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Poor guy often learned the hard way.
“Are you decent?” he asked just outside my bedroom door.
I had already said, “Yes,” but when he opened and walked in, he peered to the spot under me and stilled.
“Am I interrupting?”
What?
My brow bunched in confusion. “No.”
Almost immediately, my brother’s body language loosened and went back to normal as he strode in and muttered, “Good. Nice to see you, Viktor.” My eyes widened comically, and it all came flooding back. “I take it from the state of your face that you had a good reason to blow off work last night.”
My stomach pitched. I stared flatly at my headboard as a large pair of hands moved to my hips, fingers flexing in a gentle caress.
“Something like that” was all he rumbled, and when my eyes snapped to his, wide and alarmed, he smirked through the cut on his lip and winked.
Winked.
“Oh God,” I muttered as my brow dipped, rolling off him. When I glared at him, his lip twitched. “You could have said something,” I bit out as he rolled onto his side, resting his head on a fist, grinning at me. I stalked into my closet to retrieve my kimono and wrapped it around me, tying it tightly around my waist. On the defensive, I looked up at Lev and swore, “We didn’t have sex, okay?”
Lev’s brow pulled down. “I don’t remember asking.”
Hadn’t he?
Oh. No, he hadn’t.
Embarrassed, I ignored the flush of my cheeks and stomped into my bathroom, came back holding a pile of his clothes, and threw them at the cocky man in my bed. The leg of his jeans dangled over his head. “You need to leave.”
I said it in a way that should have slighted, but Vik was not offended. Instead, he quietly pushed away his dirty clothes, stretched lazily, then spoke through a yawn, “Yeah, I probably should go home and let Anika tear me a new asshole.”
Listen to this guy, talking about his sweet sister like she was an inconvenience. I suddenly had the urge to stick up for her. “You deserve it.”
“She was very upset,” Lev confirmed with a tilt of his head.
“And from the way Sasha gave it to her,” I added without a thought, “she is well within her rights to take it out on you.”
Vik sat up, then blinked, and very, very slowly, he said, “Sasha yelled at her?”
Uh oh.
Should I not have said that?
I probably shouldn’t have said that.
“She refused to tell him where you were,” Lev offered. “He did not like that.”
Vik’s mouth thinned into a single line. “That’s 'cause she didn’t know.”
“Yes. She told him as much,” uttered Lev, bored-like. “It was clear he didn’t believe her.”
I didn’t know who Vik was pissed at—Sasha, Anika, or himself. For that reason, I posed a roundabout, “This is what happens when you go AWOL. The people who care about you worry. We tried to call you.” Then quietly, “I tried to call you.”
“My phone’s busted.” Vik frowned as he thought about what I said before he rolled out of bed, gathered his things, and muttered, “I gotta go.”
Vik dug through the pile of clothes and pulled on a black tee. It had turned stiff in the places where blood dripped from his face, but it wasn’t overly noticeable. He stuck on his shoes, picked up his stuff, and left without a backward glance. And my brow lowered. When I heard the front door open then shut, I frowned. The moment the engine started, I rushed over to the window, pulled back the curtain, and watched him drive away, with a rounded mouth that released an incredulous, “Not even a thank you. Nice.”
“Nastasia,” Lev said as I continued to gape into the distance, “put something on. Breakfast will be getting cold.”
A sigh escaped me as I turned, walked into my closet, and dressed in jeans and a sweater as Lev waited at the foot of the stairs. Sliding into my fluffy slippers, my brother held the door for me as I made my way outside.
A sudden thought had my brow marring.
The walk, although brief, gave me time to ask, “Lev, do you think I’m smart?”
No hesitation. “I do.”
But I could tell he hadn’t grasped what I meant. It was hard to explain to somebody like Lev, but I tried. “Not smart, but smart. Like, intelligent, you know?” Lev wore his confusion openly. I quietly muttered, “Never mind.”
There was a fleeting pause before my brother said, “Perhaps if you tell me the answer you seek, I can help you reach it.”
I thought about how best to describe it. “It’s just that I look at you, and I know you’re smart. I see what Sasha has done with Bleeding Hearts, and even though he’s an ass, I know he’s smart. But me? I don’t know what people think when they see me, but I don’t think it’s ‘hey, that girl knows a thing or two.’”
