be patient with any spelling or grammar mistakes or if anyone would like to help me with that I'd appreciate it :)

Chapter 2. – Home, sweet, home.

If anyone would've told me that on the day of my wedding, I ended up in a ripped wedding dress puking in a private jet, I would have said—nope.

That would never happen to Rose Mazur.

But apparently, Rose Belikov, didn't have the same luck.

I had never been too fond of flying before—avoiding it as much as I could. But as Dimitri not so kindly put it, there was absolutely no fucking way he was driving 14 hours, just to get my ass all the way to Portland. Sadly for me, I would have to ride the flying metal machine for at least two hours, fighting the nausea that was caused by not having my feet able to touch the ground.

When I made my way back to the lavish seats, I found that Dimitri had finally stopped looking at his phone.

"What happened to your dress?" Dimitri asked.

"You're barely noticing that?"

He turned his head to the side, ignoring me.

"When I tripped a reporter stepped on it, it tore. Luckily, it was a chunk on the bottom, no one will notice."

"There's a suitcase in the bedroom, your mother packed it for you at least until all your belongings get delivered and the rest we can buy later."

Oh geez, Belikov actually knew how to be nice? What a nice surprise.

"Thanks, I guess…"

"Do you ever accept something without making some type of comeback?"

I smirked. "I do, but what fun would that be? Besides I've read somewhere that humor is good for marriage, keeps it interesting. Ours needs every single ounce of it, if we don't want to get divorced."

"You know very well that in our world, we don't do divorce. So you're just going to have to learn to live with me."

"Yeah, I know. But there's always the chance of you not waking up the next morning, so that's that." I smiled sweetly.

"Rose… There's always the possibility of tying you to the bed at night, so that's that." It was now his turn to smirk. "Just…go change, won't you."

"Yes, boss."

I made it back to the small cabin just in time as I heard Dimitri say something his native tongue. How I wished that I could understand Russian just to hear what he saying about me. Nothing child friendly, I would guess.

*.*.*.*.*

Oregon, was a beautiful state. Green lush trees everywhere and Mount Hood looking beautiful in the distance. I would definitely miss Montana, but Portland wouldn't be such a bad place to start a new life.

As we left the private hangar, a young man—who was dressed like the cliché bodyguard in movies—greeted Dimitri and handed him the keys to a car I never thought he would own. Especially, since the man is known for using the most advanced technologies in all his business deals.

There parked in front of us, was a midnight black 1967 Ford Mercury Cougar, a majestic beauty. So amazing, that even if you didn't like muscle cars, you could definitely appreciate the fine lines of the car.

"Get in."

"This is your car?" I said, gazing at the car with adoration.

"Yes, it's mine, now let's get going before it gets any darker and I get any older."

"Jesus…" I sighed, while I respectfully shut the door of the car. Wanda. That would be her name…I was already going crazy just dealing with this man for a few hours.

Lord help me...

"She's beautiful," I said as I placed my hand carefully on the dashboard.

"Yeah, she is," Dimitri muttered giving me a strange look before placing his dark sunglasses on. Apparently, the man was not too fond of the sun—not that there was much of left on the horizon. The sun was setting fast and I sure was tired after the day we'd just had—all I wanted to do was enjoy a hot meal before getting some sleep.

Instead of making the same mistake of asking Dimitri for directions, I quietly took in the scenery in front of me. Portland was an amazing place, the rivers flowing across it and the glittering buildings making a lovely scene with the setting sun behind it. I was falling in love with the place by the second.

"You ever been here?" Dimitri said, glancing sideways at me, one hand on the steering wheel.

"To Portland? No, never. I don't like to travel much. " I said as I remembered all the times I used to stay at Lissa's house when my parents would go on vacation, mostly because there was always a reason to travel and it wasn't ever for family fun. It was an opportunity for Abe to continue to check up on the business front of things.

"Well, you'll have to get used to traveling. As my wife, you'll have to accompany me on most of my trips."

I continue to look at the amazing scenery, when we suddenly turn into a residential zone that has all these gorgeous houses scattered by the waterfront. All of them impressive in their construction with their modern floor-to-ceiling windows—which I was sure would offer the most amazing views. Wow! If this was where we would call home, I was surely going to be a happy camper, at least in that aspect.

Just as the main road seemed to end, the last house was the one that finally had my jaw on the floor. Please let this be the house we live in, please! Dimitri parked the car right in the driveway of one of the most impressive houses I'd ever seen, I felt little less sad seeing that I got the opportunity to live there.

It was a three story house, with floor to ceiling windows which made up most of the walls of the house—YESS!—but also with walls done in wood and concrete adding contrast between the materials. That gave the house a modern, but old timey feeling—which I immediately loved.

Something, right out of a magazine. Just for me… well then again I did have to share the house with the ogre.

"Is this honestly your home?" I asked as I opened Wanda's door.

"No, I just park my car here," he said stoically. My heart dropped. I really loved the place, such a shame… "That was a joke, a bad one from what I can see…"

I nodded. "Yeah, you're not very good at jokes. But your house is beautiful by the way."

As he unlocks the code for the door, I am suddenly hoisted into the air. "What are you doing?! You're going to kill me so soon? You better not drop me!"

"Carrying my wife over the threshold. It seems to be a tradition among every newlywed couple—real or not." Dimitri said as he held me close to his chest. A chest which wasn't flabby at all. Belikov liked to work out and it showed.

"Congratulations, Mr. Belikov and Mrs. Belikov," said a feminine voice coming from the living room.

As Dimitri set me down, I was suddenly enveloped in a tight hug.

He smiled. "This is Celia, and she works for us as our lovely cook and housekeeper, if there's anything you need, you go to her. If there's ever the need to contact me, tell her and she'll get you in touch with me. She's basically the center of this home, that mostly because she's the greatest cook I know besides my mother and my grandmother."

"Ay mijo," she smiled endearingly as she pinched Dimitri's cheek. What the… He could actually speak fondly of people, maybe he wasn't such an ogre after all—at least with the people he actually loved…

"He's just saying that to mess with you, Mrs. Belikov. I am Celia and I do cook deliciously—don't mind me saying—but as far as being the most important part of this home, I think not. At least not anymore, now that you're here. Alberto and I are so very happy to finally meet the wife of Mr. Dimitri here."

"Albert, Celia, I am Albert not Alberto," an older man with a fatherly mustache said as he approached us, cleaning his hands on rag, "I am Albert, Mrs. Belikov. I will be your personal driver, I am at your service."

I shook his hand. "Hello, I am very happy to meet both of you. Please, call me Rose and thank you for this lovely reception, it's really kind of you."

"Mija, you're the wife of mister Belikov and that's that. Well it's been a long day why don't you both go upstairs and change while we get the dinner ready for you. Would you like to eat your dinner out on the terrace?"

Wouldn't I? Of course I would, the view was spectacular to say the least.

"Yes, Celia, thank you." Dimitri said, he gestured for me to follow him.

*.*.*.*.*.*

I was in heaven.

The view from the master bedroom was to die for.

The room was masculine, but had homely touches that made it look so damn comfortable. The giant bed was the center of the room with it being a four poster bed, with a faux fur coverlet, as well as an L-shaped sofa facing the floor-to-ceiling window.

"This is the master bedroom. I've never had any need to change anything since I bought the place, but if you need anything, just make a list and Celia and Albert will cover it."

I turned to look at Dimitri, "I don't think that will be necessary, I am in love with the place as is, thank you."

"I'm going to shower," he said gruffly, removing his cufflinks from his sleeves. "If your mother didn't pack any comfortable clothes, you can take something from the closet."

I looked down at the itchy dress I was wearing, why did my mother love lace so much? Lacey wedding dress, lacey after wedding dress, lace, lace, lace…

Nodding my thanks, I made my way inside the giant walk-in closet that made up the side of the room, there were many suits and formal shoes. Dimitri wore a lot of expensive suits, but what he seemed to like more, were coats. Weird, it must rain a lot in Portland.

The most interesting one was a giant coat made out of leather, something almost like a leather duster in those old western movies. Who knew maybe he liked to pretend he was in the old west. Yippy, cowboy! CRAZY, I was telling you.

After looking into most drawers and not finding anything but his undies, I'd finally found the drawer that had a pair of flannel bottoms and the matching shirt. As I returned into the bedroom, I found that Dimitri had already gotten out of the shower and was now towel drying his hair in front of the fire—did I mention there was a fireplace?!—wearing a pair of low riding flannel pants. If my mom was the queen of lace, he was the king of flannel. But sweet baby Jesus, those pants looked awfully good on the man.

Finding an escape, I showered quickly and tried to rid myself of any impure thoughts of the man outside the door. I had never lived with a man, which was the only reason I was ogling Dimitri, I was definitely not attracted to him. Not at all. He was the enemy after all.

While I donned the flannel jammies, I found that the sleeves and legs were waaay too long for any human being that was below six-foot-four. I tried to roll up the sleeves as I emerged from the bathroom, not noticing that Dimitri was right in front of me. Somehow I managed to trip on the extra meter of fabric dangling from my legs. We both crashed onto the floor with Dimitri breaking our fall.

"You okay?" he asked, he removing a wet lock of hair from my face.

"Yeah," I said breathlessly. Shit, you could probably cut through the tension with a butter knife.

We both stared at each other, the tension rolling of us like waves. I didn't know why but I felt that if he didn't kiss me, I would end up kissing him. Rose get your shit together!

A loud "Oh, por Dios!" had us both steeping away from each other as fast as if I they'd burned us.

Celia was standing in the corridor, looking at us like two horny teenagers. "It's my fault should've knocked louder. But it was better for me to find you than your grandmother, Mr. Belikov."

What?! "What?! She's here?!" he yells, my sentiments exactly.

"Not only her, sir, your whole family is here. I barely had enough time to stop them before they came up here, thankfully," Celia said as she gave us a saucy look.

"We'll be down in a minute, Celia."

After she closes the door we hear "Ajá, si como no..." I would really need to pick up not only a Russian but a Spanish dictionary, as well.

As an awkward silence descended upon us, my cheeks were probably a deep shade of tomato red.

"Look, Rose," Dimitri said as he paced on the carpet, raking his hands through his hair. "If my mother is here and the rest of my family, it means that they finally found out that I was getting married. I didn't tell them because as we both know this wasn't exactly a marriage of love, but rather for business—"

Yeah, he didn't have to repeat that part…

"—and my mother and grandmother would basically disown me if they figured out the truth. So now we say that we didn't tell them because we wanted this to be a surprise, I am not really talkative so you're free to choose any story as long as it believable. They're really touchy-feely people, so don't be surprised if they hug you. This is your first task as my wife, I expect nothing but the best, am I understood?"

"Will you stop asking me, if I understand? Yes, I do understand that I will have to lie to your family. But I'd like it if you could stop treating me like the evil one that trapped you into marrying me, when I am not the one agreeing to marry people because of stupid power plays between two grown men. And by the way, what just happened was an accident, one which I hope won't ever repeat itself. I don't like it when you touch me." Liar, liar, pants on fire…

"Good to hear, Rose. After you," he said, brushing off my rant, as he held the bedroom door open. Darned man, didn't he have a conscience?!

I tried to walk past him, when he took my wrist. "What you just said about it being a one-time situation, we'll see."

And with that little tidbit he walked away. Oh, I could definitely see myself pushing him down the stairs, he was infuriating

I sighed. Now to the task at hand, time to meet the in-laws.

*.*.*.*.*.*

Dimitri's Family was a matriarchal family. It was run by his mother Olena Belikov, along with the help of Dimitri's grandma Yeva, and his three sisters: Karolina, Sonja and the smallest sister Viktoria. As well as Karolina's two babies: Paul and Zoya.

Karolina was the eldest sister, and what I liked about her was the fact that as soon as she saw Dimitri she enveloped him in a hug and said. "Aw, my baby brother finally got married, even if you didn't want your precious family there. I am happy for you, my baby Dimka."

I laughed, Dimka, I guess we all had nicknames that haunted us. While the family, as a unit, continued to give Dimitri shit about not telling them about the wedding, I continued to watch from the sidelines. Soaking up the good nature of family teasing. At least until, my mother in-law finally noticed me.

"Oh how rude of us, I am so sorry my child. I am just so taken aback by this giant man-baby's decision to finally settle down that I didn't introduce myself. I am Olena, this is my mother Yeva and my lovely daughters, Karolina, Sonja and Vicky. These are my grandbabies Paul and Zoya." She said as everyone smiled at me.

"Hello," I said feeling a bit self-conscious as I was only dressed in Dimitri's pajamas. "I'm very sorry you had to find out about our marriage this way, I would've loved to have you there supporting us, but you know how love can be." I was terrible person for lying to them.

Dimitri's middle and heavily pregnant sister, Sonja said. "Oh, please we understand it was this hard-headed man's fault, we could never hold it against you."

Say, it sister! I smirked. "Yeah, he really is hard-headed. But still, I apologize and I hope that you can stay for dinner to make it up to you." I said hoping that Celia didn't mind cooking for that many people.

"We were actually planning to stay the night," Yeva said, finally breaking the deep silence she'd had since she'd arrived. Oh Jesus.

As it turned, out Celia had big hands and the food she had made for the two of us had somehow fed the whole Belikov clan, as well as Albert and Celia—who I didn't know lived in their private quarters separate from the house.

Celia was actually way more talented than Dimitri had described, her food was exquisite. While we ate our dinner, Olena and Celia were the ones to keep the conversation flowing; making jokes, asking me questions about my favorite foods or any hobbies I had, making me feel welcome—something that I appreciated, oh so very much— as well Dimitri's sisters.

Being an only child was lonely, so I could definitely get used to having a lot of people close.

When everyone was finished with their dinner, the women helped clear the table while Dimitri and Albert disappeared to the office to talk about the security around the property.

"Mommy, I'm sleepy," said Zoya, Karolina's 4 year-old-daughter.

"I am not because, I am a big ten-year-old, Zoya. Only babies go to sleep this early." Paul replied, making his small sister whine about her not being a baby.

I grinned, both of them were the cutest little things. "Oh, I don't think people who sleep at this hour are babies. As a matter of fact, I'm getting very sleepy as well, Zoya. Mostly because I know we'll need to save our energy for all the fun activities we'll do tomorrow."

Paul looked at me, intrigued. "Like what, Aunt Rose?"

Aunt Rose. My heart… "Well I was thinking we could go to the park and afterwards for some ice cream. So what do you think? Are you getting sleepy too?"

"Yes!" Paul exclaimed. "I think I'm getting sleepy too. Come on Zoya, let's go to sleep so that Aunt Rose will take us to the park tomorrow."

Karolina smiled and took both children to the guest bedroom they occupied every time they visited, everyone was ready to head to sleep when Dimitri's grandmother Yeva, pulled me to side of the corridor.

"Look child, I may be old but I am no fool. I don't exactly believe the story that my workaholic grandson got married out of blue, especially when I'd been pestering him to do it for years. I am not blaming you of lying to me, it's both of you who I'll be watching closely." She said before leaving me there, surprised.

Dimitri would not be happy about this, especially when he'd said he didn't want his mother or grandmother to figure out about us.

When I'd finally made into the master bedroom, I had found that Dimitri was still missing. Using that opportunity, I chose the right side of the bed and hogged the covers, trying to get a grip on the fact that this would be the first night Dimitri and I shared a bed. Shared a life. Shit.

It was the first day, and not even a whole day, and yet I felt bone tired. I missed my little apartment, my mother, and Lissa. I couldn't do it on my own. Hopefully, every day that passed would get easier and I could somehow find my place in this giant home and my place with the giant man that occupied it. It would be the only way to live.

At some point, I was so exhausted when I fell asleep, that I didn't even feel when Dimitri came into the room and took down the pillow fort I'd constructed earlier. So tired, in fact, that I didn't hear him say, "Have a goodnight, wife.", as he covered me with the blanket.

Bonus: Dimitri's POV :)

I was married. I thought as I twisted the ring on my finger.

Even for the reasons I did it, I never thought I'd get married. I didn't have the patience for any other women in my life besides my family, and that was already way too much for a man. But ever since I'd seen my father beat my mother, I knew that I would do anything in my hands to make sure they were taken cared of. And they were.

Since those tough days when we'd barely had anything to eat, I was the one that had taken the role of man of the house. Now that they were safe and cared for, I still had the same conviction, to always stride for more. That was how I'd gotten involved with Abe Mazur, he'd made me a business proposition that was way too convenient to pass up on. But with one condition—that I would marry his daughter.

At first, I was appalled. I had sisters after all, who could possibly in their right mind sell their daughter off to a stranger? So my immediate response was a definite, NO. I was sorry for the deal, but I wasn't going to tie myself down for money.

So I'd instantly gotten out of his office, when I'd heard the despicable voice of my biggest rival. Viktor Dashkov. So Abe, being the rat he was, he'd called Viktor after I'd just said no. He was offering the same condition that the man marry his daughter! I felt sick. Not only was Viktor a despicable business man but he was also a despicable human being.

How could someone do that to their own daughter? For money? Jesus.

"Nancy, is my father in his office?" said a female voice. Father's office? The only office on this floor was Abe's. As I turned to look around the pillar I was standing behind, I saw her. Abe's daughter. To say she was stunning, was the least.

"Yeah, Rose, but he said he was going to be busy all day and for no one to interrupt him." The receptionist answered her.

Rose…Roza…somehow after knowing her name it made her more real. My conscience couldn't let me leave. I had to do something.

"Thank you, Nancy," she said as she put her long hair behind her ear. "He kept pestering me to come see him about something important and now that I get a day off work he can't see me, tsk. Well, just tell him I came by and if he asks you call me, could you call me between 2 and 4, I'm already having enough trouble at my job as it is."

The receptionist smiled. "Sure thing, Rose. And I'm sorry for making you come here."

"It's okay, it's your job and my old man is a pain in the ass as my father, I can't imagine what it's like to work for him. Take care." Rose said as she grabbed her purse and left.

His daughter had to work for a living? The man was a fucking millionaire! I was absolutely livid now. As soon as Rose was out of the view, I walked back into the Mazur's office with his assistant trailing behind me, trying to stop me.

"I've thought things through, I'll accept your offer Mazur, and I'll throw a 25% extra if we finish this deal quicker."

His beady eyes, twinkled. "I'm not surprised, Belikov. This is a deal of a lifetime and I'm glad you've reconsidered. Welcome to the family, son." I'm pretty sure he was happy I'd reconsidered, since everyone knew how much of a bigger rat Viktor was. Mazur saw much more risk in being partners with Dashkov than with me. If he only knew… I was going to be the end of him. And his daughter would be safe.

Returning to the present, I stopped and looked at the clock. It was way too late, everyone should be sleeping by now. As I made my way back to my room—our room—I finally let myself think about her.

She was a spitfire at heart and I wanted to say that it annoyed me—but strangely, it didn't. It wasn't something I was going to say to her, since she didn't need to know, god help me if she did. I smiled. Maybe, she'd be good for me…

I opened the door and found her sleeping with her long hair fanned over her, as well as a pillow fort separating both sides of the bed, I laughed. This woman.

Removing the pillows, after along a long day I finally said the words I never thought I would. "Have a goodnight, wife."