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I don’t raise my voice, but she buttons up like I just screamed in her face. “What do you mean, ‘no’?
“There’s a reason that Ravil offered her a job,” I explain. “He has an ulterior motive here, and I want to know what that is. I won’t be able to find out if she declines.”
She gawks at me, wide-eyed and still filled with naïve horror. “That’s why you walked in when you did,” she gasps. “It had nothing to do with our hour being up. You didn’t want me to warn her about Mexico.”
“Glad to see you’re not just a pretty face after all.”
“Kolya!” she snaps, frustration and fear convulsing together as she takes a step towards me. “She is my sister.”
“I’m aware. And I’ve got to be honest, I wasn’t impressed. I’d assume that you got the looks and she got the brains, but she didn’t seem very smart, either.”
“This is not funny,” she says. “This is not a game.”
“Everything is a game,” I say harshly. “All that changes are the stakes.”
June’s eyes harden. A vein in her forehead throbs dangerously. My fingers start to itch with the desire to step close to her, smooth it away, work the tension from her body one muscle at a time. I’ve seen her fall apart in my arms, and that memory is still burning in my head. Her open mouth. Water cascading down past those soft lips.
I choke all that down and focus on the fire blazing in her eyes.
“I just covered for you tonight. I lied to my own sister for you.” I can see the desperation in her eyes. “I can’t let her go to Mexico. Not when I know that your psycho cousin is the one who’s lured her there. I can’t…” Her voice wobbles, but she refuses to let it break. Dragging her eyes up to meet mine, she finishes, “I can’t stand the thought of losing someone else.”
June’s chest rises and falls. I watch it, watch her, wondering when the tears of someone I barely know began to mean so goddamn much to me.
“I will make sure nothing happens to your sister,” I tell her grudgingly. “But she’s still going to Mexico.”
“But—”
“So am I. I’ll ensure that Ravil can’t hurt her.”
June looks skeptical for a moment. Then her jaw sets with that feisty determination I love and hate so much. “Then I’m coming with you.”
“Not a fucking chance.”
“Kol—”
“I’m not negotiating with you, June. I told you once already: if I let something happen…”
For the second time, I fall silent. I can’t finish that sentence. Iwon’tfinish that sentence.
I clear my throat and glare down at her. “End of discussion.”
“No,” she snaps, folding her arms across her breasts. “Not even close to it. You’re being short-sighted. This is all a power struggle for optics, right? Tug of war between the two big bad wolves? So how do you think it’ll look to everyone who’s on the fence if you show up to Ravil’s party like it means nothing—with your pregnant woman in tow?”
I open my mouth to retort, but the words curdle on my lips. She has a point. An irritatingly good one. This is a game of heirs, of sons and fathers—and I have a trump card standing right in front of me.
I’m playing with fire. But fuck it—let’s burn.
She sees the war on my face and knows what it means. A smile stretches her lips and relaxes the clench in her jaw. “So is that a…?”
“Fine,” I snarl. “But there will be conditions. You will stay with me at all times. You willlistento me at all times. This is dangerous territory we’re entering, June. One wrong move, and it’ll cost us our lives.”
“Done.”
She doesn’t seem deterred. In fact, if I’m not mistaken, I actually detect a hint of excitement on her face.
“I won’t be disobeyed, June.” My cock aches as I survey her. Hip jutted at an insolent angle, eyes bright, hair wild. She looks good like this. It’d be so easy to…
No. Keep your hands to your fucking self, Kolya. Remember why she’s here.
