Total pages in book: 187
Estimated words: 177397 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 887(@200wpm)___ 710(@250wpm)___ 591(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 177397 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 887(@200wpm)___ 710(@250wpm)___ 591(@300wpm)
Nikita sounds as confused as I feel. “Zoya just said I had already decided before either of you had returned to our suite. But now you’re saying you helped cook up a scheme that would have me believing marrying a stranger was a good idea?”
“No, that isn’t what happened,” I jump in, trying to save Aleena before she’s trampled by Nikita’s lie detector machine. “She… I…” I’ve got nothing, so I thrust a takeaway cup of coffee toward her. “I brought you coffee.”
When Nikita accepts it, she has a Janet Jackson Super Bowl moment.
“Shit. Sorry,” she apologizes.
I already knew Maksim was a good fit for Nikita, hence me colluding with Aleena to get them together, but his low growl of disapproval seals the deal.
“You loathe that too?” I backhand his chest like we’re lifelong friends. “Aleena is right. You are a perfect match.”
“Z!” Nikita shouts.
“What? Don’t act like you can’t feel the sparks. You’ve been panting like a dog in heat since we got here.”
“And you thought he was married, so you should have muzzled my mouth.”
When Maksim glares at me like it isn’t Nikita’s mouth that needs muzzling around married men, I shift his focus to the cause of Nikita’s outburst. “The blonde.”
“Slatvena?” Maksim asks, forcing heat to creep across Nikita’s cheeks from the provocative way he says her name. “She is my assistant.” He sounds more humored than frustrated while adding, “She also wasn’t forced to attend yesterday’s festivities. She was there for the same reason every other spectator was.”
“For charity,” Nikita assumes, always a goody two-shoes.
Maksim laughs before putting Nikita out of her misery. “She went to enjoy the view.”
“Oh…”
With Nikita still lost, I give the international sign for scissor sisters. Her eyes don’t veer lower than my face, but she gets the idea. “Oh… Then why not marry her?”
Aleena jumps back into our conversation. “It needs to look authentic.” Her nose screws up like a rabbit. “If it doesn’t appear legitimate, the inheritance will be voided.” Either out of excuses or desperate to wipe the suspicion from my eyes that she appears too adapt in marriages of convenience for me to let slide, she hooks her thumb to the door. “We should probably go. This is a private matter. We don’t want to intrude.”
I almost shake my head until I see the wish for privacy spreading across Maksim’s face. I hardly know him, but I trust that he has Nikita’s best interests at heart, so I change my shake to a head bob.
When I hug Nikita, she whispers, “If you leave me now, I’ll disown you for life.”
“He won’t hurt you, Keet. He only wants to help you.”
Although I’d sell a kidney to stay and support her through this, Aleena’s quick exodus leaves me no choice but to squirm out of her hold and race out of the room, hot on Aleena’s tail.
“Leaving again so soon?” I murmur when I notice her heading for the main exit door of the suite, slowing her steps. “I thought we had plans today?”
Her shoulders rise and fall three times before she spins to face me. “We do. I just thought I should wait for you down there.”
There could be anywhere, but she doesn’t extend her reply even with my expression showing my confusion.
“Is everything okay?” I thought we made good headway in our relationship yesterday, though now it seems as if we’re back to square one. Since I think I know the cause of that, I ask, “You seemed pretty knowledgeable in arranged marriages in there.” I nudge my head to Nikita’s room. “Is that for any particular reason?”
She looks panicked and then relieved. “No. Of course not.” My squashed heart gets a moment of reprieve when she steps closer. “I was coming to collect my phone. When I overheard Nikita’s panic, I thought a little bit of spit and polish wouldn’t hurt anyone. Maksim will be good for her, so I want her to give him a chance. If that needs an occasional lie to happen, I’m okay with that.”
“He will be good for her,” I agree, “but it doesn’t explain how you knew what ruse to run with.”
She exhales deeply before gesturing for us to move our conversation to the living room. I wait for her to sit first before sitting across from her. I’m better at reading people when I can see them head-on.
It seems like forever before she speaks. “This isn’t my first engagement.”
I nod, recalling her saying last night that Bayli had asked for her hand in marriage.
I’m knocked back when she says, “I was engaged last year. The terms were similar to the ones I just stated.” Her eyes fall to her hands knotted around her skirt. “The groom called off the wedding the night before.” I want to pop my knee into the groin of every man who has ever hurt her when her voice cracks. “He had fallen in love with someone else. She was pregnant and his family would never allow him to have a child out of wedlock, so she took my place at the end of the altar.”