Forced Bride for the Cold Bratva Banker
(2026)(The sixth book in the Rudenko Bratva series)
A novel by Maree Fox
𝐇𝐞 𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐦𝐲 𝐆𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐲... 𝐭𝐡������𝐧 𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐟𝐞.
I'm a virgin gallery owner.
He's Bratva. Twice my age. And he's owned my "success" from day one.
Every canvas I sold, every dollar I earned—laundered cash wearing my name.
I didn't know. He made sure of that.
Then HE stopped watching from the shadows.
Arseni Rudenko.
Six-foot-three of scar tissue, steel-grey eyes, zero patience for questions.
He corners me in my own studio. Paint still wet on my hands.
"You're a liability now, khudozhnitsa. So you're my wife."
Forced marriage. His mansion. His bed down the hall.
I hate how he fills a room just by breathing in it.
I hate more how my knees forget his name is a threat.
Then I learn what he really is.
Brutal with his enemies. Silent about everything else.
But his hands go soft exactly where I don't expect them to.
He doesn't do gentle.
He doesn't do promises.
He does restraint, right up until the moment he doesn't.
Someone offers me a way out.
A new name. Freedom. No Bratva. No him.
I burn it instead.
The second I choose him out loud, something in Arseni finally breaks—the thing he swore no one would ever touch again.
He was never built to keep anyone.
He's not letting me go.
For readers who love: ruthless Bratva enforcers, forced marriage heat, enemies-to-lovers slow burn, a virgin heroine claimed by a battle-scarred alpha, curvy heroine finally worshipped instead of overlooked, massive age gap, a morally gray hero undone by obsession, and a possessive man who chooses her over the empire he bled to build. HEA guaranteed.
Genre: Mystery
I'm a virgin gallery owner.
He's Bratva. Twice my age. And he's owned my "success" from day one.
Every canvas I sold, every dollar I earned—laundered cash wearing my name.
I didn't know. He made sure of that.
Then HE stopped watching from the shadows.
Arseni Rudenko.
Six-foot-three of scar tissue, steel-grey eyes, zero patience for questions.
He corners me in my own studio. Paint still wet on my hands.
"You're a liability now, khudozhnitsa. So you're my wife."
Forced marriage. His mansion. His bed down the hall.
I hate how he fills a room just by breathing in it.
I hate more how my knees forget his name is a threat.
Then I learn what he really is.
Brutal with his enemies. Silent about everything else.
But his hands go soft exactly where I don't expect them to.
He doesn't do gentle.
He doesn't do promises.
He does restraint, right up until the moment he doesn't.
Someone offers me a way out.
A new name. Freedom. No Bratva. No him.
I burn it instead.
The second I choose him out loud, something in Arseni finally breaks—the thing he swore no one would ever touch again.
He was never built to keep anyone.
He's not letting me go.
For readers who love: ruthless Bratva enforcers, forced marriage heat, enemies-to-lovers slow burn, a virgin heroine claimed by a battle-scarred alpha, curvy heroine finally worshipped instead of overlooked, massive age gap, a morally gray hero undone by obsession, and a possessive man who chooses her over the empire he bled to build. HEA guaranteed.
Genre: Mystery