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Book: Tamed: A Kinky Adult Fairy Tale (Bedding the Bad Girl Book 2) by Callie Wild
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Authors: Callie Wild
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distance.
Could he build a family with a woman like Kat? Could he deal with his children being known as the ex-con’s kids? It would be bad enough being the offspring of a seedy strip club owner, but having a seedy strip club owner and a would-be murderess for parents would doom his kids from the cradle.
It was the kind of stuff that could ruin a person’s life before they even got started.
He ought to know. He’d gone through hell trying to fix his parents’ mistakes, finally choosing to immigrate when he couldn’t break free of the mob life he had been born into. It had been hard those first years, but he had succeeded, and built his own empire here in sprawling Kingdom City. Sergei Sokolnokov came from a long line of losers and hustlers, but he’d made something of himself within the confines of the law.
Was he willing to risk all of that for a woman, even a woman he loved more than any other he could remember? Was he willing to jeopardize his own security, the very thing he’d worked so hard to achieve, in order to make a life with someone he wasn’t sure he could trust?
Was he willing to gamble the welfare of his future children?
No. He wasn’t.
He had to end things with Kat; even if telling her goodbye would tear him up inside.
He hugged her warm, sleeping body closer, fighting back the lump in his throat. Giving Kat up would leave him less of a person than he’d been before she came into his life. It would break his heart. But he would survive.
That’s what Sergei did. He survived.
It was all he knew how to do, for better or for worse.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Two weeks later
Kat
Kat struggled to hold on to her signature smile—the calm yet excited, earnest yet playful, competitive yet good sportsmanlike grin that had made her one of the final two contestants on Real-Life Rules to Catch a King .
She had a chance of winning, but the victory would be a hollow one.
Who cared about winning a stupid reality show when you were nursing your second broken heart?
“All right, Kingdom City, the moment you’ve been waiting for is only seconds away. Who will be declared the new Queen of reality television? Who will walk away with the million-dollar grand prize, and maybe even a proposal from one of our eligible judges? Find out when we return for the thrilling finale of Real-Life Rules to Catch a King !”
Kat sighed. Geez, the host was annoying.
It made her want to throw up—preferably on reality show stooge, Brian Withers—but she managed to restrain herself. It was almost over. The votes were tallied. All that remained was the final announcement of the “big winner.” Surely they would get around to that after this last commercial break.
The producers had drawn out the season finale for two hours already. Kat and her opponent, Maria del Gato, were on a stage in front of a studio audience of thousands, forcing smiles while the season was recapped in tedious detail on a big screen behind them.
Kat watched herself win eight out of the ten challenges, indifferent to the fact that she’d worked so hard for nothing. Normally it would have infuriated her, but she couldn’t seem to care. She shouldn’t have been surprised, really. The producers had said there would be a twist.
What a twist. It was so uninspired it was laughable.
In the end, the outcome of the show had come down to your basic popularity contest. The producers had allowed the show’s viewers to call in and vote for which of the women they thought deserved to win, even if that woman had already been dropped from the competition in an earlier episode.
Maria del Gato—a sweet woman widowed at twenty-five with three children—was chosen as contestant number one. It didn’t surprise Kat. Hell, she would have picked Maria to win if she had known it would be a matter of public opinion. Maria was a great lady, a kind person, and a kick-ass mom. She deserved a break.
What did surprise Kat, was that she herself—Katarina, the would-be
Could he build a family with a woman like Kat? Could he deal with his children being known as the ex-con’s kids? It would be bad enough being the offspring of a seedy strip club owner, but having a seedy strip club owner and a would-be murderess for parents would doom his kids from the cradle.
It was the kind of stuff that could ruin a person’s life before they even got started.
He ought to know. He’d gone through hell trying to fix his parents’ mistakes, finally choosing to immigrate when he couldn’t break free of the mob life he had been born into. It had been hard those first years, but he had succeeded, and built his own empire here in sprawling Kingdom City. Sergei Sokolnokov came from a long line of losers and hustlers, but he’d made something of himself within the confines of the law.
Was he willing to risk all of that for a woman, even a woman he loved more than any other he could remember? Was he willing to jeopardize his own security, the very thing he’d worked so hard to achieve, in order to make a life with someone he wasn’t sure he could trust?
Was he willing to gamble the welfare of his future children?
No. He wasn’t.
He had to end things with Kat; even if telling her goodbye would tear him up inside.
He hugged her warm, sleeping body closer, fighting back the lump in his throat. Giving Kat up would leave him less of a person than he’d been before she came into his life. It would break his heart. But he would survive.
That’s what Sergei did. He survived.
It was all he knew how to do, for better or for worse.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Two weeks later
Kat
Kat struggled to hold on to her signature smile—the calm yet excited, earnest yet playful, competitive yet good sportsmanlike grin that had made her one of the final two contestants on Real-Life Rules to Catch a King .
She had a chance of winning, but the victory would be a hollow one.
Who cared about winning a stupid reality show when you were nursing your second broken heart?
“All right, Kingdom City, the moment you’ve been waiting for is only seconds away. Who will be declared the new Queen of reality television? Who will walk away with the million-dollar grand prize, and maybe even a proposal from one of our eligible judges? Find out when we return for the thrilling finale of Real-Life Rules to Catch a King !”
Kat sighed. Geez, the host was annoying.
It made her want to throw up—preferably on reality show stooge, Brian Withers—but she managed to restrain herself. It was almost over. The votes were tallied. All that remained was the final announcement of the “big winner.” Surely they would get around to that after this last commercial break.
The producers had drawn out the season finale for two hours already. Kat and her opponent, Maria del Gato, were on a stage in front of a studio audience of thousands, forcing smiles while the season was recapped in tedious detail on a big screen behind them.
Kat watched herself win eight out of the ten challenges, indifferent to the fact that she’d worked so hard for nothing. Normally it would have infuriated her, but she couldn’t seem to care. She shouldn’t have been surprised, really. The producers had said there would be a twist.
What a twist. It was so uninspired it was laughable.
In the end, the outcome of the show had come down to your basic popularity contest. The producers had allowed the show’s viewers to call in and vote for which of the women they thought deserved to win, even if that woman had already been dropped from the competition in an earlier episode.
Maria del Gato—a sweet woman widowed at twenty-five with three children—was chosen as contestant number one. It didn’t surprise Kat. Hell, she would have picked Maria to win if she had known it would be a matter of public opinion. Maria was a great lady, a kind person, and a kick-ass mom. She deserved a break.
What did surprise Kat, was that she herself—Katarina, the would-be
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