Page 49 of Dance of the Phoenix
Just not alone.
Hiding behind the wall, I did the mature thing and eavesdropped.
“You can talk to me,” Margarita said to Ragnor in the training room we’d been in that morning. “You’ve always talked to me before.”
Her pleading, whiny voice made my fury worse. I really couldn’t stand that woman.
“This is different, Margie,” Ragnor said, and the fact he called her by a nickname made pain hit me deep. He hardly ever called me by a nickname. Perhaps he called me “baby” once or twice, but he never gave me an actual nickname.
Asshole.
“What’s so different?” Margarita asked, frustrated. “She’s just another lover for you. I know you, my Lord.” Her voice turned bitter. “When things get complicated, you leave. So why don’t you leave her now?”
A deep sigh followed before Ragnor said softly, “I don’t think I can talk about this with you, Margie, of all people.”
His words gave me pause.
“My Lord,” Margarita whispered, and I could hear the hurt in her voice. “Tell me. I can take it. You talked to me about Ilona all those years ago. And about Parvati, and Naima ...”
My heart rate picked up.
“Those times were different,” Ragnor murmured. “Look, I don’t need your help. Thank you for worrying about me, but I can handle this on my own.”
I could hear Margarita growl. “I don’t get it!” she snapped. “Why her? What’s so special about this woman that two powerful men are going so crazy over her?!”
“Twomen?” Ragnor inquired, and I could feel my heart come to a chilling stop.
“Yes, my Lord, it’s not just you that this ... thiswomanis manipulating,” Margarita hissed. “She also leads Logan on as if she owns him. In his training with me earlier today, he was so angry, he almost hurt himself!”
I felt myself shaking at her words, almost unable to compute what she was saying. When the hell did I “manipulate” either of them?
“Margarita,” Ragnor said quietly, “do you know about her relationship with him too?”
My throat clogged as my fury quickly changed into pure, undiluted panic.
“Of course I do,” Margarita said haughtily. “Logan told meeverything. That woman is a fucking nightmare, my Lord. The things she did to him ...”
I couldn’t listen to this anymore. I pushed myself off the wall and was about to leave when I suddenly lost my balance on a stair and fell down, causing quite the noise. I hadn’t noticed before, but that conversation made me weak in my knees in all the wrong ways.
Before I managed to lift myself back up to my feet and get the hell out of there, I heard footsteps behind me. “Aileen?”
Tears clouded my eyes as I stood up, my back to Ragnor. “So it’s not okay when I don’t tell you something, but it’s totally fine when you hide things from me too?” I couldn’t stop myself from saying it. “It’s good to know just where we stand.”
“Aileen—”
I whirled around and glowered at him, not caring that Margarita was right there behind him. “Did you ever plan to tell me you and yourLieutenant had been in a relationship once?” Because that’s what it was. That’s why Margarita had been so possessive of him before. Why it took me so long to realize that, I didn’t know. “And what about those other girls she mentioned? What aboutyourpast? Did you ever plan to tell me more about it?”
Ragnor’s face contorted in anger, but I didn’t care. “Save it,” I sniped before I walked away.
Unfortunately, he didn’t just let me leave, because he followed me and grabbed my wrist to stop me when we were outside the Troop’s gym. “Let’s talk,” he said, forcing me to look at him with his hand grabbing my chin. “We can’t keep talking in circles like this—”
“I don’t want to talk to you anymore,” I cut him off with a snarl and swatted his hands away from me. “You’re a piece of shit, Ragnor.”
He grabbed my hand again, and this time he forced me to follow, not letting me go. When I saw he was leading me to his suite, I felt as if an invisible pressure had locked itself around my neck.
I didn’t want to go back there.
But Ragnor manhandled me into his suite and closed the door behind us.
