AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She chokes on a laugh and slaps my arm. “I don’t remember you complaining about anything last night!”
I catch her hand and press it to my chest. “I’m not complaining now. Just stating a fact. Poor Niles has been scandalized.”
“Oh God.” She buries her face in the pillow—mypillow. “I hope he didn’t hear us.”
If he did, he definitely believes in our relationship now.
The trouble is…I might be starting to believe in it, too.
61
IVAN
We’re still lying in bed a few minutes later when my door bursts open and my sister comes barreling in.
“Where in the hell have you been all day? I’ve been calling and—” She careens to a halt in the middle of the room. Her mouth curves into a dizzying smile. “Oh,” is all she manages. “Oh.”
Cora scrambles to pull the covers over herself. I reach down and grab the comforter, throwing it over her body as I glare at my sister. “Do you fucking mind?”
She crosses her arms and grins. “Not at all.”
The bubble pops, just like that. The cone of silence that has been around my room for most of the last twenty-four hours evaporates. As quickly as it disappeared, all the noise of my life comes racing back in.
I need my phone.
Yasha has probably texted me.
My father will want an update. If I don’t assure him I’m tracking down the people responsible for this, all my plans are for nothing.
And Anya…
My sister is thrilled right now. Which is exactly why she is the last person I wanted to see me like this. As if her delusional hopes weren’t already misplaced, her matchmaking will be insufferable now.
I throw a pillow at her. “Get the fuck out, Anya.”
“You two are really taking this charade seriously,” she teases. “I don’t think you need to pretend even in the bedroom. Unless…you aren’t pretending.”
Cora pulls her knees to her chest and mumbles, “it’s just practice.”
It’s not believable. We dropped any pretense about what this was and what we were doing hours ago. But still, hearing the words…
The fantasy fades.
I didn’t even realize I’d been creating one. But with Cora’s body warming the sheets next to me, my mind began to spin a tale.
A world where she and I could be together. Where assassins weren’t after her every time we left the house. Where my father kept his mouth shut and his nose in his own goddamn business.
A reality where I could wake up next to this woman and fall asleep next to her and I didn’t have to worry about her being ripped out of my grasping fingers in every minute in between.
This could never be my life. Itwillnever be my life.
It’s better to accept that now and focus on what truly matters.
“If you need something, spit it out,” I growl at my sister. “I’d like to put my clothes on.”
Anya wrinkles her nose and shoots her gaze up towards the ceiling. “Neither of you were answering your phones. I’ve been texting you all day.”
“Oh, shit!” Cora pats the bed as if her phone might be hiding under the covers somewhere. “I completely forgot about—”
