Page 20 of Cruel Bet

“Okay, let me take a quick shower and get dressed first. I’ll be downstairs in a few.”

“Atta girl,” Endo replies, I can hear the smile in his voice.

***

A little over an hour later, I finally feel like I’m starting to relax and forget about this morning. Endo and Dimitri are tactfully avoiding asking me any questions or mentioning Nikolai and have been keeping up a constant stream of small talk and easy-going banter. I was hungrier than I realized as I’ve already demolished three slices of pizza and I’m about to scoff down a fourth.

As I’m biting into it, laughing at something Dimitri just said, Endo gets a message on his phone. He glances at it and stands.

“Sorry guys, duty calls,” he says grabbing another slice to go.

He then proceeds to speak to Dimitri in rapid-fire Russian. It makes sense that Endo would speak Russian, seeing as he’s part of the Bratva and has been friends with the familyfrom a young age, but it still mildly surprises me to hear it coming out of his mouth. I wish I knew what they were saying. Neither seems to be particularly anxious or concerned, but the abruptness of their tones in the foreign language sounds harsh and foreboding to my ears. Endo leaves, and only a short while later I hear the front door opening. Assuming it must be Endo coming back, I don’t think much of it.

It's only when I hear the unexpected sound of a woman laughing that I look up. Standing in the entrance hallway is a stunningly beautiful woman. Her long poker-straight black hair is loose, framing her heart-shaped face with high cheekbones, full lips, and almond-shaped eyes. She’s fairly tall for an Asian woman, I’d estimate around five foot eight, and slim yet athletic looking, a model meets gymnast. She’s wearing no makeup and a simple yet impossibly classy outfit of cream silk trousers and a matching blouse. She oozes elegance and sophistication.

I am painfully aware of how I must look in comparison wearing a baggy t-shirt dress with a pizza stain down the front. When I put it on the first time, it seemed so cool and edgy to me, the kind of thing those rocker chicks wear and make sexy despite being covered up. Now I feel like a toddler in a nightgown compared to this glamazon.

Next to her, laughing and smiling like he doesn’t have a care in the world is Nikolai. She places a hand on his upper arm and I feel rage and jealousy course through my veins. Rage because who the fuck does he think he is, bringing another woman here to flaunt in front of me when only this morning he was finger fucking me in the shower. And jealousy because she’s so clearly the better choice for him. They look perfect together. The way he’s smiling and laughing with her shows thatthey know each other well and are comfortable in each other’s company. On her ring finger, I spot an enormous diamond ring.

Oh god, does he have a fiancé? A wife? Have I been fawning over a taken man this whole time and he’s some vile cheat that just wanted to toy with me and have some fun while she was away? The fact that there’s a suitcase next to her certainly supports that argument.

I’m vaguely aware of Dimitri getting up and heading over to greet them.

“Pakhan,” he says with a small bow before turning his attention to the woman. “Kimiko, how wonderful to have you back with us. I trust you had a fruitful trip?”

“Dimitri, so good to see you,” she says in a musical voice that matches her beauty, leaning in and hugging him.

I even feel a stab of juvenile jealousy and irritation at this. Dimitri ismyfriend. It also dawns on me with sickening clarity that I can’t sneak away to my room. I’d have to walk right past them to get to the staircase. But maybe I can hide out in the library until they’ve gone somewhere else. No one seems to have noticed me yet.

It seems that the universe has other plans. I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve further humiliation, but my chair squeaks loudly across the floor as I get up. Immediately, all three pairs of eyes are on me.

“Arianna,” Nikolai says, a look of surprise and something else I can’t place crosses his annoyingly handsome face.

Why do I still feel the pull of attraction to him? The man has quite literally brought his wife home without caring that I’m here.

Nikolai clears his throat. “Kimiko, this is…” he begins.

“I’m nobody,” I say, striding over toward them more confidently than I feel. “You must be Mrs. Kuzmin. A pleasure to meet you,” I continue through a forced smile, shooting daggers at Nikolai for putting me through this.

Before anyone can speak, I quickly dart past them, running up the stairs, and slamming the bedroom door behind me. I’m faintly aware of the sound of the woman, Kimiko laughing. How mortifying. She must know how women fawn over Nikolai and think we’re pathetic, wanting something we can’t have. Tears sting at the corner of my eyes and I will myself to not let them fall.

Chapter 13

Arianna

Just moments later, Nikolai enters my room. He opens his mouth to speak but I don’t let him get further than that, cutting him off.

“Who the fuck do you think you are? Seducing me and trying to get me into bed when you’re spoken for. You could have told me you have a wife,” I yell.

“Kimiko is not my wife,” he says infuriatingly calmly.

“Well, that hardly fucking matters, does it? You still brought another woman here. Just because you think I’ll be bad in bed and you don’t want to have sex with an inexperienced virgin doesn’t mean that it’s right to immediately go out and bring home a girlfriend, fuck buddy, or whatever the hell she is to you, to parade around in front of me and have sex with. I had every intention of telling you your precious information without you humiliating me further!”

Nikolai lets out a small chuckle, seemingly amused by my fury, which only serves to make me madder. I pick up a lamp from the bedside table, planning to hurl it at his smug head and tell him to fuck off.

“Kimiko is none of those things to me, my angry littlekukolka,she’s Endo’s twin sister. She’s family, the closest thing to a sister I have.”

That throws me off guard and takes some of the wind out of my sails. She’s Endo’s sister, not Nikolai’s lover. Mortificationat what she must think of me threatens to overwhelm me, but I’m still furious with Nikolai, though not for any reason I can fully grasp.

---