Page 146 of Silenced

That has me blinking. “What?”

“There’s only ever been one throne,” he rumbles. “We needed a second one. Fast.”

I grin a little. “I knew it was a throne. These people act like he’s a tsar or something.”

He shrugs. “To us, he is. There is no higher power in our world than him and the three leaders back in Russia.”

My gaze darts to his. “Not the US president?”

Dmitri snorts. “No. Not even the Russian one.”

My hands tighten on his shoulders. “Yet you’d risk angering him for me?”

He tips his chin up. “That’s what family’s for, isn’t it?”

That he considers me family is more shocking than anything he’s already said. Taken aback, I grace him with a slow nod.

Unsure of what to say, however, I try to keep my voice light as I tease, “Now, I’d return me to your father if I were you. He looks like he’s going to stampede through the crowd to get to me.”

“And that doesn’t bother you?”

“There’s something special about being in control and having no control,” I muse out loud.

“Special? Or crazy?”

“Maybe it’s both.”

“Maybethat’slove.”

His words have my heart stuttering in my chest.

I don’t answer.

I can’t.

It’s too soon for that.

Right?

Yeah, it is.

Far too soon.

Especially in our situation.

Then, he makes me snort by grinning at me, back to the carefree Dmitri I’ve come to know, and murmuring, “Come along,stepmother. We can’t keep Papa waiting.”

34

CASSIE

I’ve reada lot of romances in my life.

Before I married Harvey, I devoured them. During our marriage, however, it was too depressing to dive into a story that contrasted so greatly with my own.

Iknewwhat I had with him was toxic, but reading romance and watching Hallmark movies made it so glaringly obvious that it was as if mustard gas drifted into being around my head whenever I was dumb enough to torment myself with the potential of a ‘happily ever after.’

For that reason, I know that it’s a classic ‘other woman’ move to stake out the restroom.

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