Page 149 of Tarnished Tyrant (Zhukova Bratva 1)

“And a liar.”

I shake my head. “When did I lie to you?”

“You’re engaged!” she screams. “I asked you on the plane if you were married or engaged.”

“How noble of you to ask after we’d already fucked.”

Her face twists. “It doesn’t matter. You would have lied anyway. You told me you were single.”

I shrug. “At the time, I was.”

Her mouth falls open. “So sometime between then and now, you found time to get engaged? What the hell, Nikolai?!”

“You’re making this into a bigger deal than it needs to be. I planned to tell you about Xena when the time was right.”

“Xena,” she spits.“She even sounds like the kind of trendy bitch who’d be fine with an open relationship.”

I snort. “Believe me, she’s absolutely not.”

I’m actually surprised Xena isn’t standing outside the elevator doors right now, demanding to know what is going on. Though she’s probably still riding the high from seeing Belle smear a serving tray all over my chest. Given the scene it caused, I’m sure she wishes she’d done it herself.

“Then why did you bring me here and buy me this dress? Why did you trot me out in front of her like that?”

“I didn’t ‘trot you out’ in front of anyone.”

Right now, part of me thinks a life of celibacy might not be so bad. Especially if it means never having to deal with this kind of infuriating drama.

But that part of me exists north of my equator. The southern hemisphere, below the belt, is very not down with the idea of celibacy.

Especially since Belle is still wearing her dress…

And she wears anger very, very well.

“And why did you bring Elise into it?” Her voice trembles at the mention of her sister. “She was starting to like you, for God’s sake. She was happy here, and now, it’s all… it’s all… You ruined everything!”

“I didn’t even know Xena was going to be here. I have no clue why she came.”

“She’s here to visit her fiance, you asshole!”

The elevator doors ding open behind us. I turn and face two men waiting to get on. “Take the stairs,” I snap.

They jump back, eyes wide, and I smash the “Doors Close” button followed by the emergency stop. A long, keening alarm sounds, but I ignore it and turn back to Belle.

“I don’t give a shit about Xena Simatou. She means nothing to me. She is just—”

“Giorgos’s sister,” Belle gasps. I can see her connecting the dots. “She’s related to that other mafia guy, isn’t she? So this is some kind of… arrangement, or something?”

I nod. “More or less. Giorgos and I are working together and—”

“And he’s pimping out his sister to you?” She wrinkles her nose. “That is sick, Nikolai. He’s prostituting his sister for what? Money?”

“Protection,” I say. “Access. And yes, money. But Xena is the one who demanded the marriage between us as part of the contract. I didn’t want it.”

Belle snorts. “Of course you didn’t. You can’t exactly whisk random women off on international trips and fuck them in airplane bathrooms if you’re married, can you? Then again, maybe you can! Because you’re engaged, but here I am anyway. Like an idiot.”

“I didn’t bring you here as a secret,” I growl. “This wasn’t some hidden affair. Giorgos knew where I was.”

It’s why he sent Xena here, I’m sure. I made a bold move by bringing Belle here against their wishes and then burning down one of his buildings. So he sent his sister here to burn down my life, so to speak.

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