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“It’s not a regular thing. You know me. We’re just talking.”

I tried to deny it, but I wasn’t fooling anyone. Matteo raised his eyebrows, showing his disbelief.

“If you say so,” he said with a smirk.

“It doesn’t matter how you want to classify us. Just knowing what I know about Krystina, she won’t drop it. My parents will come into question again, of that I’m sure. It complicates things because of Justine. I literally just diffused one situation. The last thing I need is another. It’s my job to protect her.”

“You can’t always be there to shield Justine from her monsters,” Matteo said sympathetically. He knew my sister and was one of the very few who knew about our past. But despite his knowledge, he would never fully get it because he hadn’t lived it. I shook my head in frustration.

“They are our monsters, Matt. You know that almost as well as I do. I’m just better at facing them than Justine is.”

Matteo nodded.

“It looks like you have some decisions to make, so let me offer you another piece of advice. I think Krystina may be more innocent than you want to admit, but she doesn’t seem gullible. Secrets never stay hidden forever. If you want to make a go with her, you shouldn’t tempt the Fates.”

I smiled wryly at my friend, the irony of his words like a bitter pill I had been forced to swallow.

The Fates.

Those fickle bitches had never looked favorably on me. I had learned early on to control my destiny and use my gut to point me in the right direction. It had yet to fail me, which was why I was facing the current predicament.

My instinct told me I shouldn’t want someone like Krystina Cole. I was not the right man for her. Yet, what I shouldn’t want and what I did had become two very different things.

Chapter Fourteen

Krystina

When I arrived back at my apartment after dinner with Alexander, I found Allyson alone on the couch with a bowl of popcorn and a glass of wine. The television was off, and the only light came from the kitchen. This was not a good sign. I kicked my shoes off into the corner of the front entryway and moved into the living room.

“Hey, where’s Jeremy?” I asked casually, trying to assess how bad the situation was.

“He left a little while ago.”

“Oh. I thought you two were going to see a movie.”

“We were. Until Jeremy turned into a chauvinistic pig,” she spat out.

“You guys seemed to be having a good time when I left. What did he do?”

“It’s not what he did—it’s what he said. We got talking about you being out with Stone tonight. Jeremy thinks it’s a good thing you found a financially stable man. A man like him would be able to take care of you properly. Apparently, he thinks women should stay home and take care of the house,” she finished with a scowl.

Yikes.

Rule number one—don’t ever insult women’s rights in front of Allyson. Sometimes I swore she was a direct descendant of Susan B. Anthony. Not that I agreed with what Jeremy had said, but I sort of felt bad for the guy. Allyson easily riled when it came to this sort of thing. I could only imagine what she had said once her temper unleashed.

“Did you let him have it?” I said with a cringe.

“I yelled something along the lines of not being the barefoot and pregnant type and asked him to leave. So, he did,” she finished.

“And that’s it?”

“I may have had a few other choice words for him.”

“Oh, Ally. Are you okay?”

“I’ll be fine. It’s better his opinions came out sooner rather than later. For now, distract me. I want to hear about your date with Stone.”

“It wasn’t a date. It was a meeting,” I told her, deliberately emphasizing the last word.