Page 143 of Shattered Altar (Makarova Bratva Duet)

“Boring, you mean.”

“No! Not boring. Just—”

“Monotonous?”

“I’d say dependable.”

“By which you mean tedious.”

She narrows her eyes into slits. “What’s wrong with a relationship you can trust? The whole ‘passionate love affair’ thing—it’s so overrated. Cliché, really.”

“What you’re describing is not love, Olivia. You’re talking about a safety net. If you loved someone, you’d do anything for them. Live for them. Kill for them. Die for them.”

She looks taken aback. “I cared about the men I dated.”

“Not enough to stay, though.”

She frowns, thinking about it. “I just… I guess I wanted something different for myself.”

“Excitement, perhaps?” I suggest. “Passion? Lust? Desire?”

“Those things will only get you into trouble,” she says with a subtle tremor in her voice.

“The way they got you into trouble with me?”

“What makes you think I felt any of that for you?”

“Because you’re a social recluse who managed to convince herself to have sex with a stranger in the bathroom of an airplane,” I tell her. “You wouldn’t have risked stepping out of your comfort zone if you didn’t truly want it.”

I can see that she’s not happy with my logic. Because she knows she can’t argue with it.

But this conversation is working in my favor. She’s so involved now that she’s forgotten to be modest. She’s walked herself out of the lake so far that I can see her breasts and the flat plane of her stomach.

“Okay, fine, congratulations,” she snaps. “You successfully seduced me. Are you proud? Want a medal?”

“If you’re offering.”

She rolls her eyes. “Right. Stupid question.”

When my eyes dip down to her breasts, I see that her nipples are hard points now. “Getting cold?” I ask wickedly.

She darts back beneath the water and scowls at me. “Don’t you have someplace to be?”

“Why would I leave now?” I ask. “When you so thoughtfully stripped naked and got into that lake just for me?”

“I did not do anything for you.”

“Oh, please, Olivia. Choose something better to lie about. You knew I was here.”

“I… I did not.”

I stare at her, my smile spreading as her frustration builds. “Somehow, I don’t believe you.”

“You think you know everything!”

I shrug. “I know I know everything.”

She’s shivering now, though the lake and the day are both warm. Maybe it’s my presence that does it to her.

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