Page 43 of Twisted Secrets
“Sergei.”
Damn it, he was so busy thinking, he wasn’t paying attention to the other line. “Sorry again, boss.”
“You’re not comforting me right now. Do I need to bring a replacement when I come?”
And have another man watching Olivia? Not fucking likely. He cleared his throat, doing his best to sound curt and professional. “I’ve got it.”
“You had better. She might be my father’s bastard—for the moment—but she’s still family. Don’t cross me, Sergei. You know what happens if you do.”
Yeah, he knew. He was usually the one Dmitri sent when that happened with someone else. “It’sunder control.” Or it would be. He just had to keep a handle on his shit until Dmitri came and left—until he figured out what his boss had planned for Olivia. Because he had a plan. Dmitri always had a plan in place.
“I’ll see you in the morning.” He clicked off.
Sergei gave in to the need to curse aloud. What the fuck was Dmitri thinking? He should have hauled Olivia back to New York the second he realized she was gone. Andrei wanted her as a Romanov, and Dmitri had given his word that he’d see it done. Instead, he’d sat back and let her create a life for herself here. A life that didn’t involve Sergei. Now she had some new cock she was fucking, and the fact that it was attached to the same family that had offered the Romanovs such disrespect barely six months ago…
He didn’t like that. He didn’t like that at all.
A few more hours and I’ll have answers. That will have to be good enough.
And if he didn’t like the answers?
Well, then he’d do something about it. He’d lost Olivia because of her half brother once before. He wasn’t going to let it happen again.
Chapter Thirteen
Cillian slammed into wakefulness, Devlin’s name caught in his throat, his chest so tight it was a wonder he could draw a full breath, his entire body coated in sweat. He stared blindly at his ceiling for the space of a heartbeat, and then another, before his mind caught up with his instincts.
Home. In my bed. Safe.
He scrubbed a hand over his face, trying to convince himself that it was okay. He’d gone to bed so damn happy last night, still riding high from how well the date with Olivia had gone, better than he could have dreamed. Stupid of him to think that would be enough to keep his nightmares at bay.
With a groan, he climbed out of bed and stripped the mattress of the sweat-covered sheets. No one said anything about the fact that he was changing his bedding several times a week, but he knew the staff noticed. And if they knew, it was highly likely that his parents and probablyeven Aiden knew.
He wasn’t sure if he appreciated their silence or resented it. No one talked about Devlin, and no one talked about the fact that everything was different now. It was a giant elephant in the room that only seemed to grow as time went on.
It took showering to finally shake the last of his nightmare and put him back on solid ground. He scrubbed his body, letting his mind wander back to how things with Olivia had ended in the car. It had been so fucking difficult not to bury himself between her legs, but she’d given him her trust—something he knew for a fact she didn’t do lightly—and he couldn’t betray that. He didn’t want to.
It didn’t matter. He had no intention of letting her walk out of his life and, as a result, there was plenty of time for them to work up to having sex again. For now, he had the dazed look on her face after her second orgasm to keep his demons at bay. He smiled and shut off the water. The things that woman did for him.
He walked back into his bedroom and froze when he realized he wasn’t alone.What the fuck?“You know, Aiden, sitting here silently in my room isn’t sexy. In fact, it’s downright creepy.”
“I need to talk to you. Since you apparently still don’t give a fuck about anyone but yourself, I didn’t dare wake you from your beauty sleep.”
Not this again. Cillian walked into his closet and started pulling on clothes. “Last I checked, I haven’t dropped any balls in the last week, so what crawled up your ass and died?”
“Where were you yesterday?”
Yesterday? He frowned. “I had a date.” After buttoning up his shirt, he moved back into his roomto select a tie.
Aiden shook his head. “A date. So you missed out on the announcement that you’re about to become an uncle for a piece of ass.”
He held up his hand and gave his brother his full attention. “Hold on, what? Uncle?”
“Teague and Callie are expecting.” Aiden’s mouth twisted. “She’s due in March.”
The room took a slow turn while he processed that information. “Another generation of O’Malleys is starting.” He wasn’t sure why that was so weird to him, but it was.
“Sheridan-O’Malleys.”
