Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 89090 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89090 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Vasily pffts me. “That wasn’t my conclusion last week. I could hear his shouts all the way in the foyer.”
Yet you were still in the foyer when I dashed down nine flights of stairs.
I snap my conniving mouth shut when Vas asks, “What was that?”
“I said…” It takes me a moment to finalize my reply. I’ve never been good at thinking on the spot. “I’m sad you have to go.” I stand, my feet magically no longer aching. “I’ll miss you.”
“Aww. I’ll miss you too, babe.” His kiss is sloppy, wet, and one hundred percent with too much tongue. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”
While fighting like hell not to wipe his spit from my face in front of him, I nod before opening the door for him. “I wouldn’t miss it. You can invite your father if you like. I haven’t seen him in weeks.”
My shoulders slump when he replies, “I would, but he’s out of town.”
I hide my disappointment by mustering a fake smile. “That’s a shame. See you tomorrow.”
After a final peck, I practically push him out the door.
It only stops rattling in the aftermath of my force when someone knocks on it.
As I yank it open, I say, “What did you forget this time, Vas?”
I chew on my words when they gargle in my throat.
Vasily isn’t standing on the other side of the door.
Yev is.
He didn’t miss the short name in my question. His expression announces this, not to mention his balled hands. “Are you busy?” He doesn’t give me a chance to answer. “I won’t keep you long. I just wanted you to know that the man who groped you tonight has been taken care of. He didn’t know who you were, but he won’t make the same mistake twice.”
Anyone who didn’t have Alek Kotova as a brother would be confused by his response.
I’m not.
“He didn’t hurt me. He barely touched me.”
I scoff out a brittle laugh when he replies, “That doesn’t matter. He touched what he shouldn’t have, so he must be punished.”
He stops galloping down the stairs that side my boutique when I ask, “Is that why you yelled at me last week? Did I touch what’s no longer mine?”
This building replicates many in Europe—shops on the lower levels and homes on the top. My loft is airy but homely. It has a bathtub, and one-third of the floor plan is above a bakery, so not only do I smell fresh bread every day, but it also keeps my heat bill low since hot air rises.
I also love the fact that an emergency generator backs up the power source if it were to fail.
No blackouts for me.
I had wondered last week if alcohol was Yev’s only crutch. I don’t have to ponder anymore when he drags his hand under his nose while twisting to face me. The insides of his nostrils are sprinkled with a white powder I’m all too familiar with. Cocaine is Vasily’s favorite nighttime entertainment.
“I didn’t yell at you.”
He stares at me deadpan when I reply, “Yeah, you did.” I fold my arms under my chest, which forces his eyes to my breasts for the quickest second before they return to my face. The lust in them slackens the battering my ego endured a week ago, but it doesn’t wholly end it. “Why did you stop me?”
Yev licks his lips before giving honesty a whirl. It is a nice thing to hear after denying it to anyone for months on end. I’ve not even been truthful with Alek. “Because I don’t want you to fix me. It’s not your job.”
“Even with you believing my family is responsible for what happened to Feo?”
Confusion mars his handsome face. “What?”
“Vas said—”
“Vas is a fucking idiot who doesn’t know what he’s talking about. And the fact he’s still in the picture after he hit you last week proves Alek has no clue you’re messing the sheets with him.”
“I’m not messing the sheets with him.” It feels like he stabs my chest with a knife when he brushes off my reply with a pfft, but I keep my expression neutral and my anger high. It may be the only way I won’t succumb to the numerous pleas of my heart to tell him the truth.
I wouldn’t hesitate if I believed he could handle it. Since he can’t, I continue with my ruse that everyone is my enemy. “And Alek has no say on who I date. I thought you’d know that better than anyone. Or was the whole ‘I want to tell him’ merely a ploy to get into my panties?”
When my frustration that I want him to be the bad guy to lessen my guilt gets the better of me, I storm into my living room.
After slamming my front door shut behind him, Yev follows me. “If I needed a ploy to get into your panties, Polly, I sure as fuck wouldn’t use your brother.”