Page 92 of Devious Secrets

“It sounds like it,” I say.

The waitress comes back with two glasses of white wine and disappears again. As I watch her walk away, I find Artem walking in from the back of the restaurant. He takes a seat at the bar where he can see us clearly.

“Artem’s here.” I take a small sip of the most delicious wine I’ve ever tasted.

She’s on her phone, tapping away and scrolling. Her brows pull tight, and her thumbs fly over the screen.

“Everything okay?” I touch her arm to get her attention.

“What? Yeah.” She tries to force a smile, but I know the look.

“Arguing with a boy?” I tease. I want to look at her screen, but I manage to fight off my nosiness.

“No.” But she says it with way too much force. “I mean, he’s not a boy.”

I grin. “Older?”

“Than me? Yes.” She looks down at the screen as another message comes through. “He’s just being stubborn right now. I need to call him. I’ll be right back, promise.”

“Of course.” I lift my glass while she wiggles her way through the tables to the front of the restaurant. Artem watches her with narrowed eyes but stays perched on his stool.

She must feel his eyes on her because she stays in front of the restaurant window where he can still see her. If she strayed, I’m sure he’d jump off his stool and go after her.

Maybe he would like to be out there with her now, but he’s stuck inside because that’s where I am. If Alexander really did promise Elana he wouldn’t have a bodyguard on her at all times, that means Artem is here because of me.

His jaw is tight, and his eyes are so focused on the window I’m half expecting lasers to shoot out of his eyes at the glass. When his features finally soften, I know Elana has come back inside.

I wonder if she knows Artem has feelings for her.

“Sorry about that.” Elana sits back down and puts her phone in her purse. “No more phone, promise.”

“Do your brothers know you have a boyfriend?” I keep my voice down to be sure Artem doesn’t hear us. Not only because it might upset him, but because he’ll tell on her in a heartbeat.

“No.” She sighs. “And you have to swear on your life that you will not tell them.” She grabs my hand, squeezing it tight. “Please. Promise me, Megan.”

I cover her hand with mine. “All right. I won’t say anything.” I pause a moment. “Do you think they’d be mad or something?”

She chuckles. “Oh, they’d be pissed as hell.”

“Because they’re so overprotective of you?”

“They just wouldn’t understand, that’s all.” The Burrata shows up and she digs right into the cheese.

“You know, you’re twenty-one. You’re allowed to have a boyfriend if you want one.” I spread the cheese over the toasted bread and slide a piece of roasted pepper on top.

Now this is how you do a snack.

“It’s complicated,” she says. “It’s not so much that I have one, it’s who he is. They wouldn’t like him.”

“Why? Is he like really old?”

She laughs. “No. He’s only twenty-six. Not like you and Alexander. A twelve-year difference is a lot.”

“It’s not so much,” I say and pop in the last bite of the toast.

“He’s going to be forty before you’re thirty. And even if you have a baby right away, he’ll be almost sixty when it graduates high school,” she points out with a teasing smile.

I know she’s joking, just some playful banter. But she’s right. He is twelve years older. And I’m not sure I want a baby right away.

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