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“It’s nothing. It happens sometimes.”
He takes my elbow. “Come sit down.”
“No. I don’t want to stain the carpet.”
“Fuck the carpet.” He leads me to the table and pushes me down in a chair. “Do you need ice or something?’
“No. It’ll stop in a minute.”
“You say it like it happens a lot.”
“Sometimes,” I say again.
He takes his phone from his pocket. “I’m calling Yan.”
“No.” I grab his arm.
At the urgency in my tone, he gives me a quick look.
“I don’t want to worry him for nothing,” I explain.
“It’s not nothing.”
“It’s a nosebleed. It’s not like a part of my face has been amputated.”
He appears uncertain.
“I don’t want to bother him,” I insist. “It’s a silly thing.”
“None of the times my nose bled was silly.”
I smile from behind the fumbled kitchen towel. “Because you got hit on the nose?”
“More or less.”
“I’m sorry Yan hit you because of me.”
He sighs and rubs his neck. “Yan’s right. You should stop apologizing.”
“I just want you to know I mean it. If I had a choice—”
“Bullshit. You only had to ask. Yan would’ve taken you to see your grandmother.”
“Do you believe yourself?” The dripping stops. I wipe my nose and stare at Ilya’s bruised face. “I’m not his girlfriend. This isn’t how it works between us.”
“He’s different with you.”
“So you’ve said, but it doesn’t change what we are. Besides, do you honestly think I want my grandmother to meet him?”
He grins. “He’s not so bad, you know.”
“Maybe you should tell him that sometime.”
“Oh, he knows it. He doesn’t need a bigger head than what he already has.” Ilya ducks his head for a better look at my nose and frowns. “You better rinse that with cold water.”
I get to my feet, but he holds me back with a hand on my arm. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
My smile is the one I use when I assume a persona. “Absolutely.”
“You’d tell me, right?”
“Tell you what?”
“If something was wrong.”
Shit. I don’t want to lie to him more than I already have. I like him. Really like him. If not for this situation, I think we could’ve been friends. Maybe even despite the situation. God knows, I could do with a friend, especially now that Gergo is out of the picture. He used to be my go-to when I needed a shoulder.
“Mina?” Ilya stares at me, his rough features pulled into a suspicious expression.
“I’m okay now.”
His frown says he disagrees. “Why don’t you go wash your face? I’ll make you a cup of tea.”
I smile at his kindness. “That’s sweet, but not necessary.”
“I’m having a cup anyway. It’s no trouble.”
In an impulsive gesture of gratitude, I throw my arms around him and give him a hug. “You’re a teddy bear, you know that?”
He splays his fingers over my lower back. “If you change your mind about us…”
“Hey.” I move his wandering hand away. “We already had this discussion, remember?”
“I can be more than cute and cuddly.”
I grin up at him. “I don’t doubt that.”
“If you give me a chance—” He stops at the sound of a key being inserted into the front door.
I pull away and whisper urgently, “Don’t tell him. Please. He’ll fuss over nothing.”
Ilya’s look is conflicted.
“Please, Ilya.”
He gives a tight nod.
By the time the door opens, I’m already escaping to Yan’s bathroom. He walks in as I’m drying my face on a towel. Our eyes meet in the mirror.
“What’s going on, Mina?”
“Nothing.” I turn, gripping the vanity behind me. “Why?”
He closes the distance, staring down at my face as he stops in front of me. “Why were you standing so close to Ilya? When I opened the door, you shot like a bullet from a barrel. Why were you running?”
“I wasn’t running.”
“He touched you.”
“I hugged him.”
“You hugged him.” The words are dangerously even.
I have to diffuse the situation before it ends in another fight. “Not every touch is sexual. Hugs can be platonic.”
“Explain to me why you had to hug him.”
“Yan,” I say with a huff of frustration, trying to move around him.
Grabbing my face in one big hand, he holds me in place. “Why did you have to hug him?”
“He offered to make me a cup of tea.”
“A cup of tea.”
“That’s what I said.”
“That warrants a fucking hug?”
“He’s your brother. Don’t you ever hug?”
He narrows his eyes. “Not each other.”
“Only the women you share?”
“We’re not back on that subject.”
“You started it.”
A smoldering look invades his eyes. They turn a shade darker as his gaze runs over me. “You don’t hug him for anything, do you hear me? Not even if he offers you a diamond necklace. In fact, you don’t take anything from him either.”
I blow out a frustrated breath. “Stop it. You’re overreacting.”
His jaw flexes. “You want tea?”
I shake my head meekly in his hold. “No.”
“I’ll make you a fucking cup of tea.”
“Yan, please.”
