Page 131 of Sweet Animosity

I’ll be damned. She wasn’t wrong.

I shrugged. “Well… you’re welcome, I guess?”

Her husband Gregor turned a narrowed gaze on Var. “You owe me five hundred thousand, plus interest.”

Before I could hear Var’s response, Samara had grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the bar. “Come, you have to meet the rest of the girls. I can’t wait to introduce you as my very own art forger!”

I should have known better than to trust how sweet and nice she was being.

CHAPTER 45

VAR

Vivian blinked up at me as I carried her into the elevator. “I think I’m drunk.”

God, she was fucking adorable.

Adjusting my grip, I said, “I warned you not to play that drinking game with Yelena.”

Her head slumped onto my shoulder as the doors opened, and we stepped into the penthouse. We would only be here for a few more days. Now that I had Vivian to fill the rooms with laughter, fun, anger, and sex, I couldn’t wait to move into the home I’d renovated next door but never moved in to.

“Well, that was the problem. You should have encouraged me to play the game. Then I wouldn’t have.”

“Is that how it goes? I say something, and you do the opposite?”

She leaned back and stared at me. “Uh… have you met us yet? Of course that’s how it goes.”

Her head fell back onto my shoulder. “What was that game called again?”

I placed her on the edge of the bed. Shifting her voluminous skirts up, I ran my hand down her leg, then removed her high heel and gestured with it. “Shouldn’t you be asking how much money you lost first?”

She snatched the shoe from my hand and waved it at me before raising her arm in the air. “It was not about money. It was about honor!”

I removed her other heel. “It’s a good thing I stopped you before your honor cost you those pretty diamond earrings and necklace you love so much.”

Her eyes widened as her hand flew to her chest. “You don’t think she would have taken them, do you?”

“Yelena? In a heartbeat.”

She would have given them back… eventually.

Vivian crawled onto her knees then stood on the bed, swaying precariously. “The tiger has come!” she shouted as she raised her arm in the air, clutching her shoe like some regal scepter.

Yelena had convinced the girls to play The Tiger Has Come.

A potentially dangerous Russian drinking game that involved everyone tossing money into the center of the table before each taking a shot of vodka. Then the leader, who happened to be Yelena, would shout, “The tiger has come!“ And they would all have to dive under the table as quickly as possible. It was deceptively simple.

The problem was the more a person drank, the harder and harder it became to get back up from under the table. The more rounds of shots, the more money in the pot.

The winner was literally the last person standing.

And of course, as the leader who announced the Tiger, Yelena had the advantage, since she was only required to drink every other round. So there was no surprise when she was the one to win the pot.

I snatched Vivian around the waist and pulled her down to the bed before turning her around to unzip her dress. “Yes, I think the tiger came a little too hard for you tonight.”

She giggled. “You said came too hard.”

I pulled the dress off her shoulders and let it fall to the floor. As she stepped out of it, I pulled off my own jacket, then the bowtie.

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