AllFreeNovel
Share Us
And as dumb as it is—really, really dumb, I know—I bristle. I get all his sour. She gets his sweet. It doesn’t seem fair.
But given what I now know about the circumstances of their relationship, I guess it’s not all that surprising. That’s a whole can of worms I’m trying really hard to ignore, though.
“I’m heading out.”
“Where?” I blurt out.
Kolya jerks his head to me as though he’d already forgotten I’m here. “Out,” he repeats shortly. “I have work to do.”
“What work?”
I’m not sure why I insist on asking questions that I know he won’t answer. Maybe I just want him to look at me, acknowledge me.
“Nothing that would interest you,” he clips. “We leave at eight tonight. I expect you to be ready on time.”
Then he finishes the last of his coffee and gets to his feet. I watch him stride out of the suite, resisting the urge to shout something at his back just so that I can get the last word in.
I manage to hold it in, though. I’ll be a mother soon. I’ve got to at least try to be a grownup from time to time.
When I turn my attention back to the table, Milana’s eyes are fixed on me with something that looks very much like sympathy.
“Don’t let him get to you,” she suggests before I can even pretend that I’m not bothered by how Kolya behaves towards me. “He’s a hard bastard, but underneath all that armor, there’s a little pussy cat.”
“A pussy cat?”
“Okay, maybe a lion.” She smirks, then softens and reaches over to pat my hand. “Trust me, June: I’ve known the man a long time. He’s not as scary as he seems. Not all the time, at least.”
“I’m not scared of him.”
“Good effort! With a little more practice, that will be much more convincing.”
I frown, and she gives me a sheepish smile. “He’s not that hard to decipher,” she promises. “He’s just a man, after all. At the end of the day, they’re all suckers.”
“Sure,” I say with a heap of sarcasm. “It has nothing to do with the fact that you look like a supermodel.”
She doesn’t fake-humble and wave away the compliment like some women would. There’s no false humility in her smile, either. Instead, she nods. “Oh, that’s definitely part of it. And it’s enough for most men. But others are more complicated. Looks might be enough to catch their attention. But definitely not enough to keep it.”
Those eyes of hers are as sharp as they’re beautiful. I fidget for a moment, wondering if I’m going too far, before I just blurt it out. “Kolya told me about how the two of you met.”
She blinks, looking mildly surprised. “Did he now? He doesn’t usually offer up that story to many people. You don’t have to look so nervous; I’ve never hidden my past. I hated being a prostitute, but I’ve never been ashamed of where I came from. I was a victim of circumstance.”
“And… Kolya helped you get out of those… circumstances?”
My words are clumsy, especially in comparison to Milana’s confident eloquence. I feel myself shrinking more and more in her presence, and hating myself for it.
“He did,” she says wistfully. “He was the first man I ever truly trusted. In fact, he’s still the only man I trust.”
Something foreign and unwelcome spreads across my chest. “That must have created quite the bond between the two of you.”
“It’s very hard not to bond with your savior,” she says. “But I didn’t expect our relationship to turn into a lifelong friendship. That was unexpected.”
“Oh. A f-friendship?” I stammer, like a rat sniffing around for morsels.
Milana raises her eyebrows. “Well, since he rebuffed all my attempts to seduce him over the years, a friendship is what I settled for,” she giggles girlishly.
“Oh. Well—I mean…”Jesus, say something, you dolt. “His loss.”
Milana raises her eyebrows, and I feel my cheeks burn red. Why the hell did I choose this moment to turn into a complete spaz?
