Page 56 of Koroleva

"Romeo, cut the crap. What did you just say?" He sighed.

"You heard me. I don't know who Adriano's father is. If I didn't tell you before, it's because I don't fully trust you yet." *You're right not to. "I know you're hiding things from me." *You have no idea "And I don't know what they are." *Indeed, if you knew, I'd already be dead. "But I couldn't keep something like that to myself any longer."

"I don't understand. How is that possible? Were you in a threesome, or did she cheat on one with the other? And why didn't Yuri ever say anything?" Romeo shook his head.

"I'll summarize it for you. Your brother and I went to a college party; drugs, alcohol, sex, poor judgment, and zero condoms. She was in Yuri's class, wanted a threesome, and you can imagine what our hormones were like. It was at the end of the term and she never returned to university. She didn't contact us nor did she tell us she was pregnant. When she jumped out of the window, in the letter she left in my name, she confessed that she didn't know if your brother or I was the father, that she found out about Yuri's death through the media, and that she wanted me to take care of Adri. She apologized for never telling me anything. When her parents found out about the pregnancy, they wanted her to abort. She was terrified to confess that it had been a night of reckless sex with the sons of mafiosos. She preferred to be a single mother and not reveal to anyone who the possible fathers of the child were. The timing matched. The family was devastated, your brother dead, I felt responsible, so..."

"You decided to take charge."

"Yes. Deep down it didn't matter to me whether Adriano was his or mine. You and I were going to get married, so I assumed that if he was Yuri's, you would want him in your life, and if he was mine, you would have no choice but to accept him, although I didn't expect you to have less maternal instinct than a shoe."

"Why? Because I'm a woman and supposedly we're all born with the need to breastfeed, get covered in stretch marks, and change dirty diapers?"

"No, because Yuri always told me you were very protective of your own, and I thought that when you saw Adri, you'd recognize someone in need of protection," I paused.

"Haven't you done a DNA test?"

"I don't need one. We're going to raise him together; I just wanted you to know the truth. I want you to try to get close to him and make it work."

"I want that test," I admitted. "Maybe it doesn't matter to you who he belongs to, but it does to me. I want to know if that child is the last thing I have left of my brother. You should have told me as soon as you found out. And what if she lied in that letter and was just looking for a family to dump the kid on?" I stood up defensively, really pissed off.

"Don't talk about my son like that." I turned my neck to answer and felt a sharp pull that made me let out a cry of pain.

"What's happening?!" Romeo also stood up.

"Damn! My trapezius! I think it’s knotted up..., and with my luck, this is the only thing that's going to mount me tonight." I heard him grunt.

"Is that all you're worried about?"

"Maybe you don't need to unload, but I am so pissed off it's not even funny. I need sex and now I've just screwed myself over."

"If you knew how to choose your lovers better..." he muttered under his breath.

"Got any recommendations, wise guy?"

"Well, I know someone who'd set the bar higher than the masseuse this morning..." I looked at him furiously. I tried to move my neck to ease the sharp pain and stiffness.

Nothing, it was a damn rock.

"Govnó!" I spat out in Russian.

"Oh, yeah, by the size of his dick he was a gnome."

"I said shit in Russian."

"Yeah, he was a piece of shit too, because I guarantee you if I had been in his place, I wouldn't have stopped, no matter how many husbands looking like 'I’m going to crunch all your bones' walked through that door." I clenched the sore muscle. My loins contracted at the suggestion. He had no right to make me so turned on when he wasn't going to lay a damn finger on me.

"What are you playing at?"

"I'm not playing, I'm stating facts. Do you want me to help with your back?"

"By stabbing it?" Another deep laugh.

"I'm more into driving stakes." I wasn't going to play his game, not when the word stake made me feel like a vampire craving a bite. Romeo stroked his beard. "I'm not bad at massages, I have strong fingers and know how to untie knots, plus, we have an infrared lamp in the spa, if you let me, I can relieve you." I would have told him the relief I needed was of a different kind if my neck hadn’t given me another jolt that made me curl my toes. "I promise I'm not bragging for no reason; I can help you relax the area. I'll give you a small massage, we eat, and keep talking. Okay?"

I didn’t know if agreeing would be worse than not. The stabs of pain didn't let me think clearly.

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