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“Damn, Xan. Say what you will about your baby mama, but that woman is seriously beautiful.”
I don’t even turn to glare at him for what he called her. I’m too busy staring. She’s in a long, flowing dress made with shimmering blue fabric and adorned with delicate lace and sparkling sequins. There’s a long slit on the side of the dress, reaching up to her mid-thigh. The dress is also sleeveless showing a large expanse of beautiful golden skin and as she gets even closer, my eyes linger on her cleavage before going back up to her lightly made up face.
When she arrives beside the car, her gaze goes to Graham first. She turns to me, eyebrows raised, brown eyes flaring. I’m a little tongue tied so Graham speaks up.
“Hey, Katerina. How have you been?”
She stares at him through narrowed eyes before looking back at me. With her fierce gaze on me, I clear my throat, finally finding my words.
“There’s a slight change in plans,” I inform her. “Graham’s coming along with us.”
She look unamused. “You can’t just change the plan like that without informing me.”
“There wasn’t any time to do that. He won’t cause any trouble, I promise. He’s going to help.”
Or at least I hope he is. Graham could very well be working his own agenda this evening but I don’t have the time to think about that. Katerina sighs.
“Not like I can do anything about that now,” she says, opening the door.
“Please, dial down the enthusiasm,” Graham says sarcastically. “But you look gorgeous, Katerina. Five years and you haven’t changed a bit.”
My eyebrows nearly hit my hairline with that statement. I whirl around to face my brother.
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
The last time he saw her should have been about ten years ago when we broke up. Graham smiles, but he doesn’t reply. When I look at Katerina, her hand is on her head as she stares straight forward.
“Can we just go? Now’s not the time to talk about this,” she mutters.
I look at the both of them again, feeling my jaw clenched. Still I start the car, driving us in the direction of the gala. We go over the plan one more time on the way. Just before we arrive, I look at Katerina once more.
“You look beautiful,” I manage to say. “But did you forget we’re supposed to be blending in?”
We agreed we couldn’t afford to draw any attention to ourselves. It’s why Graham and I are in simple black suits. Plus, we also have roles to play.
Her gaze meets mine, “This is me blending in. It would look weird if I wasn’t in an ostentatious outfit.”
She has a point. Anyone that knows her know she likes dressing up. It’s one weird thing about her. You’d think a girl in her world, wouldn’t care too much about stuff like that. But Katerina’s always loved fashion. When we dated, I can’t count the number of runway shows she dragged me to. I met her sister at one of those.
“Fine. We’re one minute away. Masks on,” I tell both of them.
My mask is lying on the console beside me. I grab it one handed before fitting it onto my face. It’s a simple mask, black and gold with sharp angles, only covering my eyes and nose. I manage to tie it at the back. When I look back at my companions, they’ve worn their masks as well.
Grahams’ mask is longer, covering most of his face with feathers and vibrant colors. I roll my eyes at the sight. Of course he picked something like that. I swear neither of them understands the term blending in. Katerina’s mask is blue to match her dress with an elegant filigree design and intricate tiny crystals adorning it.
We are definitely drawing attention as soon as we walk through the doors of that party. We all step out after parking with Graham immediately going to Katerina’s side. He offers her his arm and after a moment’s hesitation, she loops her hand through it. My jaw grinds at the sight. I follow them both as we head to the entrance.
We’re stopped for identification. Katerina pulls out a gold emblazoned enveloped with the words VIP written at the top. The guard’s eyes flick from her to Graham and I.
“They’re my bodyguards,” she informs them, her tone ringing with authority.
That seems to be enough for them because they step back allowing us to walk in. I roll my eyes as soon as we’re out of sight.
“They need to hire a better security company,” I mutter, because a part of me was sure as hell they’d at least require us to remove our masks before entry.
“I’m a Mincetti,” Katerina says, replying to my statement. “They were never going to question me for too long.”
Graham speaks up then, “Remember when your last name used to be Petrov? Fun times,” he grins.
