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“Just like you try to handle my life?”
He snorted into his drink. “Are we back to this again? I already told you I wouldn’t allow you to make an ass of yourself at a party.”
I bit the inside of my cheek, trying to keep from losing my temper. It seemed he thrived on pissing me off. I spread my hands over my thighs, giving myself a moment to speak calmly. “Does your handling of me extend to threatening guys at school to ignore me, as well?”
If he was surprised by my question, he didn’t show it. Instead, he almost had a smug look. “Why would you think I’d do something like that?”
“Because your track record seems to be consistent.” I absently traced a finger up and down my skin, trying to keep my voice level. “Jared told me you did.”
This time. his hollow laugh raked against my nerves. “Jared has his own agenda. And, by the way, he’s a pussy. Go to bed, Sorina. This conversation is over.”
“Whatever. Have you always been like this?”
He tapped the rim of his glass, leaning his chin on his other hand. “Like what?”
“Arrogant.”
His teeth scraped his bottom lip. “Call it arrogance if you want.” He blinked slowly. “You have to be a lion if you want to be king of the jungle,zaychik.”
Of course, he would say something like that. He was too prideful, too overbearing, and, unfortunately, too handsome for words. It wasn’t fair. I said softly, “Daca eu sunt iepurele atunci tu esti leul idiot.”
“Speak English. I can’t understand your heathen language,” he deadpanned with a twitch of his mouth. I rolled my head in frustration, not realizing I’d slipped into my native tongue again.
I breathed in, as if I were meditating, because I wanted to do something to him that wouldn’t be peaceful in nature. “In your delusional world, you may think you’re a lion, but if you are, you’re only a foolish one.”
“And why would that be?” He grinned like he thought I was here to serve as comic relief. “Why is the lion foolish? He’s at the top of the food chain, unlike you, little bunny.”
I rolled my eyes, tamping down the humor of his comment. “Have you ever heard the tale of the lion and the rabbit?”
“No.” He poured more vodka into the glass. “But I presume you will tell me.” His response sounded less-than-zero percent interested.
“Believe me, I will tell you. Try to keep up.” I gave him a look that said he was not the sharpest knife in the drawer before I began. “One day, there was a very hungry lion who came across a rabbit and was about to make it his dinner. However, the rabbit convinced him there was another lion in the area who was hunting down all the food that should’ve been his. So, the lion was furious and wanted to find this other lion—”
“Can I have the condensed version?” he asked drolly.
“Seriously?” The desire to toss his drink in his face was strong, but I resisted the urge and continued. “In the end, the rabbit says he will take him to that lion, and he leads him to a well and tells him the other lion is inside. The lion looks down the well, sees his own reflection, thinking it’s the other lion. So confidant he was going to defeat that lion, he dives into the well to attack him and eventually drowns.”
He stared at me in disinterest before he snorted. “That’s the most idiotic story I’ve ever heard. Not to mention anticlimactic.”
I crossed my legs and sat up straighter. “Then, you’re not as smart as you think if you missed the lesson in this tale.”
“Oh, is that what you were doing? Teaching me a lesson?” He watched me in silence as he toyed with the edge of his glass. “You are amusing,zaychik.” I held his stare, feeling like I was the flailing rabbit trapped by the fierce lion who played with his food before snapping the poor bunny’s neck. His eyes scanned over my thin sleep shirt. “It would’ve been much more entertaining to hear your lesson about the pitfalls of pride while wearing your sexy rabbit costume. Definitely more entertaining for me, at least, since I knew you specifically picked it out for me.” He chucked back the remainder of his vodka.The jerk. The man at least understood the story. I should’ve been impressed, but the bar wasn’t set that high.And he said I was amusing.
“It is one of the seven deadly sins, you know.”
“What? Pride? Such a cliché, much like your story.”
“And yet, so true.”
“I’m certain lying is up there, too,” he countered, leveling me with a dead stare. “And you seem to be very good at that.”
“Watch it,” I warned softly, pointing to the glass. “Keep going like that and you will feel sick in the morning.” I could only hope he’d have a massive hangover tomorrow although I’d never seen him suffer from the effects of alcohol after he’d been out all night. Life wasn’t fair.
He scoffed. “I’m Russian. Consuming vodka is like drinking my mother’s milk.”
“You are not in Russia anymore, Dorothy.” I leaned over and took the glass from his hand, raising it to my lips. There were only the remnants of strong alcohol, and I caught a piece of semi-melted ice between my teeth, crunching it without a care as I slammed the glass down on the table.
“Actually.” He leaned in, gripping my hand around the empty glass. “I think I would’ve liked the story better if you told me the lion ate the rabbit.”
