Page 130 of Dance of Defiance
23
ROMAN
Me
I’m outside. You ready?
Evelina
Best. Brother. EVAAAHH!!! :D
Evelina
1 sec
I’m parkedin front of the Mercury Theater, after getting Evie's text earlier asking for a ride home from rehearsal. She’s got a rotating roster of drivers—I think it’s Mikhail this week—but I know she gets annoyed always having one of our father’s swarthy, monosyllabic guards hanging around.
I kill time on my phone as I wait, and inevitably find myself on Instagram. Also inevitably, I find myself tapping on Val’s profile.
I’ve been doing that a lot lately.
My face heats, my lip sucking between my teeth as I look at a new post.
Fuck.
He’s lying in a bed I know all too well by now, shirtless, a mug of coffee in his hand as he smirks at the camera in that fucking obscenely sexy way. The caption reads “Rise and shine, carpe fucking diem!!!”
My eyes instantly drop to the comments. Christ, it’s a fucking thirst parade. Half of them point out that he’s alone in bed and offer up various semi-creative ways to help him fix that. The rest are ridiculously over-the-top hungry comments about his body.
For a second, a furious feeling that I hate to admit might be jealousy roars through me. Then, it’s replaced by something else.
Smugness.
Hell yeahthat bed is empty aside from him…becauseIkept him up in it until midnight last night, before I left.
Thirst on that, motherfuckers.
My phone dings with a new text from Evie.
Evelina
sorry! Madame K. wants to talk to me about something!!!
It’s followed by a string of gleeful excited face emojis. I grin.
Me
No problem! Do your thang.
I've heard that Madame Kuzmina is atyrantwhen she wants to be. But I also know that when she wants to behead someone, she does so publicly. Her singling Evie out for a chat after rehearsal actually sounds like a good thing.
Evelina
Want to come in? I don't know how long I'll be. Or if you have to go, don’t worry!!
Me
Nah, my day is clear. I’ll come inside. No rush.
