Page 117 of Toxic Temptation
“Among other things, I owe you an explanation. About what happened with Yana.”
I pull my wrist free but don’t move away. “Okay.”
He’s quiet for a long moment. That piercing, unblinking hold feels like a vise grip. It’s as though he’s still holding me, even though his hands are in his pockets.
“I watch you with Luka,” he finally says. “The way you are together. It scares me.”
“Because I’m getting attached?”
“Because he is.” Kovan’s jaw tightens. “You’re replacing Yana in his mind. And when this is over—when you leave—he’ll lose another mother.”
Mother.Is that what I’ve become to him?
“I get that, Kovan. But what am I supposed to do?” I ask. “Push him away when he needs comfort? Be cold when he’s hurting?”
“No.”
“Then what’s your solution?”
His silence is answer enough.
“You can’t have it both ways,” I say. “You want me to play happy family for the custody judge, but you don’t want us to actually feel like a family. That’s not how it works.”
“I know. I’ve put you in an impossible position.”
“Oh, have you now?” I snip sarcastically. I cross my arms, suddenly exhausted. “Because it feels like you’ve just figured that out, when everyone else has known it from the beginning.”
Something flickers across his face. Regret, maybe. “I apologized to Luka.”
“Yeah? Consider apologizing to anyone else?”
His mouth curves into something that’s not quite a smile. “That’s not really my thing.”
“No kidding.” I lean back against the counter, putting more distance between us. “Let me guess—you care about your family, your business, and your organization. In that order. Everyone else can go to hell.”
“That’s right.”
I knew what he was going to say and it still hurts when he says it. But at least I know for sure, in undeniable black and white, where I stand now. Firmly outside his circle.
There’s me, there’s Luka, and then there’s the people who work for us.
You, Vesper Fairfax, are the latter.
You, Vesper Fairfax, do not matter.
“Understood.” My chest feels hollow. “But I need you to know something. I’m not a chess piece you can move around when it suits you. I’m not some hapless employee you can snap at when you’re having a bad day. I’m a person, and I deserve basic respect.”
He nods once. “You’re right about that, too.”
That’s it. No real apology. No acknowledgment of how his words cut me down. Just a simple nod, like I’ve pointed out that the sky is blue.
I suppose that’s all I can expect from someone like Kovan Krayev.
“Can I ask you something?” I say. “Something inappropriate?”
His eyebrows lift. “Those are my favorite kind of questions.”
“You told me once that Ihor had loyalists who would protect him if you tried to take him out of the picture. But why haven’t you killed Yana?”
