“I’m afraid an assassin took that opportunity away from me,”Alekseiretorted. “Butallow me to remind you, you’re sleeping with my brother,Anna.Andalong with him, you carried on withWindstalker, and you did this publicly.Bothof these happened beforeImetLaura.AlthoughI’munsurprised you find you can behave any way you please and expect others to dance to your direction, this is actually not the way the world works.”
She looked side to side, got closer, soIgot even closer, and she hissed, “Beingscan hear us and they’re listening.Please, can we speak privately?”
“Again,youaren’t listening.Iwill, however, repeat myself.Wehave nothing to say to one another,”Alekseireturned.
She assumed a pretty, pouty expression underneath her mask.
“Lexy,please,” she begged.
Lexy?
Blech.
Unfortunately for her, “Lexy” had lost patience.
“For fuck’s sake,Anna, you killed what we had by doing everything in your power to stop me from being me and mold me into what you wanted me to be.Thenyou made certain it could never be resurrected by using my brother in an attempt to hurt me.Ihave no interest in this conversation, and even less in anything you could say to me, privately or not.Whatwe had is done.Whatwe shared before that, you stained.Forthe love of all the gods, let this be done.Liveyour life and allow me to have mine.”
She stood woodenly, staring up at him before she said through stiff lips, “IguessIknow where we stand.”
“I hope so,”Alekseimuttered impatiently.
She didn’t move.
But we did.
AfterAlekseibid a dismissive, “EnjoytheMasque,” he took my elbow and led me away.
I noted a great number of guests pretending they hadn’t been watching what had just gone down, but my gals had retreated to the next ballroom (the one with the food).
Aleksei andIignored people poorly pretending to ignore us and met them there.
Bash was with them, soCatdid the introductions between the two males.
We chitchatted.
Everyone avoided speaking about that altercation withAnna.
But we didn’t need to.Ithappened.Itwas clearAlekseididn’t enjoy it.Itwas also clear he wasn’t dwelling on it.
I still stayed close to him, andIwas pleased he felt my support, even more so when he lifted my hand apropos of nothing in order to kiss my knuckles, communicating he appreciated it and he was fine (okay, so our beasts humming contentedly to each other told me that, but either way,Igot the message).
“Would you like me to make you a plate, darling?” he asked me.
“I can get it,”Itold him.
He grinned. “Iknow you four are dying to tearAnnaapart, so allow me to give you the opportunity to do that.”
I nearly started laughing as he ended this by tipping his head toward an antechamber.
“Hungry?”BashaskedCat.
“Would you?” she replied.
He dropped a kiss on her lips, and it was sweet, soIwas a little bummed becauseI’dbeen rooting forTanynto get in there.Afterwitnessing that,Iwasn’t sure.
The males moved off andMoniquelatched onto me,Catdoing the same toGayle, and they all but draggedGayleand me into the antechamber.
Boy, it seemed they really wanted to tearAnnaapart.