Page 51 of Ruthless Vows

“Careful,krasavitsa. I might start to think you actually care.”

“We definitely can’t have that,” I state. “While we’re on the topic of getting to know each other, we need to talk about your brother.”

His eyes become clouded. “Why?”

“I know you’re not one of those people who ignore their problems and leave them to fester.”

“Alexei isn’t a problem.”

“Isn’t he?” I question. “Because I refuse to be a woman that’s caught between two brothers. It’s tacky and a little cruel. I’m not going to be the reason you two have a strained relationship.”

He considers that for a moment. “My brother and I have always had a strained relationship. And I’m not using that as an excuse to justify this. Frankly, I don’t think we need any justification for what we’re trying to pursue. Your relationship with Alexei has ended.”

“But I’m not sure he really knows that,” I murmur.

“You’re right, he doesn’t. He still wants you,” Ivan says bluntly. “But that doesn’t mean he can have you.”

“That’s solid advice. For both of you,” I drawl.

“I’m firmly aware of what I can and can’t have,milaya,” he says. “But when it comes to Alexei… His life growing up was hard. He’s always struggled to find his own path because I’ve always created a path for both of us. I raised him and I made mistakes along the way. Instead of letting him become his own man, I decided to do it for him.”

“Basically, you spoiled him. Yeah, that makes sense, actually. When we first met, I thought he was a lazy trust fund kid with daddy’s money to fall back on.”

“And yet you still dated him,” Ivan says with a smirk.

“He was charming. And despite how he acted like a douchebag most of the time, once in a while, his sincerity would peek through. When I was younger, I had this stupid, ‘I can fix him’ mentality. But I don’t think that anymore. I shouldn’t have to fix or take care of any man.”

“No, you shouldn’t,krasavitsa. What you need is a man to take care of you, even if you don’t need him to,” he tells me with a warm smile. “I’m not trying to talk bad about my brother. He has his faults and I think he genuinely wants to be better. But change is tough. Especially considering that he has a lot of vices. And like you said, I spoiled him. I made him who he is today.”

“He’s still your brother, though.”

“Yes, Alexei is family. And one thing I learned from my mother’s sudden reappearance in our life is that family has a way of always coming back. Alexei has every right to be angry right now. But I also firmly believe that he’ll always come back.”

“Because he’s dependent on you. Because you made him dependent on you,” I state.

He’s basically saying he’s going to go ahead with hurting Alexei because he knows he’ll come back eventually.

“Does that make me a terrible brother?” he asks.

I shake my head after thinking about it for a moment.

“No, I think it makes you human.”

CHAPTER 16

Ivan

“So do you just stand around all day waiting for Ivan like a giant statue?” Lucia asks.

My lips twitch as I walk into the living room, where Ruslan really is standing with his hands behind his back and a blank expression. Lucia’s seated on the couch, peering up at him like she’s trying to figure him out.

“Good morning,milaya,” I greet. “Did you sleep well?”

“Hey. Yes, I did, thank you.”

She and I have developed a bit of a rapport over the last week. I haven’t touched her since our last kiss, because I’ve been trying to respect her boundaries. I don’t want to push too hard. I’m sure with time she’ll thaw toward me, but for now, we’re doing just what I wanted. Trying to build our relationship. So far, it’s been going well. I stayed up pretty late last night with her after she convinced me to watch some more episodes ofOzark. It’s probably the most domestic thing I’ve done in a while. It was nice.

“If you’re done bothering Ruslan, he and I are going to leave. There’s a meeting at the Pakhan’s home,” I inform her.

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