Page 160 of Promised to the Alpha Prince

“Inside,” came Aurelie’s voice. “Now.”

Nikolai hesitated and then he climbed into the car.

I scooted over, heart in my throat.

Aurelie got in next to him. “Okay, go ahead,” she sang out to the driver.

“This was the hold-up?” I said to the driver.

He gave me a helpless grin in the rearview mirror. “She’s hard to say no to.”

“True,” I said, and I smiled over at her. I was grateful. She’d brought Nikolai to me. That was all that mattered.

The car started to drive.

Aurelie turned to sit sideways, cheery. “Okay, Nikolai, I know you’re angry with Johannes. You’ve explained it to me, and I don’t really get it, but I think you should explain it to him.”

Nikolai was blank and still, staring forward. He got that way when his emotions were overwhelming. He simply retreated from them.

“If you don’t,” she said, “I’m going to start explaining it, but—like I said—I don’t really understand, so I’m going to get it wrong.”

Nikolai was stone.

“Fine,” she said.

“Where are we going?” said Nikolai.

“For a drive,” she said. “We’ll drive as long as it takes to figure this out between the two of you.”

Nikolai grimaced.

She looked at him, expectant. When he was still silent, she shrugged again. “Okay, so Johannes, you and Nikolai have some thing between the two of you, where, like, he’s really dominant sexually or something, and he thought you liked it, but then he found out you didn’t—”

“What?” I said. “I never said I didn’t like it.”

“Well, see?” she spread her hands. “There we go. Problem solved.”

Nikolai sighed heavily. “That’s not it.”

“I told you I didn’t understand,” she said pointedly. “Fill in the blanks, please.”

“You don’t do it willingly,” he said to me in a dark voice.

“Uh? What?” I eyed him. “Why would you think that?”

“Because you said that I needed it.”

“You do.”

“I don’t,” he said. “It’s for fun, Johannes, just fun. How could you think I needed you to submit to me like that when you know what it’s like with me and Dmitri?”

“Well, Dmitri makes you do that,” I said. “You don’t really like it. You just do it to please him.”

“No,” said Nikolai tersely. “I like it.”

“Yeah, sure, because he makes you like it—”

“I’ve watched you submit to him, too,” said Nikolai. “Did you like it?”

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