Page 114 of Sinful Promise

“If there’s something I should know about, Danil, I suggest you just come clean.”

“I’m sure there’s a lot of things you should know that you don’t, Dimitri. But my love life sure as hell isn’t one of them.”

25

EMILY

Danil is pickingme up for our date in an hour, and I’m nervous.

I didn’t think I would be, considering we’ve pretty much done every other step that comes after a first date, like sex and meeting the family, but tonight is different. It feels as if we’re making our relationship official, which is terrifying. But not because I’m afraid of committing to Danil. Far from it.

It’s more because of the fact that I feel like I now have so much more to lose.

I’ve dreamed about this moment for so long. I’ve had a taste of what it’s like to be with Danil on a more intimate level, and I’m not ready to give that up.

But I have to be realistic.

Igor Ivanov still has a bright red target on my forehead, and I know Danil and his brothers are doing everything in their power to take him down.

But that does little to ease my anxiety.

If something were to happen to Danil, I don’t know how I would survive.

Zara’s perched on the edge of my bed, dressed in a pair of pink satin pajamas, as she watches me get dressed for my date. “Remind me who you’re going out with tonight?”

I’m sitting in front of the vanity table fixing my makeup and trying to ignore the butterflies that are swarming around my stomach.

“Jana, why?”

I catch Zara’s eyes in the mirror, and hers narrow.

“You seem to be going to a lot of effort for dinner with Jana.” Her eyes go to my low-cut green dress that shows a fair amount of cleavage.

“We’re going somewhere nice.” I apply some more blush to my cheeks to try and brighten up my complexion, trying to make me look less tired.

I did not get a lot of sleep last night. After the incredible sex with Danil yesterday, in a restaurant bathroom of all places, and him asking me on a date, my mind was racing all night long.

“Are you sure you’re not going out with Danil?”

Her question takes me so much by surprise that my makeup brush falls out of my hands and clatters against the glass top of the vanity.

I knew my sister wasn’t buying a word of what I was saying. She knows me too well.

When I sneak a glance at her in the mirror and see her smirking, I know the cat is out of the bag.

I was planning on telling her the truth before my date tonight, but there was never the right time.

Dimitri has been hanging around all day, and it felt wrong to tell him without Danil present, so I kept putting it off.

But I guess there’s no time like the present to come clean to your sister that you’ve been secretly hooking up with her husband's younger brother.

“Yeah.” I pick my brush back up and dip it in the blush.

“Oh, my god, I knew it!”

I spin around in my chair, pointing to the door. “Shh! You’ll wake the twins.”

Zara waves her hand. “Oh, they’ll sleep through an earthquake. Tell meeverything.”