Page 81 of Fake Fae-Ancée

"And I'm sorry I treated you like that when you came back here. I didn't know..." I swallowed, covering my eyes with one hand. The one with that stupid, stupid ring. "Your brother told me what really happened to you."

His eyes widened. He visibly tensed and sank back in the sheets.

"What did he tell you?"

"Calm down. He only told me his part of the story. I connected the rest of the dots myself." I peeked between my fingers. "You know, technically I still am some kind of police investigator."

My lame attempt at humor did nothing to ease Yuri’s visible distress. On the contrary, all color had drained from his face and now it was his turn to scoot a bit away from me, sinking down into the pillows on the other side of the bed.

"What dots did you connect, then," he said lowly.

I swallowed, sitting up.

"I figured, that this Yegor-king wanted you to marry that princess you kissed,“ I said. "That he blackmailed you into marrying her because he held your family hostage. That after they escaped their captivity you refused to marry her. And that Yegor sent you to that Bear prison rock up in Svalbard."

Yuri’s mouth pressed into a thin line.

"You really are too smart for your own good." He threw me a hard glance, all dark and opaque.

"Why didn’t you tell me?" I returned his gaze, unblinking, heart hammering in my chest. "I was so worried and so…"

Heartbroken. I didn’t dare say it out loud. I’d never even admitted it in front of anyone, not even my close friends. I had only shown my anger to the world, but not that what Yuri had done to me — or what I’d thought he’d done to me — had almost destroyed me.

"Because I was selfish," he said in a raspy voice. "Because I loved you so much. Because I was afraid you would leave me if you knew…"

I tried to ignore the soft and gooey ache that fluttered in my chest.

"Too bad, I left you anyway," I whispered.

"Yeah, I never said my plans were any good." He gave a sad chuckle, raking a hand over his face.

He rolled on his side, looking up at me.

"I don’t care about that crap about you being unable to produce heirs. Never did, and never will. All I ever wanted was to be with you."

I swallowed. "You don’t mean that."

"And not because some old crone in the sky told me to," he continued, disregarding my objection and my shocked drawing of breath. "One of my biggest regrets will always be that I managed to get the best woman in the entire world to marry me and then I fucked up and lost her."

And there he was — the boyish, gentle Bear shifter I had once fallen for, a long, long time ago. I quickly wiped some leftover tears away and cleared my throat.

"You’re so full of shit," I said, but by then he had already taken hold of my wrist and lured me down to him, in the warmth of his embrace. Sighing, I rested my forehead against his, breathing him in.

"I know this will end," he said, a pleading timbre in his voice. "And I know you will walk away once this is over. But when the time comes, can we stop being enemies?"

I considered this, tracing his eyebrow with my thumb, stroking along his temple, before I gave a short nod. And then I kissed him. Because how could I not kiss him? I was obviously weaker than I thought. And this kiss, although gentle and sweet, held anything else but friendship.

Yuri

The music endedwith a flourish and the dancing instructor standing next to Baba broke into frenetic cheers.

"Fantastic!" he exclaimed, clapping his hands frantically. "Stunning! Nearly perfect!"

Baba next to him took a drag on her pipe.

I looked back at Kai, who was still standing in my arm, her hand still warm in mine. Her chest rose and fell in the crimson dress the designers had put out for her to practice in today.

She shot me an uncertain smile that had my throat tightening again.

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