Page 2 of Dancing With Desire

I inhale sharply, her words battering my already delicate heart. “You think I’m crazy?” I whisper.

“No,” she rushes to tell me, “of course not. But it’s all just so . . . far-fetched.”

“It happened,” I snap, pushing to stand and dropping the blanket. “Call him if you don’t believe me. Ask him where I’ve been.”

“Did the hospital discharge you?” she asks, changing tactics. “Are you still on meds?”

“No,” I snap, beginning to pace. “Jesus, Phoebe. There was no hospital. It was all a lie to get me to some house in the middle of nowhere so they could break me and Dmitry up.”

Her frown deepens, and I know I’m sounding crazier by the minute. “And I stopped taking the meds when I found out . . .” I pause, wondering how this will sound. “I’m pregnant.”

Her eyes almost bug out of her head. I groan, sitting back down. “I know this all sounds mad, Phoebe, trust me. Every time I speak, I want to laugh at how crazy it all is. But think about it. You researched Dmitry, right?” She nods. “And his dad is Russian, yes?” She nods again. “Both are powerful. They have a huge reach.”

She smirks. “Next, you’ll be telling me he’s in the Russian mafia.” She laughs. When I don’t join her, her smile fades. “Okay, now you sound crazy, Tori. What the fuck are you telling me?”

“That’s why Vladimir doesn’t want us to be together. It’s why he pushed for Vivian to marry his son. She’s the daughter of some criminal and they want to join the families together.”

“This is just getting weirder by the minute,” she mutters, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Did you know who he was when you pursued him?”

“No, of course not.” I smile. “But I doubt it would have put me off.”

She scoffs, smirking too. “Probably not. Look, Tori, I believe you, I do, but you must hear how it all sounds.”

I nod. “Go and see him, ask him for yourself.”

“What the hell are you going to do now?”

I shrug. “I don’t have a plan. Lay low for a while, I guess.”

“Is Dmitry’s dad likely to come here?”

I shake my head. “But I can leave if you’re worried.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. He’ll regret turning up here,” she says firmly, and I smile. “But I do need to speak to Dmitry and give him a piece of my mind. Does he know about the baby?” I give a nod, and she sighs. “Okay. Stay here. Lock the doors and don’t answer for anyone. You’re not alone, Tori. We’ll sort this out.”

DMITRY

Marshall sitsin silence beside me. I can’t shake the image of her leaving me. She looked so empty and broken.Fuck.I scrub my hand over my five o’clock shadow and groan.

“She’ll be with Phoebe,” Marshall eventually says. “Where else could she go?”

“I can’t go in there and force her back,” I say. “She’s already on the edge.”

“But out there, she’s at risk.”

I stand, moving over to the drinks cabinet and snatching the whiskey decanter up. “Don’t you think I know that?”

“We still need to protect her, even if it’s from afar.”

I take a swig straight from the crystal decanter and slam it back down. “She’ll spot you a mile off, and I don’t trust anyone else with her.” He smiles, and I narrow my eyes. “Don’t take that as a compliment, I just don’t have many men I can trust after what Nik did.”

Marshall stands, taking two glasses from the drinks cabinet and pouring us each a small measure of whiskey. “I’ll speak to Phoebe.”

“And say what exactly?”

“The truth. That Tori is possibly in danger, and until we can sort that out, I’ll be nearby.”

“She’s too protective of Tori,” I dismiss. “She’ll never allow us near her once she knows the truth.” My mobile buzzes and I pull it from my pocket, realising it’s the gate alert. I pull up the screen and see Phoebe sitting in her car. “Speak of the devil,” I mutter, releasing the gates. “She’s here.”

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