“Yet here you are.”
I glance at the beds, the desserts, his open collar, the mouth that has been on mine and other places my body is still remembering in heated flashes. “Yes,” I say. “Here I am.”
For a few seconds, neither of us speaks.
Then he asks, “And you?”
I know what he means, but I buy myself time with another sip of water. “Me?”
“Why Moscow?”
The question should be simple. It’s not.
I look down at the plate in my lap. My appetite dims around the edges.
How much can I tell him?
The last thing I need is for him to hear Markov and start asking the kind of questions men like him probably know how to ask. Worse, he might recognize it. If he realizes I’m not only a runaway bride but the daughter of a mafia boss, he will look at me differently.
Or he will walk away.
I’m not ready to find out.
So I choose the version of the truth that’s safe enough to hand over.
“I was supposed to come with someone,” I say.
Roman does not move, but his attention deepens. “A fiancé?” The word lands badly.
“Yes.”
“And now you’re not.”
“No.”
“What happened?”
I laugh without humor. “He decided my stepsister was a better option.”
Roman’s face goes very still.
It should alarm me, how quickly the warmth drains from him. He does not look shocked. He looks...cold. As if somewhere inside him, a door has opened onto winter.
Then he says, very calmly, “The man is a fool.”
It’s not dramatic. It’s not said to flatter me. He says it like he’s stating the weather or naming something obvious that everyone else in the room has been too polite to mention.
I let out a small laugh. “You don’t know him.”
“I know he had you.” His eyes meet mine. “And yet decided to look elsewhere.”
Heat rises into my face before I can stop it. It’s ridiculous after what we have just done, after the way he touched me, after the way I let him, but somehow this feels more intimate. More dangerous. He’s not looking at my body now. He’s looking at the part of me that still feels discarded.
I look away first. “He would say it was complicated.”
“Men like him always do.”
“You sound very sure.”
