Page 56 of The Brutal Arrangement

The next day, when I was on the main floor of the building and watching the birds out the window as they pecked at the food in the garden, a woman approached me from behind.

In the almost three weeks I’d been here, I hadn’t spoken to anyone other than that maid. Damon preferred me quiet, too.

So when this striking blonde came up to me with a smile on her lips, I was wondering what the catch was. “Lucy?”

I blinked, making sure she was speaking to me. “Yes?”

“I’m Sloane.” She offered me her hand to shake. I stood before I accepted it. “I’m Maxim’s fiancée.”

“Oh.” I blinked, surprised that he was engaged. Then I blinked again and huffed a laugh of astonishment that I was permitted to speak to her. “I didn’t know…. Um…”

She rolled her eyes. “You didn’t know that I existed?” she guessed. “Yeah. Maxim seemed to think that sequestering me in my room without any contact would end well too.”

I gaped at her, then narrowed my eyes. “Wait. What? Maxim…?”

“It’s in the past.” She waved her hands as if shooing the memory away. After, she settled her hands on her small baby bump. “Right now, we’re going to the salon.”

“Me?” I pointed at myself, lagging to catch up. “I’m going somewhere?”

She nodded. “Yeah. I told Maxim and Damon that you should be able to experience something other than hanging around here. Plus, the guards aren’t likely to hover as much if someone is in the back of the salon with me.”

I furrowed my brow, too suspicious of how friendly she was being. It was almost as though she were trying too hard to welcome me. Either she was just as lonely or she was trying to butter me up. One way or another, I wasn’t quick to see her asan ally. Being here as an Ivanov wife was far too confusing of an experience to really know how to perceive anyone I met. And I hadn’t been allowed to meet anyone so far.

“Bullshit,” Maxim said as he strolled into the room. “My men will always hover.” He pulled Sloane closer to kiss her. She smiled against his lips as she melted against him, then sliding her hand through his hair, she held him closer so she could kiss him deeper. Once he put his hands on her ass and pulled her flush to him, I looked away and hated the burn of a blush on my cheeks.

I felt ashamed to watch them kiss, something that seemed like a private moment of love. But more than that, I was shown how different it could be here.

Sloane lookedhappy. Not tense like I felt every second except when Damon was fucking me.

She was pregnant.

Maxim was sweet on her, kissing her and making her smile so freely.

I didn’t know where she’d been all this time, but the fact that I hadn’t seen her yet didn’t count for much. I was clearly designated as a need-to-know sort of “guest”.

When I looked back at them, finding them still together and kissing, I lowered my head and refused to give them an audience they might not want.

Maxim must have noticed me dropping my gaze, though, because he stepped back. Holding Sloane’s hand loosely, he kept her close, and it clued me in to how possessive he seemed to be.Having him notice me like that, when I had observed a sweet moment with his fiancée, made me feel more embarrassed.

No. It made me feel cheap.

Like a dismissed secret that shouldn’t be exposed.

All I had with Damon was hard sex. No conversations. Limited time together. I had tried to tell myself that Iwaslearning about my husband. That communication wasn’t always verbal and that one of his intense looks meant something else.

Compared to what Sloane and Maxim had, I felt like I was nothing more than a cheap whore. The result of a barter.

“Ready to get out of here for a while?” Sloane asked, confident and cheerful as she swung her hand with Maxim’s.

I drew in a deep breath and hoped that my smile would pass. “Sure. That’d be nice.” As I stepped toward her, though, I hesitated. “Wait.”

She arched one brow. Maxim stared at me, curious.

“Um. I should ask…” God, I hated how pathetic I sounded. She was only engaged to an Ivanov brother while I was married to one. How did she get this confidence?

“I should ask Damon first,” I said.

Sloane shot Maxim a look that I couldn’t read.

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