“I will!”
“You better.” She rolls into me. “We should spend some holidays with Nikolai.”
“We don’t?—”
“Da.”
“No.”
“Da. We do! He’s your family and some kind of bizarre Lyanov doppelgänger.”
“I’ll kill Misha.”
“You can’t kill a guest at our table.”
“Just watch me.”
“Don’t you think it’s strange?”
“Of course I do! It’s bizarre as hell and it’s probably why I give him so much shit!”
Her tongue peeps out as she wets her lips. “What did he do?”
“What do you mean?”
“Neither of you outright said it, but I know you were hiding it. How did heprotect you?”
“By doing what no boy should have to do.” I watch the knowledge blossom in her eyes and heartache replace it. “You can’t say anything.”
“As if I would! What do you take me for!”
“A nosy do-gooder who wants to make the impossible better.”
“Did you say something?” she demands sweetly.
“Nyet, dorogoya.”
Her expression softens. “Why do you want me so much, Maxim?” Her fingers dance over my chin. “I see it all the time. The power you give me… I think you give that power to few?—”
“Nobody,” I correct.
“Why? I’m just a woman who?—”
“You’re not just anything, Victoria. You are a promise and a dream come to life.”
Her eyes narrow. “What if I fall off that pedestal you put me on?”
“I’ll catch you.”
“Pedestals aren’t comfortable.”
“I’ll cushion yours.”
“With?”
“Down-feathered silk cushions.”
Her lips twitch. “And if I prefer memory foam?”
