Page 64 of Deceitful Promises

He nods. “Okay then.”

The timer goes off, then switches to one minute for a rest. As I pace back and forth, Mikhail says, “Ania would probably prefer it if you wore gloves. She doesn’t want her boyfriend covered in cuts.”

“Boyfriend?” I growl. “I’ve known her a couple of days.”

“Aiden,” Mikhail snaps. “Don’t insult my intelligence. A goddamn blind man could see something is going on between you two.”

I don’t say anything; I just walk to the counter and pull on my gloves. Mikhail punches his together. “She ate a lot at dinner,” he goes on. “Dimitri and I noticed her problem a while back. We’ve been trying to decide the best way to bring it up. She’s so sensitive.”

“She doesn’t seem sensitive to me,” I say.

“No?”

“She seems tough. All she’s been through, all she’s suffered, and yet she’s still strong. She’s still determined to keep going. She still has a purpose. That’s damn impressive in my book. Look what I did to her. I took her from her home and her brothers. Yet she’s still obsessed with ballet, her passion.”

Mikhail watches me closely. “How did you get her to start eating?”

“I don’t know if I’ve changed anything long-term,” I tell him. “Life’s never that easy.”

“But how?”

“I spoke to her. I listened. I cared.”

“Cared, past tense?”

Hell no. Present tense. Always. “Hmm.”

The round timer goes off, and we don’t say anything for five minutes. Each of us focuses on our solo workout, hammering our heavy bags. My muscles burn, but when I hear Mikhail picking up the pace, I do the same. Finally, it’s time for another rest.

“Ania cares about you,” Mikhail says. “At dinner, it was damn obvious. She cares that you want kids, and she doesn’t.”

“She’s said that before? That she doesn’t want kids?”

Again, a surreal hammer smashes into me. I shouldn’t be talking about this, not with how little time we’ve known each other.

“No,” Mikhail replies, “but she needs time to grow, to explore the world and herself.”

“Hmm.”

That gets the savage part of my mind thinking about exploring her, which is damn inappropriate with her brother right here, but I can’t help it.

“Would you give her that time?” Mikhail asks bluntly.

“We’ve known each other for?—”

“I fell in love with my wife the first moment I saw her,” he cuts in. “Before, if you’d told me that would’ve happened, I would’ve said it was crap. But it’s the truth. I’m not asking about timeframes. I’m not asking if itshouldmake sense. If you care about her, will you pressure her or let her grow?”

“Let her grow,” I snap. “Obviously.”

“And you’ll never hurt her.”

“I’d die before I did that.”

“I have to ask, Aiden. You broke into our compound using those old tunnels—Dad and his goddamn schemes. You took her from her brothers.”

“I thought you were criminals.”

He laughs darkly. “We are criminals.”

---